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Professional Ethics in Engineering
3

Professional Ethics in Engineering

Professional Ethics in Engineering

(OP)
A brief version of the oath for the Order of the Engineer could be stated as follows:

“As an Engineer, I will carefully apply my skills and knowledge for the public good and according to the Golden Rule, our code of ethics.  I will participate in none but honest enterprise and persuade others to accept my professional practice based on these principles.”

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

2
In Canada we have a ritual called the "Calling of the Engineer". It originated in the 1920's and the iron rings worn by most Canadian engineers is part of this ritual. If you know any Canadian engineers look at the little finger of their working hand.

While the ritual is private there is an obligation for adherence to high professional ethics. The ritual is held near the final year of engineering studies and has lots of symbolic signifance.

While the ritual is not the main point the seriousness of the ritual and the voluntary taking of the oath, which is witnessed by the ring does have meaning.



See also www.ironring.ca for more information.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The iron ring thing in Canada is kind of a neat symbol. It's too bad we don't have a symbol like that in the US.

The NSPE (US) has a published Code of Ethics:

http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-code.asp

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

leanne --

We DO have that in the U.S.  Several engineers I know have participated in the Order of the Engineer ceremony and proudly wear the ring as a symbol.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The iron ring sorta reminds me of the Rearden metal bracelet in Atlas Shrugged.

I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

jstickley

Could you tell me more about this Order of the Engineer that you have in the US? Where, how, who is eligile, who sponsors it, etc?

Regards,

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

PM --

Looks like dig1 supplied the link while I was typing my post.

The Order of the Engineer is open to any licensed engineer (or graduate from an ABET accredited engineering school) who is willing to participate in the ceremony, take an oath that basically says that you will practice engineering with integrity, and pay a one-time fee to cover the cost of a certificate and ring.

This is very similar to the ritual held in Canada, but in the U.S. it's a stainless steel ring rather than wrought iron.  As much as I hate to admit it, our friends north of the border started such an organization first (we only lagged behind by 44 years).  

The website has more information, as well as links to local "links" (chapters).

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The ring in Canada I got in 1981 was stainless steel.  I don't think wrought iron has been used for a while, the person administering our 'calling' mentioned they used to be made of iron (and had to be replaced ever so often ) but I got the feeling the changeover was a while before 1981.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

I got mine in 1977 and am still wearing the original.

It's stainless steel, but still called an iron ring.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

I had to replace my first one after a volleyball game.
Unfortunately there is not a prominent knuckle on your pinkie finger to keep it in place.  Glad it is only stainless!

The ring is a great reminder though of all the reasons that I became an engineer.

It is amazing how many of them you start to notice once you know what they mean.

miner

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

I have been practicing engineering for some 15 years and had only heard about The Order of the Engineer through postings on this site.  I will be inducted next month.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

My dad's ring was iron. His first ring (1944, from the scrap of the second collapse of the Quebec River Bridge) corroded off of his finger in 1957. His replacement was also iron, but when he lost that one in 1964, it was replaced with stainless steel. My ring is also stainless (graduated 1975).

I wonder if you guys know why the ring is iron and more importantly why it's worn on the working hand? I've heard some wild explanations over the years that are all wrong.

Regards,

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The original source for the first iron rings was from scrap steel from significant engineering projects of the past, (often associated with fatalities and property damage). The most notable source was the second Quebec River Bridge collapse that killed a number of workers.

The essential point, among others, is that all of an engineers's work is touched by the ring (ie. working hand)which itself includes the remnants of a structure where the engineering was inadequate to prevent fatalities and property damage. This is supposed to be a poignant reminder of the consequences of incompetent professional work.

Regards,

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

A ring for the secret order of the engineer? Sounds like a Tolkein novel. You guys are joking, right?

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.



Umm, nope.  Why do you ask?  Are you not one of the chosen

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The Canadian Iron Ring is NOT a secret order. The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer is however considered a private commitment made by an engineer in front of his or her fellow engineers. Therefore there is a policy of no publicity surrounding the ritual.

I will say, since it was written by Rudyard Kipling, that the ritual is full of symbolic meanings. It simply is a remainder of the higher obligations to public safety mandated by our profession.

Then we all went to the bar.




Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

^
Rick, you said it all!
It is not a secret order, but a private commitment, made in the presence of peers.  Then we all went to the bar.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

The funniest part of it was that we were wearing suits in shall we say not the nicest bar in the city. As the day wore on people drifted away and by 5PM there were only two guys left. One was the quiet unobtrusive type. I actually think this was the first time he ever went into a bar.

As they were leaving, one of the regulars at that particular establishment was walking in, took one look at these two guys wearing suits and said “Think you’re a smart guy with a suit, try this” He took a swing and broke the guys two front teeth. He looked like a hockey player until the dentist was finished.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

I'm willing to bet that any of you who have ever been in the New York CitiCorp Building are awfully glad that Bill LeMeasure was sober and sincere when he made his professional oath. Too bad the designers of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency never held the same committment.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

In Canada we can choose between a wrought iron ring or a stainless steel ring.  My original ring "shrunk" since graduation, even though it was stainless steel, and I had to replace it. At Camp 1, I was given the choice of iron or s.s.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

You are supposed to turn in your iron ring when retiring and it is recycled to a new engineer.  My grandfather has an original ring of iron.  I chose to get a new ring for no particular reason.

Ken

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

does the ring set-off the today's hypersensitive metal detectors at airport security?

do medical systems engineers get a "surgical steel" ear-lobe piercing instead?

hope you enjoyed this "seinfeld" moment... brought to you by a lot of boredom...
cheers

saludos.
a.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

Hi,
there's is no Ring tradition in New Zealand that I know of, although a Canadian mate of mine would be thrilled if we could start one. We get some ethics lectures in amongst the basic-accounting-and-management-practice papers but it's not regarded all that highly amongst my peers, which surely isn't the best start! (although J-I-T and Maslow's theory doesn't score highly either...)

Does anyone in the Australasian region have any precedents? I think I'll be writing to the US/Canadian Order guys as well. Where does one look for iron/stainless rings? Local jeweller/farrier/guy with lathe?

We do however maintain the proud tradition of "we are we are we are we are the engineers" with no tune and plenty of beer, and regular refreshers at our very own campus dive.
I for one wouldn't mind a touch more dignity in there somewhere! :)

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

one drink to cheer them all,
two drinks = no driving,
three drinks to bring them all, and in Shadows-bar we'll find them.
In mechanical engineering, where beer is usually near.

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

sorry, sometimes my cleverness overwhelms me.... delete that if you like. but no making money off it!!

back to the rings :)

RE: Professional Ethics in Engineering

loquax

see www.ironring.ca for a contact list. You may want to contact these people to start your own NZ tradition.

Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

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