Professional responsibility, engineering

Since the chemical industry operates by handling potentially hazardous materials safely, safety has always been an important consideration for chemical engineers. Engineers have never been able to discharge their professional responsibility only by designing efficient equipment or developing efficient processes. Today society has expanded that traditional responsibility to include environmental and community protection. The chemical industry s operations and products should not have an unacceptable impact upon its neighbors, its customers, or the environment. 

The Ethically Responsible Engineer Concepts and Cases for Students and Professionals, First Edition. Robert McGinn. 2015 The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

For his exemplary and repeated efforts to fulfill his professional responsibilities as an engineer by alerting others to life-threatening... 

Whether someone becomes an ethically responsible engineer depends partly on her/his personal values, ideals, and resolve. However, society can encourage engineers to be ethically responsible in their professional practice by introducing appropriate incentives, social innovations, and legislation to enable, benefit, and protect those who want to fulfill their ethical responsibilities. In the contemporary United States, the social infrastructure supportive of ethically responsible engineering practice is modest. Nevertheless, would-be ethically responsible engineers should be aware of the resources and options available to them. Discussion follows of three kinds of relevant resources and options, two societal and one individual in nature. ... 

Committee in 1997 and 1998, offers a more persuasive socioeconomic account of why professional engineering society support of ethically responsible engineering practice has been modest ... 

An engineer determined to ensure that her/his professional practice is ethically responsible could decide to start her/his own company and make it one in which conscientious, ethically responsible engineering practice is a cornerstone cultural value and behavioral norm. 

The technology, therefore, is a secondary consideration after identification of the problem. It follows that not all problems can or should be solved with engineering-based technology solutions. In this chapter, the concepts of broader professional responsibilities are explored as an integral part of the nexus between medical need, technology, and solution. 

Beder, S. (1998). The new engineer Management and professional responsibility in a changing world. WoUongong, New South Wales, Australia The University of WoUongong. 

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