Throughout my education, we have frequently discussed ethics in the engineering profession. It is essential to follow a Code of Ethics to be moral and prevent harm to others. Engineers make things that many people often use. There is a significant potential for harm if certain things are improper and ethically designed. There are many aspects to be cognizant of to be successful and ethical in your career. To best explain my understanding of ethics, I will give some examples we discussed in class and the discussion around them, give my personal take on handling an ethical situation, and do a deep dive into 3 of the 6 Virtues of Ethics.
In class, we discussed many different ethical situations and discussed with our classmates our differing opinions. The issues that stuck out to me the most were the Volkswagen emissions situation and the Big Data Issue. The Volkswagen emissions issue concerns the scandal around the company’s spoofing of emissions tests. They created and implemented a system to determine if it was being tested and then run in such a way as to produce fewer emissions. When the cars aren’t being driven, they make significantly higher, unregulated emissions. These emission regulations exist to protect people and the environment. By creating this system, they knowingly put people and the environment at risk. The class consensus on this article was that Volkswagen broke multiple of the IEEE code of ethics, and should be severely punished. They knowingly acted in a way that would cause harm to a large number of people, which is inexcusable. This issue was pretty clear-cut, but the next one I will discuss is more nuanced.
The Big Data Issue is about a computer scientist, Marcus, tasked with building a database for workplace injuries to help paramedics respond better. After doing research, they decided on including things like breaks and sprains. Marcus knows this falls under the PII Act and is very careful to ensure no identifying information is in his database. It is a right for people not to have their personal medical information shared without their permission. Marcus’s boss then wants to add needle-stick injuries to the database. He sends Marcus the information, but it includes PII and sensitive attributes. Marcus is now conflicted, as his boss is not correctly handling PII and wants Marcus to include this information in the database. For this example, the consensus was that Marcus is responsible for speaking with his boss about his concerns and trying to prevent as much harm as possible. His boss is not mindful of people’s rights to personal information and is not acting ethically. Marcus needs to convince his boss to behave more ethically, or by doing what his boss says, Marcus will be breaching the Code of Ethics.
I have a reasonably simple way to decide when faced with an ethical situation. I think primarily about the potential for harm. If there is a potential for damage that is known and not addressed, then that would be a breach of ethics. Then, I look for conflicts of interest. This could involve many things, but the common is profits versus delivering a good or safe product. This can be harder to see during the situation, but it often becomes evident in retrospect. I then take everything I learn about the problem and decide if it feels that they acted according to a Code of Ethics.
For the Volkswagen situation, the Virtue of Ethics virtues that were most relevant are 1, 2, and 5. 1 is integrity. It is about having strong moral principles and following an ethical path. VW broke this one by acting in obviously unethical ways. The second one is Honesty. Volkswagen knowingly lied about the emissions of its cars. Beyond that, they implemented a whole system to facilitate that lie. Finally, the fifth one is responsibility. It has to do with accountability and operating with a moral obligation for the good of others. Volkswagen did not want to take accountability for the situation and acted in a way that put others at risk. The other three also relate to this one, but I feel that the 3 I chose are the ones they violated the most.
During the time I’ve been attending Iowa State University, I have taken many classes discussing many subjects. Most of them are related to Computer Engineering in some way, but the general education electives can be whatever subject you choose. These general education electives let me explore subjects I usually wouldn’t study or skills that would be useful as a professional. I also tried to select classes to help me gain a better insight into the world and its people. They allowed me to momentarily step away from engineering and engineers and interact with other majors. The four general education classes that were the most impactful were Introduction to Sociology, Russia Today, Ethnic and Race Relations, and Fundamentals of Public Speaking, which was a transfer credit. These classes taught me valuable things and new perspectives that will help me as a computer engineer.
The first two classes I will discuss are Russia Today (RUS 3750) and Intro to Sociology (Soc 134). I put these two classes together because they served a similar purpose of exposing you to new ideas and concepts to explain societies. RUS 3750 taught me about the history of Russia, starting at the beginning of the USSR’s downfall and going through to the present day. It primarily focused on the effects different decisions had on the citizens and the repercussions they caused. Soc 134 taught me how society works and how various groups experience society differently. These classes taught me how to put myself into someone else’s shoes and perceive a situation from a new perspective. This skill will be instrumental as an engineer for creating products that satisfy user needs. If I can look at the problem from their perspective, I will be able to come up with a solution that solves the problem better. Russia Today is also useful given the current political climate. Russia is a mighty country that one man has completely taken over. Understanding how this happened can help prevent it from happening to another country. Another class that taught me new perspectives was Ethnic and Race Relations.
The class Ethnic and Race Relations (Soc 330) focused on the relations between different races and ethnicities in the United States. The first part of the class taught us about many other concepts and the historical context required to evaluate various forms of ethnic and race relations. This knowledge gives me tools that I can use to help me in the future. Ethics is vital in engineering, and recognizing and correcting racial inequalities will help me be more ethical. For the second part of the class, we would focus on different countries and the ethnic and race relations in each of them. This part gave me practice with evaluating complex, current situations, understanding how they came to be, and potential solutions to the problems. However, finding solutions to problems is useless if you can’t communicate them. That’s where my final general education class comes in handy.
