Ethics in Engineering: Ensuring Public Safety and Economic Reward

2. Society, Business and Engineering: Natural Conflicts • Societal Need  Public Safety and Human Welfare • ENGINEERING • Business Need  Economic Reward to Ownership, Stockholders • In many cases the economic pressure within a business or industry has driven the decision making by engineers or by their management system to compromise product safety either directly in the product design and/or by short cutting the product development cycle and not doing adequate safety testing. Many cases of such actions within various industries have not only resulted in public harm but also in governmental legislation to regulate the industry and insure that product designs comply with minimum safety standards. -JK

3. Definition of Ethics Ethics (from the Ancient Greek "ethikos", meaning "arising from habit"), a major branch of philosophy, is the study of value or quality. It covers the analysis and employment of concepts such as right, wrong, good, evil, and responsibility. It is divided into three primary areas: meta-ethics (the study of what ethicality is), normative ethics (the study of what ethical truths there are and how they are known), and applied ethics (the study of the use of ethical knowledge). Ethics are Part of Philosophy Studies Engineering is concerned with Applied Ethics

4. The Founding 4 Engineering Professional Organizations As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the nineteenth century, engineers saw themselves as either independent specialists or technical employees of large enterprises. In the United States growing professionalism gave rise to the development of four founding engineering societies: The American Institute of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (1851) The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) (1884) The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (1880) The American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) (1871)

5. The Societal Need for Ethics and Minimum Standards in Engineering As the nineteenth century drew to a close and the twentieth century began, there were a series of significant structural failures, including some spectacular bridge failures, Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876) Tay Bridge Disaster (1879) Quebec Bridge collapse (1907) These had a profound effect on engineers and forced the profession to confront shortcomings in technical and construction practice, as well as ethical standards. As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the nineteenth century, engineers saw themselves as either independent specialists or technical employees of large enterprises. In the United States growing professionalism gave rise to the development of four founding engineering societies and ethical “codes” for their memberships. AIEE, forerunner to the modern day IEEE, was 1st to adopt such a code in 1912 ASCE and ASME did so in 1914 Of 159 passengers and crew onboard that night, 64 people were injured and 92 were killed or died later from injuries sustained in the crash (48 of the fatalities were unrecognizable or consumed in the flames.) making this one of the worst railroad disasters in American history. Experts attributed the accident to fatigue of the cast iron lug pieces which were used to anchor the wrought iron bars of the truss together. Many were poorly made, and needed shims of metal inserted to hold the bars in place. The disaster helped focus efforts to draw up standards for bridges, adequate testing and inspection.

6. Public Safety, Health and Welfare are the cornerstones on these “code of ethics” ·National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE): "Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall: Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public." ·American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties." ·Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): "We, the members of the IEEE, … do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree: 1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;" ·American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): "To achieve these goals, members shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and protect the environment in performance of their professional duties."

7. IEEE Code of Ethics We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree: 1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment; 2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;4. to reject bribery in all its forms;5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics. Approved by the IEEE Board of DirectorsFebruary 2006

8. Common Ethical Issues • Quality and Safety • Adequate Verification and Validation • Ensuring legal compliance • Conflict of interest • Bribery and kickbacks • Treatment of confidential or proprietary information • Consideration of the employer’s assets • Relationships; clients, consultants, competitors, and contractors • Gifts, meals, services, and entertainment • Environmental Damage • Outside employment/business activities

9. Historic Society Disasters & Eng Ethics Issues • Space Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003) • Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986) • Chernobyl disaster (1986) • Bhopal India Union Carbide disaster (1984) • Kansas City Hyatt Regency walkway collapse (1981) • Three Mile Island accident (1979) • Citigroup Center (1978) • Ford Pinto safety problems (1970s) • Minamata disease (1908-1973) • Chevrolet Corvair safety problems (1960s) • Boston molasses disaster (1919) • Quebec Bridge collapse (1907) • Johnstown Flood (1889) • Tay Bridge Disaster (1879) • Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876)

10. Ford Pinto • Fuel tank location and mechanical attachment found to be factors in several accident-explosion injuries and deaths • Design trade-off decision made early on to eliminate safety bladder inside gas tanks • Evidence of FORD cost-benefit study of recall-fix vs estimated law suit costs was made public • Eventual legal cost to FORD was > $125MM • Reputation loss for FORD with public, eventual product recall • Actual overall injury and fatality rate was no more than other cars of this class during the 1970’s • Contributing factor in US automaker loss of dominance to Japanese

11. Space Shuttle Challenger • Disintegrated 73 seconds into flight • Loss of life of all 7 crew members • Failure of Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) O-Ring • Violation of O-Ring Material Thermal Operating Range was an issue raised by engineers at SRB Mfg Morton-Thiakol (MT) years before disaster • NASA as well as MT management aware of issue but repeatedly OK’d shuttle launch outside MT Eng recommended operating range • No process for launch abort when engineering concerns over-ridden by management decision

12. General Guidance to Ethical Engineering • Priority is Key • Safety: Public Safety, Health & Welfare (including you) • Quality: Quality and Reliability of Product • Cost: Cost and Productivity of Product & Development • Delivery: Delivery and Production Capacity of Product Importance Businesses want ALL 4 of these! Difficulty arises when the priority order is changed