Professional Practice and Ethics

At the end of this course, students should be able to: 1. have a holistic picture of professional practice in computer engineering; 2. be abreast of the ethical and professional issues and landmines inimical to their practice and how to navigate them; 3. be totally ready (professionally, technically, legally and emotionally) for any professional entrepreneurial, financial and managerial challenges they may encounter; and 4. be abreast of the standards, codes and intellectual property implications of and values associated with, professional practice.

Engineering profession: structure and specializations (Nigeria and abroad), engineering basics, development of engineering profession, ethics and computer engineering, strands in ethical thinking, organisations and their structures: limited liability companies, private and public, partnerships, sole traders, special features of limited companies, responsibilities of directors; company finance: the need for capital; investment and working capital; sources of funds; equity capital and loan capital, cash flow and its importance, costing: fixed costs and variable costs; overheads; opportunity costs; depreciation; problems of cost allocation; budgeting; assessment of capital investment; discounted cash flow analysis, with particular reference to investment in software tolls and new product development; financial accounts: balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, cash flow statements; the treatment of software in company accounts; ownership of rights in software as goodwill; anatomy of software house: the company, company structure, management of staff, producing of budget, monitoring financial performance, producing budgets, computer contracts and intellectual property rights: the nature and types of intellectual property; intellectual property law (confidentiality, copyright, trademarks, and patents) and implications for the computing, computer engineering and software industry; computer misuse and criminal law: computing and criminal activity, reform and criminal law, categories of misuse, computer fraud, unauthorized access ;data protection: data protection and privacy, the impact of the internet; sociology of data management/processing: generation, users, regulation/control and general management; Professional and industry codes of conduct(local and international).