Engineering Certification Engineering Ethics & Professional Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following actions by a PE would most likely result in license revocation by a state board?
- Failing to include a personal email address on a project submittal
- Stamping and sealing plans that the engineer did not prepare or review (Correct answer)
- Charging fees above the market average for engineering services
- Delegating routine calculations to a licensed engineer-in-training
Correct answer: Stamping and sealing plans that the engineer did not prepare or review
Stamping plans not prepared or reviewed under the PE's responsible charge is known as 'plan stamping' and is a serious ethical and legal violation.
Question 2: A client offers an engineer an expensive gift after the successful completion of a project. According to engineering ethics, the engineer should:
- Accept it since the project is already complete and no future work is pending
- Accept it only if the gift's value is below $50
- Decline the gift to avoid any appearance of impropriety (Correct answer)
- Accept it and disclose the gift to their employer
Correct answer: Decline the gift to avoid any appearance of impropriety
Accepting gifts can create the appearance of impropriety and compromise future objectivity; the ethical standard is to decline to maintain integrity.
Question 3: In the context of engineering ethics, 'responsible charge' means:
- Being the highest-paid engineer on a project team
- Direct control and personal supervision of engineering work (Correct answer)
- Having a PE license in the state where the project is located
- Signing all correspondence on behalf of an engineering firm
Correct answer: Direct control and personal supervision of engineering work
Responsible charge refers to the direct control and personal supervision over engineering work for which a PE holds professional accountability.
Question 4: An engineering firm submits a bid for a public works project and wins. A competing firm later contacts the winning firm offering to share proprietary design data in exchange for a subcontract. The ethical response is to:
- Accept the offer to improve the project outcome
- Accept only if the client approves the arrangement
- Decline and report the incident to the client or appropriate authority (Correct answer)
- Decline the subcontract offer but retain the shared data
Correct answer: Decline and report the incident to the client or appropriate authority
Accepting improperly obtained proprietary data constitutes an ethical violation; the engineer must decline and disclose the attempted misconduct.
Question 5: Which body is primarily responsible for the ethical oversight and discipline of Professional Engineers in the United States?
- The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
- The state licensing board in the state where the PE is licensed (Correct answer)
- The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- The Federal Bureau of Engineering Standards
Correct answer: The state licensing board in the state where the PE is licensed
State licensing boards hold legal authority to investigate complaints and impose disciplinary actions including license suspension or revocation.
Question 6: An engineer working for a firm suspects that a colleague has falsified test results on a project. The correct first step is to:
- Immediately report the colleague to the state licensing board
- Confront the colleague publicly at the next team meeting
- Report the concern through the firm's established internal reporting channels (Correct answer)
- Ignore the issue to preserve workplace relationships
Correct answer: Report the concern through the firm's established internal reporting channels
Most ethics codes recommend exhausting internal reporting channels first before escalating to external authorities, unless the issue presents an immediate public danger.
Question 7: Engineering ethics prohibits an engineer from practicing in a state where they are not licensed UNLESS:
- The project involves federal land or a federal agency
- The engineer obtains a temporary permit or comity license for that state (Correct answer)
- The engineer's home state license is from a NCEES-member board
- The project value is below a threshold set by the state board
Correct answer: The engineer obtains a temporary permit or comity license for that state
Engineers may practice temporarily in unlicensed states through temporary permits or comity (reciprocity) arrangements recognized by state boards.
Engineering Certification Engineering Ethics & Professional Practice 2
Which of the following actions by a PE would most likely result in license revocation by a state board?