Ethical Issues in Engineering Education Controlling Innovation and Technology

摘要

Engineers design and create products and processes to improve safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties. This definition was partly given by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) to substantiate ethics and professionalism engineers have to have. However, in doing the first part, engineers should give paramount importance to ethics to create products to improve food production, shelter construction to make them rugged, more reliable and longer service life. They should focus and enhance methods of energy production to make it inexpensive, transportation safer and faster, health conditions excellent for living and last but not the least protection against natural and manmade calamities. Although all of this is a long shot but they are becoming realities from once dreamed of in myth and scientific fiction. The handle to the process is newer innovations overtaking the older. Ethically, people are looking for tough and reliable gadgets which compare with older generation gadgets and which are smart enough to stay that way. Ideas that move the technological market are full of iffy claims vs. Iron-Clad Guarantees. The ethical meanings of precise simple, low cost, efficient, maximize and replace are shady. Most of the innovations in modern expositions are mainly based on wireless technology such as ultrasonic level transmitters, radar level transmitters, tank cleaning monitors and such advanced medical radio frequency identification devices (RFID) and applications. However, all such technologies do not specify the range of wireless systems they use, thus, violating a primary ethical proof that they can do their job. None of the luxury car manuals tell us that if it has a power window it would not open when the car is sunk or standing in flood. The most alarming thing is that we are still not doing or teaching a thing about our environment, and wish to live in a culture of insensitivity. Engineers have now produced nano-bio convergence but have ceased to learn about energy, cost efficiency and green engineering strategies. This can only happen when materials engineer work with chemical and electrical engineers. In this paper we will discuss consequences of above and describe proactive approaches using independent research fields, now highlighting potential risks and achieved goals. It is aimed to deduce how these goals can be achieved via educational solutions in various applications.