STS 3601
Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice
This course surveys a range of ethical issues that arise in professional engineering, and provides discussion-based practice in analyzing and addressing them. Using normative frameworks from professional codes, philosophical ethics, value-sensitive design, feminist theory, and science & technology studies, the course engages with a series of historical, current, and fictional case studies, across a wide variety of engineering disciplines. Specific topics to be discussed may include: privacy, consumer rights, smart cities, geoengineering, artificial intelligence, and cloning. Instruction is through a mix of lectures and discussions.
Topics
- Be familiar with and able to identify a range of ethical and social issues in professional and academic engineering practice.
- Understand some of the major normative theories in philosophy, science and technology studies, feminist theory, and other approaches.
- Be able to apply normative theories to specific cases in engineering, from a variety of different stakeholder perspectives, including the perspectives of historically marginalized social groups.
- Be able to analyze, evaluate, and produce normative arguments using evidence and techniques of philosophical argument.
- Have improved their research skills and written communication skills, particularly in argumentative writing.
Official roster learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027
- Catalogue entry ↗
Catalogue variants
- Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice · 3.0 · Undergraduate