CHAPTER 2: ETHICS

INTRODUCTION

Ø  “Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”

Ø  Every day we make ethical decisions.

Ø  The more you practice analyzing day-to-day decisions from an ethical standpoint, the easier it will be for you to make good decisions when the results of a poor choice may be catastrophic.

Ø  There are two reasons people try to make ethical decisions

1.    They wish to make the world a better place for everyone.

2.    They wish to avoid unpleasant consequences, such as fines, incarceration, or loss of job.

Ø  Each major religion all have fairly brief codes summarizing how one should conduct their life.

1.    Judaism, Christianity, and derivatives thereof have the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments.

2.    Islam has the Five Pillars in addition to a slightly modified and reorganized form of the Decalogue.

3.    Buddhism has the Noble Eightfold Path.

4.    Baha’i has 12 social principles.

5.    In Hinduism, Grihastha dharma has four goals.

2.1  ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

Ø  Step 1: Determine what the issues are and who might be affected by the various alternative courses of action that might be implemented.

o   For example: Whether to allow cutting down acres of trees to build a new shopping mall.

¨      The issues

Ø  CO2 footprint

Ø  Quality of life

¨      The stakeholders

Ø  habitats that were formed in the forest

Ø  traffic

Ø  Step 2: Consider the effect of alternative courses of action from different perspectives. (Consequences, intent, and character).

o   For example: Should middle schools have a Sexual Education class? (consequences)

¨      Stakeholders:

Ø  Teachers

Ø  Students

Ø  Parents of the students

¨      Consequences:

Ø  Teach about abstinence

Ø  Could lower teen pregnancy statistics

Ø  Give useful life information and tips to the students.

o   For example: Should social media have an age limit? (intent)

a)    Should everyone be a certain age in order to have a social media account?

b)    Should there be a law so that anyone under the specified age and has a social media account be approached?

c)    If you were a parent to a 12 year old girl, would you feel comfortable giving her the freedom of social media?

o   For example: Walking down the street you see a homeless person without proper winter attire. Everyone else on the street is just passing by him. Do you: (character)

a)    Stop and give him a coat or blanket

b)    Ignore him, pretend you don’t see him and keep walking

Ø  Step 3: Correlate perspectives.

o   It is in good nature of ethical decision making that different people will often arrive at different results in good conscious.

Ø  Step 4: Act.

o   If you believe that working on a project poses no threat to your soul, then little courage is required to follow through, since your career may blossom.

o   If you believe that the project you are working on is unethical, you will need to change the minds of the management or refuse to work on it, both of which can risk your job.

2.2 PLAGIARISM

Ø  Claiming someone else’s work as your own.

Ø  Plagiarism is labeled as academic dishonesty.

Ø  We should not live in fear of being accused of plagiarism because our brain drug up something we read, saw, or heard of in the past.

2.3 ENGINEERING CREED

Ø  As a Professional Engineer, I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and betterment of human welfare, I pledge:

o   To give the utmost of performance.

o   To participate in none but honest enterprise.

o   To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct.

o   To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other considerations.

Ø  In humility and with need for Divine Guidance, I make this pledge.

2.4 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY

Ø  Is the ideology that an individual has an obligation to act to benefit society at large.

Ø  As a profession, we recognize the importance of this trust in the Engineering Canons and the engineering creed that define our standards for ethics, integrity, and regard for public welfare.

Ø  In your opinion how do an Engineer’s ethics affect public safety?

o   An engineer with no morals, or one who can’t make ethical decisions could harm not only the environment, but the people and animals as well. For example, an engineer wants his company to dump waste into a wastewater system. When it starts filling up, one of his workers says that it cannot overflow. The lead engineer tells him that when that problem happens, they’ll take care of it and not to worry now. He did not make an ethical decision in this case. When the time comes and the system starts to overflow, many lives and habitats are now at risk for radiation, poison and even worse. Engineers with no ethical standards affect public safety in every circumstance.

National Society of Professional Engineers:

National Engineers Week starts February 22 and ends February 28. Eweek was founded in 1951. Eweek is dedicated to increasing interest and knowledge about the engineering career. Eweek raises awareness about engineers’ positive contributions to quality of life. Throughout the week before and after, there are different programs held.

