ESSAY COMPETITION WINNERS
INGENIEUR BEM Convention 2022
Ethical and Professional by Nature and Nurture
By Ir . Dr Siow Chun Lim Second Place Winner
What is ethics ? When I was a child , being ethical would mean completing homework and tests without copying from others . As a teenager , being ethical meant saying no to corruption because newspaper headlines with “ bribery ” and “ corruption ” as keywords tend to attract my reading interest first . As an engineering undergraduate , and then a postgraduate student , being ethical meant being against plagiarism .
Today , as a 100 % local-born and bred professional engineer , and an academic staff in an electrical engineering degree programme at a local university , I can , of course , define ethics , or more specifically , engineering ethics , with ease . Simply put , it is about doing things right and doing the right things when you are practising engineering . Google however defines engineering ethics as the “ set of rules and guidelines that engineers adhere to as a moral obligation to their profession and to the world ”. Well , what about ethics then ?
Read again and you should be able to tell that my definition and Google ’ s answer mean the same . The point here is that as an academic or even as a mentor , we should always try to simplify and not over-complicate a concept that we want our students or our mentees to grasp . Teaching itself is an art and involves applying the right set of pedagogical skills .
The eighth programme learning outcome in the EAC Programme Standards 2020 explicitly mentioned that all engineering students ought to be able to “ apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities and norms of engineering practice upon graduation ”. It sounds straightforward that all engineering schools or faculties in the country need to impart ethics to undergraduates in four years . However , if you happened to be an engineering academic , you will realise that it is so much easier said than done .
Ethics is not thermodynamics or Ohm ’ s law which we can teach the students within a few academic weeks . In fact , we can ’ t even measure ethics , not even to one decimal place . What we usually do is introduce professional ethics via a subject called “ Engineers and Society ” and then send the students for industrial placements for a period of 10 to 12 weeks with the hope that they will be able to internalise ethics and conduct themselves ethically by the time they graduate . Sounds magical right ? What happens to them after graduation when they are practising as engineers ? Can we guarantee that they will be working with only saintly engineers and that every situation they will face can be easily demarcated into black or white , right or wrong ? Will they stand firm on the principles of ethics or will they conform to the dark side ? It is anybody ’ s guess .
54 VOL 92 OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2022