{"id":174481,"date":"2026-05-20T13:02:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=174481"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:11:05","slug":"a-steel-ring-and-a-solemn-oath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2026\/05\/20\/a-steel-ring-and-a-solemn-oath\/","title":{"rendered":"A Steel Ring and a Solemn Oath"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Order of the Engineer ceremony, graduating seniors contemplate profession\u2019s perils, and pledge to practice integrity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Patrick L. Kennedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

A bridge collapse killing 75 workers. A pair of plane crashes killing hundreds of passengers. A hull implosion sending a submersible to the sea floor, entombing the vessel\u2019s lifeless owner and crew. All the results of design flaws, miscalculations, and errors in judgement.<\/p>\n

Such sobering thoughts sound tough to entertain amidst the celebrations of Senior Week. And yet, on Friday, May 15, the day before the Boston University College of Engineering baccalaureate convocation<\/a>, nearly 350 members of the Class of 2026 gathered voluntarily in a lecture hall to hear about these horrific failures, and to take a solemn pledge to prevent similar tragedies in their careers as professional engineers.<\/p>\n

This pledge, called the Obligation, is the creed of the Order of the Engineer. Initiates recite the creed\u2014similar in spirit to the Hippocratic Oath for medical school graduates\u2014and then place a ring on the pinky of their working hand. There are no meetings of the Order beyond this initiation for graduating engineers, but the ring, made of stainless steel, serves as a lifelong reminder of the grave responsibility its wearers bear.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of what we are doing here today is to recognize and remember that what you do as an engineer has an impact on society,\u201d said College of Engineering (ENG) Dean Elise Morgan<\/a> (ME<\/a>, MSE<\/a>, BME<\/a>), \u201cand that how you choose to conduct your professional lives will have consequences both to you and to society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resisting pressure to cut corners<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Order of the Engineer was founded in 1970, and it was inspired by a Canadian order begun in 1926. \u201cTradition has it that the rings used in the original ceremony were fabricated from the wreckage of the catastrophic failure of the Quebec Bridge,\u201d said Morgan, who is also the Maysarah K. Sukkar Professor of Engineering Design and Innovation. Addressing the near-capacity assemblage in Hariri 105, a theater-like, 373-seat classroom in the BU Questrom School of Business, Morgan along with Master Lecturer Professor Caleb Farny<\/a> (ME) recounted details of that 1907 bridge collapse and the other disasters alluded to above, including the multiple failures of the Boeing 737 MAX passenger jet.<\/p>\n

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Caleb Farny (ME). Photo by Charisma Nguyen-Lai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA variety of competitive timing, market, and cost pressures resulted in corners being cut that ultimately compromised safety and contributed directly to the Lion Air crash of October 2018 and the Ethiopian Airlines crash of 2019,\u201d said Farny, who is also Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a very complex world, one in which mistakes and complications will happen, but you are the engineers of that world, and as such, you carry a special and exciting responsibility to commit as best as possible to the integrity of the technologies you are tasked to contribute to,\u201d Farny told the seniors. \u201cMany of you eventually will find yourselves in situations in which there is conflict\u2014where you want to speak up for further data or clarification or to test alternative designs, but when doing so may mean risking something personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you handle these conflicts speaks to the essence of what this Order of the Engineer is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethical lapses and real-world harms<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Of course, civil engineering is not one of the majors at BU ENG (although there is an aerospace concentration<\/a>, and some students do work on maritime projects<\/a>). So, how much relevance does the twisted steel of a bridge collapse hold as a cautionary tale for a biomedical engineer or an electrical or computer engineer?<\/p>\n

Plenty, argued the ceremony\u2019s guest speaker, Professor Irving Bigio<\/a> (BME, ECE<\/a>, Physics, Medicine). A Fellow of Optica<\/a>, SPIE<\/a>, and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE<\/a>), Bigio developed a device<\/a>\u2014cleared by the FDA in 2024\u2014that uses pulses of light to more accurately detect skin cancer. Bigio also teaches a course on ethics in engineering.<\/p>\n

