Engineering Ethics

ENGINEERING ETHICS

  • Instructor: Michael D. Ford
  • Open year-round
  • Cost: Free
  • Delivery: Online and Self-Paced. This course will combine video presentations, exercises, web links, quizzes, and additional supplemental material. No textbook is required.
  • Credentials: The students who complete this free course can receive the Engineering Ethics digital badge by paying a fee. BU students can purchase their digital badge for $29, and non-BU students can purchase their digital badge for $49. A printable certificate will also be available for successful participants. A passing grade of 70% is required to receive the course completion certificate and the digital badge.
  • Who can take this course: This course is open to engineers, all professionals, faculty, staff, and students. 

ABOUT THE COURSE

As engineers, we make many technical decisions every day. At times, we are faced with important ethical decisions that can have a profound effect on ​our clients, our business, ourselves, and the general public. This course seeks to increase our ability to deal effectively with moral complexity in engineering, to strengthen our ability to reason clearly, and to think carefully about moral questions. Ethics and social concerns have emerged as vital topics as we re-evaluate the impacts of outsourcing, the desire for cost efficiency, concern for consumer safety, enhancing workforce talent, and satisfying the needs and wants of the marketplace. Our lofty aspirations include streamlining the supply chain while striving for environmental sustainability. These are commonly viewed as a trade-off among competing interests. 

Engineering professionals are in a unique position to influence, or be influenced by, their partner functions within an organization. Examples of common ethical dilemmas that engineers face include:

  • Marketing is rushing the time-to-market for new products.
  • Finance’s desire to cut costs in product design to enhance profits.
  • Purchasing influences supplier selection by favoring a “preferred vendor”.
  • Production quotas that prioritize quantity over quality.
  • Human Resources is driven to quickly fill a job opening with the first available candidate.

Course Duration: 20-25 hours

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After the course, the learner will be able to:

  • Define fundamental terminology, such as ethics, morals, beliefs, code, values, and corporate social responsibility.
  • Recognize how engineers should facilitate ethical behavior through engagement with others.
  • Identify the role of the engineer in corporate social responsibility.
  • Translate professional ethics into one’s personal life.
  • Explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion are a moral and ethical imperative.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, ethics, values.

  • Corporate social responsibility – awareness, acceptance, and management of the implications and effects of all corporate decision‐making, taking particular account of community investment, human rights, employee relations, environmental practices, and ethical conduct.
  • Ethics – moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conduct of an activity.
  • Values – the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
Source: Oxford

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Michael D. Ford, M.S.I.S.E., CFPIM, CSCP, CLTD, CQA, CRE, CQE, ACPF, CPSM, CSSGB, is a Supply Chain Expert with TQM Works Consulting. He provides innovative solutions, based on forty years of experience in retail, distribution, manufacturing, training, and consulting.  His work history includes software implementation, business planning, inventory control, distribution planning, and corporate training.  This includes a broad range of experience in manufacturing from engineer-to-order to make-to-stock, as well as distribution, non-profits, service, and the Department of Defense. He has presented at over 400 industry events throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, and Australia, and has provided over 6,000 hours of classroom training, averaging 4.5/5.0 on evaluations. Ford combines his technical expertise with personal skills to develop a unique “outside the box” approach to life’s challenges.  He is a charismatic speaker who specializes in delivering training that is “edu-taining.”

COURSE FEES

  • Free

CONTACT US

For questions, contact Watson Industrial Outreach
wtsnindy@binghamton.edu.