engineering ethics

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ENGINEERING ETHICSETK101E

2011-2012 Fall Semester

Associate Prof. Dr. Murat ÇAKAN



1. INTRODUCTION

± Background ideas

± Why study engineering ethics

± Personal vs. business ethics

± The origins of ethical thought

± Ethics and the law

± Ethics problems are like design problems

± Case studies

± Summary



After reading this chapter you will be able to:

Know why it is important to study engineering ethics

Understand the distinction between business and personalethics

See how ethical problem solving and engineering design are

similar



Background Ideas

Many ethical problems are encountered by engineers in the course of theirprofessional life.

Ethical cases may involve

Public safety: prevention of and protection from events that could jeopardize

the safety of the general public from significant danger, injury, harm, ordamage, such as crimes or disasters (natural or man-made).

Bribery: Act of implying money or gift given that alters the behaviour of therecepient.

Fraud: Intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage anotherperson.

Envi

ronmental p

rotecti

on: Practice of protecting the environment Fairness: Being free from bias or injustice

Honesty in research and testing: Avoiding falsification of data, adoption andreproduction of another author without due acknowledgment, etc.

Conflicts of interest: Occurs when an individual or an organization involves inmultiple interests



During their undergraduate training engineering students learn basicand engineering sciences and problem solving methodologies.However they receive very little information on ethics and safety.

ABET (Accreditation Board for Undergraduate Engineering Programs)has mandated that ethics topic be incorporated into undergraduateengineering curricula.

A good place to start the topic of engineering ethics is with definitions

of ethics and engineering ethics.

Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals. Ethics deals withthe moral choices that are made by each person in his or herrelationship with other persons. Since enginneering activities produceand propose goods that are used by other people, engineers are

concerned with professional ethics.

Engineering ethics is the rules and standards governing the conduct of engineers in their role as professionals. Engineering ethics is a body of philosophy indicating the ways that engineers should conductthemselves in their professional capacity.



WHY STUDY ENGINEERING ETHICS?

Several notorious cases that have received a great deal of mediaattention in the past few years have led engineers to gain anincreased sense of their professional responsibilities. Engineersrealize how their technical work has impacts on the society.

Increase in awareness caused every major corporation to open anethics office that has the responsibility to ensure that employeeshave the ability to express their concerns about safety andcorporate business practices. These offices also try to foster anethical culture within the corporate.

Students should study ethics because they need to get sentisized toethical issues before they are confronted with professionalproblems. Past experiences may help us to increase our sensitivityto ethical problems and show us ways to find sound solutions.



Moral autonomy is a term that is used to define an ability to think

critically and independently about moral issues that areencountered in the course of professional engineering practice.

The goal in learning engineering ethics is not getting trained to dothe right thing when the ethical choice is obvious. The real goal is

to get trained to analyze complex problems and to learn to resolvethese problems in the most ethical manner.



PERSONAL VS. BUSINESS ETHICS

Personal ethics deals with how we treat others in our daily lives.

However professional ethics involve choices on organizational levelrather than personal level. In professional grounds relationships arein between corporations, between a corporation and the

government or between corporations and individuals.



THE ORIGINS OF ETHICAL THOUGHT

The origins of ethical thought may be linked to Judeo-Christian

tradition. On the other hand, non-western socities as well havedeveloped their own ethical principals on a similar basis.

For some people ethical principals are rooted in religious beliefs.But this is not true for others. A very ethical person may be non-religious. Or vice-versa: a religious person may not always behaveethical.



ETHICS AND THE LAW

The practice of engineering and business is governed by many lawson the international, state and local level. There is also a distinctionbetween what is ethical and what is legal. Many things that arelegal may not be considered ethical. For many years many toxicgases were considered legal and were utilized without anyregulation whatsoever.

As an engineer you are minimally safe when you follow therquirements of applicable laws. But in engineering ethics, we seekto go beyond the dictates of the law. Our interest is in areas whereethical principals conflict and there is no legal guidance for how toresolve the conflict.