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“Primum non nocere,” said Irving Bigio (BME, ECE). “First do no harm,” a directive in the doctors’ Hippocratic Oath. Bigio argued that engineering rivals medicine in its potential to affect the human condition. Photo by Charisma Nguyen-Lai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOf all the professions one can pursue, the two that probably most directly affect the human condition are medicine and engineering,\u201d said Bigio, who is also BME undergraduate chair. \u201cAnd in doing work that spans both the pure engineering and the pure medical science fields, this obligation becomes more and more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are ethical lapses on the part of the people who do this design work,\u201d Bigio said. \u201cWhen you look back in history, you can find out something about prejudices that were built into engineering. . . . The engineering practice can be both gender-biased and racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example, once seat belts caught on as automotive accessories in the 1950s and early 1960s, \u201cthey seemed to save lives,\u201d Bigio said, \u201cbut whose lives were they saving? The fatality rate for male drivers went down, and it was attributable to the use of seat belts. But for women who were driving cars, the fatality rate didn\u2019t go down.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Packing the lecture hall across Comm Ave. at Questrom, students listened intently to Bigio’s remarks on ethics in engineering. Photo by Charisma Nguyen-Lai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turned out that in crash tests, the era\u2019s automotive engineers, who were overwhelmingly men, were only using crash test dummies that measured six feet tall and weighed 180 pounds\u2014dummies that were designed, in other words, to mimic the average man.<\/p>\n

A more modern and medicine-related example that Bigio shared was the case of pulse oximeters, devices that measure blood oxygenation. During the COVID-19 crisis, as clinicians monitored patients suffering respiratory distress, pulse oximeters often gave the wrong results for dark-skinned people, it was later learned. Because of these inaccurate readings, \u201cBlack people were taken off respirators too early, and therefore, their death rate was exceedingly higher than those of white patients under the same conditions,\u201d Bigio said. \u201cThe people who designed the pulse oximeters, their intentions were good. It just didn\u2019t occur to them that they needed to develop a technology for a representative population.\u201d This oversight led to real-world harms.<\/p>\n

Maintain your voice<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cThese are things that you as engineers are going to be thinking about as you go forward, and that\u2019s why you\u2019re taking this oath today,\u201d said Bigio. \u201cDesign your technologies to make sure they\u2019re inclusive. Design your technologies making sure that the benefits signficantly outweigh the risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Irving Bigio (BME). Photo by Charisma Nguyen-Lai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bigio went on to discuss the risk-benefit ratio of the latest technology disrupting the world, artificial intelligence (AI), and its different use cases. \u201cNowadays, all mammograms are first examined by an AI pattern recognition program,\u201d Bigio said. \u201cThat helps the radiologist know where to look carefully. This has dramatically improved the early detection of breast cancer,\u201d and the death rate for breast cancer has dropped accordingly. \u201cAnd this is a case where it\u2019s not replacing the radiologist; it\u2019s assisting the radiologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conversely, Bigio warned against relying on \u201cgenerative AI\u201d tools such as Claude, which the professor once tried using to create a recommendation letter on short notice. The result didn’t ring true. \u201cI looked at it and said, \u2018That\u2019s not me.\u2019 And so I buckled down, stayed up late that night, and wrote my own letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AI bots, they\u2019re not you. Don\u2019t let them become your voice,\u201d Bigio said. \u201cDon\u2019t let [AI] represent you, because these \u2018hallucinations\u2019 and errors can become part of the cycle of mistakes in engineering. But worse than that, you lose your own personality and your identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

None but honest enterprises<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Bigio concluded with an exhortation to fulfill the part of the Societal Engineer.<\/a> \u201cConduct your lives so that when you leave this world, it\u2019s an ever so slightly better place for your having been in it,\u201d Bigio said.<\/p>\n

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Nearly 350 graduating seniors recited the Obligation of the Order of the Engineer. Photo by Charisma Nguyen-Lai<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Farny then bade the students rise and led them in reciting the Obligation. And hundreds of voices in unison asserted: \u201cI am an Engineer. In my profession I take deep pride. To it I owe solemn obligations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Engineer, I pledge to practice integrity and fair dealing, tolerance and respect; and to uphold devotion to the standards and the dignity of my profession, conscious always that my skill carries with it the obligation to serve humanity by making the best use of the Earth\u2019s precious wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Engineer, I shall participate in none but honest enterprises. When needed, my skill and knowledge shall be given without reservation for the public good. In the performance of duty and with deep fidelity to my profession, I shall give my utmost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After stirring and thought-provoking words from Irving Bigio about their coming responsibilities, nearly 350 graduating seniors recited the Obligation of the Order of the Engineer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":174486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,982,899,1303,907,1041,1135,909,908,1000],"tags":[788,983,1134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174481"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174481"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174497,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174481\/revisions\/174497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}