Most engineering schools have classes about engineering ethics. When I was an undergrad in UC Berkeley, we not only had an ethics class (called "Social Implications of Computing") but also every single class had ethics sections, e.g. if you're working in a mission critical OS don't forget what happened to Therac-25, if you're writing ML Algorithms don't forget what happened to Uber etc... These were actual parts of classes, mentioned by professors. I think ethics is a very important part of both engineering and being a human being. You cannot make bridges and not be responsible if they collapse. You cannot make an OS and not be responsible if a bug kills bunch of people. Similarly, you cannot write fraud software and go by your day because that's what your boss ordered you to do. Engineers are highly skilled workers and we must have enough consciousness to deny doing a job if it's not ethical. Otherwise, it's just banality of evil.
>You cannot make bridges and not be responsible if they collapse. You cannot make an OS and not be responsible if a bug kills bunch of people.
This is a bogus comparison though. A bridge has one obvious use and can't be picked up and re-used in many other bridges. An OS (particularly an open source one) has nearly unlimited uses beyond the realm of the author's control.
Let's not put Linus in prison when a kernel panic results in a Tesla slamming into a wall.
I like this. At University of Florida we had 1 class. It was...alright, better than none. Everyone graduating through the college of engineering had to take it. But to have it mentioned in every single class and the relevance would be better!
I had a similarly titled class at a no-name state school. I think the professor mentioned something about ACM recommending/requiring the course, so it should be pretty widespread.
On a more discouraging note, there was normally single digit attendance out of triple digit enrollment in the particular course I took. I'd say average engagement was ~6 hours total over the course of the semester... Including a movie. I don't know anyone that didn't get an A. There were a few from that class that went onto big names, and they weren't among the regular attendees.
I think some sort of ethical component to the degree is required for ABET accreditation. My CE degree was retroactively accredited so I'm not sure if current students have to take a separate class, but one of the changes that was made while I was a student and the ABET process was happening was that we spent some amount of time in our project courses' lecture time (each semester has a 5-credit project course) covering ethical issues. ACM/IEEE membership (which itself, or at least "membership/sponsorship of a professional society by the school", might have been part of the accreditation requirements too since we all joined IEEE) may impose additional requirements like discussion on ethics.
I think the general point stands though that for everyone calling for ethics classes -- a lot of CS and CS related degrees like CE already have them. Furthermore many companies already have various code of conduct types of annual training. The solution has to be something else than "education".