ETHICS PROBLEMS ARE LIKE DESIGN PROBLEMS

Ethics problems may not look very concrete to engineering

students. The ethics problems are more open ended and haverarely a correct answer that will bearrived by everyone in the

classroom. However in terms of problem solving techniques,design problems are very similar to ethics problems. Both type of problems require a large body of knowledge and analytical skills.



CASE STUDIES

Before starting to learn the theoretical ideas regarding engineering

ethics, we need to examplify ethics through real life ethicsproblems.

A very good case is space shuttle Challenger accident.



The space shuttle Challenger was launched in extremely cold weather. During thelaunch an o-ring became brittle under the effect of the cold weather and failed. Thisfailure led to the explosion during the liftoff. Some engineers who took part in thedesign process of the shuttle objected to the launch in cold weather but themanagement did not agree with their concerns. In other words the engineers wereoverruled by the management.

Few questions to ask:

When there are safety concerns, what is the engineers responsibility before the launchdecision is made?

After the launch decision is made but before the actual launch, what duty does the

engineer have? If the decision does not go the engineers way, should he or she complain to uppermanagement? Or should he or she bring the matter to the attention of the press?

After the accident has occured, what are the duties and responsibilities of theengineers?

These will be the subject of this class. Throughout this class, ideas about the nature of engineering profession, ethical theories, and the application of these theories tosituations that are likely to occur in engineering practice will be presented.

Do not forget however that when studying a case after the fact (postmorteminvestigation*), and knowing the ultimate outcome, it is usually very easy to see what isthe right choice. However when the real systems are built or when the real decisionsare given we are in a different situation. We usually do not know what will be theconsequences of our decisions. And we have hardly such clear predictive abilities for

the future events.* Postmortem investigation: a technical analysis of a finished project



SPACE SHUTTLE CHALLENGERACCIDENT

Probably the most widely written about case in engineering ethicsbecause of the extensive media coverage at the time of theaccident.

The case involves many ethical issues that engineers face:

What is the proper role of the engineer when safety issues are aconcern?

Who should have the ultimate decision making authority to order alaunch?

Should the ordering of a launch be an engineering or a managerialdecision?



BACKGROUND

Space Shuttle was designed as a relauchable vehicle.

The shuttle consists of an orbiter(looks like an airliner minus engines!),

two solid propellant boosters,

and a single liquid propellant booster.

At takeoff all the boosters are ignited and lift the orbiter out of the earthsatmosphere. The solid boosters are only used early in the flight and jettisoned soon after the takeoff. They are repacked and reused after theyare recupareted from the ocean. The liquid propellant booster is used toput the shuttle into orbit. It is also jettisoned afterwards but unlike solidpropellants it burns up during reentry. After the completion of themission the shuttle uses its limited power to reenter the atmosphere andand glides to a landing.



The accident happened on January 28, 1986. It was blamed on afailure of one of the solid propellant boosters. These boosters have

the advantage of delivering far more thrust per pound of fuel thando their liquid filled counterparts. However once they are ignitedthey may not be turned off. On the other hand, liquid rocketboosters may be throttled when necessary.

Solid rocket boosters were designed and manufactured by MortonThiokol Co. The solid rocket consists of several cylindrical piecesthat are stacked on top of each other. The cylinders are thenshipped to Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be assembled toform a complete booster.



The cylindrical boosters are

attachedto each other by

tang and clevis joint fastened by

177 pins. The joints are sealed by two

o-rings. The o-rings are designed to

prevent hot gases from escaping . The

o-rings are made from a type of

synthetic rubber and so they are not

particularly heat resistant. To prevent

hot gases from damaging the o-rings a

heat resistant putty is placed in the

joint.



EARLY PROBLEMS WITH THE SOLID ROCKET BOOSTERS (SRB)

Problems with the SRB were recognized before the launch of Challenger. O-

ring erosion was experienced many times in different missions previously.However, as long as o-rings erosion did not jeopardize the lift-off phase itwas taken normally.

