2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Horizons of Engineering Ethics Education (HEEE): Survey Results and Meeting Highlights

Presented at Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS) Technical Session - Expanding horizons

This research paper reports on Horizons of Engineering Ethics Education (HEEE), a one-day event held in Indianapolis, IN on May 3, 2024 by the National Institute for Engineering Ethics (NIEE). HEEE involved 38 participants, some attending in person and others online. Most attendees were affiliated with higher education institutions or private firms, along with a few participants who were retired, associated with non-profit organizations, or working in smaller consulting firms. The event was framed as part of an ongoing needfinding process designed to identify specific opportunities for future “ethics R&D” initiatives, i.e., targeted efforts to generate new ethics content or interventions for engineering students and professionals. Through this event and other related activities, we more specifically aim to investigate what content (e.g., ethical issues and topics), pedagogies (e.g., instructional strategies and frameworks), and assessment approaches (e.g., measurement tools) are needed to advance ethics education for engineering students, practitioners, and researchers. In this paper we report on two major facets of the meeting. First, we summarize results from a pre-meeting survey that was developed by our leadership team and deployed to all invitees, resulting in 24 total responses. The survey included scaled and open-ended questions designed to gauge participants’ perceptions of ethics codes, ethics education and ethical development, case studies, the ethics of AI/ML technologies, and related topics. Second, we report on our analysis of extensive notes taken during the meeting itself, including to synthesize participants’ views regarding what stakeholders we should engage in future needfinding efforts and their awareness of contextual needs, concerns, and outlooks (e.g., across disciplines, sectors, etc.) that could inform future initiatives. We expect this paper will be of interest to engineering ethics scholars and educators who want to explore leading-edge directions for ethics R&D in engineering and related fields. The survey items presented in the paper may also be useful for those undertaking similar research and/or training efforts.

Authors

Prof. Brent K Jesiek http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3056-5144 Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Dr. Brent K. Jesiek is Professor in the Schools of Engineering Education and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University.
Dr. Justin L Hess http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1210-9535 Purdue University at West Lafayette (PWL) (COE) [biography]

Dr. Justin L Hess is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Hess's research interests include exploring empathy's functional role in engineering and design; advancing the state of the art of engineering.
Prof. Nael Barakat The University of Texas at Tyler [biography]

Dr. Barakat is currently serving as a Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Tyler. Dr. Barakat is a professionally registered engineer in Ontario, Canada, a Fulbright Specialist, and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Dr. Barakat holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from McMaster University, Ontario, and a Master Degree from Concordia University, Canada. He is also the recipient of multiple awards including the ASME Edwin Church Medal (2020), ASME McDonald Mentoring Award (2014), ASME Dedicated Service Award (2011), and GVSU Distinguished Early-Career Award (2010). Dr. Barakat has served in many leadership positions for professional organizations such as ASME and ASEE. He is a past chair of the Engineering Ethics Division at ASEE and past chair of multiple groups in ASME. Dr. Barakat is also a program evaluator for ABET and a consultant for engineering programs development and evaluation under other systems. Dr. Barakat is an active consultant who is currently collaborating with international teams of professionals from academia and industry to build capacity and education programs in areas such as: Engineering Leadership, Engineering Ethics, Professionalism, Societal Impact of Technology, Curriculum Development, and Communication. Dr. Barakat expertise and interest include also the areas of Mechatronics, Control, Robotics, Automation, and Nanotechnology Education.
Dr. Sara E Wilson The University of Kansas [biography]

Sara Wilson is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Wilson earned her PhD in Medical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

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