Integrating Ethics into a Civil Engineering Course

Ethics is a critical component of Civil Engineering education and practice. This paper discusses a case study to integrate ethics into a required undergraduate Civil Engineering course -Civil Engineering Systems -at Georgia Institute of Technology. The course introduces systems and sustainability concepts in Civil Engineering planning, design, operations, and renewal, and thus presents an appropriate context for integrating ethical issues in the curriculum. The case reviews the ASCE and NSPE Codes of Ethics and presents a real-life account of the failed Manhattan Westway project development owing to a breach of ethics in the development of the Environmental Impact Statement. With the ethical context of the project, students are then asked to develop a relative ranking of the project alternatives using a simple multi-attribute decision making framework to instill an appreciation of the subjectivity involved in identifying the optimal project, the ethical dilemmas that could arise in such situations, and the ethical responsibilities and pressures that civil engineers may face during project development. Such cases may be integrated into appropriate course material to introduce ethics into the civil and environmental engineering curriculum.