Changing the Conversation: This program encourages more effective communication to the public about engineering and engineers. The goal of this program is to encourage young people to make a difference in the world through an engineering career.

DiscoverE: In this program, engineers help grade school and high school students discover the worlds of engineering and technology. They relate applications of math, science and engineering to real-world situations.

New Faces of Engineering: This is a recognition program. New faces of engineering highlights the unique work of young engineers and the impact on society. The engineers are working to solve problems on a global scale. The engineers are 30 years old or younger.

New Faces of Engineering, College Edition: Every fall, College Edition promotes the accomplishment of 3^rd 4^th and 5^th year engineering students.

Future City Competition: Future City works with over 1100 schools. The program challenges middle school students to design a city 150 years into the future. Each team of three started with their imaginations and SimCity software, with this they would come up with astounding solutions to everyday challenges.

Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering and Technology: The Global Marathon provides opportunities and a place to put forward ideas for women. This marathon encourages women to ask questions and teach themselves about women in the engineering field.

The Deep Dive:

July 13^th 1999, abc News did a report on a company called IDEO. In the beginning they show the “normal corporate workers day.” They say that it’s a bunch of stiffs sitting at a desk with alert minds and tireless machines doing the same routine every day. In other words, they are probably not likely to invite anything. IDEO shows a different side to working. They don’t discriminate based on your title or how long you've been with the company. They bounce off everyone’s ideas and everyone’s opinion matters.

The company was faced with a new project that needed to be completed in five days. They needed to innovate the supermarket shopping cart. The project leader is Peter Skillman. He is project manager because he is good with groups and not because of seniority. The rest of the team consists of different careers. Biology major, psychologist, marketing experts and so many more! Safety and theft were the first issues reported. The team splits up to see what the people who use, make, and repair shopping carts feel. They went around to different supermarkets and took pictures of the customers with their carts, and asked customers and the staff questions concerning the carts. They looked at the shopping cart from different perspectives to come up with useful and relatable ideas for the 21^st century shopping cart. Each group came back to IDEO and shared their ideas and everything they've learned to the rest of the team.

Day two is the deep dive! For the next few hours the ideas pour out and are hung on the walls! One idea was Velcro pants and Velcro seats for the children. When questioned about the idea, Dave says that you have to have some wild ideas, then you’re supposed to build on top of those wild ideas and they end up being great ideas.  “If everyone thinks the same and appropriately, you’d never have any points to build off of for a really innovative idea” says Dave. A few hours later the team narrowed down the ideas by voting on them. “Enlighten trial and error, succeeds over the planning of the lone genius” says Parker. This statement pretty much sums up IDEO's approach. At 6:00 pm, the team is ready to show their prototype shopping carts. There were some very interesting ideas the team came up with. One idea I personally liked was having an item scanner on the cart to keep track of how much money you’re spending. I think this could be very helpful to shoppers. Other ideas were personally calling for assistance from a worker at the supermarket through a little microphone, piling hand-baskets in a cart, a high-tech cart that gets you through the traffic at checkout, and a cart that is based on child safety. Many great ideas were made and carried out, let’s see what happens next!

It’s the final day of the shopping cart project. What do you know? They designed the entire cart in a day, then took that cart and fabricated it in a day. The cart they built costs the same as your average shopping cart, but looks and acts different in every aspect! Hand-baskets are stacked in a metal frame, there is a handle that ‘straps’ the children into the seat, the carts wheels turn 90 degrees so the cart can move sideways, and they saved the scanner idea from the prototype.

I think the team did a very good job with this project! They succeeded in making a low-cost 21^st century shopping cart. I think every new aspect that was added to the cart is useful and helpful! I loved the way their team worked together, and how they did their work. I like that they don’t discriminate based on your title or seniority. Every opinion and idea matters to this team and I think that is what keeps them going.

