Experiences in Discussing Ethics with Undergraduate Engineers

In this paper, we describe a successful framework for discussing ethical issues with undergraduate students. Our approach is based on the idea that academic integrity is a prerequisite for professional ethics. Key features of our approach include a reliance on student-to-student interactions in a small-group environment and a focus on academic integrity. We have tested our approach on our entering students using group leaders who are juniors and seniors. We have found a large (and increasing) number of students who have a heightened awareness of ethical issues and an interest in improving the awareness of their peers. We believe the model can be applied successfully to other institutions.     

Student/Professor Ethics In Engineering Academia

This paper considers the components which constitute a safe, ethical academic environment in which students can explore the intricacies of engineering technology and engineering science. The concerns of the undergraduate and the graduate student are presented and contrasted, from both the perspective of the student and the faculty.     

Development of an Air Quality Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Interdisciplinary curricula, such as environmental engineering, are faced with the challenge of developing unified sets of courses for students from a variety of academic backgrounds. In addition to providing a rigorous technical education, engineering education should foster development of the professional skills that students need in the future, such as laboratory, computer, communication and teamwork abilities, and independence and creativity. This program improvement project integrated traditional lectures with carefully designed assignments, experiments, and demonstrations to teach principles of air quality in environmental engineering. Computer simulations helped students develop a better intuitive understanding of fundamental air quality phenomena. Field trips served to illustrate applications of classroom concepts, and an instructional laboratory was developed to teach students the essential techniques of air quality monitoring. The classroom and laboratory were also used as a supportive environment in which students learned professional skills applicable to graduate studies or professional employment. Students wrote “journal articles,” complete with peer review and revisions as part of a term project. Laboratory projects were used to introduce students to the techniques of writing proposals, and a professional style “class conference” gave students practice in making scientific presentations.     

Interdisciplinary Centers: A Natural and Necessary Force for Creativity and Change in Engineering Research and Education

Because problem-solving is the distinguishing feature of engineering education and innovation, interdisciplinary approaches are essential since technologically-related problems do not align themselves neatly in accordance with traditional academic disciplines or professional societies. The challenge is to sustain the evolution of institutional and academic structures to keep pace with rapid advances in technology and social concerns. The tension is between quality control as administered by traditional institutional structure and emerging societal needs and technological opportunities like the environment. Interdisciplinary centers with budget autonomy, in conjunction with re-aligned engineering “departments and professional designations”, can be important vehicles for change. The ultimate measure of success of these proposed structures is that change will be institutionalized, and engineering education will constantly evolve to meet society's emerging needs. Reading through the directories of most major universities (admittedly, no substitute for serious academic research), I am struck by the burgeoning list of acronyms representing administrative units of interdisciplinary centers. As an example, at Cornell there are over 50 interdisciplinary programs and centers. They have become nearly as numerous as the traditional academic departments.     

Characteristics of Freshman Engineering Students: Models for Determining Student Attrition in Engineering

Nationwide, less than half the freshman who start in engineering graduate in engineering, and at least half of this attrition occurs during the freshman year. Clearly, the freshman year is critical for both academic success and retention of engineering students. Such success depends not only on the knowledge and skills learned during this first year, but also on the attitudes individual students bring with them to college. Hence, if these attitudes can be measured before beginning college, we can develop more targeted programs for reducing attrition and improving academic success. Further, by measuring changes in student attitude over the course of the freshman year, we can develop better methods to evaluate engineering education programs. To learn more about these attitudes and how they impact upon retention, we undertook a three-year research effort. First we identified attitudes incoming students have about the field of engineering, their perceptions about the upcoming educational experience, and their confidence in their ability to succeed in engineering. These attitudes were then related to performance and retention in the freshman engineering program. To accomplish this, a closedform survey was developed, tested and administered to the 1993–94 and 1994–95 freshman engineering classes. This study demonstrated that student attitudes can provide an effective means for evaluating aspects of our freshman engineering program, particularly those relating to issues of attrition. Specifically, students who left the freshman engineering program in “good academic standing” had significantly different attitudes about engineering and themselves than those possessed by other comparison groups: students who stayed in engineering and students who left engineering in “poor academic standing.” We developed regression models to predict attrition and performance in our freshman engineering program using quantified measures of student attitudes. Implementation of the models has allowed freshman advisors to better inform students of opportunities that engineering offers, to devise better programs of study that take advantage of students' varied interests, and to set retention goals that are more realistic.     

