Panel - Ethics in modern universities of technology: challenges of the 21st century

The challenges of the 21st century will fully reflect on universities of technology. The world population is growing while we pursue higher levels of global well-being. The increasing energy demands and the resulting problems of climate change will be only two of the many major challenges humanity is facing in this century. Indeed, universities of technologies have an essential role to play in meeting these challenges by generating scientific knowledge, achieving technological breakthroughs and educating scientists and engineers to think and work for the public good. A forthcoming Special Issue of Science and Engineering Ethics [1] will address some of the ethical issues that arise for institutions of higher education in the field of engineering and applied science. Several contributors to this Special Issue are invited to discuss two main issues: namely i) academic industry collaborations and ii) teaching engineering ethics.