Mars B First Oil: Integrated & Delivered:

Shell has begun production from Mars B development. This is the company’s seventh and largest floating deep-water platform. The platform is located in the Gulf of Mexico. The team spent about 5 months doing the final hookups for the opening of the first well. The whole is about 20 stories tall, and the drilling rig is another 25 stories tall. As you can imagine, this is a big area. In the middle of the video, they open the first well after years of planning and operating. There was a flow of oil coming from the well! They are now officially a “producing facility.” For them to work as a team for so long, and coming this far it was really amazing to see the looks on their faces. Everyone was so proud and I’m sure it felt like a weight off their shoulders. I really enjoyed the video and it was amazing to see from an engineer’s perspective and to watch their reactions when they've succeeded!

Chapter 8 Notes Pt. 2

8.8 ENERGY

·        The Six Types of Energy and the Units used

Ø  Work: (W) energy expended by exertion of a force.

Ø  Potential Engery: (PE) a form of work done by moving a weight.

Ø  Kinetic Energy: (KE) a form of energy possessed by an object in motion.

Ø  Thermal Energy: (Q) or heat, is energy associated with a change in temperature.

8.9 POWER

·        Power

Ø  Power is defined as energy per time.

Ø  Power = energy / time

Ø  W = J / s

Ø  SI unit of power is watt

Ø  Power is the rate at which energy is delivered over time.

8.11 ELECTRICAL CONCEPTS

·        Electric Concepts (electric charge, electric current, voltage, electric resistance, electric power)

Ø  Electric Charge: Physical property of matter that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field. There are two types of electric charges: positive and negative.

Ø  Electric Current: measured in aperes. A flow of electric charge.

Ø  Voltage: is quantified using units of volts, and is an electromotive force of potential difference expressed in volts. (amasci.com/miscon/voltage.html) Voltage is what pushes the charges around to create current.

Ø  Electric Resistance: Repulsion of a current within a circuit. Resistance is quantified using ohms. One ohm is defined as one volt per ampere.

Ø  Electric Power: The rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is watt. (One joule per second)

·        Discuss resistors

Ø  A device having a designed resistance to the passage of an electric current.

Ø  They act to reduce current flow and act to lower voltage levels within circuits.

·        Discuss capacitors

Ø  A device used to store an electric charge, consisting of one or more pairs of conductors separated by an insulator.

Ø  Like a battery.

Ø  Store electrical energy.

·        Discuss Inductors

Ø  A passive two-terminal electrical component which resists changes in electric current passing through it.

Ø  Stores energy in the form of a magnetic field. 

Chapter 8 Notes

8.1 FORCE

-This table below shows the five common derived units in the SI system.

(Picture was saved from Alexandra's blog)

-Force=mass*acceleration

-F=ma

- The acceleration of something depends on the force exerted on it and its mass.

- SI unit of force=newton

- A newton is defined as the force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second squared.

- A pound can be used as a unit of mass or force.

8.2 WEIGHT

- The difference between weight and mass:

-Mass is a measure of how much matter an object has. Weight is a measure of how strongly gravity pulls on that matter. For example, astronauts have the same mass in space, but a different weight because of weaker gravity.

8.3 DENSITY

- Density is the mass of an object divided by the volume the object occupies.

- Density is shown as p

-p=m/V

- Specific gravity (SG) of an object is a dimensionless ratio of the density of the object to the density of water.

            -SG= Density of object/Density of water

- Specific gravity limits

 - Solids> .5, <23

 - Liquids ~1

- Glasses ~0.001-0.0001

 -*exceptions:

              -iodine, 4.93

              -mercury, 13.6

8.4 AMOUNT

-Difference in amount in grams and the amount in moles:

            -grams=mass

            -moles=units of something

-If we have 12 of something it’s a dozen. If we have 20 of something it’s a score. If we have 6.022 X 10^23 it’s a mole.

 -Avogadro’s Number:

            -Avogadro’s Number= 6.022 X 10^23 mol^-1

            -It is difficult to measure a substance in moles, but it is easy to measure its mass.

            -Avogadro’s number offers a conversion path between moles and mass.

8.5 TEMPERATURE

-Four temperature scales:

            -Celsius

            -Fahrenheit

            -Kelvin

            -Rankine

T [Fahrenheit] – 32 / 180= T [Celsius] – 0 / 100

T [Kelvin] = T [Celsius] + 273

T [Rankine] = T [Fahrenheit] + 460

-The Kelvin and Rankine scales are absolute, which means that at absolute zero, the temperature at which molecules have minimum possible motion, the temperature is zero.

