The Engineer as a Professional 1 Professional Registration

The Engineer as a Professional 1

Professional Registration The registration of engineers in the USA was instituted by the state of Wyoming in 1907 and extended to the all other states in 1950 to protect the public from incompetent individuals claiming to be engineers. – USA system – Egyptian system 2

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS n n n To serve the technical and professional needs of the engineering profession. They publish educational journals, handbooks, training manuals, …etc. They organize and sponsor seminars and conferences – US most prominent organizations n ASCE, ASME, IEEE, …. . – Egyptian organizations n SCE, SME, SEE 3

ACCREDITATION AUC Accreditation – ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. – Supreme council of universities 4

Ethics Definition n Ethics is the study of the morality of human action Ethics is the standard of life that people should strictly adhere to Without ethics the world would be a dangerous place and we can’t trust any one 5

Engineering Ethics n Engineering Ethics represent the attempts of professional engineers to define proper course of action in their dealings with each other, with their clients and employees, and the general public. 6

Professional Ethics n Professional Ethics represents the norm and standards followed by the professionals in all fields in their dealing with each other, with their colleagues and with the society in general. 7

Comparison n Doctors and lawyers affect one person at a time, while engineers may affect hundreds if not thousands of people at the same time. So, engineering ethics are very important because they affect most of our everyday life. 8

Code of Ethics n Codes & Standards n International standard n National standard n n n Engineering ethics codes Medical ethics codes Legal ethics (lawyers ethics) code 9

Case Study I Mayor Secretary of Mayor City Council Airport President, Engineering Firm • Mayor urged city council to approve building a new airport building • Engineering firm submitted letter of interest • The following week, president received phone call from Mayor’s secretary, inviting him to a meeting • At meeting, secretary informed engineer that a contribution is required in order to obtain work from the city Making a political contribution (aka bribe!) to secure engineering work is clearly unethical and almost certainly illegal. 10

Case Study II (construction Engineer) n n n A construction engineer, who is responsible for the construction of a fifteen floors building Suddenly became real sick and had to stay in bed for one month GM replaced him by another engineer to continue the work 11

Case Study II (cont’d) n The new engineer discovered that the reinforcement of the steel doesn’t agree with the design – Should he make the changes himself without telling anyone so that he won’t harm his colleague? – Should he tell the General Manager that the previous engineer was dishonest? 12

Case Study II (Discussion) n n If the new engineer lets the first one go with his actions and make the necessary changes himself, he will commit a terrible ethical mistake because he will let the dishonest engineer go unpunished. Then, the previous engineer may also continue such dishonest action again in another project. He should tell GM about what he found. 13

Case Study III (Mechanical Eng. ) n A mechanical engineer did not make all the necessary calculations when making the final check on a test of car brakes – He might cause the occurrence of hazard while testing the car due to his carelessness when checking the brakes – He will cause a bad reputation for his company and probably the loss of his job. 14

Case Study III (Cont’d) – He will cost his company a lot of money to pay for any damage – It the test passes without any troubles, the car might be put into the market and this will cause major problems to the people in public and great risk to their lives. 15

Case Study IV (Legal Ethics) n A lawyer takes a case to defend a heroin dealer while he knows that he is guilty, just for becoming famous and for the money – He will find ways to make the accused dealer look innocent while he is not – He will use his knowledge of laws to prove his innocence – He will help the dealer to get away and continue to destroy people’s lives and the country’s future instead of stopping him – He will get a reputation that he doesn’t deserve. 16

Conclusion n Ethics is the study of the morality of the different actions of the humans It helps determining the values, the conduct and the behavior of the humans It also helps determining what should be done and the different reactions of people according to the different situations of life. 17

Conclusion (Cont’d) n n A professional should ask himself the following questions before every move he makes: Will this action benefit or harm society? Will this action benefit or harm my professional reputation? Is this action going to harm any individual now or in the future, directly or indirectly? 18