As corporate development and production sites are deployed overseas in response to the globalization of society, we need to be sufficiently aware of the fact that serious problems stem from a lack of the proper understanding of how values and how the roles of and decision-making approaches undertaken by scientists and engineers in society differ among countries and cultural spheres. Furthermore, there are plenty of examples in which a lack of ethical awareness on the part of managers at a company negatively affects the ethical judgment of on-site engineers, thereby giving rise to societal problems. This indicates a need to incorporate perspectives on business ethics into science and engineering ethics education.

Up to now, we have sought to merge engineering education as it relates to project design, a PBL-type educational program forming the primary pillar of our educational system, with science and engineering ethics education. We will expand this into new design thinking and incorporate it into research accordingly.

In this day and age, when innovations are emerging fast and furious in all sorts of scientific and engineering-related fields, such as fields in which AI and Big Data are being used, automated driving technologies, and biotechnology, scientists and engineers need to understand the roots and essence of science and engineering in order properly foresee, understand, and make judgments about the ethical issues posed by new manifestations of science and engineering.

For this project, we will conduct research on the following research issues in connection with science and engineering ethics in response to the aforementioned matters in collaboration with internal and external organizations and institutions, including the Applied Ethics Center for Engineering and Science.

We will commence without delay research activities concerning the four issues above through the Applied EthicsCenter for Engineering and Science, the primary entity spearheading this project. We will undertake aninvestigation into the specific contents of a branding strategy to be communicated to stakeholders and theparticulars concerning the means by which these contents will be communicated. We will pursue thedevelopment of a system that is inclusive of a PDCA cycle by establishing a promotion committee dealing withmatters concerning research activities and our branding strategy.

① Research on science and engineering ethics in our global society

② Research on integrating business ethics with engineering ethics

③ Research on science and engineering ethics education in the context of engineering education

④ Research on science and engineering ethics education as framed in the context of the history of science and history of technology

• We will establish a Committee for Promoting Research on Science and Engineering Ethics (tentatively named) and look into a basic policy on the specific method by which we will convey and highlight our brand to stakeholders.
• Posting to our homepage(We will look into launching a dedicated website for our branding project)
• Producing a pamphlet(We will produce a new pamphlet to disseminate our brand)
• We will hold evaluation committee meetings (end of March to May).
• Holding a laboratory-hosted symposium: Project activities will be introduced to parties within the university and outside parties.

A promoter of this project stayed as a visiting instructor at MJIIT from August 2017 (for a term of one year). During this period, he administered a questionnaire survey to MJIIT students, developed educational materials based on Asian and Islamic societal contexts, and investigated the effectiveness of these materials as educational materials by actually using them in classes held at MJIIT (and received scientific research grant JP15KK0102 at the time of his research).

BERC-KIT Open Seminars came to be held three to four times a year in collaboration with BERC beginning in academic year 2018. Researchers belonging to British and Dutch universities were visited and convinced to participate as speakers.

Upon surveying the current state of our micro-insertion-based science and engineering ethics education, which we have been actively adopting and promoting to date, it was revealed that university-wide initiatives remain inadequate. On the other hand, this survey indicated that it was possible to establish links with SDGs education, which we have been promoting.

We delivered lectures on a historical analysis of dual-use technology-development policies and submitted two papers containing the contents of this analysis and research on British energy discussions to academic journals (currently under review). The results of research on a comparison of electrical engineering education between Japan and the United States will be released at the end of May 2018. We aim to publish these research results in books as part of our branding project.

rare books scanner, rapid prototyping machine

Homepage production, pamphlet drafting, costs of publicizing the symposium

Making research arrangements/information-gathering and travel costs, costs to invite third-party evaluation committee members and provide them with monetary compensation