How Students Think about the Roles and Responsibilities of Scientists and Engineers with Respect to Broader Social and Global Impact of Science and Engineering

As part of their jobs, professional engineers and scientists engage in ethical, environmental, social, and economic negotiations with other engineers/scientists, with managers, and with the public; and they need to understand the social impact of new technologies in a global context. However, courses in ethics for scientists/engineers often emphasize the micro-ethics of research, mentoring, and publications. Research and curriculum is limited on how future engineers/scientists understand the social, ethical, environmental, economic, and political impact of their scientific and technological contributions. In this manuscript, we present 3 case-study accounts of how students think about a(n) scientist's/engineer’s responsibility towards the social and global impact of their contribution. The case studies draw from video-taped semi-structured interviews. Our case-study analysis suggests that how some engineering/science students construe their responsibility depends on the particular issue at hand (weaponized drones versus malfunctioning bridges, for example), on their sense of self as a future engineer, views about what is engineering, sense of nationality, emotions, empathy, and ideologies/narratives available to them through participation in the world at large.