Cindy Finelli, managing director of the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching North at the College of Engineering, is part of the multi-institutional E³ team that’s undertaking a four-year study of ethics education for engineering undergraduate students. (E³, a group of engineering educators and educational researchers, has collaborated since 2000 to understand the underlying causes of academic dishonesty in engineering undergraduates.) The study unites Michigan Engineering, Lawrence Technological University, California Polytechnic State University—San Luis Obispo, and specialists in ethical development. The coalition will assess curricular and extracurricular activities that relate to ethics, and then determine how to improve the ethical decision-making capabilities of engineering undergraduates.

Researchers will interview students, faculty and administrators at 20 institutions that offer engineering degrees. Those institutions will range from private specialty schools to large public research universities. By the end of the project, team members will have surveyed more than 4,000 students and 150 faculty/administrators to assess the impact of various inputs on ethical development. The motivation for the study arose from 40 years of national research which showed that levels of academic dishonesty and cheating are higher in undergraduate engineering than in almost all other disciplines.

Finelli said that students who cheat in college are “more likely to become professionals predisposed to make unethical decisions. And those decisions are an integral part of the technology that shapes modern life. Fortunately, we have the ability and the opportunity to make an impact – now! -- on their decision-making process and, ultimately, to help produce engineering professionals of integrity.

Dave Munson, Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, said that highly-publicized "ethical lapses and a lack of clear assessment of the effectiveness of existing ethical instruction highlight the need to improve methods of teaching engineering ethics. As such, the researchers will make a purposeful examination of the factors affecting the ethical development of engineering undergraduates. The outcome of this project will be a better understanding of the impact of curricular efforts on ethical development, allowing educators to improve ethics instruction at the undergraduate level."

"Engineers should leave the world a better place than they found it," Finelli said. "They must learn as students that how we use technology is more important than the technology itself -- it must improve people's lives. To do that, engineers need a moral center as well as an ability to build bridges and unravel the mysteries of DNA. As educators, it's up to us to incorporate the development of ethical decision-making skills into our curricula. That, in great part, will determine the future course of business and commerce in our country."

Of the $850,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation, Michigan Engineering will receive $548,000; Lawrence Tech and California Polytechnic – San Luis Obispo with share the remaining $302,000.

More information about the study can be found at Exploring Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering.