Aims

To understand the need for a high level of professional and ethical conduct in engineering. To develop awareness of the impact of engineering practice in a global and corporate context.
To understand the requirements for engineering activities to promote sustainable development.

Students will gain an understanding of the ethical and professional challenges for the current practice of civil engineering with an awareness of the global and corporate context within the framework of sustainable development.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module provides an understanding of the global, corporate and individual context of civil engineering taking ethics and sustainability as the main reference points. The topics include the role of ethics in engineering and an in-depth revision of the concept of sustainability including global environmental challenges, financial and social aspects. Some particular tools and approaches will be presented such as Professional Ethics Codes, ICE ethics toolkit, corruption in engineering, ESG reporting, the Equator Principles and social impact assessment. Teams of students will also explore case studies analysing the challenges of the transit to sustainability in infrastructure related to water, energy, transport and cities.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Course includes taught material which is delivered interactively with the students through lectures, workshops and tutorials, encouraging debate of the exposed topics. In the workshops, the students analyse ethical case studies in small groups and discuss their opinions with a larger group. Students are set in self-formed groups for the integrated report. They receive an initial brief on 4 possible topic areas. They have to research the topic area and develop the question and the analytical framework that they will apply, demonstrating creativity and initiative in the definition of the content of the report. The first part of this exercise includes a brief literature review. This is combined with small group tutorials where the students will discuss the advances of their group research for the integrated report and their analysis of the chosen topics. The aim is to produce a report with a professional look and quality of analysis, integrating seamlessly the individual contributions.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Integrated Report presented as a professional dossier incl. illustrations and diagrams (approx. 1000 words per group member). This will entail 2 submission: first, the individual literature review (approx. 1000 words), group members will give feedback to each other on the individual literature reviews under the guidance of the lecturer and assistants; second, one integrated report per group developed from critical analysis of the literature reviews using them as key source material.

The Coursework is oriented towards self-learning and development of the student’s own awareness of complex issues using the background information and analytical tools presented in the taught lectures.

Integrated Report – An integrated report will be produced by each group as a professional dossier giving background information about the research topic and an analysis of sustainability issues with an emphasis on ethical and sustainability considerations, leading to a summary of the main findings. The first step in the process will be a literature review produced by each group member. Group members will read and give feedback on all the literature reviews produced by the group. This material will be integrated in a joint analysis. Student will receive formative feedback during the production of this report. This is a group activity but the mark reflects the individual contribution to the final product.

Individual Analysis – Each student will submit an essay on professionalism in civil engineering summarizing some of the topics covered in the lecture. Students will be encouraged to express their own opinion and demonstrate further learning for higher marks.