The first joint failure was discovered during first flight preparations on January 24,1985.

Postflight examination of the boosters revealed the fact that there was soothtraces on one of the boosters which showed that hot gases escaped from thebooster. Thiokol engineers redesigned the joint without o-rings. Instead theyused steel billets which were expected to perform better but the new designwas not ready in time for the scheduled flight date in early 1986.



POLITICAL CLIMATE

*NASA was under pressure because of delays in shuttle program. There wascontinuous questioning of the budget by the Congress.

*ESA was in the process of designing a cheaper alternative to NASA shuttleprogram. USA was fearing to leave the market to Europe unwantedly.

*Challenger was going to carry a probe to monitor Halleys comet. Soviets

were after the same target. USA did not want to lose the race and felturgency in the program.

*President Reagan was willing to mention at the upcoming State of the Unionaddress the fact that among the shuttle crew there was a teacher: Mrs.Christa McAuliffe.



THE DAYS BEFORE THE LAUNCH

*The initially programmed launch date was postponed due to a severecold front.

*Cold front stopped approaching but this time launch was once againstalled due to a defective microswitch

*The microswitch defect was resolved. However cold front moved tothe launch area with temperatures below zero degree Centigrade.

*One day before the rescheduled launch, a teleconference wasorganized between NASA and Thiokol about the possible effects of cold weather on the performance of the solid boosters.

*The lowest temperature encountered at preflight tests was 53Fwhere o-rings blow off the boosters. The expected temperature atthe time of the launch was 29F. Thiokol suggested that the flightwas postponed once again until at least 53F was reached.However there was no data available showing that the o-rings blow

off at temperatures below 53F! (Inconclusive data)



Last phrase, and a very controversial one, in the discussions between

NASA and Thiokol:

Take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat



THE LAUNCH

*The overnight temperature was 8F. There was a significant amountof ice accumulation on the launch pad.

*After the launch, the gases escaped from the joint at the aft part of the right SRB and the flames attained the liquid solid booster (LRB)

and the shuttle exploded.



THE AFTERMATH

*Thiokol formed a safety investigation team right after the accident.President Reagan appointed a commission.

*One of the commission members was R. Feynman; a nobel prizewinner in physics. He ably demonstrated to the country that theresiliency of the o-rings reduced with temperature. The flexibilityof the o-ring material was evident at room temperature.

*The joints were redesigned by Thiokol and the shuttle has since flownnumerous succcessful missions. However the ambitious programthat was originally intended by NASA was never reached.

R. Feynmans video!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qAi_9quzUY



SUMMARY



2. PROFESSIONALISM and CODES

of ETHICS ± Introduction

± Is engineering a profession?

± Codes of ethics

± Cases

± Summary




Determine whether engineering is a profession.

Understand what codes of ethics are.

Examine some codes of ethics of professional engineeringsocities.



In late 1994 reports began to appear in the media that Pentiummicroprocessor manufactured by Intel was flawed. It was claimed

that computers that use such microprocessors could not correctlycompute some simple calculations such as multiplication anddivision.

Intel rejected and denied such claims at first. Later however, Intel

accepted that there might be minor problems with the processorsonly if the user does some very sophisticated calculations. It wasalso argued that Intel was aware of the problem and was working tofix it.

Many people who had already bought the defected chip asked Intelto replace them with flawless chips. Intel refused to do so at first.

The result was a public relations (PR) disaster for Intel.



Did Intel do anything unethical? To answer this question one mustdevelop a framework for understanding ethical problems.

Codes of ethics (COE) (developed by professional engineeringorganizations)

COE guide engineers through their professional duties and givethem an insight into ethical problems.

False claim by Intel or PR problem?

In this chapter we are going to look at the concept of profession

and ask if engineering can be defined as a profession in theclassical sense? Two representative engineering codes will bepresented in detail.



INTRODUCTION

When confronted by an ethical problem what sources are availableto an engineer?

Modern professions use COE prepared by various professionalsocieties. These codes help and guide practitioners in makingsound decisions when they confront professional problems.

1) How can we define profession?

2) Does engineering fit into this definition?



IS ENGINEERING A PROFESSION?

Profession (Meslek)

Job (): Any work for hire regarless of the skill level involved.

Occupation (Meguliyet): Employment through which someonemakes a living

Engineering is definitely a job and an occupation. However it is

more than a job and also more than an occupation regarding theskills and responsibilities it inherits



WHAT IS A PROFESSION?

Attributes of a profession include:

1) The work requires sophisticated skills, the use of judgment and theexercise of discretion. Also, the work is not routine and may not

be mechanized.2) Membership in the profession requires extensive formal

education, not simply practical training and apprenticeship.

3) The public allowas special societes or organizations that arecontrolled by members of the profession to set standards for

admission to the profession, to set standards of conduct formembers, and to enforce these standards.

4) Significant public good results from the practice of the profession.



Judgment and discretion

Judgment means making significant decisions that have serious

impacton others lives, based on formal training.

Discretion has two meanings:

1) Being confidentail about customers and clients lives, decisions,etc.

2) Ability to give autonomous decisions or choices. Use yourdiscretion



Medicine

It requires sophisticated skill that cannot be mechanized. It alsorequires judgment (treatment plans for individual patients)

It requires discretion , the duty not to divulge information given inconfidence by the patient to the physician.

Medicin has special societies, the American Medicin Association

(AMA) or Türk Tabipleri Birlii (TMA) to which a large fraction of practising physicians belong. They set standards for practising theprofession and enforces codes of ethical behaviour for its members.

Healing the sick and helping to prevent diseases clearly involve thepublic good.



Law

Law involves sophisticated skills required through extensive formaltraining

It requires discretion.

It has special societies: ABA, TBB

And it works for public good (!?)



ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION

Certainly requires extensive formal training and sophisticated skills.It requires judgment: how to use available materials, components,devices, etc. To reach a specified objective.

Discretion is required in engineering.Engineers are required to keeptheir employers and clients intellectual property and businessconfidential.

Also a primary concern of engineers is the safety of the public thatwill use the products he/she designs.

Engineering fields have special professional societies: IEEE, ASME,NSPE, etc However they are weak with respect to ABA or AMA



Mechanization:

Once a design is made, it can easily be replicated without the

intervention of an engineer. However each new situation thatrequires a new design or a modification of an existing designrequires an engineer.



CODES OF ETHICS

Professional societies have their own «codes of ethics»

Ethical codes may also be created by non-professional organizationssuch as universities.

These codes express the rights, duties and obligations of itsmembers.

A code of ethics provides a framework for ethical judgment for a

professional. It does not cover all possible ethical situations thatcan be encountered. It only serves as a starting point.



On the other hand an ethicak code is not a recipe for ethicalbehaviour. Moreover it is not a legal code. It only deals with

choices. One may not be arrested if he/she disobeys codes of ethics. Expulsion from the society may be the case bot even so theengineer (in this case) does not lose his/her ability to practise theprofession.

The code provides a little space for an employee where he/shecould fight against the employers request to behave unethically.

Codes of Ethics for mechanical enginners in Turkey:

TMMOB (Türk Mimar ve Mühendis Odalar Birlii) Mesleki Davranlkeleri:http://www.maden.org.tr/resimler/ekler/3a7769efbcc8310_ek.pdf



AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS(ASME)



CASE STUDIES-I

The Intel Pentium Chip

In the late 1994, media began to report that there was a flaw in the

new Pentium microprocessor produced by Intel. A significant flaw; because 80% of the PC used then Pentium

microprocessors

It was the first flaw detected by the user! It occured when doubleprecision arithmetic was performed (FPE: floating point error)

4.195.835 x 3.145.727 3.145.727 = 4.195.579 !!

