2016 EngineerGirl Essay Contest: Responsible Engineering

Nicole Flores
Nicole Flores

PostedNovember 3, 2015

2016 EngineerGirl Essay Contest: Responsible Engineering

Engineers often make challenging decisions that often affect thousands of people. To help them to make good decisions, many engineering organizations have created guidelines for professional behavior or "codes of ethics".

Most engineering codes of ethics state that engineers must consider the safety, health, and general well-being of the people that are or may be affected by their work. Many of these codes also state that engineers must also consider how their work can sustainably protect the environment.

This means that public safety, health, and well-being, and environmental sustainability are primary concerns for engineers.

To enter the contest:

Imagine yourself as an engineer working on a promising new technology. You may want to consider some of the technologies currently being developed to address one of the NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering.

Write an essay briefly describing the technology and what improvements you think it can provide in at least one of the four main areas of engineering responsibility:

  •    Safety
  •    Health
  •    Well-being, and
  •    Environmental sustainability

Discuss any challenges to safety, health, well-being, and sustainability that this technology might present, and describe what you, as an engineer, would do or consider to be sure that your responsibilities are fully addressed.

The contest is open to individual girls and boys in the following three competition categories:

  •     Elementary School Students (grades 3-5); Essays must be 400 to 700 words.
  •     Middle School Students in (grades 6-8); Essays must be 600 to 1100 words.
  •     High School Students (grades 9-12); Essays must be 1000 to 1500 words.

Full contst details and essay requirements are available on the EngineerGirl website! Essays should be sumitted through the site's online submission form February 1, 2016 at 6:00 pm EST.