السبت، 12 نوفمبر 2011

Engineering skills and Ethics

E
ngineering is an important and learned profession; also engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness   and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety and welfare which can be achieved by high skilled engineer. So engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of skills, honesty and integrity, engineers must also perform under a standard of professional behavior which requires adherence to the highest principles of ethics conduct.
1)    Engineering ethics
Engineering ethics is attracting increasing interest in engineering university throughout the globe. The increasing concern for the value dimension of engineering is, at least in part, a result of the attention that the media has given to cases such as the Challenger disaster, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkways collapse, and the Exxon oil spill. As a response to this concern, a new discipline, engineering ethics, is emerging. This discipline will doubtless take its place alongside such well-established fields as medical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics. The problem presented by this development is that most engineering professors are not prepared to introduce literature in engineering ethics into their classrooms. They are most comfortable with quantitative concepts and often do not believe they are qualified to lead class discussions on ethics. Many engineering faculty members do not think that they have the time in an already overcrowded syllabus to introduce discussions on professional ethics, or the time in their own schedules to prepare the necessary material.
As response for the increasing interest in the engineering ethics, the national society of professional engineers (NSPE) put on the: (code of ethics for engineers) in which explaining the FUNDAMENTAL CANONS, RULES OF PRACTICE & PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATION of engineering. Giving an example for each:
1)      FUNDAMENTAL CANONS: Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation and usefulness of the profession.
2)      RULES OF PRACTICE: 2. Engineers shall perform services only in the areas of their competence.
3)      PROFESSIONAL OBLIGATION: Engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information concerning the business affairs or technical processes of any present or former client or employer, or public body on which they serve.
2) Engineering skills
In addition engineering skills is just as important as engineering ethics, so it continues to be strong demand for engineering skills around the globe.
Engineering skills is increasingly needed especially in the fast-growing electronics and communications industries. That’s because of the Skill shortages are apparent at all levels but especially at the higher end of the occupational spectrum, among professional engineers, and also in skilled (craft) trades, and in electronics/IT skills. The main skill gaps are in specific technical and practical skills areas but personal and generic skills are also in demand.
A numbers of drivers of change are acting in unison to change skill requirements in a range of jobs. These include the increased use of technology, new materials and new processes throughout industry, an increasing emphasis on customers and meeting their requirements, new working practices, and the globalization of many aspects of business. These demand higher level skills and education, and also greater breadth of skill and greater flexibility in the applications of skills.
A range of new and specific technical skills are required to meet the demands of technology and of the business, but also of importance is the greater emphasis employers put on personal and generic skills in all work areas. The key role of managers and supervisors, and the importance of their generic skills, are increasingly being recognized, though perhaps not sufficiently within many small firms. The role of first line manager/team leader has become increasingly critical, and requires a different mix of skills (both technical and communication skills).
Training the next generation of culturally aware, business-savvy engineers may be necessary, but it won’t be easy for a couple of reasons. One is time, or more precisely, the lack of it. “If you add too much to the curriculum, no one would ever graduate,”.  Adding non-engineering coursework to an engineering education will result in trade-offs — either in the time spent on fundamentals or the time spent in school. The other is the conservative streak that still characterizes many engineering schools. “Cases like Olin College, which has built an engineering curriculum from scratch, are still rare,” . “Most engineering schools are still run by old-school, grey-haired deans fighting for the pure curriculum they know best.”
For that pure curriculum to share some time with the new engineering skill set, she adds, engineering education will have to become far more project-based and interdisciplinary than it is now.

At the end ethics and skills are mainly important for engineering, so there is an increasing interest in teaching them in engineering schools, that’s because of the increasing demand for professional engineers in most of engineering industries. So for an engineer to be graduated these two things must be taught to him first: ENGINEERING ETHICS & SKILLS.
Done by: Saif el deen Murad Ahmed
ID: 1112364
                                                                                                                                           Group: C