Ethics and Responsibilities of Engineers

"With great power comes great responsibility" - Uncle Ben

I'm no fan of the of the Spiderman movies and even less supportive of Tobey Maguire, but I feel that this quote has much to do with ethics. If we are to only take one missing basic from this course, it would be vital to not have a lack of "Parker 101". Peter Parker has lots of powers to do good, but the movies show his struggle to do right. As upcoming engineers, we will have the ability to fix and change the lives of others. We need ethics so that we affect the lives of others for better and not for base motives.

While we are in college, we have the responsibility to become the best engineers possible. This can only be reached if we follow some ethical guidelines. Schoolwork and exams can pile up, but they must be taken care of with our effort alone. We are being unfair to other students if we turn their work in as our own. And though it might be tempting to use another person's writing or use other sources to get an answer, it does not teach us anything. By cheating at schoolwork, we are cheating ourselves from becoming better engineers.

Ethics must also influence us as professional engineers as well. Our work must still be our own, but using other's work is now considered stealing and the consequences of it are much more significant. A less covered responsibility of an engineer is to make sure that their project does not negatively affect the lives of the people using it. The benefits of others are always more than our own. A different material or process may save us money and speed up production, but how does it affect the safety of others? This is something to be considered once we hold the lives of others in our hands.

Engineers are supposed to find solutions for the problems of others. We are not doing our job if we compromise this idea for our own benefit.