Engineering Ethics, Invention, and Innovation

Plagiarism (Quoting)

The act of taking text directly from a book, article, or website without using quotation marks and without including a note to indicate who wrote the quoted material.

Plagiarism (Presenting)

Presenting an idea as if you were the one who thought of it when you actually obtained it from a book, article, or website, except when that idea constitutes common knowledge found across many writings.

Academic Misconduct Penalty (AUM)

The institutional rule stating that if a student fails to prove the authenticity of their work, the instructor holds the right to award a zero grade and/or apply academic misconduct rules specified in the student handbook.

Engineering Code of Ethics

A non-legally binding document designed to guide engineers in understanding and practicing ethical behavior throughout their professional lives, rather than serving as text to be memorized.

Integrity

The character trait demonstrated when an individual consistently adheres to the professional and ethical codes expected of them, even under the stresses and loads of their role.

Academic Integrity

The principle that opposes the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

Fundamental Canons

The foundational component of the Engineering Code of Ethics that articulates the core, basic principles of ethical engineering practice.

Rules of Practice

The section of the Engineering Code of Ethics that clarifies and specifies in detail how the fundamental canons of ethics are applied in professional practice.

Professional Obligations

The component of the Engineering Code of Ethics that elaborates the specific ethical and professional duties engineers owe to society, clients, employers, and the profession.

NSPE

National Society of Professional Engineers; an organization that establishes the fundamental canons and ethical guidelines governing professional engineering practice.

Paramount Duty of an Engineer (NSPE Canon 1)

The primary ethical canon stating that engineers in the fulfillment of their professional duties shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.

Ethics

Standards of conduct that indicate how an individual should behave based on principles of right and wrong, concerning how we meet the practical challenge of doing the right thing.

Essence of an Engineering Career

Building things and designing processes specifically to better society, which requires constant reflection on the products and processes being created.

Role Responsibilities

Responsibilities that attach to individuals in virtue of a specific position or identity they occupy in life, such as being a friend, athlete, employee, parent, citizen, or engineering student.

Social Responsibility in Engineering

The ethical duty arising from the societal impact of engineered work, requiring engineers to consider public needs and to design, build, and market products that benefit society.

Professional Responsibility

The technical and professional competence required to fulfill social responsibilities when developing products and processes for society.

Laws

A formal system of rules and punishments established and enforced by a government, such as legal driving age regulations.

Legal

The state of conformity with established laws of any kind, whether natural, divine, common, or canon law.

Morality

Personal rules of right and wrong behavior, typically derived from an individual's conscience and religious beliefs.

Legal and Immoral Action

An action permitted by civil law that nevertheless violates moral principles, exemplified historically by owning a slave pre-Civil War in the United States.

Illegal and Moral Action

An action that violates statutory laws but is morally justified, such as parking in a no-parking zone to come to the aid of an injured person.

Engineering (ABET Definition)

The profession in which knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize economically the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.

Brainstorming

A group creativity stimulation technique within a non-critical environment that prioritizes a large quantity of short, snappy ideas over initial quality and encourages crazy suggestions.

Lateral Idea Combination

A brainstorming technique of building upon ideas by branching out into entirely new categories of thought.