Enlarging intersections between engineering and ethics: Thoughts on engineering ethics education

Ethical dimension inherently exists in engineering, separating ethics from engineering is the root-cause of many engineering accidents and conflictions. A qualified engineer must have ethical consciousness and abilities in ethical decision-making and behavior. Engineering ethics education has been proved to be a feasible way to achieve this goal, and it is of high necessities and urgencies according to Chinese current situation. However, domestic engineering ethics education development is much slower than the western developed countries. Based on the background of “National Excellent Engineer Training Scheme”, this article reviews the development history and status quo of engineering ethics education, puts forward some major reform elements and the related countermeasures for Chinese engineering ethics education.