In this case study a professional engineer must give advice to a friend about whether or not they should install a smart meter. It addresses issues of ethical and environmental responsibility as well as public policy, financial burdens and data privacy, and helps to uncover values that underlie assumptions that people hold about the environment and its connection to human life and services. It also highlights the way that those values inform everyday decision-making.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
With over 60,000 views to date (as of April 2025), it’s not surprising that awareness of the Ethics Toolkit is growing. This has also been boosted by academics and advocates including the Toolkit in their events and talks.
In the last few months, the Ethics Toolkit has been featured at recent events both home and abroad:
July 2025
The Engineering Ethics Toolkit was promoted at the Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning of the University of Eduardo Mondlane, in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 29th 2025, by Dr Manuela Rosa, Professor at the University of Algarve, in her presentation “Sustainable and Resilient Cities”.
June 2025
The Ethics Toolkit was promoted at a stand at the EAN Annual Congress and was very popular, with lots of academics talking to Toolkits project manager Dr. Sarah Jayne Hitt about how they can get involved, and lots of Ethics business cards being handed out!
At the 2nd International Congress on Public Administration in 2024, held at Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul in Campo Grande, Brazil, the 13th-16th November, Dr Manuela Rosa, Professor at University of Algarve and EPC Ethics Ambassador, promoted the Sustainability Toolkit in her presentation “Resilience and Territorial Sustainability”.
November 2024
Ethics Toolkit project manager Dr Sarah Jayne Hitt promoted the Ethics Toolkit in her keynote speech at INCOSE UK’s ASEC2024 conference, held in Edinburgh, 5 – 6th November 2024.
Ethics Toolkit project manager Dr. Sarah Jayne Hitt chaired a panel on ‘Ethical Practice – What, Why and How?’ at the Hazards Forum in Manchester on 4th November, and promoted the Engineering Ethics Toolkit to audience members from academia and industry.
October 2024
At the 24th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, held at ISCTE in Lisbon, Portugal, 14th-18th October, Dr Manuela Rosa, Professor at the University of Algarve, and Ethics Ambassador for the EPC, promoted the Engineering Ethics Toolkit in her presentation “Layouts of pedestrian crossings for inclusive and age friendly society”.
July 2024
As academics know, it’s been “conference season” recently, with the usual rush of meetings and symposia and events that mark the beginning of summer. We’re pleased that the Engineering Ethics Toolkit has been featured at several of these, both home and abroad:
At the SEFI Spring School, held at TU Berlin the 10th – 12th April, the SEFI Ethics and Sustainability Special Interest Groups convened to consider “Democracy in Engineering Education”, and the Ethics Toolkit was featured in a workshop on the knowledge, skills, and mindsets of engineering educators.
At the EPC Annual Congress, held at Cardiff University the 9th-11th June, the Facial Recognition case study was mentioned during conversations about AI Ethics, and the Constructive Alignment tool was showcased as a way to plan for weaving ethics into almost any learning outcome.
At the UK and Ireland Engineering Education Research Network Annual Symposium, held at Ulster University in Belfast the 17th – 18th June, the Guidance Articles were presented as a great place to get started in learning more about teaching engineering ethics.
At the American Society of Engineering Education conference, held in Portland, Oregon the 23rd-27th June, Sarah Jayne Hitt presented an impact study that she and Sarah Junaid conducted on use of the Ethics Toolkit, featuring both website data analytics as well as information from user interviews.
Between February 2022 and April 2025 the Ethics Toolkit has had over 60,000 views, so we know you’re looking at it, but we also want to know about where you’re talking about the Ethics Toolkit! Have you featured a resource in a conference presentation or meeting? Tell us about how the resources have helped you over the past year—we’d love to feature your story.
We are seeking academics and other engineering professionals to review the various case studies, enhancements, guidance articles and other resources that are submitted to us for publication within the Engineering Ethics Toolkit.
You can read our current Guidance for Reviewers document here.
