Programme / Ethical Challenges in Engineering and Technology

This Workshop will address current issues and ethical challenges arising from the rapid advances in technology. Reporting on major initiatives taken by the IEEE, leading engineers from the IEEE, with their wealth of experience, will share their views and seek answers to current problems ranging from the rise of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence to emerging issues related to the development of standards supporting ethical design.

Headquartered in New York, the IEEE is the world’s largest organisation of professional engineers, with over 430,000 members in some 160 countries. The IEEE publishes over 30% of the world’s technical archival literature, and annually sponsors over 1600 conferences world-wide.  Key strengths of the IEEE include its work on Standards. The IEEE Standards Association (SA) promotes innovation and drives the functionality, capabilities and interoperability of a wide range of products and services that transforms people’s lives. IEEE SA has developed over 1000 global standards in a broad range of industries. e.g. most of the technical standards for mobile phones and mobile communications technology belong to the and IEEE.

IEEE SA has established the IEEE Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems, with more than 2000 experts from all over the world, covering engineering, law, science, economics, ethics, philosophy, politics, and health.  

The Global Initiative has produced comprehensive guidelines on ‘Ethically Aligned Design’ which is of great relevance to practicing engineers and inspired the launching of a new series of closely related standardization projects.

Through a series of panel presentations, followed by break-out sessions, the Workshop will engage the attendees in exploring the challenges of Ethics in Engineering in the light of emerging developments in technology. The Session will be open to all, with sufficient time for an open discussion and contributions from the floor.