1 / 18

Case Study #11: Aberdeen Senior Design Group #4 ( Bitplomacy )

Engineering Ethics. Case Study #11: Aberdeen Senior Design Group #4 ( Bitplomacy ). What is Aberdeen?. The Aberdeen Proving Ground U.S. army facility located in Aberdeen, Maryland Established October 20 th ,1917 (6 months after the U.S. enter WW1) Oldest active proving ground.

isleen
Download Presentation

Case Study #11: Aberdeen Senior Design Group #4 ( Bitplomacy )

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Engineering Ethics Case Study #11: Aberdeen Senior Design Group #4 (Bitplomacy)

  2. What is Aberdeen? The Aberdeen Proving Ground • U.S. army facility located in Aberdeen, Maryland • Established October 20th,1917 (6 months after the U.S. enter WW1) • Oldest active proving ground “proving ground” • Military reservation where weapons and other military technology are tested • Including military tactics

  3. Other Active U.S. Proving Grounds Dugway P.G. (1941-Present) • Salt Lake City, Utah (1252 sq.miles) Fort Belvoir (1917-Present) • Fairfax County, Virginia (813 sq.miles) Yuma P. G. (1947- Present) • Sonoran Desert, Arizona (1,307 sq.miles)

  4. More U.S. Proving Grounds Jefferson P.G. (1940-1995) • Madison, Indiana (142 sq.miles) Sandy Hook P.G. (1874-1919) • Atlantic Coast of New Jersey • Replaced by Aberdeen Pacific P.G. (1947-1962) • Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean (140,000 sq.miles)

  5. Chemical Testing at Aberdeen Warfare Agents • Anticholinesterase nerve agents • Nerve Agent Antidotes (Atropine & Scopolamine) • Nerve Agent Re-activators (OP antidote 2-PAM Chloride) • Mustard Agents • Psychoactive agents (LSD, PCP, cannaboids, BZ) • Irritants & riot control agents • Alcohol & caffeine

  6. The “Aberdeen 3” Case The Situation • Disregard for safety, storage, and disposal of chemicals by 3 chemical engineersthat resulted in the discharge of hazardous chemicals into the public environments surround the Aberdeen Proving Grounds from 1983-1986. September 17th , 1985 • Sulfur Acid tank leaks 200 gallons into nearby river. • Investigators discovered chemical retaining dikes to be corroded and leaking chemicals into the ground.

  7. Previous Inspection Violations • Flammable and cancer-causing substances left in the open • Chemicals that become lethal if mixed kept in the same room • Leaking drums of toxic substances • Numerous drums of chemicals misplaced and unlabeled • Smashed chemical drums and spilled wastes

  8. The Three William Dee • Developed binary chemical weapons and led the chemical weapons developmental team. Robert Lentz • In charge of developing processes used to manufacture chemical weapons. Carl Gepp • Manager at pilot plant. Conviction • Each charged with 4 counts of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) • Faced up to 15 years in prison & $750,000 in fines • Sentenced to 3 years probation & 1000 hours community service

  9. Resource Conservation & Recovery Act • Passed by Congress in 1976 (9 years before incident) • Implemented criminal fines for violations of the open dumping or hazardous waste disposal guidelines. • Provided technical and financial assistance for the plans and facilities used to recover energy and other resources from discarded materials.

  10. Key Ethical Principles The Social Contract • Engineers must always be aware of their obligation to protect the public welfare. • The public has provided engineers, through taxes a means to an education, and through legislation the ability to license and regulate themselves. Responsibility to subordinates • Employees working under conditions • Dealing with unknown chemicals

  11. How could this incident have been avoided? • Request for Army Clean-Up Funds following initial violations. • Funds would not have came from the engineers’ budget and would have been paid fully by the army.

  12. What other actions could be taken? • Better management of the hazardous material identificationsystem.

  13. What other actions could be taken? • Proper disposal treatment and storage of chemicals. • Better communication with those physically responsible for handling the chemicals. • Obligation to let superiors know that the chemicals were not being handled properly.

  14. Ethical Issues with BITPLOMACY? • Making sure it as an accurate representation of history. • All countries are represented correctly. • Using ideas of other rival game creators.

  15. What steps can WE take? • It will be run efficiently on the Operating System specified for this projects • Proficient error checking will be performed as well as extreme tests cases to make sure the project does not have any disasters. • Announcing on the site that this is for educational purposes only. • Other than that, no physical or mental harm can come from our project.

  16. QUESTIONS ?

More Related