Engineering Law Ethics and Professionalism ELEX 7880

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Apply the Engineering Code of Ethics to typical ethical situations in industry, management, and private practice. [8,10]
• Assess the engineer's legal and ethical roles and responsibilities in relation to such items as design constraints, reliability, conformance to standards, hazards, safety, liability, warrantees, guarantees, insurance, tendering, contract negotiation and contract administration. [4,9,10]
• Assess an engineer's responsibilities and ethical stance in relation to conflicting professional judgements about the impact of design, implementation or delivery decisions in engineering endeavors. [4,6,8]
• Describe contracts, torts, patents, copyrights, trademarks, incompetence, negligence; liability and responsibility in the context of their relevance to engineering practice. [4,8,9]
• Explain legal and ethical constraints affecting the use and licensing of computer software. [4]
• Explain differences between open-source, commercial, freeware and shareware licensing. [4]
• Interpret negligence scenarios and provide opinions on options for avoiding similar situations. [2,4]
• Examine case studies highlighting the role of the engineering professional associations in communication, investigation, and discipline to ensure public safety. [7,8]
• Appreciate the role of engineers in supporting sustainable development, environmental stewardship and ethical issues within various professional contexts. [9,11]
• Provide information on critical environmental and safety issues in the areas of electric and electromagnetic fields, radio frequency transmission, electrical power generation and consumer electronics. [10]
• Provide information on the role of standards and the associated accrediting bodies, such as CSA and UL, in protecting the public regarding safety, environmental issues, and the orderly advancement of the use of technology in society. [4,10]
• Identify areas of electrical engineering practice where environmental and safety issues could be improved upon, either with better practices or with different technology. [4,9,10]
• Identify situations where a professional engineer has an obligation to disclose instances of inappropriate engineering practice that contravene the legal and ethical responsibilities in the profession. [10]
• Explain the purpose, pitfalls, classifications, ingredients and application process for patents and intellectual property. [8,9]
• Describe the main codes and standards, and the responsibilities of professional engineers, in protecting public safety and workplace safety. [9,11]
• Describe the importance of currency in skill development to meet industry needs and reacting to latest technological developments.[12]

Engineering accreditation

The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) oversees the accreditation of engineering programs across Canada. To measure the effectiveness of an engineering program the CEAB has identified twelve specific attributes that the graduate is expected to possess and use as the foundation to developing and advancing an engineering career. To ensure that the overall curriculum of the Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical program covers these attributes sufficiently, the learning outcomes for each course have been mapped to applicable CEAB graduate attributes.

1. A knowledge base for engineering: Demonstrated competence in university level mathematics, natural sciences, engineering fundamentals, and specialized engineering knowledge appropriate to the program.

2. Problem analysis: An ability to use appropriate knowledge and skills to identify, formulate, analyze, and solve complex engineering problems in order to reach substantiated conclusions.

3. Investigation: An ability to conduct investigations of complex problems by methods that include appropriate experiments, analysis and interpretation of data, and synthesis of information in order to reach valid conclusions.

4. Design: An ability to design solutions for complex, open-ended engineering problems and to design systems, components or processes that meet specified needs with appropriate attention to health and safety risks, applicable standards, and economic, environmental, cultural and societal considerations.

5. Use of engineering tools: An ability to create, select, apply, adapt, and extend appropriate techniques, resources, and modern engineering tools to a range of engineering activities, from simple to complex, with an understanding of the associated limitations.

6. Individual and team work: An ability to work effectively as a member and leader in teams, preferably in a multi-disciplinary setting.

7. Communication skills: An ability to communicate complex engineering concepts within the profession and with society at large. Such ability includes reading, writing, speaking and listening, and the ability to comprehend and write effective reports and design documentation, and to give and effectively respond to clear instructions.

8. Professionalism: An understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the professional engineer in society, especially the primary role of protection of the public and the public interest.

9. Impact of engineering on society and the environment: An ability to analyze social and environmental aspects of engineering activities. Such ability includes an understanding of the interactions that engineering has with the economic, social, health, safety, legal, and cultural aspects of society, the uncertainties in the prediction of such interactions; and the concepts of sustainable design and development and environmental stewardship.

10. Ethics and equity: An ability to apply professional ethics, accountability, and equity.

11. Economics and project management: An ability to appropriately incorporate economics and business practices including project, risk, and change management into the practice of engineering and to understand their limitations.

12. Life-long learning: An ability to identify and to address their own educational needs in a changing world in ways sufficient to maintain their competence and to allow them to contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

Effective as of Fall 2017