ASEE Panel on NSF and Engineering Ethics Education - 2010

On June 23, 2010, Rachelle Hollander, Director of the Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society at the National Academy of Engineering moderated a panel on “NSF and Engineering Ethics Education,” at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education in Louisville, Kentucky. At the start of calendar year 2010, NSF required certifications from institutions submitting proposals of their plans to provide and verify ethics education training to students and post-doctoral fellows.  

The session explored ways and resources with which to address these requirements, from the perspectives of engineering administrators and faculty members, programs attempting to develop these resources, and the NSF itself. The publication from the National Academies Press “Ethics Education and Scientific and Engineering Research: What Has Been Learned? What Should Be Done?" was distributed to attendees. Power-point slides of the three presentations can be found here.

 

Speaker:  Carolyn Fraser

Assistant Dean, Academic and Student Affairs|
Thayer School of Engineering
Dartmouth College
8000 Cummings Hall
Hanover NH 03755
Email: carolyn.fraser@dartmouth.edu

“Ethics Education at Dartmouth College”

Dartmouth has extensive resources to draw on in establishing ethics education at different levels of the college. Besides courses and course modules, a faculty and doctoral student mentored program consists of four sessions of case-based discussions about Mentoring in Research, focusing on Laboratory Environments, Mentoring, Data Collection, Professionalism, and Authorship. The key ingredient in this mandatory program for all incoming graduate students has been the participation of senior PhD students in leading discussion panels, as this helps engage the incoming graduate students. The facilitators are themselves trained in a four part series by the Dartmouth Ethics Institute. 

 

Speaker:  Sara Wilson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
University of Kansas
3138 Learned Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
Email: sewilson@ku.edu 

“Responsible Conduct of Research Coursework in Graduate Engineering Education” 

Course materials and syllabi for responsible conduct of research (RCR) have arisen primarily from the biomedical sciences. However, research in engineering is diverse and unique, encompassing not only experimental research, but also design, computational and mathematical modeling, and industrial application. In addition to federal research grant funding, engineering research is often supported by industrial, military and government infrastructure projects adding unique twists to the potential issues that can arise.  As such, it is important to develop education experiences for engineering graduate students that focus on their needs and research experiences. Dr. Wilson will touch on some of the topics that should be considered when offering responsible conduct of research education within engineering and resources that are available.

 

Speaker: Kelly Joyce, Ph.D.

Program Director
Science, Technology and Society Program
National Science Foundation
Arlington VA 22230
Email: kjoyce@nsf.gov

“Ethics Education and the National Science Foundation” 

The NSF program manager in the Science and Technology Studies program who is responsible for the ethics research and education projects that the Foundation supports will discuss the America COMPETES act and explain the National Science Foundation’s response to it. The NSF ethics requirements (published in the Federal Register in August 2009), the formation of two beta on-line ethics resource sites, and current funding directions will all be addressed.