Overview

What would you do when faced with an ethical dilemma? Join us to explore real-world engineering ethics, from traditional challenges to the growing impact of data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

This webinar will look at ethical issues engineers face in today's global economy, how things have changed over the last few years, and what this means for the future of engineering. Whether you are an experienced professional, recent graduate, or student engineer on an accredited course, you will have covered some ethics in your courses and have had some experiences dealing with real-life situations that called for decisions with challenging ethical aspects.

We shall look at examples based on situations the speaker faced in her career and ask us to think about ethical issues you could potentially face. We shall consider several examples for the audience to think about and discuss, ranging from "traditional" examples that chemical engineers face, all the way to examples around data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Lastly we will consider the significant issues and requirements for leaders and organisations.

Speakers

Joan Cordiner, Head of the School of Chemical, Materials and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield

Joan is a Professor in Process Engineering and External Engagement, and she is the Head of the School of Chemical Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. She moved to academia after more than 30 years in the chemical industry where she got a wealth of experience in leadership, active ingredient process design, complex process modelling, physical property prediction, formulation engineering, process safety, global business risk management and building relationships between academia and industry.

She is an energetic and goal driven leader of large change projects both organisational and technical, with the ability to initiate and manage research programmes, develop and apply complex science to solve industrial problems. Her main research interests are complex process modelling mechanistic and machine learning across chemical, pharma, process safety including hydrogen and mRNA vaccines.

Outside of her academic role, Joan is the Vice President and Fellow of IChemE, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Fellow of the AIChE, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Eleni Routoula, University Teacher, University of Sheffield

Eleni is a University Teacher at the School of Chemical Materials and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Her role, besides teaching in chemical engineering, is around the development of professional skills, engagement with employers, and creation of opportunities for students to gain exposure to work environments.

She leads the school-funded Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship scheme offering summer research experience to UG students, and she is the Head of Delivery for the Sheffield Engineering Leadership and Service Award - a programme open to all engineering students across the Faculty.

Her scholarship activities around engineering education focus on employability, digital skills in the curriculum, and critical thinking in the era of GenAI.

The material presented has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter's own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE or the Sheffield Member Group. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Time

12:00–13:00 GMT.

Software

The presentation will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. We recommend downloading the app from the Microsoft website, rather than using the web portal.