I participated in an Ethics-Across-the-Curriculum workshop at IIT in the summer of 1992. Since that time, I have twice incorporated some ethics into my senior-level control systems engineering course. Even though the classroom time devoted to ethics was small (the equivalent of two fifty minute lectures), the results were rewarding-to the students and to me.

I initially feared that devoting much time to ethics would take away from the technical material. After all, it had been difficult enough to discuss all the topics already in the course syllabus. This fear proved unfounded. The course material concerning ethics enhanced the technical material; and the work I put into the "ethics part" of the course has broadened my perspective on my role as an educator of engineers.

The ethics part of my course consisted of distribution of the Code of Ethics of Engineers prepared by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), classroom discussion of the Code, class development of a case study coupling ethics and control systems, a few homework exercises, and some brief exam questions. The intent was to make the students aware that ethical issues do arise in their profession and that they would have to make choices having ethical import.

I felt it was important to connect the precepts in the ABET Code both with the technical material at the heart of the course and with the students themselves. Though the Code embodies the fundamental principles of ethical conduct within the engineering profession, students could find it dry and impersonal. I surmised that showing a relationship between the students, the command of technology imparted to them by the course, and ethics would powerfully carry the message that the students have a responsibility to behave ethically as engineers, while at the same time interesting them by tying in the course's technical material.

The basic technique I used was including calculations and analysis, much like those carried out in a typical homework problem, in the development of ethics case studies and assignments. The students then learned that the computations that they had become so familiar with have actual meaning in application, that engineers not only make the calculations but also use the results to make decisions, and that those decisions can connect directly (or indirectly) with ethical issues. In this way, the students could see that the knowledge they acquire in their engineering education places responsibility upon them for its good and ethical use.

Here is an example of what I did. I coupled a homework exercise intended to introduce cost/performance tradeoffs in engineering designs with the issue of honesty in representing the performance capabilities of the resulting product. The assignment placed the student in the role of an engineer working for Whiz-Bang Motor Control. Whiz-Bang is competing to win a contract from Big Machines for a controlled motor system. The students, as engineers for Whiz-Bang, evaluate two approaches to the motor control problem. Their objective: meet Big Machine's performance specifications, while keeping the cost of the system low (to help win the contract).

The contrast between the two proposed control systems is dramatic. One of them, a velocity feedback approach, will work like a charm but requires relatively expensive sensors to measure motor speed. The other system, a current feedback solution, is much less costly to implement but is more sensitive to variations in motor characteristic. Whiz-Bang's engineers cannot guarantee that the inexpensive system will meet all Big Machines' specification. Several exercises have the students work through the technical details of the motor control systems, enabling them to provide these characterizations of performance and cost.

Having completed their investigations of the motor system's performance, the Whiz-Bang engineers must draft a design proposal to win Big Machine's contract. The project supervisor asks them to favor the less expensive current feedback system, but to present it to Big Machines as though it meets all specifications. She says the velocity feedback system is too expensive; Whiz-Bang will lose the bid if it goes with that choice. And, she adds, since the design fails to meet the required performance specifications only in rather rare circumstances, Big Machines is unlikely to notice such failures.

The homework assignment asked the students whether they agreed with the supervisor's position and how they evaluated her approach based both on ethical principles and on the design's technical merit. They were to describe the potential short-term and long-term benefit or harm of the supervisor's suggested course of action.

I found the students' responses encouraging. The dishonesty of the supervisor's suggestion was apparent to all. Not one student recommended doing as the Supervisor suggested or ascribed any merit to the "win the bid at all costs" mentality it implied. The students' responses were, however, not all ethically pure: one student, indignant at the supervisor's lapse of ethics, said he felt that she "should be taken out and shot"! The students did not, however. blindly reject the current feedback system. A good number recommended informing Big Machines of the advantages and disadvantages of both option. And happily for me, some showed a capacity for creative engineering problem solving, without resort to unethical practice. They suggested showing Big Machines how a minor modification of the stated specifications would enable the use of the less expensive current feedback system. In this assignment, honesty is the best policy.

Many students had an emphatically positive reaction to the inclusion of ethics in the course. One student told me, "Wow! I've never had an engineering course in which ethical behavior was discussed. This is great!" He continued by describing how he and some of his friends had had animated discussions about what the Whiz-Bang engineers should do. His friends were challenged by the problem of finding a technological solution that maintained economic competitiveness without resorting to unscrupulous means. Other students have approached me to say that they were very much affected by the discussions of ethics in the class, that it helped them see more clearly the role engineers play in society.

So, in the end, the inclusion of ethics raised the students' awareness of the ethical aspects of the engineering profession without sacrificing, and in fact enhancing, the course's technical content.