What you can expect as an Engineering Ethics Toolkit content reviewer:
That we will treat you as the professional and subject matter expert that you are.
That we will not ask you to review an unreasonable amount of content (our expectation is that this will not exceed two or three pieces of content per year).
That we will be clear about your assignments and deadlines.
That, once you have completed your first review assignment, we will recognise your academic citizenship by adding your bio and photo to our Contributors page.
What we expect from you:
That you will act professionally within this role and bring your expertise to the table when reviewing content.
That you will follow the applicable reviewer guidance document(s).
That you will ask us for support if you feel that the content of the review assignment exceeds your expertise.
That you will abide by any applicable rules, regulations or laws, including those regarding privacy and data protection.
That you will maintain confidentiality about the content of the review assignment until it is published.
That you will work to agreed deadlines once you have accepted a review assignment.
You’re an engineering student on an industrial placement year at a company that manufactures cosmetics. The company is involved in a big project that focuses on alternative, more environmentally friendly cosmetic chemistries. You notice that a batch of products might have been contaminated with microplastics. You flag this up to your supervisor but they wave your concerns away. What do you do?
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
“Consideration needs to be given to improving our students’ ethical learning throughout their course or programme. We argue that ethics can and should be embedded into most modules in a natural way, giving as much or as little time to it as necessary. A more sophisticated understanding will be arrived at over time by exposing learners to more and more complex cases where the outcome is not obvious. A graduate engineer should be able to give a considered response to an employer’s question about an ethical position during an interview.”
This article should be read by educators at all levels in higher education who wish to integrate ethics into the engineering and design curriculum or module design. It will also help prepare students with the integrated skill sets that employers are looking for.
We have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you as you expand your understanding of engineering ethics, and begin to embed it within the curriculum, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started. We also have a library of case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here
“There are three lenses that we can use when thinking about ethics within Engineering: Professional, Theoretical, and Practical.”
This article should be read by educators at all levels in higher education who wish to better understand ethics and its connection to engineering education. It will also be useful for students who are being introduced to the topic.
We have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you as you expand your understanding of engineering ethics, and begin to embed it within the curriculum, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started. We also have a library of case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
You have been selected as the Lead Engineer in a project to provide a bespoke design unmanned air vehicle to India. You identify some potential risk factors that could indicate your contractor is using forced labour in its workforce. What do you do?
We’ve provided this, and other case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching. We also have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you in your teaching, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
We’re always pleased to see the #EngineeringEthicsToolkit featured in news articles, blogs, podcasts etc., and we’ll be keeping track of those mentions here.
This guidance article should be read by educators at all levels in higher education who wish to integrate ethics into the engineering and design curriculum, or into module design and learning activities.
We have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you as you expand your understanding of engineering ethics, and begin to embed it within the curriculum, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started. We also have a library of case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
You are an early career engineer working in the civil nuclear industry for Ultra Nuclear. Your manager has assigned your first major project which involves making the plans for the development of a new power plant. To complete your project successfully, you are expected to ensure community approval for the new nuclear power plant. How will you go about this?
This case study asks students to identify and define an open-ended problem in engineering and develop a socially acceptable solution, and addresses AHEP 4 themes.
We’ve provided this, and other case studies, for you to use and adapt in your teaching. We also have a growing library of guidance articles available to support you in your teaching, and an Ethics Explorer to get you started.
Want to contribute your own content to the Ethics Toolkit? Get involved here.
Our original Engineering Ethics Toolkit case study Choosing to install a smart meter is an example of ‘everyday ethics’.
At the 24th International Walk21 Conference on Walking and Liveable Communities, held at ISCTE in Lisbon, Portugal, 14th-18th October, Dr Manuela Rosa, Professor at the University of Algarve, and Ethics Ambassador for the EPC, promoted the 
We are seeking academics and other engineering professionals to review the various case studies, enhancements, guidance articles and other resources that are submitted to us for publication within the 
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