Abstract
Engineering requires a certain dedication to protect the communities being served. This dedication is fostered by ethical engineers. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering aspires to cultivate such engineers. To ensure they live up to ethical obligations, Viterbi should look to establish its students with the values of integrity, altruism, and courage. Engineers with integrity exhibit perseverance in the face of failure and hold themselves accountable for the honest delivery of research findings. Through altruism, engineers are able to dedicate themselves to the people and environments their choices will impact. Lastly, courageous engineers push aside selfish desires, address uncomfortable truths, and have an unwavering commitment to represent those who cannot have a say in decisions. Together, these traits equip engineers with the characteristics needed to create a better future.
Introduction
The tradition of the Iron Ring, given to graduating Canadian engineers, serves as a reminder of the steel bridge collapse near Quebec City that took the lives of 75 workers due to a critical error in judgment. Engineers hold a crucial position in turning ideas into reality and solving problems, contributing positively to the everyday workings of society. The Iron Ring signifies the engineer’s obligation to ethical standards for the people they serve. At USC Sol Price School for Public Policy, the program emphasizes our civic duty as guardians of the community, its people, and the environment.
Likewise, USC Viterbi School of Engineering prepares its students to apply scientific theories and find innovative and practical solutions to address societal challenges. While Viterbi discusses the importance of character and ethical practices with their students, the program falls short in clearly identifying specific values students should strive to embody. Like public policy and urban planning students, Viterbi should establish the importance of upholding virtues as their students transition into the professional field. As influential members of the community, Viterbi’s virtuous engineers shall have integrity, altruism, and courage.
Upholding Integrity
In Public Health Effectiveness of the FDA 510(k) Clearance Process, Theresa Wizemann recounts how the manufacturers of the 1985 Therac-25 radiation therapy machine disregarded claims linking patient fatalities to software malfunctions. It turns out that these malfunctions resulted in overdoses. Since this incident, the “overconfidence in the function of software” has caused the Food and Drug Administration to recall 49% of devices with software-related issues between 1999 and 2005. The negligence of software engineers in identifying bugs in their software before distribution, and their failure in admitting mistakes afterwards, disregarded the safety and trust of investors and clients. Future engineers must take accountability for their craft. [1] This occurrence stresses the urgency for Viterbi to equip engineers with the value of integrity as an unwavering obligation to do right by society. Prioritizing integrity as a primary virtue would establish reliability and trust among all stakeholders. Upholding integrity ensures incorruptible ties of responsibility to the work engineers produce, regardless of their effects on reputation.
In The Practical Guidance on Science and Engineering Ethics Education for Instructors and Administrators, the authors discuss an engineer’s influential role in shaping decisions. The writers state that engineers are responsible for the “integrity and trustworthiness of their reports because others both within and outside the research community rely on the accuracy of the reports to build on their results” [2]. Through diligent considerations of all factors and potential threats, engineers can make well-informed decisions and find ways to minimize adverse effects. Engineers with integrity exhibit perseverance in the face of failure and hold themselves accountable for the honest delivery of research findings.
Altruism: Embracing Service
In Rick Montgomery’s article, “20 Years Later: Many are Continuing to Learn from Skywalk Collapse,” the author highlights the 1981 structural collapse at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The disaster came to be after a project engineer approved a fatal design change over the phone due to “economic pressures on builders to win contracts and complete projects swiftly.” As a result, an avoidable mistake cost 114 lives. In this example, structural engineers were responsible for taking an architect’s vision and realizing the product with the safety of users in mind. They failed when they prioritized economic interests over individual well-being. [3]
Engineers must dedicate themselves to the people and environments their choices will impact; they should not aim only to reach deadlines or bring maximum profits to clients. Like integrity, Viterbi’s engineering students must embrace the virtue of altruism as conscientious professionals who demonstrate empathy for others and actively make decisions for the well-being of the community. An emphasis on service fosters a humanitarian approach to moral dilemmas, focused on equitability and selflessness.
Engineers can then create innovative solutions to address humanitarian challenges. Alexandra Beatty explains the altruistic service-learning model for engineers in her book Service-Learning in Undergraduate Geoscience. Service encourages students to prioritize “problems that are important to their community partners” and “encourages them to think deeply about different perspectives and how their own contributions may fit…to benefit a local community or perhaps beyond” [4]. As service connects engineers directly to those their creations impact, it provides them with a constant reminder of users’ safety, health, and well-being, allowing them to make altruistic decisions.
Exemplifying Courage
In “Hero of Chernobyl: An Interview with Alexei Ananenko,” Darmon Richter describes the experience of one of Ukraine’s national heroes. Ten days after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion, the “risk of another steam explosion was averted” by three engineers who volunteered to return to the site even though “they would all show signs of radiation sickness.” Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bezpalov, and Boris Baranov are examples of courageous engineers who, despite personal risks, selflessly entered the flooded basement to mitigate the spread of more radioactive material into the community. [5]
Viterbi engineers should exemplify courage as a fundamental virtue because they should stand up for what is right, even in the face of adversity. In “Courage isn’t about Facing Fears, it’s about Facing Ourselves,” Matthew Beard expands on Aristotle’s idea of courage as an indicator for moral excellence. He states that courage looks “reality in the face and [has] the force of will not to turn away, despite the pain, the unpleasantness and the risk” [6]. Like the Chernobyl heroes, engineers must demonstrate courage by speaking up against unsafe working conditions, advocating for environmentally friendly practices, or challenging outdated practices. Additionally, a courageous engineer must make marginalized voices heard. As prominent participants in important decision-making processes, engineers must advocate for the perspectives and safety of marginalized communities.
Prepared Viterbi students can enter the workplace with fresh perspectives and can challenge injustices when necessary for the greater good of the community. Courageous engineers push aside selfish desires, address uncomfortable truths, and have an unwavering commitment to represent those who cannot have a say in decisions. They should see themselves as the guards between unethical practices and ethical ingenuity. Whether they take risks in problem-solving, admit failure, seek help, or articulate concerns against the opinions of the majority, engineers should have the courage to fight for a virtuous tomorrow.
Conclusion
Having significant influence in shaping students’ way of thinking, USC Viterbi School of Engineering has an obligation to prepare its aspiring engineers with integrity, altruism, and courage to confront moral dilemmas. To facilitate the development of these virtues in engineering students, Viterbi should introduce a course dedicated to educating students about these ethical virtues and incorporate social sciences relevant to the communities they serve. Furthermore, the school should integrate opportunities for reflection throughout courses and provide avenues for students to practice implementing integrity, service, and courage through solving local issues within the campus or Los Angeles area. Like the tradition of the Iron Ring, Viterbi must instill in engineers a sense of responsibility to protect the communities they serve.
By Diandra Tjokrosaputro, University of Southern California Sol Price School for Public Policy
About the Author
At the time of writing this paper, Diandra was a senior majoring in Urban Studies and Planning at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. After graduation, she plans to return to Indonesia to work in the telecommunication and real estate industries.