1. Ethics and Professionalism in Engineering CE 480 Fall Term 2011 23 August 2011 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Dr. George Mount and Dr. William Cofer

2. Why Study Ethics? “professional” engineer unique, highly qualified, educated, knowledgable, practical, honest engineer public trust in engineers implies responsibilities liability increasing concern due to recent spectacular engineering failures space shuttle disasters in 1986 and 2003 KC Hyatt hotel disaster 3-mile island nuclear accident Exxon oil spill Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster nuclear plant disaster in Japan after the tsunami code of ethics guides engineers – NSPE Code of Ethics on PE exams

3. Conflicts in the profession responsibility to public and the profession desires of employers, clients, and yourself engineers must answer not only “can we do it?”, but also “should we do it?” if we do it can we control it are we willing to be responsible for it engineers are held accountable for their actions and decisions Fundamental Canons for a professional engineer hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public work only in your area of competence your public statements are objective and truthful you are a faithful agent for your employer and client you avoid deception

4. not in the Code of Ethics: professional courtesy sex discrimination (not specifically) public relations income protection supporting a professional society

5. The NSPE Code of Ethics is available on the class web site and has been passed out in class – please read it and become familiar with it for next time class website: http://courses.cee.wsu.edu/site/gmount/classes/ethics-and-professionalism-engineering We have gone over the syllabus in some detail and passed it out; it is also available on the class website For next time: form teams of three. If you do not know three students to team with, we will assign you to a team choose your top three case studies to report on from the class website, and submit the list to us in writing next week during class with your team members. We will try to give you your top choice. everyone write their email on the sheet going around the room so we can contact you – BILL SHOULD WE JUST USED THEIR WSU EMAILS??