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“Mechanical” Academics: An Exploration on the Role of Ethics in Modern Engineering

Ian Gonzalez
Department of English, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley
English-1302-20R
Dr. Marshall Saenz
February 13th, 2022
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“Mechanical” Academics: An Exploration on the Role of Ethics in Modern Engineering

Introduction
Background & Context
I have spent a year learning Mechanical Engineering in UTRGV, and it has mainly
consisted of developing technical expertise with equations and calculators. However, UTRGV
also attempts to develop an interest in the ethics of engineering; it offers one philosophy class -
PHIL 2326 (Ethics, Technology, and Society) - near the end of a four-year program. Despite
these efforts, the engineering education mainly glosses over ethics. For example, in Materials,
students learn about the mechanical properties of materials, but the class only devotes a sentence
to its history: “The study of Materials developed in large part due to the 2nd World War.”
Engineering may be an abstract practice, but we cannot ignore the implications of its early
development and some of its current uses.
I will research UTRGV engineers’ beliefs on the importance of ethics in their education.
This topic serves as a worthwhile topic because of the societal consequences of designing,
constructing, and implementing any product.
Most engineering students of one branch (mechanical, civil, electrical, etc.) share a great
deal of classes with those of other branches in UTRGV, meaning that they learn and observe a
lot of the same content. Thus, engineering students will be generalized under the term “engineer”
for the purposes of this project.

Research Question
How does UTRGV’s engineering curriculum position ethics?
(Is it important or not? Is it more or less important than other topics in school?)

Research Question
How does UTRGV’s engineering curriculum position ethics?
(Is it important or not? Is it more or less important than other topics in school?)
Significance
Through this research, student engineers can consider how practicing engineers think and
feel about the history of their practice. Additionally, it can encourage students to think about the
real-world consequences of the application of their abstract knowledge. This paper will also
question if any practice is completely ethical, or if we are all forced to contribute to a broken
system.
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Positionality
I am an Insider to the Discourse Community that I am researching: UTRGV’s
Mechanical Engineers.
One summer, I worked in a small corner store. I began interacting more with my
community, especially working-class Mexican Americans, and I came to understand some of
their prevailing attitudes about education. As Cedillo (one of the authors of the last reading)
states, some communities have a strong sense of “communal skepticism about higher education.”
In the best of cases, individuals felt that those with higher education did not have their best
interests, even those from similar backgrounds.
As a student aiming for higher education, I began reflecting on my positionality. I am a
Mexican American, a minority in the U.S., that grew up with a working-class family, and I have
been lucky enough to study Mechanical Engineering in college. I want to help my Mexican
American community, but I have questions. How can I prove that higher education helps my
local community? What does the engineer, in particular, owe their community? UTRGV does
have one ethics class, but the consideration of ethics is entirely absent in all other classes.
Therefore, I want to investigate how the UTRGV engineering curriculum and discourse
community positions ethics in their education.
I will be careful to consider all sides of this discussion. Some may not think ethics
matters in engineering education, and they might have good reasons. As a researcher, I need to
examine both sides of this discussion.

Literature Review
Positionality Statements in Engineering Education Research: A Look at the Hand that
Guides the Methodological Tools
This resource explores positionality in engineering, which can help the development of
this paper’s research.

Olson, Gregory. "A Materials Science Timeline". Materials World Modules.

This resource explores how material science and engineering developed due to wartime
collaborations in the 1940’s. I do not have access to this resource yet, only its rough abstract.

Vincent, Bernedetta. "Materials science and engineering: an artificial discipline about to

explode". History of Recent Materials Science.
This resource explores how the U.S. gave many colleges – including Harvard, MIT,
Brown, Stanford, and Chicago - over $13 million for material research in the 1960’s.
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Literature will offer some credible background to the practice of engineering. For
example, I want to find some literature about how the failure of WWII ships forced the
development of study of fracture in the study of Materials. Further, I want to find some literature
about the why the car and the Internet were first developed. Key topics: “History of Materials
Science.”

Literature Review
Positionality Statements in Engineering Education Research: A Look at the Hand that
Guides the Methodological Tools
This resource explores positionality in engineering, which can help the development of
this paper’s research.

Olson, Gregory. "A Materials Science Timeline". Materials World Modules.

This resource explores how material science and engineering developed due to wartime
collaborations in the 1940’s. I do not have access to this resource yet, only its rough abstract.

Vincent, Bernedetta. "Materials science and engineering: an artificial discipline about to

explode". History of Recent Materials Science.
This resource explores how the U.S. gave many colleges – including Harvard, MIT,
Brown, Stanford, and Chicago - over $13 million for material research in the 1960’s.

Literature will offer some credible background to the practice of engineering. For
example, I want to find some literature about how the failure of WWII ships forced the
development of study of fracture in the study of Materials. Further, I want to find some literature
about the why the car and the Internet were first developed. Key topics: “History of Materials
Science.”

Proposed Methods
Firstly, I will use online literature to get some basic background over the development of
Mechanical Engineering.
UTRGV offers a wealth of very experienced engineers, so I will try to send a few
interview questions to teachers of specific subjects. (Their answers will be anecdotal and may be
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contradictory, but this will give me a sense of how UTRGV’s Mechanical Engineers, as a
Discourse Community, feel about ethics in their practice.)
How would you characterize engineering’s past/development? If it has a negative
connotation, how do you reconcile with that past? Military and oil jobs offer a lot more money
than most other jobs. Do you believe it is harder to create ethically as an engineer or is this a
non-issue?
I will also try to create a survey for all UTRGV engineers, but I doubt I will get a large,
random sample. These will not be professional engineers, but they still make up the Discourse
Community. I will also add my own observations about my classes and learning environment.
These will be anecdotal, but these will be very specific observations that I may not get a
consensus on.

Implications
This research will offer new engineers the context about their practice. It will give them
information on how engineering has harmed people, how we can reconcile with that history, and
how we can improve the practice for the better in the future.
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References
I will use this section to place my references to other works.
Cite Cedillo in the Positionality section.