Make A Difference

Last week I asked what you imagine your obligation is to society.  I was pleased that no one challenged the premise of the question, which is that an engineer has an obligation to society.  Long gone are the days when an engineer’s professional obligation was simply to provide technical expertise to a company in exchange for a paycheck.   

The collaborative creation of new things that give us better ways to accomplish fundamental tasks – from providing basic nutrition, to providing aesthetic stimuli, to stretching our minds into new realms – has long been the defining human characteristic.  As much of this work has become professionalized as “engineering,” and made more powerful through this systemization and through a synergy with science and mathematical reasoning, it has become clear that the collective impact of engineering is as important in defining culture as is art.

Standard engineering ethics lays out the case that the negative impact of careless technological practice compels engineers to consider their obligation to safety. This is an important social contract, but it is not the only one. 

Engineering drives our economic engine and provides for human needs.  Engineering creates artifacts – products, technologies, networks – that shape the very way we live.  It is this power of our profession for impact that generates the tremendous social obligation compelling us to think carefully how our work will change the world.  Even though we cannot see all ends, we cannot fail to look and consider what the ends might be.  The primary driver for all our work must be an expectation of a positive impact on human well-being.  This pact to make a positive difference is our fundamental obligation.


This saturday is commencement at the University of Michigan.  I hope our students are thinking, "I will make a difference."