Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in Information Technology

1
Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in
Information Technology

• Engineering Ethics

2
The meaning of ETHICS

• The discipline dealing with what is good and bad
  and with moral duty and obligation.
• A set moral principles or values
• A theory or system of moral values
• The principles of conduct governing an individual
  or group
• Moral of or relating to principles of right or
  wrong in behavior

3
Professional Ethics

• Lessons learned at home, in school and churches,
  mosques, synagogues, or temples may not provide
  enough explicit advice about professional
  situations.
• If everyone's individually-learned lessons were
  sufficient, why would we need lawyers?
• Professional ethics involves obligations to many
  stakeholders.

4
Ethics in Engineering Design

• Engineering work affects public health and
  safety.
• Engineering can effect business practices and
  politics.
• Personal ethics how we treat others day to day
• Professional ethics deals with problems at an
  organizational level.
• Two corporations
• Corporation and government
• Corporation and groups of individuals the public

5
Ethics and Design

• Ethics problems are like design problems
• Open-ended, non-formulaic
• No unique, correct answer
• Both apply a large body of knowledge to the
  solution of the problem.
• Both involve the use of analytical skills.
• Both use heuristics for the search.

6
Ethics in Engineering Design

• Design is a social activity
• Design involves PEOPLE
• design team members
• clients
• manufacturers
• USERS
• Designing means accepting responsibility for
  creating a design for PEOPLE to use.

7
(No Transcript)
8
The Prime Directive

• The prime directive in American engineering
  ethics is that Engineers shall hold paramount the
  safety, health and welfare of the public in the
  performance of their professional duties.

Code of Ethics of the National Society for
Professional Engineers.
9
Engineering Societies

• Set design standards
• Set ethical standards addressing conflicting
  obligations and their resolution
• Provide mechanisms for helping engineers
  investigate and evaluate ethical behavior
• A Professional Society's Code of Ethics addresses
  standards of behavior with respect to
• clients
• the profession
• the public
• the law

10
IEEE Code of Ethics

• We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of
  the importance of our technologies in affecting
  the quality of life throughout the world, and in
  accepting a personal obligation to our
  profession, its members and the communities we
  serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest
  ethical and professional conduct and agree

11
IEEE Code of Ethics

• To accept responsibility in making engineering
  decisions consistent with the safety, health, and
  welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly
  factors that might endanger the public or the
  environment
• To avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest
  whenever possible, and to disclose them to
  affected parties when they do exist

12
IEEE Code of Ethics

• To be honest and realistic in stating claims or
  estimates based on available data
• To reject bribery in all its form
• To improve the understanding of technology, its
  appropriate application, and potential
  consequences
• To maintain and improve our technical competence
  and to undertake technological tasks for others
  only if qualified by training or experience, or
  after full disclosure of pertinent limitations

13
IEEE Code of Ethics

• To seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of
  technical work, to acknowledge and correct
  errors, and to credit properly the contributions
  of others
• To treat fairly all persons regardless of such
  factors as race, religion, gender, disability,
  age, or national origin
• To avoid injuring others, their property,
  reputation, or employment by false or malicious
  action

14
IEEE Code of Ethics

• To assist colleagues and co-workers in their
  professional development and to support them in
  following this code of ethics.

15
Is it OK for me to be working on this project?

• Design of a cigarette lighter
• Design of cigarette-making machinery
• Design of large scale ovens and their specialized
  buildings in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s
• Design of nuclear weapons
• The answer It depends.
• We can only hope that we are prepared by our
  upbringing, our maturity, and our ability to
  think and reflect about the issues.

16
Heuristics

• A heuristic is anything that provides a plausible
  aid or direction in the solution of a problem.
• Heuristics are usually unjustified and
  potentially fallible.
• Engineering design is the use of heuristics.
• Heuristics are used to cause the best change in a
  poorly understood situation within the available
  resources.