This textbook deals with professional and ethical considerations in the practice of engineering. In particular, it is concerned with the interrelationship of technology and society, the development of societal and personal ethical values, and the consideration of ethics in engineering projects. 

The textbook covers normative ethical philosophies and their relation to contemporary environmental, biotechnical, and computational problems of the 21st century. These problems include issues of population and resources, climate change, DNA engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Internet connectivity, surveillance and Big Data, and the interaction of engineering and the military. Case studies are used to explore the difference between ethical and unethical engineering projects. Special attention is paid to the requirements for working effectively within and leading diverse engineering teams, and to ethical decision-making methods in situations that include both technical and societal factors. The textbook concludes with a consideration of paths to continued learning for ethical engineering practice.

The primary objectives of the textbook are to:

• Better prepare engineering students to understand and deal with the social and ethical issues they will face as professional engineers and as citizens of a technology dependent democracy.
• Introduce a relevant set of moral and ethical philosophies and provide an historical perspective on their origins and evolution. 
• Increase awareness and knowledge of the historical impact of technology and engineering on society.
• Introduce contemporary societal issues involving technology, to promote a critical and informed assessment of them and to encourage continued education in this direction.
• Prepare students to be effective as leaders in diverse working environments, including the need for emotional intelligence and understanding the perspectives of others with differing views, background and experiences. Explain the benefits of diversity and teach engineering students how best to use diversity in project teams;
• Provide guidelines and methodology for ethical decision making in the context of the individual, project, corporate and societal environments that surround the practice of engineering.
• Show students how they can improve in all these areas through continued learning.  

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has called for increased educational attention to the subject of Engineering Ethics. This is not because engineers are basically unethical, but because the issues they will deal with in the 21st Century increasing involve ethical factors. NAE identifies the need for education regarding “macro ethics” (broad social and environmental issues) as well as “micro ethics” (dilemmas faced by individual engineers), and suggests a curriculum that includes a required course in ethics plus recognition of its importance throughout the entire course of engineering education.

This textbook is based on the course “Engineering and Society” that I have taught with the help of my colleague Dr. Donald Browne for over 15 years as part of the undergraduate curriculum at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). At UCLA SEAS the course fulfils an undergraduate ethics requirement. It also adheres to the NAE suggestions and to guidance on undergraduate ethics education from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the organization that accredits engineering schools. 

As you will learn in Chapter 1, my background includes beginning as an Assistant Engineering Professor at UCLA SEAS, leaving to found two defense R&D companies focused on applications of artificial intelligence,  and returning to UCLA to teach the Engineering and Society course. I believe that my over 50 years experience as an executive and working engineer has given me a valuable perspective on current and future technical problems and the ethical and societal issues surrounding them. I hope that my presentation of the textbook material, which inexorably includes my personal viewpoints, proves interesting, entertaining and – most important – useful to my readers’ understanding and engineering contributions.  

Gershon Weltman, Ph.D.