The rise of engineering ethics

The field of engineering ethics emerged in the mid 1970s, when humanists and social scientists joined engineers in addressing issues of moral and social responsibility in engineering. Funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities supported collaborative projects to prepare engineers and philosophers to pursue research and teaching. The impetus from these projects and other efforts has yielded solid results in defining the subject matter and has led to a proliferation of courses outside of engineering programs. The prospects for progress in research and for the impact of teaching are good, but the institutionalization of engineering ethics in the engineering curriculum proceeds very slowly.