Professional Ethics and Responsibility

Course Outline

Engineers must recognize that their work 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 uphold the protection of the public’s health, safety, and welfare. This course presents an overview of the professional codes of ethics for engineers, discusses the engineers’ responsibility to society, and provides a list of the professional misconducts associated with the design profession. In addition, this course defines three types of conflicts of interest and suggests six rules of thumb to help engineers eliminate or minimize conflicts of interest in their professional practice.

At the end of this course, there will be a multiple-choice, open-book quiz designed to enhance your understanding of the course material.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, the student will: