Eddie Conlon

The new engineer: between employability and social responsibility

The reasons behind the demand for what is sometimes called the New Engineer are critically examined and it is argued that a focus on employability alone is not sufficient to prepare socially responsible engineers. By examining issues around work organisation and sustainability it is proposed that engineers need to understand the wider social context in which they work. It is argued that the focus of ethics education should be broadened to focus on the social structure and the way it both enables and constrains socially responsible conduct. There is a call to refocus engineers’ attitudes towards the systems of regulation so they see them not only as constraints but as potential enablers supporting socially responsible engineering.

Broadening ethics teaching in engineering: beyond the individualistic approach.

There is a widespread approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students in which the exclusive focus is on engineers as individual agents and the broader context in which they do their work is ignored. Although this approach has frequently been criticised in the literature, it persists on a wide scale, as can be inferred from accounts in the educational literature and from the contents of widely used textbooks in engineering ethics. In this contribution we intend to: (1) Restate why the individualistic approach to the teaching of ethics to engineering students is inadequate in view of preparing them for ethical, professional and social responsibility; (2) Examine the existing literature regarding the possible contribution of Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship in addressing the inadequacies of the individualistic approach; and (3) Assess this possible contribution of STS in order to realise desired learning outcomes regarding the preparation of students for ethical and social responsibility.

What do final year engineering students know about sustainable development

This paper presents data from a project that aims to determine the level of knowledge and understanding of engineering students about sustainable development (SD). The data derive from a survey completed by final year engineering students in three Irish Higher Education Institutions. This paper is part of a larger study that examines the relationship between students’ and teachers’ understanding of SD. The results from the survey show that final year engineering students’ knowledge is deficient. The majority of the participants fail to acknowledge the complexity of the concept and focus on environmental protection. Their knowledge of legislation relevant to SD and the social aspect of sustainability is particularly deficient.

Broadening Engineering Education: Bringing the Community In

Two issues of particular interest in the Irish context are (1) the motivation for broadening engineering education to include the humanities, and an emphasis on social responsibility and (2) the process by which broadening can take place. Greater community engagement, arising from a socially-driven model of engineering education, is necessary if engineering practice is to move beyond its present captivity by corporate interests.

Designing the Identities of Engineers

In 2007 Gary Downey, Juan Lucena and Carl Mitcham argued that a “key issue in ethics education for engineers concerns the relationship between the identity of the engineer and the responsibilities of engineering work”. They suggested that “one methodological strategy for sorting out similarities and differences in engineers’ identities is to ask the ‘who’ question. Who is an engineer? Or, what makes one an engineer?” (Downey et al. 2007). This chapter explores these questions of who is an engineer and what makes one an engineer by examining how engineering and engineering technology students in Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) describe and differentiate themselves. DIT offers both 4-year engineering degrees (that are equivalent to the educational standard required for professional status) and 3-year degrees in engineering technology. Annually DIT graduates the largest combined number of engineering and engineering technology majors in the country. We present results that show that there is no distinct sense of identity for a technologist. For faculty as well as engineering students and engineering technology students, design is perceived as a key differentiating activity that separates the engineer from the engineering technologist. Paradoxically, while all students chose DIT based on its reputation and practical focus, it is engineering technology students who indicated they are prepared for the ‘real world’ as they near graduation. Results also show, in terms of their own responses, that engineering and engineering technology students have fairly consistent views of their education and preparation for the workforce.

The Integration of Sustainable Development Competencies in Irish Engineering Education: Findings of a Curriculum Content Investigation of Four Engineering Programmes

This paper presents the initial findings of an investigation of the Sustainable Development (SD) content in five professional engineering degree programmes in a large Irish Institute of Technology. A comprehensive investigation of the modules content was conducted to see to what extent the learning outcomes for SD as set out in the Barcelona Declaration and SD competencies were covered by the modules. It was found that 40% of the 137 modules included SD learning outcomes and/or addressed SD competencies. The modules have a focus on environmental issues and tend to address only one of the three dimensions, environmental, social and economic, of SD. The social dimension is inadequately addressed. There is a particular focus on inter-personal skills development. More advanced skills such as systematic and critical thinking are not comprehensively addressed. Opportunities for the development of an ethical commitment to SD seem to be missing. In general it is concluded that the integration of SD competences is inadequate and is not based on a holistic approach at a programme level but rather on individual modules.

What Do Programme Chairs Think About the Integration of SD in Their Programmes

This paper presents the findings of interviews with six engineering programme chairs regarding their views about the level of integration of SD in their programmes. They are part of a wider study which is examining the integration of SD in engineering programmes across three Irish Higher Education Institutions. Previous stages of the study have determined that students’ knowledge and understanding about SD is inadequate due to the lack of a holistic integration of SD competencies and the focus on skills development in their programmes. The paper will explore the apparent contradiction in that most programme chairs believe that SD is integrated into their programmes despite the evidence from the previous stages of this project which suggest it is not. This contradiction can only be resolved by an exploration of their understanding of SD and their philosophy of engineering education. We conclude that they believe SD is fully integrated because they have a narrow understanding of SD and a “traditional” approach to engineering focused on the development of core engineering competencies.

A critical realist approach to engineering ethics

This paper is focused on the teaching of engineering ethics (EE). Through a focus on safety and the lens of what sociologists call the agency/ structure relationship it examines various approaches to this teaching. Drawing on Critical Realism it argues there are deficiencies in both the dominant approach and a number of proposed alternatives as they suffer from various forms of conflationism. By drawing on Critical Realism (CR) a more robust agenda for teaching engineering ethics can be developed. It is argued that CR offers a basis for understanding the range of factors which lead to accidents and disasters. It allows for a fuller consideration of agency/structure relations and the importance of changing the contexts in which engineers work in order to allow them to hold paramount the health, safety and welfare of the public.