Engineering Law Ethics and Professionalism ENGR 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]

Effective as of Winter 2020