Ethics and the Development of Professional Identities of Engineering Students

How do undergraduate students in engineering conceive of themselves as professionals? How can a course on engineering ethics affect the development of an undergraduate student's professional identity? In this project, students responded to questions about the characteristics and responsibilities of professional engineers. The results indicate that students learn about professionalism primarily from relatives and co‐workers who are engineers, and rarely from technical engineering courses. Even before they study engineering ethics, students put honesty and integrity on par with technical competence as an essential characteristic of engineers. In the course, students benefit from cases of actual incidents and from classroom activities that encourage diverse perspectives on moral problems. By analyzing cases in groups and by hearing different perspectives, students build self‐confidence in moral reasoning. By the end of the course, some students understand professional responsibility not only as liability for blame but in a capacious sense as stewardship for society.     

Socially‐Relevant Design: The TOYtech Project at Smith College

As issues of professional and ethical responsibility are receiving greater emphasis in engineering programs, the view of engineering as a profession in service to humanity is becoming more widespread. One approach to fostering this perspective among engineering students is the inclusion of socially relevant design projects throughout the curriculum. In this paper we present an example of one such project used in the introduction to engineering course at Smith College (the largest women's college in the U.S.) in which students are challenged to design toys that introduce children to the principles that underlie technology (TOYtech, or Teaching Our Youth Technology). Based on student surveys, we found that the majority of the course learning objectives were achieved through the implementation of the project, with students emphasizing that the project taught them about the importance of working well in teams and of considering the societal impact of engineering practice. In addition, we present our findings regarding the psychological type distribution of our inaugural class of first‐year engineering students and compare these to national values for female engineering students as a whole. These preliminary Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) data suggest that our students are particularly responsive to the ethic of social responsibility in engineering, and that they are strong communicators in addition to possessing a well‐organized, practical approach to problem solving.     

Cases versus papers in design education

It is necessary that engineering students become knowledgeable about design, engineering practice and application of engineering sciences. Two, of many, ways this can be done is by using engineering cases and published papers. The relative merits of cases and papers, even if based on the same set of facts, are discussed in terms of educational merit and professional advancement.     

Integrating Ethics Into a Research Experience for Undergraduates

A Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) is an extra-curricular opportunity for science or engineering students in the sophomore, junior, or senior year to participate in academic research in much the way graduate students do. It is a way to introduce undergraduates to the excitement of real research. Because it also seems an easy and attractive way to integrate ethics into undergraduate education, working out how professors of engineering or science might actually incorporate professional ethics into an REU seems desirable. This paper describes one effort to do that with engineering students.     

The Construction of Tetrahedral Model of Engineering Ethical Evaluation

To achieve greatprojects, great attention should be attached to ethical issues of engineering. But endless immoralities in the field of engineering expose the lack of attention and the ineffectiveness of implementation of engineering ethical evaluation. The “Mirror” and the "Lamp" — these two metaphors used by M. H. Abrams vividly expose the differences in people's way of understanding which inspires author's study of the model of engineering ethical evaluation. With four elements of the project —artifact, engineer, user and environment, a tetrahedral model of integrity, strong restoring force and high stability is built. While their roles and responsibilities differ, each has to demonstrate a commitment to professional and ethical standards. In this model, four "Lamps" — i. e, four elements of engineering — in four corners provide light while four "Mirrors" — the result of reflection of four elements — reflect whether the tetrahedral model can truthfully evaluate the level of engineering ethics. The combination of the "Lamps" and "Mirrors" illuminates engineering ethical evaluation and leads to a plurality of evaluation standards, while simultaneously fostering both the avoidance of simple de-instrumentalization and the sustainability of ethical evaluation. Plurality of evaluation standards means the consideration of value differences in a multi-value state. The avoidance of de-instrumentalization means to prevent the engineer's expertise from fossilization. The sustainability of ethical evaluation accelerates the fulfillment of our dream, for the ultimate benefit of humankind. Ethical evaluation of the project not only helps more engineers to use expertise in pursuit of the public good, but also make more projects to meet people's short-term expectations and long-term cares.     

