OEC

Welcome to the Online Ethics Center (OEC), an electronic repository of resources on science, engineering, and research ethics, for engineers, scientists, scholars, educators, students, and interested citizens. The Center for Engineering, Ethics and Society (CEES) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) manages the OEC.  CEES aims to focus the talents of the nation on addressing the ethical and social dimensions of engineering, as both a profession and an agent of innovation. CEES and the OEC have benefited through generous grants from the National Science Foundation and support from NAE members, in particular Harry E. Bovay Jr. You can read more about the history of the OEC in the About section.

What’s on the OEC?
 

Resources by Type:
 

• Cases and Scenarios for use in classes, seminars, or research 
   
• Ethics Codes and Guidelines from scientific and engineering professional societies
   
• Teaching Tools including Exercises and Assignments, Modules, and Syllabi
   
• Annotated Bibliographies of resources on various topics related to ethics in science and engineering
   
• Evaluation Tools and essays for evaluating the effectiveness of ethics education programs
   
• Education Resources including Mentoring resources, Essays on Ethics Instruction, Guides and Advice for Ethics Instructors, Pre-College Materials for teaching and course planning, and a Glossary of useful definitions in engineering and science ethics

Resources Collections on Topics:
 

• Environment, Safety & Sustainability which also includes focused collections on Climate Change, Engineered Systems and Society and Energy Ethics
   
• Professional Practice that covers a range of engineering disciplines including civil, electrical and biomedical
   
• Employment and Legal Issues that focus on the ethical issues for employees, managers, and organizations
   
• Responsible Research that includes issues of research integrity, treatment of research subjects, and social responsibility
   
• Emerging Technologies that focus generally as well as specifically on Synthetic Biology and Genetic Engineering and Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Computers and Information Technology
   
• Diversity Issues that cover both issues in the workplace and in academia for under-represented groups

Projects by the NAE Center for Engineering, Ethics, and Society (CEES)
 

• Sustainable Cities and Interdisciplinary International Education
   
• Ethics Video Challenge for undergraduate and graduate students
   
• Climate Change Education Partnership on Climate Change, Engineered Systems and Society
   
• Energy Ethics in Science and Engineering Education
   
• Ethical and Societal Implications of Advances in Military Technologies
   
• Past Projects on EthicsCORE, Synthetic Biology, Engineering Ethics Education, Sustainable Community Development, and Emerging Technologies