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oa Engineering ethics and professionalism education for a global practice
- Publisher: Hamad bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press)
- Source: QScience Proceedings, Engineering Leaders Conference 2014 on Engineering Education, Aug 2015, Volume 2015, 5
Abstract
Engineering practice today has no geographical boundaries. When considering global challenges shared by all humans, collaboration between engineers around the globe becomes a requirement for the success of any proposed solution. Therefore, globally competent engineers are critical and needed in huge numbers to lead such collaborations. Nevertheless, preparing globally competent engineers requires equipping them with a solid and relevant technical base, coupled with a thorough and robust engineering ethics and professionalism understanding, which will allow them to quickly understand the human, societal, and local context of their practice, adapt to unexpected situations, and lead improvements and innovations. This set of skills in engineering, also known in the literature as soft or professional skills, falls within the area of engineering ethics and professionalism, which make up the umbrella covering all the qualitative and evolving aspects of engineering education and practice, and needed for leadership. These same aspects are prominently emphasized by accreditation standards for engineering education programs, like the accreditation criteria produced by ABET.
Literature includes many reports investigating the different issues related to global practice of engineering as well as attempts to formulate lists of attributes of a competent global engineer. The majority of these reports include common themes related to understanding and including the human and local context while practicing engineering, as well as the tools to handle this context gathered under the leadership skillset. A major reason is because most barriers to success in international engineering practice belong to this qualitative side of engineering and the context of practice.
This paper will discuss and summarize the common themes related to engineering ethics and professionalism education, for a global practice and leadership, and provide recommendations on the best practices to incorporate or update these themes in engineering education, based on multiple sources including the author's own research and findings.
