An Ethical Framework for Engineering Faculty: Motivation, Examples & Discussion

Engineering faculty address ethics from two perspectives. The first is as required content related to the ABET outcome that engineering graduates will have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility. The second is as practitioners who face a range of ethical dilemmas and challenges, from plagiarism to “passenger” team members to professional relationships with colleagues to responsible conduct of their own research. As faculty members and professionals, we have multiple guides, including the recently adopted ASEE Code of Ethics (http://www.asee.org/member-resources/resources/Code_of_Ethics.pdf), however, there is still a need to examine frameworks and develop skills in both practicing and teaching professional and ethical responsibility. This presentation and paper will present a framework used at multiple institutions and previously presented at the national conference by Bates & Loui (2013). The approach starts with identifying stakeholders, gathering information and considering alternative actions and consequences. These actions are then evaluated with a series of tests related to basic ethical values: Harm test: Do the benefits outweigh the harms, short term and long term? Reversibility test: Would this choice still look good if I traded places? Common practice test: What if everyone behaved in this way? Legality test: Would this choice violate a law or a policy of my employer? Colleague test: What would professional colleagues say? Wise relative test: What would my wise old aunt or uncle do? Mirror test: Would I feel proud of myself when I look into the mirror? Publicity test: How would this choice look on the front page of a newspaper? Interactive discussion will include ways this approach has been used in multidisciplinary STEM classes and ways it can be used by faculty to support reflection on their own practice. The paper and presentation will also include links to supporting resources such as NAE’s growing Online Ethics Center and the Ethics CORE (Collaborative Online Resource Environment) portal

A Comparison Study of Project-Based-Learning in Upper-Division Engineering Education

A new model for engineering education was launched in January 2010 in northeastern Minnesota. The Iron Range Engineering (IRE) model is a project-based-learning (PBL) methodology that focuses on producing graduates with integrated technical and professional knowledge and competencies. A unique and important element of the IRE model has 100% of IRE student learning taking place in the context of industry projects. Students at IRE are upper-division engineering students who transferred from Minnesota community college lower-division engineering programs. To understand the impact that IRE methodology may have on preparing engineers with the competencies needed for the future workplace, a comparison study has been developed to investigate the extent to which students in integrated applied models are affected. The curriculum model and comparison study are described within this paper, along with preliminary results on student development and engagement

But I\u27m not an Engineer ...Collaboration between a Librarian and an Upper Division Project-Based Engineering Program

Since 2013, a librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato has collaborated with faculty and students in an upper division project-based engineering program. While having several years of experience in university libraries plus advanced degrees in history, the librarian had a limited background in science, engineering, and technology, and lacked a formal engineering degree. At first glance, this match may appear to be a recipe for failure. Indeed, in those first few years, the librarian’s angst about the missing engineering degree caused many sleepless nights of worry and concern. However, there came a time when the words “but I am not an engineer” fell to the wayside as the librarian grew more confident and embraced the role of library liaison to the Integrated Engineering department and its project-based and co-op-based programs. This paper describes the partnership that went from self-doubt to success in supporting project teams of student engineers. The program operates at off-campus locations so providing service at a distance and developing electronic resources has been crucial for positive interactions with students and faculty. The vertically integrated student teams mean that there is some institutional memory in the student experience about the benefit of working with their librarian. This appreciation supports student learning of contextual research skills and abilities to describe their project information needs to a non-technical audience. While the successes did not happen overnight, the current status is of a positive working relationship where students understand the benefit of working with librarians, including non-engineering librarians, to solve their technical challenges. This paper presents our approach to building relationships between the library resources and engineering students and faculty, our strategies for success, and our future plans for collaboration

“But I’m not an Engineer”… Collaboration between a Librarian and an Upper Division Project-Based Engineering Program

