Achievement

A graduate level course on research ethics has been developed and initially offered as a 1 credit special topics course. This is the first course of this type to be taught within the University. The course is based on both lecture notes and readings from the second edition of the textbook "Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research" by Caroline Whitbeck (Cambridge University Press, 1998). The course begins with an overview of the historical development of classical Ethical Reasoning and of the University's Code of Academic Integrity. The textbook chapters on (1) Professional Practice in Engineering, (2) Two Examples of Professional behavior: Roger Boisjoly and William LeMessurier, (3) Ethics as Design, (4) Central Professional Responsibilities of Engineers, (8) Ethics in the Changing Domain of Research, and (9) Responsible Authorship and Credit in Engineering and Scientific Research are then discussed in detail with the students in an open, give-and-take manner.