PE Ethics Workshop

Upcoming dates (1)

Dec. 5, 2025

Online

Course Overview

Engineers often face subtle yet significant ethical challenges in their professional roles—especially when balancing business pressures with public trust. This workshop dives into common conflict-of-interest scenarios, such as dual employment, financial entanglements, and misuse of privileged information. Participants will explore how professional codes of ethics can guide decision-making and how perceptions of ethical behavior can differ between sectors.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and analyze common conflicts of interest in engineering and technical professions.
  • Apply professional codes of ethics to real-world dilemmas and evaluate appropriate responses.
  • Understand how ethical behavior is perceived differently in public versus private sector environments.

Who Should Attend?

  • Licensed Professional Engineers seeking to meet ethics training requirements.
  • Architects and technical professionals involved in procurement, contracting, or project oversight.
  • Public and private sector professionals navigating complex stakeholder relationships.

Course Outline

During this ethics workshop you will:

  • Discuss a range of common conflicts of interest that professionals may encounter in their roles
  • Explore the importance of recognizing these potential conflicts and how they may be perceived differently by private and public sector firms
  • Examine professional codes of ethics and how these guiding documents provide greater clarity when facing ethical dilemmas
  • Evaluate real case examples of ethics problems

Instructor

Laura Grossenbacher

Laura Grossenbacher, PhD, is the Director of the Technical Communication Program in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been teaching courses in engineering communication for over twenty years. Dr. Grossenbacher has been an active member of the Association for Practical and Profession Ethics, serving as a judge at the National Ethics Bowl Intercollegiate Competition for several years. She has served a three-year rotation as an NSF proposal reviewer for the Ethics in Engineering and Science Education panel, and actively develops cases for her undergraduate capstone course, Contemporary Issues in International Engineering.

Upcoming dates (1)

Program Director

Joy Altwies

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