Engineering ethics is the key that separates engineering student with professional engineers. It’s the set of rules, the moral issue, policies and decision that an engineer has to follow to perform any task either in the workplace or related area. In Australia, engineering is practiced for the welfare and betterment of the people and society. Engineering Professional is supposed to work towards sustainable development to ensure the reliability for future generation. In every profession that can be medical, management or agriculture, there are some norms and policies which are required to be followed by every professional. In Australia, the practices of engineering are conducted by a Code of Ethics developed by the Institution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust). Ethics are the framework that monitor an engineer to work effectively in their work within bounded rules and regulations. Some of the ethics that are required in engineering are exercising leadership, promoting sustainability on workplace and being honest and loyal towards the work, maintaining skill and knowledge in the respective field.
Further, communication skills, teamwork, sufficient knowledge of the particular subject, safety awareness and campaign are the measure required to be exercised properly in the workplace. Ethics is concerned with a socio-economic factor of the country and ultimately overall development of the nation. Similarly, in all other countries in the world, the engineering ethics and rules are more or less same as that of Australian Practice because at last engineering outcomes should enhance betterment of nation so every policies and regulation are made to enhance the positive process in society.
Whatever profession the person is associated with, he/she needs to be reliable, trustworthy, skillful, punctual, and active towards their job. In engineering, teamwork is the most essential feature and mutual understanding, helping others, supporting team member are the key to lead the team towards success. If the engineers have the broad understanding of their own discipline and the knowledge to fit with other disciplines then it will lead them towards technological sustainability. Having knowledge of only engineering norms and values will not be enough for professional engineer instead they should possess the ecological, social and economic understanding of every related field.Rules and regulations for engineers are made in the form of engineering ethics and professionalism which must be followed by every professional engineer. Performing any project as an engineer is not a difficult task but doing project as a responsible engineer is really a challenging job where other aspects should be taken into account apart from the technical practice such as environmental, economic, ecological, time constraint and others. From the reflection, I came to know that the outcomes of engineering practice should have long-term positive impact in the society and ensure the safety of oneself and others is the basic rule in engineering.
After analyzing the subject matter I have learned that code of ethics is not simply a list of laws which are to be abided but rather a promise towards our profession that we will always work for the betterment of society and seek towards sustainability. Having an engineering degree does not define us as a professional engineer rather we should practice engineering ethics and values to maintain social responsibility and sustainable progress.
