IEEE Toronto 2004 Annual General Meeting and Awards Dinner
This annual event is an opportunity for IEEE Toronto Section members to meet each other as well as the dedicated group of IEEE volunteers who give of their time to plan, organize and execute the wide range of programs offered within the Section and elsewhere in Canada.   Invited guests typically include volunteer leaders from neibouring Sections and IEEE Canada.   The Section Chair reports on the past year's activities and presents a variety of awards and recognitions.   This page records the text of the presentation by the guest speaker.   The IEEE Toronto Section acknowledges the generosity of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology in funding both the award to Walter Zessner and Professor O'Connell's travel to present both the SSIT award and our after dinner speech.

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Remarks by Brian M. O'Connell, President, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology.

On behalf of the SSIT Board of Governors and personally, I am honoured to be here as we thank the members of the Toronto Section for their outstanding service.   It gives me particular pleasure to share in the presentation of the lifetime achievement award to Walter Zessner.   In doing this, we reward not only Walter's pioneering service on behalf of issues involving the IEEE SSIT, but those of your section in providing support and outstanding talent to our international efforts.

Walter's work, not unlike that of many present here, is that of a practising engineer - not a theoretician or abstract scholar.   While these latter occupations are of obvious value, the title of my address - "Keeping the Gloves Off", is meant to reflect the critical importance of societal issues to the everyday practice of engineering and not merely as a component of academic theory or terminating with formal education.

The title's phrase comes from James Naysmyth, the Nineteenth Century engineer who invented the steam pile driver.   The entire quote reads, "I have no faith in young engineers who are addicted to wearing gloves. Gloves, especially kid gloves, are perfect non-conductors of technical knowledge".   I believe that Naysmyth is stating something that is quite obvious and timeless to those who reflect upon the practise of engineering. To again quote Naysmyth, engineering is "a common sense activity".   It requires not only theoretical knowledge, but also intuition. It demands not only a knowledge of the facts, but judgment which relates to the entire scope of our actions.

The Society on Social Implications, on whose behalf, Walter has worked from the start, exists to encourage Naysmyth's insights. On behalf of engineers, we seek to reinforce the injunction that kid gloves must not be worn.   One way that this occurs is when one loses "touch" with the social and ethical issues involved in our work.   The SSIT's efforts are directed toward keeping the profession aware of the ever expanding issues arising within these areas.   On behalf of society as a whole, we attempt to reinforce William James' observation that "everywhere, the ethical philosopher must wait on facts".   In this respect, we work to communicate the unique insights and knowledge of engineers to those working within the areas of policy, law and business - as well as to all citizens.   In this way, facts and ethics exist together and not in conflict.   This is particularly important in a world where highly technical activities, such as the Internet and the promises of "intelligent" machines become not only a part of our lives, but also of our culture and attitudes.

I thank Walter and all of the members of the Toronto Section for your great efforts in this critical endeavour.   I invite all of you to join with us within the SSIT as we continue to "keep the gloves off".

About the Speaker:   Brian O'Connell, is president of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology.   Brian is also an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Philosophy at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.   He teaches courses concerned with the ethical, legal and social aspects of computing and with the jurisprudence of new technologies.