Chemical Engineering Ethics Education

Zhao Jinsong

Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University

       Chemical engineering plays a critical role in modern society, but it also has exerted certain negative impacts which results in the social concerns and repulsion towards chemical industry, especially the “escape” of excellent students from the chemical industry has dampened the future and innovation of the whole industry. In the teaching of chemical ethics, the most effective method is to use the case discussion. The course is taught by engineering teachers, who will combine the knowledge and the actual engineering practice. Tsinghua University opened an independent course of Chemical Engineering Ethics in 2015 and achieved good results.

What does Peace Engineering Mean to You?

Ramiro Jordan

Associate Dean of Engineering for International Programs, University of New Mexico

       We define Peace Engineering as the intentional application of systemic-level thinking of science and engineering principles to directly promote and support conditions for peace. Peace Engineering works directly towards a world where prosperity, sustainability, social equity, entrepreneurship, transparency, community voice and engagement, and a culture of quality thrive. Engineers have the power to play a vital role in the creative solutions that can radically transform and improve the wellbeing of people and other living systems, day to day.

Transforming Our World—The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

• Kammasch Beuth

Scientific Society for Engineering, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, Berlin

        Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) can be achieved through global partnerships. Engineers create new worlds, but they also do some ecological damage. For our students, how can we raise their awareness of sustainability? It's very important that they have a real experience of the world. In the course of sustainable development, we guide students to think about the world, encourage them to do something to change the status quo, make the world a better place, and give students confidence for their own abilities.

Engineering Ethics in the Modern Era

Sharon Lee

Chief Education Officer, Enable Education

       Technology is the engine that drives progress in every domain. But there is a danger of overlooking the creative power of technology if we only look to its instrumental value. Technology is connected to art and craft, and to the things that an artist can reveal through his or her art about society and human existence. We need to reconnect the instrumental value with its intrinsic value .Virtue, duty, community, happiness is four ethical foundations which  represent the big four foundational theories that all students of ethics study and that would be important concepts to include in engineering education too. In an age of AI and deeply intelligent technology perhaps what these ethical foundations offer is a more fulsome tool set to ask the important why questions that need to be asked when opting for artificial intelligence over human thinking.

New Engineering in New Time: Some Comments on Professional Ethics

Liu Sheng

Dean, Institute of Technological Sciences, Wuhan University

       Information technology in the new era is advancing with each passing day, calling for the transformation from traditional engineering discipline to new engineering discipline. This paper aims to explore the ideas and measures of the development and extension of new engineering disciplines towards the electronic manufacturing discipline as well as their integration in the new era, and clarify the internal logic between engineering disciplines integration and professional ethics, thus promoting the innovation and integration of interdisciplinary interaction from the perspective of professional ethics.