LAPELS-CPD Requirements for Professionalism and Ethics
Since 1999, LAPELS has required Continuing Professional Development credits for professional engineers registered in Louisiana. Each registered engineer is required to complete 30 PDH (essentially 30 contact hours of Professional Development) every two years, including at least one PDH covering "Professional ethics". (See Detailed LAPELS CPD requirements).
My short course, "Ethics for the Practicing Engineer" is an 8 Professional Development Hour course in engineering, professionalism, and ethics for engineers. This course is designed to meet the LAPELS requirements and is pre-approved by LAPELS. Participants receive a certificate showing completion of 8 PDH of Continuing Professional Development, as well as the 1 required PDH in professional ethics.
This CPD course has grown out of a required 3 credit hour undergraduate course required of all undergraduate engineering students at Texas A&M University. For more information about the 3-hr university credit course at Texas A&M, and for other Engineering Ethics resources, please see my home page at Texas A&M University.
Instructor:
RAY W. JAMES, P.E., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director of Student Services, Department
of Civil Engineering
Manager, Major Highway Structures Program, Texas Transportation Institute
Fellow, ASCE (more information)
Ethics for the Practicing Engineer—a one-day CPD course in Engineering & Ethics
The very positive public perception of engineers, particularly licensed professional engineers, contrasts with the public’s tarnished perception of the medical and especially the legal professions. The fact that engineering is held in better favor can be attributed largely to the high ethical standards set by engineers within their own profession. The growing trend of required continuing education, often including requirements for education in engineering ethics, is one indication of the position taken by the profession.
This short course, developed from a very successful course now required of all engineering undergraduate students at Texas A&M University, provides the practicing professional engineer or EIT with an overview of the legal and moral responsibilities of the engineering profession, an understanding of the nature of ethical conflicts that can confront an engineer in practice, and a methodical approach to classifying and resolving such ethical conflicts. These concepts are highlighted by several case studies.
Course Highlights:
Overview of the legal responsibilities of engineers
Laws concerning engineering registration and ethical responsibilities
Moral responsibilities of engineers
Introduction to methods to identify, classify, analyze, and resolve ethical conflicts
Course principles highlighted with case studies
Some of the Illustrative Case Studies Discussed:
Disaster averted--William LeMessurier and the CitiCorp Center
Roger Boisjoly and Morton Thiokol--their role in the loss of the Shuttle Challenger
Engineering responsibilities--the collapse of the Missouri City antenna tower
What price to put on pain--Ford Motor Co. and the Pinto
Responsible Charge--Ed Turner, P.E., and the City of Idaho Falls
Scientific integrity--The A7 Aircraft Brake scandal
Future Offerings:
Baton Rouge Holiday Inn South 5 December 2003 Registration Form
Houston (tbd) February 2004 (pending)
New Orleans (tbd) April 2004 (pending)
More details about exact dates and times will be posted here. For information about these or future offerings, please contact me at r-james@tamu.edu.
To make special arrangements for this course to be offered to several engineers in your office on your schedule, allowing your staff to satisfy their LAPELS CPD requirements in a time-efficient and cost-effective way, please contact me at r-james@tamu.edu, or by phone (979) 845-2475 (day), 979-693-3507 (evenings).