- Information
- AI Chat
Was this document helpful?
Summary of code of ethics of American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Course: Engineering And Society (EGR 602)
5 Documents
Students shared 5 documents in this course
University: Grand Valley State University
Was this document helpful?
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is a not-for-profit membership organization
that promotes collaboration, knowledge sharing, career improvement, and skill development. This helps
the engineering community create better lives and livelihoods. According to ASME’s code of ethics, to
become a professional engineer, each member is required professional practice following the code of
ethics of engineers.
The ASME code of ethics includes three fundamental principles and ten fundamental canons.
Three fundamental principles mentioned that engineers ought to use their knowledge and skill for the
enhancement of human welfare, and to strive to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering
profession. Moreover, engineers must be honest, impartial, and loyal to their clients, employers, and
public. Following these principles are ten fundamental canons whose basic idea is that engineers shall
hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public. In addition, engineers shall perform services
only in the areas of their competence to improve their professional reputation, and promote their
professional development as well as the competent and ethical development of their subordinate
engineers. Furthermore, engineers shall not only act as faithful agents and trustees to avoid conflict of
interest, but also respect the intellectual property rights of others. Additionally, engineers shall protect
their profession by associating only with reputable organizations, keeping truthful manner, and avoiding
discredit conduct. Engineers also shall consider sustainable development. Finally, engineers must follow
the law and disclose any acts that violate the law.
There are some different engineering societies that have same ideas as ASME in their code of
ethics such as Institute of Industrial and System Engineers (IISE) and Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor
Society. Compared to ASME’s code of ethics, IISE’s code of ethics and Tau Beta Pi’s code of ethics have
the same fundamental principles and fundamental canons. However, IISE’s code of ethics does not
mention the respecting proprietary information, considering sustainable development, and following the
law. Like IISE’s code of ethics, Tau Beta Pi’s code of ethics does not mention about the respecting the
intellectual property rights, abiding the law, and considering environmental impact.
First, in my opinion, code of ethics developed by IISE does not talk about respecting propriety
information as that developed by ASME because industrial and system engineers’ main duties are usually
solving problems on the factory’s floor and they usually deal with people mostly inside their company.
However, mechanical engineers tend to work more with clients from outside their companies, which
means that intellectual property rights are important to them. Second, sustainable development and
consideration of the environment are mentioned in ASME’s code of ethics instead of IISE’s one because
mechanical engineers work more with materials and sustainable issues, while industrial and system
engineers work more with machine operation and manufacturing method. Third, IISE’s code of ethics
does not mention following constitution law because the society might assume that following constitution
law is the part of their fundamental principles that requires engineers to uphold and advance the integrity,
honor and dignity of the engineering profession. Moreover, from my point of view, Tau Beta Pi is the only
engineering honor society representing the entire engineering profession, so Tau Beta Pi’s code of ethics
is based on several common codes of ethics from other engineering society. Consequently, Tau Beta Pi’s
code of ethics does not bring up the code about intellectual information, constitution law, and sustainable
development as ASME’s code of ethics.
To sum up, there are many different professional engineering societies that have different codes
of ethics. Despite the differences, their codes of ethics always focus on advancing the knowledge,
understanding, collaboration, and practice of engineering to assist engineering community in the task of
bettering people’s lives every day.
1
