Engineering ethics education

Figure 2-2 Mechanical engineering education stakeholders needs for systems, sustainability and ethics competency.

Students Need for Better Ethics Competency. One gap analysis theme accumulates around the issues of the legal and ethical competencies of mechanical engineering education. Students reported the need for more training in reliability (40%), safety (37%), leadership (32%), conflict resolutions (26%), business ethics (24%), and legal information (22%). 

With this Planning for the Future example set forth, this chapter will focus on describing the three competency-based outcomes categorized from the data presented in Chapter 2. Each competency, systems, sustainability and ethics, is defined based on recent theories, contextualized based on recent research, and finally synthesized based on assessment rubrics. This is done to address the above Statement of the Problem, Paradigms and pedagogy regarding the need for competency mastery in mechanical engineering education need to be created and/or enriched so that the DNA double helix model of content and competency development can be enacted widely. With that Statement of the Problem in mind, the first competency, systems competency, is presented next. 

Sustainability competency development should be a part of the DNA of mechanical engineering education based on the mental model presented earlier of content and competency mastery. Next, planning for the future of mechanical engineering education engages over a third competency gap, ethics. 

And while there are clearly delineated professional codes for engineers, without the ethics competency, these codes do collide with climate and culture in the workplace as practice. Early career engineers are often challenged as to what to do next, how to do it, and why to follow these canons. However, the benefits in utilizing the ethics competency as a part of the DNA of mechanical engineering education can better equip practitioners for such encounters. 

Based on the argument to deliver the double helix DNA of mechanical engineering education, both content and competency mastery, the previous chapter presented an exploratory rubric of student outcomes for systems, sustainability and ethics competency. These three competencies are the dorsal spine of the value stream that adds to the delivery of the mechanical engineering education. This process of mechanical engineering education should enrich the four-pronged client/supplier value streams of students, employers, society and faculty. Figure 4-3 below depicts a mental model as to how these outcomes can be pulled by Lean Engineering Education. 

Figure 4-3 Systems, sustainability and ethics competency provided by Lean Engineering Education ...

Figure 4-6 Framework of Lean Engineering Education and ethics competency.

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