After spending decades wandering in the wilderness, ethics education is now solidly embedded within the consciousness of the engineering education community - and none too soon. The rapidly advancing state of technology, coupled with the increasing risk to humanity from social and environmental pressures, places a unique imperative on the engineering profession. Future engineers will be called on not only to be aware of these challenges, but also to anticipate their consequences and proactively apply their knowledge and skills to rectify them. The ability of the profession to respond effectively to these challenges will depend, in part, on how well engineering educators are themselves able to adjust their own curricula, pedagogies, and philosophies.

The importance of graduating more ethical engineers underscores the necessity to assess the current state of engineering undergraduates’ ethical development and to identify factors that have a positive impact on this proficiency. Therefore, in order to determine both how engineering programs promote development of ethical decision-making skills and the level of success of those efforts, Dr. Harding and colleagues are undertaking a multi-year study to measure students’ participation in curricular and co-curricular activities meant to affect ethical development, knowledge of engineering ethics, and moral reasoning ability. The study, known as the Survey of Engineering Ethical Development (SEED), is now in its second of four years.

Dr. Harding will discuss preliminary results from the SEED study and will position this effort within the larger context of national calls for engineering ethics education reform. This interactive presentation will guide the audience through a discussion of national reports, congressional mandates, theories of moral development, global warming, mega-cities and killer robots.

Trevor S. Harding is Associate Professor of Materials Engineering at California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo where he teaches courses in service learning, introductory materials engineering, biomedical materials design, and tribology. His research interests include both ethical development in engineering students and in vivo degradation of biomedical materials. Dr. Harding earned B.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering (1995), a M.S. degree in Materials Science and Engineering (1997), and a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering (2000) from the University of Michigan. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Kettering University. He currently serves as Associate Editor of the online journal Advances in Engineering Education, is Materials Division Program Chair for the 2009 ASEE Annual Meeting, and ERM Program Chair for the 2010 ASEE Annual Meeting. Dr. Harding has delivered several invited presentations on ethics in engineering curricula, and was invited to participate in the NSF Project Based Service Learning summit. He recently received the Cal Poly 2008 President’s Service Learning Award for innovations in the use of service learning. In 2004 he was named a Templeton Research Fellow by the Center for Academic Integrity.