Teaching Engineering Ethics: Assessment of Its Influence on Moral Reasoning Skills

As a result of increased concerns regarding ethical issues in engineering, this project assessed the influence on moral reasoning skills of teaching students a course specifically addressing the ethical and social issues in engineering. The Defining Issues Test (DIT), which is based on cognitive moral development theory, was used as the instrument of assessment. Students were pretested, taught a course on engineering ethics, and posttested at the end of the semester. In the Fall of 1995, a total of 301 students participated in the study with 162 students completing the DIT at both the pretest and posttest. In the Spring of 1996, a total of 263 students participated in the study with 155 students completing the DIT at both the pretest and posttest. Analysis of the data revealed a statistically significant increase in the moral reasoning skills of the students for both semesters. Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the change in moral reasoning scores and age in the Spring semester with younger students showing more change but not in the Fall semester. There was no significant relationship between the moral reasoning scores and gender at either the pretest or the posttest, nor in the rate of change by gender. This study demonstrates that the teaching of ethics in engineering can be rigorously measured, tested and analyzed and that it can have a significant positive influence on the moral reasoning skills of the students. However, these findings need to be replicated by other studies in different settings.     

建环专业工程设计类课程的教学探讨

工科工程设计是促进学生综合能力提高的一个极为重要的教学环节,因此在工程设计类课程的教学中必须注重对学生创新精神和实践能力的培养,注重不同专业课程之间的相互衔接,使学生体会到专业知识的整合性。从本专业《锅炉与锅炉房设备》课程教学中存在的问题出发,探讨了在高等教育中培养、提高教师工程素质的途径;在课堂教学中如何实施有效的教学改革,实现较好的教学效果;培养大学生创新素质和实践能力的主要措施。     

Ethics Instruction in Engineering Education: A (Mini) Meta‐Analysis

What are the objectives of engineering ethics? How is it being taught and how might instruction be more effective? The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) annual conference proceedings (1996–1999) contain 42 papers that treat engineering ethics as a coherent educational objective. Some of these papers disclose small components that seem to be part of a larger ethics curriculum. Other papers discuss engineering courses that are clearly the department's major ethics commitment. While it would be inappropriate to assume that the 42 papers represent the only means by which engineering students receive ethics instruction, these papers do present a variety of more‐or‐less defensible approaches and certainly the major intentional approaches of engineering curricula. This paper will develop an analysis of the 42 articles, including a discussion of where ethics is being taught (from both a chronological, and disciplinary perspective), and the six pedagogical approaches used to transfer an understanding of ethics to the student. These approaches include professional codes, humanist readings, theoretical grounding, ethical heuristics, case studies, and service learning. These six approaches will also be analyzed in terms of their promise to develop the ethical competencies needed by engineers.     

The Use of Focus Groups for Minority Engineering Program Assessment

To increase the attraction and retention of minority engineering students, many higher-education institutions have implemented programs to help address academic and social pressures these students face. A key question for administrators of such programs is their actual impact on the targeted students. Since these programs seek to improve retention rates by positively improving students' experience with their institutional environment, it becomes crucial to assess students' perceptions of their college experience. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how focus groups can be used for educational program assessment, in particular minority engineering programs. An evaluative study of minority engineering programs at a state university is used to illustrate this methodology. In this paper, we describe how the study was designed and conducted, the resources required, the types of results obtained from the study, and the follow-up strategies.     

Teaching Mathematics from an Applications Perspective

It is a widespread opinion among engineering faculty that undergraduates could be better prepared in mathematics when taking courses in their professional field of study. The lack of preparation in applying mathematical concepts may be due to the fact that examples from engineering disciplines are not widely used in mathematics courses. Most mathematics departments act as service departments to students majoring in various fields in addition to providing their own degree programs. As a result, it is not economically justifiable for them to custom tailor courses for customers from different disciplines. On the other hand, engineering has a distinct requirement of creatively applying mathematical concepts and principles to engineering problems studied in various courses. Some of the issues that must be addressed to ensure adequate preparation in the application of mathematics include: the mathematical competencies needed in engineering courses; which mathematics courses should cover such competencies; and what examples and problems related to students' major field should be developed and taught in these courses to enhance understanding and application of these concepts. The goal of this paper is not to resolve these issues, but rather to develop a conceptual framework for determining the answers using the Quality Function Deployment approach.     

