Humans are not inherently born with ethics. Instead, these moral principles are instilled through our environment. A part of that environment is education and the values taught through schooling.
Here at the University of Iowa, there is an Ethics and Public Policy major as well as ethics courses for students looking to go into business, law, media, and the medical field. However, for undergraduates in the engineering school there are practically no options.
Engineers play one of the most important roles in society and they are often regarded as creators. But they can also be destroyers if they act unethically, so UI engineering majors should be required to take ethics classes.
UI engineering professor Gregory Carmichael currently teaches the Engineering Ethics course offered at the university, but the course is required only for graduate and post-doctorate engineering students. Part of why the course is now required for those students is because of Carmichael.
“I felt strongly that [ethics] is a topic that everybody needs to take,” Carmichael said.
If an undergraduate requested to take his ethics course, then he would accept their request, he said, but he hasn’t been asked yet.
Carmichael is on board with the prospect of undergrads taking an ethics course, but he highlighted the problems with requiring the class.
“I think the curriculum is so tight that we’ve not been able to squeeze it in,” Carmichael said.
He and other professors will incorporate small lessons on ethics throughout the core courses, Carmichael said. These lessons will primarily focus on avoiding plagiarism, being accurate with research, staying safe, and, more recently, artificial intelligence usage.
Is that enough for most young students? Most likely not.
There was no mention of ethics lessons regarding companies and lines of work. Engineering is such a diverse field, with some areas, including weapons manufacturing and big tech, called into question recently.
For weapons manufacturing, the ethical concerns are fairly straightforward, as the company and its employees are profiting from weapons contracts and the violence stemming from the usage of those weapons.
Those companies are also actively trying to recruit UI engineers.
A year ago, a report revealed that Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian, was murdered by Israeli military forces who used a bomb manufactured in Iowa. The bomb came from the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown, Iowa. The plant is owned by the defense contractor American Ordinance, which has been at the UI Engineering Career Fair for the past three years.
It is extremely unlikely most aspiring engineers dream of entering this line of work, but the lack of ethics training mixed with the allure of a stable job might lead some to stray from their morals.
Big tech has faced its own trove of unethical situations as well. One of the most notable instances was when the Federal Trade Commission revealed social media apps and video streaming sites had been collecting and storing data from users.
So would an ethics course detailing the darker side of engineering deter every student from entering those fields? In short, no, but it would hopefully stop some from getting involved.
If an ethics course were required, it wouldn’t mean every student would automatically become ethical. Some will still chase money over keeping integrity, which is true for most fields.
Carmichael said the class may be challenging to plan as the university offers eight different engineering majors, each with different career prospects and, as such, different ethical quandaries.
Ethics are learned, but how can you learn if you aren’t properly taught?