Most engineers are proficient in numbers and calculations but may be less confident in the inexact world of business ethics. Two university programs are trying to change that. The Online Ethics Center for Engineering & Science, run by Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, and the National Institute for Engineering Ethics (NIEE) at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, help current practitioners and future engineers confront ethical quandaries they might face.
The online ethics center, set up in 1995, is more proactive in helping callers with immediate situations. "We have an ethics help line," says Caroline Whitbeck, center director and a school ethics professor. "Engineers tend to have a problem with being naive, which can cause others to take advantage." The success of the center and its hotline has prompted the National Academy of Engineering to take over its funding and website maintenance next year, Whitbeck notes.