Intel denied the reports.

Then accepted that there was a bug; however claimed that it wouldnot create problems for many of the users(2.000.000 PC weres sold)



Intel proposed to change the chip only if the user would asked Intelto do the replacement.

This offer was not found acceptable by the users.

IBM, a major Pentium micropocessor user, canceled the sale of itsproducts if they contained the flawed chips.

Finally Intel agreed to change the entire PC stock.

In fact Intel knew the problem much before the media made anissue about the defective chips. Moreover it continued to sell themicroprocessors.

The problems need to be fixed immediately. What is nowimportant is not the opinion of Intel on the flawed product but the

opinion of the customers who are using the product.



DO THEY RESEMBLE?



3. UNDERSTANDING ETHICALPROBLEMS

± Introduction

± A Brief History of Ethical Thought

± Ethical Theories

± Cases

± Summary




Discuss several ethical theories.

See how these theories can be applied to engineeringsituations.



In 1984 a pressure relief valve on a tank used to store methylisocyanate (MIC) at Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India

accidentally opened. MIC is a poisonous compound which is usedin pesticides. When the tanks valve was opened a toxic gas cloudcovered a portion of a densely populated area surrounding theplant. Around 2.000 people were killed and thousands got injured.Many of the injured remained permanently disabled.

Possible causes of the accident:

Pipelines in the plant were misconnected.

Essential safety systems were either broken or at maintenance.

Risk to the community vs. Economic benefits to the state or nation

We need to have a framework for analyzing ethical problems.



INTRODUCTION

In this chapter we will see some moral theories that can be appliedto ethical problems.

Fundamentals of ethical theories framework Ethical problems



A BRIEF HISTORY of ETHICAL THOUGHT

The origins of western moral thought are based on ancient Greekphilosophers as well as on ancient religious thinking and writing.

The written sources of Judaistic moral tradition are based on Torah

and Old Testament. Greek ethical thought originated with thefamous philosophers; Socrates and Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics).



Aristotelian Ethics consists of ten books (scrolls)which were taught by him at the Lykeion andwere dedicated to his son Nichomacus.

The Nicomachean Ethics is widely considered one

of the most important historical philosophicalworks, and had an important impact upon theEuropean Middle Ages, becoming one of the core

works of medieval philosophy. It thereforeindirectly became critical in the development of all modern philosophy as well as European lawand theology.

Socratic question: How men should best live?

Pre-socratic philosophy was purely theoretical!Socrates (through Platon) and later on Aristotleturned philosophy into a tool in the quest for

good-man.



Many philosophers (Locke, Kant, Mill) have turned their attention toethics and morals and have tried to provide insight into these

concepts.

These philosophers acknowledged that moral principals areuniversal and claimed that they could be applicable to secular

settings (French Revolution).



ETHICAL THEORIES

Ethical problem solving is not as cut and dried as problem solving inmost engineering classes. In engineering classes usually there areonly one theory that can bu utilized in the process of problemsolving. On the other hand ethical problem solving is based upon

several theories.

This fact does not reflect the fuzziness of the situation but ratherthe complexity and diversity of ethics. Having multiple theoriesdoes enrich the process allowing problems to be looked at from

different angles.

Basic ethical problem solving technique utilizes different theoriesand approaches to analyze the problem and then try to determine

the best solution.



What is a moral theory?

Moral theory defines terms in uniform ways and links ideas andproblems in consistent ways.

There four moral theories that will be considered here:

1) Utilitarianism

2) Duty ethics

3) Rights ethics

4) Virtue ethics



Utilitarianism (Faydaclk):

It seeks to produce the most utility, defined as a balance betweengood and bad consequences of an action. , taking into account theconsequences for everyone affected.

Duty Ethics (..):

Duty ethics contends that there are duties that should beperformed (ex: the duty of treating others fairly or the duty of notto injure others) regardless of whether these acts lead to the most

good.



