The ENGRG 1050 initiative of the Bovay Program is designed to introduce first year engineering students to ethical issues in engineering. In collaboration with the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the Engineering College, the Bovay Program visits individual sections of the first year professional advising course, ENGRG 1050, which all first year students are required to take. The Bovay program works with the faculty advisor for each section in order to design a lecture or seminar that covers broad issues as an introduction to engineering ethics, but also appeals to the particular disciplinary bent of each group. It is in this way that the Bovay program initially contacts the majority of the first year students in the engineering college.

2013 ENGRG 1050

In the Fall 2013 semester, the Bovay Program gave sessions for 23 Engineering 1050 First Year Engineering Experience classes, averaging 18 students each.  An introduction to the Bovay Program in Engineering Ethics was given, along with an overview of topics in engineering ethics including integrity of the engineering process, patents, organizational decision making, uses of technology in society, energy and the environment, and diversity of engineering.  After that, the fundamental canons of ethics from the Society of Professional Engineers were described to the students.  Then, students were encouraged to discuss the recent Harvard cheating scandal as a means of raising the issue of academic integrity.

1050 Sections

• Prof. David Hammer – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Michel Louge – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Andy Ruina – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Michael King – Biomedical Engineering
• Prof. Cynthia Reinhardt-King – Biomedical Engineering
• Prof. Eilyan Bitar – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Lena Kourkoutis – Applied and Engineering Physics
• Prof. Daisy Fan – Computer Science
• Prof. Les Trotter – Operations Research and Information Engineering
• Prof. Huseyin Topolagu – Operations Research and Information Engineering
• Prof. David Hysell  – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Anthony Reeves – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Bruce Turnbull – Operations Research and Information Engineering
• Prof. Abraham Stroock – Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Prof. Larry Cathles – Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Prof. Michael Spencer – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Xiling Shen – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Ronald Kline – Bovay Program in Engineering Ethics/Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. David Albonesi  – Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Larry Bonassar – Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Chris Schaffer – Biomolecular Engineering
• Prof. Larry Brown – Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
• Prof. John Cisne – Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

2012 ENGRG 1050

In the Fall of 2012, the Bovay Program gave guest lectures in the following ENGRG 1050 classes. ENGRG 1050 is a class designed to introduce first year students to the Engineering college and to Engineering. For each class, an overview of issues in Engineering Ethics was presented and then a particular case, based on the 1050 Instructor’s field of expertise was discussed. Cases included the Harvard undergraduate cheating case, the synthetic construction of living micro-organisms, the Schon fraud case in the journal Science, prosecution of file-sharing laws, technology and terrorism, issues with regard to global climate change, conflict of interest, and genetically modified food.

1050 Sections

• Prof. Jose Martinez, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Prof. Francois Guimbretiere, Information Science
• Prof. Christopher Hernandez, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Kit Umbach, Materials Science and Engineering
• Prof. Robert Van Dover, Materials Science and Engineering
• Prof. Richard Hennig, Materials Science and Engineering
• Prof. Derek Warner, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Prof. Christopher Earls, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Prof. Anthony Ingraffia, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Dr. Francis Vanek, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Prof. Charles Van Loan, Computer Science
• Prof. Bill Philpot, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Prof. Chris Batten, Electrical and Computer Engineering