Since 2013, a librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato has collaborated with faculty and students in an upper division project-based engineering program. While having several years of experience in university libraries plus advanced degrees in history, the librarian had a limited background in science, engineering, and technology, and lacked a formal engineering degree. At first glance, this match may appear to be a recipe for failure. Indeed, in those first few years, the librarian’s angst about the missing engineering degree caused many sleepless nights of worry and concern. However, there came a time when the words “but I am not an engineer” fell to the wayside as the librarian grew more confident and embraced the role of library liaison to the Integrated Engineering department and its project-based and co-op-based programs. This paper describes the partnership that went from self-doubt to success in supporting project teams of student engineers. The program operates at off-campus locations so providing service at a distance and developing electronic resources has been crucial for positive interactions with students and faculty. The vertically integrated student teams mean that there is some institutional memory in the student experience about the benefit of working with their librarian. This appreciation supports student learning of contextual research skills and abilities to describe their project information needs to a non-technical audience. While the successes did not happen overnight, the current status is of a positive working relationship where students understand the benefit of working with librarians, including non-engineering librarians, to solve their technical challenges. This paper presents our approach to building relationships between the library resources and engineering students and faculty, our strategies for success, and our future plans for collaboration

But I\u27m not an Engineer ...Collaboration between a Librarian and an Upper Division Project-Based Engineering Program

Since 2013, a librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato has collaborated with faculty and students in an upper division project-based engineering program. While having several years of experience in university libraries plus advanced degrees in history, the librarian had a limited background in science, engineering, and technology, and lacked a formal engineering degree. At first glance, this match may appear to be a recipe for failure. Indeed, in those first few years, the librarian’s angst about the missing engineering degree caused many sleepless nights of worry and concern. However, there came a time when the words “but I am not an engineer” fell to the wayside as the librarian grew more confident and embraced the role of library liaison to the Integrated Engineering department and its project-based and co-op-based programs. This paper describes the partnership that went from self-doubt to success in supporting project teams of student engineers. The program operates at off-campus locations so providing service at a distance and developing electronic resources has been crucial for positive interactions with students and faculty. The vertically integrated student teams mean that there is some institutional memory in the student experience about the benefit of working with their librarian. This appreciation supports student learning of contextual research skills and abilities to describe their project information needs to a non-technical audience. While the successes did not happen overnight, the current status is of a positive working relationship where students understand the benefit of working with librarians, including non-engineering librarians, to solve their technical challenges. This paper presents our approach to building relationships between the library resources and engineering students and faculty, our strategies for success, and our future plans for collaboration

Green Water: Can Rio+ 20 Succeed Where Others Have Failed?

The Stockholm Declaration was the first international instrument to acknowledge the imperative to safeguard water resources for present and future generations. In the years following Stockholm, water become a specific issue of environmental and humanitarian concern, with a number of instruments including the Mar del Plata Action Plan, Agenda 21, Rio Declaration, Convention of the Rights on the Rights of the Child, Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, United Nations Watercourses Convention, Millennium Development Goals and most recently resolutions from the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council acknowledging the right to water within international law and providing a framework for sustainable water management. However, as the world prepares for Rio + 20 this June, there remains approximately between 3 – 4 billion individuals without access to adequate water services. Consequently, despite the plethora of law making and commitments that have been made over the past forty years, water resources remain under pressure and additional mechanisms are still needed to balance human and ecological need. This paper will consider the key outcomes of Rio + 20 in the context of water supply and ask whether the Conference’s commitments have the capacity to both protect water resources and meet consumptive needs. Specifically, it will examine the implications of the ‘Green Economy’ for water supply and ask whether a return to sustainability has the potential to enhance the initiatives undertaken during the era of the Millennium Development Goals. As part of this discussion, the paper will explore the meaning of sustainability and question how such an approach may vary from previous initiatives. It will also consider how the acknowledgement of the right to water has changed the landscape of water management. Since acknowledging the need to conserve water resources, the international community has struggled to reconcile resource conservation with consumptive need. Rio + 20 provides another opportunity for the world to provide the framework and mechanisms through which both outcomes can be attained

A Community Framing of Integrated Engineering

The term “integrated engineering” is being used in new education programs. As a framing concept, we believe it has value for the wider engineering education community. A small group of program heads has facilitated conversations about how integrated engineering could benefit other programs and the community in general. This paper provides background and describes some of the outcomes of past conversations with the goal of including more voices in the conversation and initializing the formal use of integrated engineering as a prompt for improving engineering education