1. 2016 ASCE DANIEL W. MEAD ESSAY
by
Iseunifeoluwa Akinkugbe
Penn State Harrisburg ASCE Chapter

2. Engineers are trained to make global impacts. They are the professional agents that initiate
development and technological advancement in today’s society. With the world now in need
of more Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) professionals, Engineers are
regularly finding themselves collaborating with their international colleagues on world-wide
projects. Because of this collaboration, engineers today can meet the required design
guidelines outside his local environment while ensuring their ethics stay true to both their
profession and overall project. The ethics that must be followed lies with the design practices
and standards of the host nation, the engineer’s conduct and behaviour, the goals of the
foreign corporation they are working for and the construction culture of the region.
Across the globe, different continents have been able to formally settle upon a set of design
precepts and tenets they feel is best suited to their own environment. One example of these
are the Eurocodes. Established by the European Commission for Standardization, these 10
principles of engineering design were created to bring a competitive mood among European
countries and to help boost economic trade in the construction sector. The first Eurocodes
were published in 1984 and have since evolved into well detailed and useful, informative
references for diverse design concepts; from concrete designs (EN 1992), to steel (EN 1993)
to geotechnical designs (EN 1997) and even earthquake resisting structures (EN 1998) (Joint
Research Centre, 2016). They have helped advance safety and innovation in the EU and have
even been applied in other continents (European Commission, 2016).
Now comparing the Eurocode standards with the American practices, more specifically in
the area of concrete design shows subtle differences; In the United States, concrete design
follows the Load and Resistance Factor Design, LRFD. The Eurocode also uses this design
format, except it considers heavily the properties of the sample like its compressive strength,
fire-resistance, thermal mass and others that lead to a more “conservative” reading for the
transferred strand length in pre-stressed concrete construction (Marti-Vargas & Hale, 2013).
A structural engineer might be willing to disregard the properties of the concrete sample but
this can be risky especially as concrete behaves differently in various climates and weather
conditions. The engineer on record must be able to adopt these practices when deciding what
factors are worth considering in the calculation to ensure that the host nation’s standard
procedures are followed. This will ensure that his ethical obligations have fully been satisfied
because it avoids the risk of skipping important details and procedures.

3. Everybody has a motive when trying to do a task or when they take up a challenge, An
engineer’s motives should seamlessly align with the fundamental canons of the ASCE;
holding paramount the safety of the public, promoting their professional profiles on merit,
enhancing the moral standards of the profession, among others (ASCE, 2004). When working
abroad, these same principles should still be at the forefront of the engineer’s thoughts
because they are not only an ambassador for their profession, but also an ambassador for their
country. In Charles E. Harris Jr’s article ‘Internationalizing Professional codes in
Engineering,’ he puts forward the term “culture transcending guidelines” to describe those
vices which are the plague of the professional world but could be prevalent in the foreign
society where the work is being done; these include exploitation, bribery, unfit working
conditions, even destruction of human rights as well as others (Harris, 2004). It is interesting
to note that all these unethical behaviours are very much the antithesis of the fundamental
canons of the ASCE, as discussed above. Being able to stay clear of these wrongful acts
could help push the engineer towards a positive outcome with regards to the project and also
endear themselves to the members of the host nation. It will allow the engineer to represent
their profession with dignity and integrity, while at the same time boosting the economy and
promoting the welfare of the society they are serving. This should form a stronger bond
between two cultures and ensure future trading interactions between both countries.
As a pivotal component of the construction process, the host nation’s firm should hold the
engineer accountable for any of his actions that could influence the destiny of the project,
however, the firm also has obligations to the engineer to help make an honest working
environment. One of these obligations is too effectively inform the engineer of the required
design specifications as well as any major structural calculations that are mandatory. If the
engineer requires a “regional-specific” piece of data then the firm should be willing to do that
because the engineer needs to be kept updated on any unique building codes which may not
be common practice globally. Also, the firm should provide the engineer with the needed
machinery, manual labour as well as financial resources in order for him to meet the project’s
goals. But most importantly, the corporation should not force the engineer to prioritize profit
and cost-cutting over the safety of the public. Indeed, this is the most unethical action they
could do because it goes against the number one canon in the ASCE code of ethics; to ensure
the safety, health and well-being of society (ASCE, 2006).
If an engineer is called upon to oversee a new project outside his country, then special
attention needs to be paid to the construction behaviour/culture of that region. Construction

4. culture consists of the habits and norms that most contractors of that country follow during
construction. An engineer who finds him or herself working at the international level will
need to adapt and become quickly accustomed to the new design regimes of the community.
As mentioned in J.K Yates’ book “Global Engineering and Construction:” “Engineers tend
to create designs that are familiar to them or that are similar to the ones they learned to design
in college or on the job. When they use their expertise to create designs for a foreign country,
their designs could be irrelevant to the cultural needs of that country” (Yates, 2006). This
statement shows that the engineer has to think deeply about how well his design principles
meet the way of life of that society because it could hold a sort of cultural significance for
that region.
Any engineer will find these factors to be crucial if they are to work across international
borders. In the wake of rising globalization, engineers will need to become more aware of
international policies in order to come up with the most cost effective and ethical solutions. In
as much as design standards and requirements evolve overtime, one thing that should never
change is the fact that engineers are leaders; they delegate, they innovate and they have the
power to resuscitate a multicultural economy, but only if they stay true to the rules and
regulations.
References
American Society of Civil Engineers (2006, July 23), “Code of Ethics,” American Society of Civil
Engineers:, http://www.asce.org/code-of-ethics/ , Accessed on February 2016.
European Commission (2016, February 11), “Eurocodes,” European Commission,
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/construction/eurocodes/index_en.htm, Accessed on
February 2016.
Joint Research Centre (2016), “Time line,” Eurocodes: Building the Future,
http://eurocodes.jrc.ec.europa.eu/showpage.php?id=12, Accessed February 2016.
Harris, Charles E. (2004), “Internationalizing Professional Codes in Engineering,” Science and
Engineering Ethics, pp. 503-521.
Marti-Vargas, J., & Hale, W. (2013), “Predicting Strand Transfer Length in Pretensioned Concrete:
Eurocode versus North American Practice,” Journal of Bridge Engineering, Volume 5.
Yates, J. (2006), “The Concept of Culture and Global Issues Important to Engineers and
Constructors,” Global Engineering and Construction, Wiley publishing, pp. 21-27.