I received a transfer credit for Fundamentals of Public Speaking, as I took it in high school with dual enrollment. It gave me many valuable skills to become a more effective communicator. It went much deeper than just how to speak publicly. Also, it gave a framework for evaluating other people’s arguments for any fallacies they might be using to try and mislead you. These skills are essential not just as an engineer, but also in everyday life. As an engineer, I must effectively communicate my ideas to my colleagues and clients. I could have a great idea, but if I can’t explain it properly, then people aren’t as likely to agree with it. People will often try to mislead you for various reasons and use fallacies to try and convince you. This is true both in the workplace and in society as a whole. I now have a framework and tools to recognize these misleading statements and not allow myself to be swayed by them. Given the ever-increasing amount of misinformation, this will become an invaluable tool.
Throughout my time at ISU, I have taken classes about many different subjects. Most were based on engineering knowledge and principles. Still, the general education classes I discussed helped give me a much broader education and many skills that will be useful in my work and everyday life. These classes gave me many tools, from putting myself in other people’s shoes and recognizing the underlying problems to properly communicating my ideas. I will surely come to rely on the skills learned in my general education classes to be successful.
Cumulative Reflection Essay
I enrolled at Iowa State University in fall of 2025 as a computer engineering major. Through my time at ISU, I have learned and changed many different things in the classroom and on my own. One of the most important things I’ve learned is how to think like an engineer and approach the design process for software and hardware. These are just a few of the aspects of my education at Iowa State that will help me professionally and personally.
Many of the classes I took at Iowa State were related to my major or a subject adjacent to it. My general education classes allowed me to explore different aspects of society and global issues. Sociology 134 taught me how people think and why societies look like they do. This class gave me a better understanding of other people and will let me understand the problems users are experiencing. I’m currently in a Software Project Management class, which focuses on the software engineering economics of developing a project with a budget in mind. This will be useful as an engineer to ensure that the project I am working on will be worth the time and money put into it. The class Ethnic and Race Relations gave me a global perspective of different problems that societies face regarding the interactions between different groups of people. This international perspective helped shape how I look at problems facing the United States and the world. One of the other beneficial things that I learned at ISU is engineering ethics. These guidelines are essential to follow. They focus on not harming people or misleading, but it also applies to the environment. One of the situations that I evaluated for their ethics was the Volkswagen emissions test spoofing. They broke many of the Virtues of Ethics by developing a system that would spoof the results of emissions tests. This had a significant negative impact on the environment and society. These classes taught me various skills and knowledge to apply to multiple situations. Many of these skills came in handy with the different projects I completed at Iowa State.
There have been many different projects that I have completed for classes at ISU. One such project I enjoyed was the MIPS Processor we made in CPRE 381. We were tasked with incrementally creating a working MIPS processor in VHDL. The class did an excellent job teaching us the concepts behind creating a processor, but it was up to us to make one. I was in charge of integration and debugging, which meant I had to do a lot of the design and implementation and solve engineering problems. One such problem was implementing the pipelines for the multi-cycle processor. I first had to sit down and plan out every command that needed a pipeline, and how to get the data where it is required. I sketched how everything should be connected. Once I had a decent plan, I started implementing the pipelines, using muxes and gates to check if the pipeline value should be used instead of the register value. Once the pipelines were implemented, I had to solve the many problems that started popping up. I would have to read the waveforms and trace the errant signal through the different components to find where it messed up. I had a lot of help from lab TAs to figure out the root cause. When even they couldn’t solve it, I went back to the basics and sought further information about VHDL and processors. This took a lot of problem-solving to get it to work right.
Another project that took a lot of problem-solving was for ComS 309, which was the app Sorry! Online. I was a frontend developer, and much of the lecture was about the backend. This meant that to implement the different features we needed, I had to do a lot of problem-solving and use many external resources. One of the big problems I faced was implementing the game logic and graphics, as they are relatively complex and dissimilar from the example apps we were given. I used the Android Developers API reference site often to figure things out. This taught me that a FrameView would let me implement the graphics, as well as how to move the pieces around the board. I also used office hours a few times to get help when I didn’t know how to make something work right. This act of seeking out learning opportunities outside of the classroom and my awareness of them brings me to my next point.
I did not participate in as many extracurricular activities as I should have. I lived about 35 minutes away from campus until my senior year. By the time classes were done, it was already getting late, and I had to drive home. I did participate in some opportunities, such as the career fairs. I’ve visited them several times to speak with interviewers and learn more about the industry. Now that I live in Ames, I am beginning to participate in more opportunities. I have taken the lead on hardware design for my senior project and used it as an opportunity to learn much from our TA and others about hardware design. I will also sign up for makerspaces for hands-on experience with different machines and technologies. This senior design project has also cemented the concept that I need to continuously learn new things to make me a more rounded engineer. I must find opportunities to learn and apply my learning to keep growing. The more technologies and concepts I can understand, the more likely I will succeed.
In conclusion, my time at Iowa State has taught me many things that will be essential to my success. I was exposed to various courses and subjects that taught me about many different situations. My classes taught me how to design a system and recognize and solve engineering problems. I became good at learning from external sources to aid me in my classwork. There were a lot of learning activities available outside of the classroom, and I should use them more. Finally, I realized that I need to constantly be learning new things to be able to solve novel problems and become successful. This knowledge, experience, and new mindset will help me become a computer engineer.