Ethical Dilemmas in Engineering
Background and problem: Consider the following problem (from “Ethical Problems in Engineering”, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1965): An engineer is employed on a part-time basis by a small city which cannot afford a full- time engineer. The city commissioners know the engineer also works for clients who are land developers. The engineer, in his private consultant's role, prepares plans for a client. The client then presents these plans to the city officials, who turn them over for approval to their engineer, who has now changed to his city engineer's hat.
Task: Discuss this so called ethical dilemma with respect to the 'IEEE Code of Ethics' of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Is there a conflict of interest here? Is the engineer acting unethically? Should city taxes be raised to hire a full-time engineer to prevent this type of thing? Please describe and discuss at least three more ethical dilemmas in engineering.
Supervisor: Dr. Ing. Mathias Magdowski