Engineering Ethics

ENGINEERING ETHICS

  • Instructor: Michael D. Ford
  • Open year round
  • Delivery: Online and Self-Paced. This course will combine video presentations, exercises, web links, quizzes and additional supplemental material. No text book is required.
  • Credentials: You will receive a Engineering Ethics digital badge if you complete and pass the online course exam.
  • Who can take this course: This course is open for engineers, all professionals, faculty, staff and students. 
REGISTER HERE

ABOUT THE COURSE

As engineers, we make many technical decisions every day. At times, we are faced with important ethical decisions that can have a profound effect on ​our clients, our business, ourselves and the general public. This course seeks to increase our ability to deal effectively with moral complexity in engineering, to strengthen our ability to reason clearly, to think carefully about moral questions. Ethics and social concerns have emerged as vital topics as we re-evaluate the impacts of outsourcing, the desire for cost efficiency, concern for consumer safety, enhancing workforce talent, and satisfying the needs and wants of the marketplace. Our lofty aspirations include streamlining the supply chain while striving for environmental sustainability. These are commonly viewed as a trade-off among competing interests. 

Engineering professionals are in a unique position to influence, or be influenced by, their partner functions within an organization. Examples of common ethical dilemmas that engineers face include:

  • Marketing’s rushing the time-to-market for new products.
  • Finance’s desire to cut costs in product design to enhance profits.
  • Purchasing’s influencing supplier selection by favoring a “preferred vendor”.
  • Production’s quotas that prioritize quantity over quality.
  • Human Resource’s driving to quickly fill a job opening with the first available candidate.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the completion of the course the learner will be able to:

  • Define fundamental terminology, such as ethics, morals, beliefs, code, values and corporate social responsibility
  • Recognize how engineers should facilitate ethical behavior though engagement with others.
  • Identify the role of the engineer in corporate social responsibility.
  • Translate professional ethics into one’s personal life.
  • Explain why diversity, equity and inclusion is a moral and ethical imperative

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, ethics, values.

  • Corporate social responsibility – awareness, acceptance, and management of the implications and effects of all corporate decision‐making, taking particular account of community investment, human rights, and employee relations, environmental practices, and ethical conduct.
  • Ethics – moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.
  • Values – the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
Source: Oxford

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Michael D. Ford, M.S.I.S.E., CFPIM, CSCP, CLTD, CQA, CRE, CQE, ACPF, CPSM, CSSGB is a Supply Chain Expert with TQM Works Consulting. He provides innovative solutions, based on forty years of experience in retail, distribution, manufacturing, training, and consulting.  His work history includes software implementation, business planning, inventory control, distribution planning, and corporate training.  This includes a broad range of experience in manufacturing from engineer-to-order to make-to-stock, as well as distribution, non-profits, service, and Department of Defense. He has presented at over 400 industry events throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, and Australia, and has provided over 6,000 hours of classroom training, averaging 4.5/5.0 on evaluations. Ford combines his technical expertise with personal skills, to develop a unique “outside the box” approach to life’s challenges.  He is a charismatic speaker who specializes in delivering training that is “edu-taining.”
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldavidford/

COURSE FEES

  • $250 Industry/Standard Rate (Group rates available)
  • $200 NYSSPE  and ASQ members
  • $150 BU and SUNY faculty/staff/alumni (graduated in May 2021 or prior)/Non-SUNY students
  • $105: Non-BU and non-SUNY students (must give evidence of matriculation at University/College, please email wtsnindy@binghamton.edu)
  • $95 BU or SUNY Students and recent alumni (graduated in Dec 2021 or after)/High School Students

Group rates are available for industry; contact us at wtsnindy@binghamton.edu or call 607-777-6251

CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS

Please note our cancellation and refund policy: All cancellations must be received in writing (email) to the Office of Industrial Outreach. All refunds will be assessed a 10% administrative fee. No refunds for cancellations or non-attendance will be given after you have started the course.  Submit your cancellation request to EMAIL: wtsnindy@binghamton.edu.

If the course is canceled, enrollees will be advised and receive a full refund.