Engineering Ethics and Risk

This course is reserved to the students of the Master Chemical Engineering. Students from all other Masters are invited to join the Ethics and Engineering course under the codes WM0320TU (3 ECTS) or WM0329TU (6 ECTS). Students specifically interested in the Ethics of Technological Risk are invited to consider the thematic course: WM0375TU.

The first part of this course is identical to the Ethics and Engineering course (WM032TU). In this part you will explore the ethical and social aspects and problems related to technology and to your future work as professional or manager in the design, development, management or control of technology. You will be introduced to and make exercises with a range of relevant aspects and concepts, including professional codes, philosophical ethics, individual and collective responsibilities, value pluralism and relativism, responsibility within organisations, responsible conduct of companies and the role of law. You will analyse legal, political and organisational backgrounds to existing and emerging ethical and social problems of technology, and you will explore possibilities for resolving, diminishing or preventing these problems.

The second part of the course (Risk) will be a series of guest lectures within the broader field of risk and safety management. Several industrial sectors will be discussed and how risk and safety are seen as important topics with discussion of risks (can be calculation, mgt, treatment, etc.) within the specific sector.

Ethics (75% of overall grade): This grade is comprised of the ethics part of the written exam (60%, individual grade), and the presentation and active participation during the working group / tutorial sessions (40%, same grade for all members of a presentation group).

In order to pass the course, a minimal grade of 5.5 should be obtained *both* in the exam *and* in the working group / tutorial, and the average grade should be higher than 5.75.

Total duration of the exam is 3 hours. The exam consists of a part on ethics, which weighs into the above mentioned ethics grade and a part on risk, which weighs 25% of the overall grade.

In *both* exam parts, a minimal grade of 5.5. must be achieved to pass *and* the average grade should be higher than 5.75.

The exam will be a closed book exam: The ethics part of the exam consists of a multiple choice part and an open question part. The risk part consists of an open reflection question.

Within the same academic year, it is possible to re-take the exam without re-taking the working groups, in this case the working group grade will be kept. If you re-take the exam, it is also possible to re-attend the working groups to improve the final grade.