Florida Universities Use Grant to Teach Ethics to Engineering Students

LAKELAND -- A state university gets money from the feds to do research on ethics in engineering.

The National Science Foundation is giving $600 thousand to Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland to create a methodology to teach ethics to students in the engineering field. It's the largest NSF grant in the history of the young institution, which welcomed its first class in 2014.

Professor Grisselle Centeno says they'll use the money to research how students apply moral principles on campus... and in the real world when they graduate. Dr. Centeno says technical training is useless if students behave unethically.

Centeno says engineers have a unique challenge because their obligations are ultimately to the public as a whole, as opposed to the client relationship for a lawyer and the patient relationship for a doctor.

Centeno is working with professors at the University of South Florida and other institutions. The goal is to develop a way to teach ethics at engineering schools across the nation. They'll engage with Florida Poly students through internships, which are mandatory there.

Hear an interview with Dr. Centeno in our Beyond the News podcast.


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