Science Fiction in the Engineering Classroom to Help Teach Basic Concepts and Promote the Profession

Although science fiction has appeared in science and physics education for many years, the genre has not been widely used to augment engineering education. Considering the potential for science fiction to help illustrate many common engineering concepts, while at the same time challenging the students to think about the many possibilities of design and technology, this exclusion represents a loss of a valuable resource. In order to begin utilizing this valuable resource, a new freshman‐level course was developed that uses science fiction films and literature to illustrate and teach basic engineering concepts. Central to the course delivery is “poking fun” at the disobedience of the laws of nature and misuse of engineering while at the same time teaching the correct behaviors. By illustrating basic engineering concepts in this fashion, students can hopefully develop lasting mental pictures of the way things function and the complexities of design. These images can in turn, help the students with core mechanics classes such as statics and dynamics, as well as help the creative design process. Moreover, by highlighting the valuable role engineering plays in transferring science theory to usable technology, the discussions may also help create a positive image of the profession that could aid recruitment and retention. Finally, the genre can also be used to illustrate the implications of technology and society, along with the many ethical considerations of engineering.     

The Role of Spatial Reasoning in Engineering and the Design of Spatial Instruction

Many believe that spatial reasoning and visualization contribute to success in engineering. To investigate this view, we a) studied how students in engineering and engineers in professional practice solved spatial reasoning problems, b) designed and implemented spatial strategy instruction, and c) characterized the impact of spatial instruction on engineering course performance. In the span of 4 years, over 500 students have used our spatial strategy instruction that includes hands-on activities, innovative computer courseware, and problem-solving assessments. We studied 153 students in an introductory engineering course. Overall, students made significant progress in spatial reasoning. In addition, gender differences in the ability to generate orthographic projections on the pre-test disappeared on the post-test. Spatial reasoning ability was a significant predictor of overall course grade, and strong spatial skills were necessary for success on the course exams. Spatial strategy instruction helps students build a repertoire of approaches for engineering problem solving and contributes to confidence in engineering, especially for women. We recommend starting instruction on spatial strategies used by practicing engineers in introductory engineering courses and building on these skills throughout the curriculum.     

A Model Curriculum for a Capstone Course in Multidisciplinary Engineering Design

This paper describes our efforts to develop a curricular and pedagogical model for teaching multidisciplinary design to sen ior-level undergraduate engineering students. In our model, we address concerns of industry and engineering educators about the often narrow technical confines within which engineering design is currently taught. Our two-semester design sequence employs multidisciplinary teams of students working with faculty managers for industrial clients to solve complex, open-ended problems possessing numerous technical and non-technical constraints. After a two year pilot phase, the multidisciplinary senior design (MSD) course sequence is now offered to qualified Colorado School of Mines seniors each academic year and fully meets the senior capstone design requirement in each of the participating academic departments. An on-going formative and summative evaluation process allows us to monitor the perceptions and knowledge levels of our students compared with students completing traditional discipline-specific design courses. Our students, faculty, and clients overwhelmingly agree that multidisciplinary design teams tend to produce better engineering designs because of the broader range of expertise available to the team. MSD students strongly agree that higher order thinking skills such as open-ended problem-solving abilities, engineering analysis, and engineering synthesis are important aspects of the design process. Students also rate the course highly and indicate satisfaction with the course structure and curriculum. In addition, project clients are pleased with the quality of the final designs they receive from our students. Our experience has led us to conclude that undergraduate engineering students can thrive in a carefully designed multidisciplinary environment.     

Understanding the Role of Self‐Efficacy in Engineering Education

The engineering professor's role is dualistic in the sense that not only must s/he create an academic environment conducive to the acquisition of course content but must also prepare students to become practicing professionals. This dualism requires that the professor both motivate good study habits as well as build within students the confidence that they have the requisite capability to perform actual engineering. Self‐efficacy, simply defined as one's self‐judgment concerning capability, has been shown to be an important mediating factor in cognitive motivation. This paper describes the motivating role of the professor, theories of motivation, the role of self‐efficacy in motivation, and guiding principles that can be used to enhance self‐efficacy in engineering students. These principles can serve as guidelines in designing instructional delivery strategies that motivate engineering students to engage in behaviors conducive to becoming value‐added practitioners.