We Are 3000 Years Behind: Let's Talk About Engineering Ethics

1:00pm - 1:30pm on Saturday, October 6 in PennTop South

Hayley Denbraver

Audience Level:

All

Slides:

https://bit.ly/2Q0wjxF

Watch:

https://youtu.be/ebDV8QOEmbE

Overview

I am a former civil engineer turned software developer who will take the audience through how civil engineers developed their code of ethics. It has been a work in progress for over 3000 years! This talk will explore how software developers could approach engineering ethics and why we should.

Description

Your apartment building where you wake up. The water you drink. The car you drive. The road on which you drive.

In the first hour of your day, you rely on the work of several distinct branches of engineering, whose practitioners are licensed and accountable to the public.

In the second hour of your day, you may sit down at your desk to write code that dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people interact with in some way–but what do they know about you, your intentions, and your training?

A licensed Civil Engineer turned software developer will talk through how her former field approached ethics–something they have been iterating on for more than 3000 years. She will discuss how lessons learned from other engineering professions could apply to software, and where our industry may need a new approach to ethics.