About the Seminar

March 04, 2014 8:30am

Reports from the National Academy of Engineering have visualized The Engineer of 2020 (2004) and delineatedGrand Challenges for Engineering (2008). The reports fall short, however, on plotting a clear course for the new engineer in contributing to the achievement of ethical and socially responsible outcomes.  The Grand Challenges report, for example, scarcely mentions ethics, adopts a technocratic stance in equating social progress to technical progress, focuses to a great extent on large scale technological fixes, and argues that people must adapt to technological change (and not the other way around).  This presentation will provide a critique of the reports (especially the Grand Challenges) and efforts of engineering educators and professional engineering societies in the wake of the reports; suggest a more dynamic characterization of the new engineer; and suggest approaches for formulating challenges for engineering that more effectively incorporate the social and ethical responsibilities of engineers and the engineering profession.  In particular, the presentation will focus on developments in macroethics, social sustainability, and the unique challenges of emerging technologies.

Series Sponsored by:

Links

• Click here to download the presentation slides
• Ethics and technology: ASU seminar to examine future of engineering, ASU News, Feb 28, 2014