Abstract
Engineers work in designing, building, and maintaining the systems that people use to go
about their business in their everyday lives. Thus, they are the interface between technology and
society and are responsible for the implications for their decisions both from an engineering
sense and an ethical sense. This ethical responsibility is outlined in Code of Ethics outlined by
the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) which some of the key parts include
holding the safety, health, and welfare of the public paramount and conducting business in a fair
and honorable manner. The overall following of these standards are good, but when the
responsibility is not taken, there are dire consequences. My technical paper looks into ways
practicing ethical engineering can be incorporated into education, and my STS research paper
investigates how ethical implications can be incorporated into transportation design.
In my technical paper my capstone group investigated ways to make a project
management (PM) framework to help the UVA Concrete Canoe Team to become a more
sustainable Experiential Learning team so that the benefits of preparing prospecting engineers for
real-world jobs can be propagated for years to come. We investigated the current structure and
organization of existing and past teams to identify what was working well and what needed
improving on. Then we created systems for how scheduling, training, executive organization,
and communication should be done with multiple iterations to incorporate feedback. The final
documents resulting from this process were handed off to the captains of the team for
implementation.
In my STS paper I researched if design standards in transportation infrastructure could be
applied such that social justice could be accounted for in the engineering design process. I also
discussed the methodology behind the design of transport systems and the pros and cons of using
utilitarianism as a framework. I first investigated the theory behind car-centric societies, what
driving factors put them in place, and why social, health, and environmental impacts had been
overlooked. Then I looked at why transit-oriented development became the 21st century
preferred method and how it corrects the consequences of car-centric societies but is flawed in its
non-specificity. Finally, I discussed methods of making transport decisions which are Cost
Benefit Analysis (CBA) and how relating the qualitative factors in social justice to quantitative
economic benefit could be used to estimate the impact of transport design. However, while
possible much research would have to be done to investigate the relationship between
transportation design and the qualitative factors of social justice.
I was partially successful in contributing to the problem of implementing more ethical
engineering. The implementation of the PM/CM framework in the Concrete Canoe Team helps
provide more structured experience to engineering students allowing them to practice real-world
engineering which includes ethical implications to the stakeholders and the team. The STS paper
provides a basis for research to be done into relating transportation designs to qualitative factors
allowing for more ethical implications to be considered in transportation infrastructure. Future
researchers should investigate other ways to incorporate ethical engineering practice into
education and how to ensure these considerations do not get lost during the engineering design
process in practice.
I would like to thank Professor Caitlin Wylie, Professor Nicole Dufalla, and Ryan Henry
for their expertise and advice through the capstone process. I would like to thank my teammates
Okleigh Archer, Giselle Alas, Nyla Gordon-Crocker, and Brayden Caroll for their contributions
over the past year. I would also like to thank the many people who gave advice and support over
the past year.
