Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability (PDF)

Doctor Hersh is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering (formerly the Department of Electrical Engineering) at the University of Glasgow. Her previous employment was also in higher education, as a researcher. Currently she carries out research on assistive technology, particularly for people with sensory impairments, teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Schools of Engineering and Education and has overall responsibility for the MSc Engineering with Management students.

The book is very relevant to deciding in which topics to carry out research and from whom to accept funding. This is an issue that relates to the underlying ethics of an activity rather than the ethics of how it is carried out.

Doctor Hersh has been involved for several years with Technical Committees of the International Federation of Automatic Control on Social Impact of Automation and TC9/5 International Stability, Technology and Culture, formerly Supplemental Ways of Improving International Stability (SWIIS) and more loosely with the other Social Systems Technical Committees. She has been vice-chair of the SWISS TC and now TC9/5 for the past six years. TC9/5 has a long term interest in ethics in the context of both international issues and the environment. The proposed book is highly relevant to the work of this TC. The community associated with this TC will also provide a means of promoting the book internationally.

She is also actively involved in Scientists for Global Responsibility, a UK organisation which promotes ethical science, design and technology and has a particular concern about the environment and sustainability. The book is again highly relevant to the work of this organisation.

“Hersh … has published extensively on ethics andenabling technology. As editor of this volume she has compiled writings fromauthors who focus on the ethics of sustainable development and internationaldevelopment. The book’s introduction summarizes theories of engineering ethicsand techniques for making ethical decisions. … Summing Up: Recommended.Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.” (M. Roberts, Choice, Vol.53 (1), September, 2015)