Engineering research is not work in isolation to the technological development taking place. Researchers make many choices that matter from an ethical perspective and influence the effects of technology in many different ways. Research outcomes often have unintended and undesirable side effects. It is a vital ethical responsibility of researchers to ensure that hazards/risks associated with the technologies that they develop, are minimized and alternative safer mechanisms are considered.

Technological developments raise a whole range of ethical concerns such as privacy issues and data related to surveillance systems, and so engineering researchers need to make ethical decisions and are answerable for the repercussions borne out of their research as outcomes. The reason that ethics matter in data used in engineering research is usually because there is impact on humans. Certain practices may be acceptable to certain people in certain situations, and the reasons for unacceptability may be perfectly valid.

CLASSWORK #2

REFLECTION:

This module entailed the key components of research and some of the ethical considerations that must be strictly adhered. With this, I have learned that research misconduct in cited research articles can be categorized into three. It can be in the form of fabrication (illegitimate creation of data), falsification (inappropriate alteration of data), and plagiarism. To avoid these misconducts, a researcher can use in either free or paid tools or add-ins that can automatically identify plagiarism. Also, I have grasped the key components, that is subdivided into five chapters, depending on the nature of the research whether it is a descriptive or research & development type. The discussion also tackled some key tips on how to effectively write the said research components. Most importantly, I learned that citing the original source is very important. I realized that every engineering researcher should practice writing in such a way that the reader can recognize the difference between the ideas or results of the authors and those that are from other sources.