Rights Ethics (..):

Rights etics emphasizes that we all have moral rights, and anyaction that violates these rights is ethically unacceptable.

Virtue Ethics (..):

This ethical theory focuses on the person that we should strive tobe. For this ethics theory the only actions that manifest goodcharacter traits (virtues) are the right actions.



Utilitarianism (Faydaclk):

Actions are good only if they maximize human well-being. Theemphasis in utilitarianism is not to maximize the well-being of theindividual but the well-being of the society as a whole. In thisrespect it is a collectivist approach.

Example: Hydroelectric dams often lead to greatbenefit to society by providing stable supplies of

drinking water, flood control and recreational

oppurtunities. However this is done at the

expense of people leaving their homeland.

Utilitarianism tries to balance the needs of society with the needsof the individual, with an emphasis on what will provide the mostbenefit to the most people.



Utilitarianism is analogue to many engineering analysis methods;including risk-benefit analysis or cost-benefit analysis.

However as good as the utilitarianism sounds, there are someinherent problems with it. Sometimes what is good for the societymay be bad for a particular individual or a group of individuals.

Example: WIPP (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant) near Carlsbad, NewMexico. WIPP was designed to be a repository for nuclear wastegenerated in the USA.It consisted of a system of tunnels bored intounderground salt formations which are considered to be extremely

stable against water incursion and eventual leakage of nuclearwaste into underground water sources. But then what about therisks of transportation of nuclear waste products to the site at NewMexico?



Utilitarian approach: Solution of this waste disposal problem willbenefit society by providing improved health care and plentiful

electricity. The slight potential ofor adverse health effects forindividuals living near the transportation routes is far outweighedby the overall benefits to society. So WIPP should be allowed toopen.

As this example demonstrates, the utilitarian approach seem toignore the needs of individuals, especially if these needs seemrelatively insignificant.

Another objection to utilitarianism is that its implementationdepends greatly on knowing what will lead to the most good.Frequently, it is impossible to know a priori exactly what theconsequences of an action are. So maximizing the benefit tosociety involves guesswork.



Act utilitarianism / John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Rule utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism focuses on individual actions rather than on rules.Mill felt that individual actions must be judged based on whetherthe most good was produced in a given situation, and rules shouldbe broken if doing so will lead to the most good.

Rule utilitarianism pays great attention to moral rules (do not harmothers, do not steal). Rule utilitarians hold that although adheringto these rules might not always maximize good in a particular

situation, overall, adhering to moral rules will ultimately lead to themost good.



Cost- Benefit Analysis:One tool used in engineering analysis, especially when trying to

determine whether a project is worthwhile doing is cost-benefitanalysis.

In cost-benefit analysis, the costs of project are assessed, as are thebenefits. Only those projects with the highest ratio of benefits tocosts are implemented.

This principle is similar to the utilitarian goal of maximizing theoverall good.



Pitfalls of Cost-Benefit Analysis:Although it is usually easy to predict the cost for most projects, the

benefits are often harder to predict and assign dollar values to.Once dollar values are attached to costs and benefits, themathematical ratio between them may seem very objective.However, this ratio cannot take into account many subjectiveaspects of a decision.

For example, from a pure cost-benefit analysis point of viewbuilding a dam may seem to be an excellent idea. However, theanalysis does not take into account the loss of a scenic wildernessor the loss of an endangered species.

Finally, it is also important who are reaping the benefit and who arepaying the cost? It is unfair to place all of the costs on one groupwhile another reaps the benefits.



Duty and Rights Ethics:

These theories hold that those actions that respect the rights of indiividuals are good. Here, good consequences for society as awhole are not the only moral consideration.

The major proponent of duty ethics is Immanual Kant (1724-1804).

He held that moral duties are fundamental. Duties like: be honest,do not cause suffering to people, be fair to others, etc.

When ones duties are recognized, the ethically correct moral

actions are obvious.

engineering ethics

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