8.6 PRESSURE

-Pressure is defined as force acting over an area, where the force is perpendicular to the area.

-A pascal is the unit of pressure.

-One newton of force acting on an area of one square meter.

Pressure = force / area

Pa = N / m^2

-Atmospheric pressure: pressure created by the weight of air above us.

            -Standard atmospheric pressure is an average air pressure at sea level

            -Defined as one atmosphere [atm]

            -~14.7 pound-force per square inch. [psi]

-Absolute pressure = Gauge pressure + Atmospheric pressure

-Hydrostatic pressure: pressure exerted on a submerged object by the fluid in which it is immersed.

-Total pressure: the combination of atmospheric and hydrostatic pressure.

-Gas pressure: pressure created by a gas inside a closed container.

8.7 GAS PRESSURE:

- Ideal Gas Law

            PV = nRT

            -Only Kelvin or Rankine can be used in the ideal gas equation

            -P: Pressure

            -V: Volume

            -n: Amount s of gas in closed container

            -R: Gas constant

            -T: Temperature (either in Kelvin or Rankine)

The Great Egg Drop Week 2

Alex and I have made incredible progress in just one week. We have revised our problem definition, built our contraption and tested it once (from a height more than just two inches)!

Our new problem definition is: Our clients chickens are laying eggs at heights less than or equal to 17 feet. She is having trouble collecting the eggs because they are breaking once they hit the ground.

We are here to help her with the problem and that is why we are building this contraption to catch her falling eggs.

You saw in my last post our design layout and all of our planning. This week we put everything together realizing a few things. First, it made more sense for us to have a square foundation because it gave our basket more support when the egg falls in. Then instead of using one basket design, we used both designs together for more cushion for the egg. Finally, we completely got rid of the top of our contraption (the funneled top). This helped us with our budget and cost of the contraption.

In the pictures below, our foundation is composed of four triangles made from straw and taped together. Our basket was created by using straws cut into thirds with a tape drape interior.

With our first test, we used the plum bob to make sure we got it exactly in the basket. Alex was our handy dandy egg dropper and if she wasn't so nervous she would have made it in, but she missed it by a hair and our egg hit the corner of the basket and cracked. However, next week we will definitely make it inside our basket unharmed!

Alex and I have come a long way since last week and we are definitely going to succeed! We have built this contraption by bouncing and feeding off of each others ideas. I couldn't be more proud of our team!

The Great Egg Drop Week 1

Our first project in this class is The Great Egg Drop. We have divided into teams of 2 or 3 and we represent different countries. For example, Alexandra and I are a team and we are representing Japan. Each team is responsible for creating an ‘egg catcher.’ This contraption should be able to catch falling eggs from a height greater or less than 17 feet.

The trick to this challenge, we are only allowed to use one roll of masking tape, and 100 straws. For the next three weeks Alex and I will be posting regularly about our contraption and the progress we are making. Here are a few pictures of sketches and problem solving done in our first lab class.

This first picture representing our problem definition, criteria, and physics behind the challenge.

This second picture represents our design from a top view.

Finally, this represents a side view from our design sketch. We have decided between two designs. We will either build a straw bottom for our center basket, or we will create a hammock with the tape.

There is much more where this came from and I can’t wait to share with you! Alex and I are a great team, and I am so excited to begin building! 

Chapter 7 Notes

1.    Dimensions vs Units:

·         A dimensions is a measurable extent. Height, length

·         A unit lets us to quantify a dimension.

·         Length is dimension, there are many units of length such as miles and feet.

2.    SI Prefixes:

·         Based on multiples of 10.

·         We avoid scientific notation or long strings of zeros.

·         Instead of: 198,000 We say: 198 Kilometers

3.    The 7 fundamental dimensions & base units:

·         Dimension: Length Symbol: L

·         Dimension: Mass Symbol: M

·         Dimension: Time Symbol: T

·         Dimension: Amount of Substance Symbol: N

·         Dimension: Light intensity Symbol: J

·         Dimension: Electric Current Symbol: I

·         Unit: Kilogram Symbol: kg

·         Unit: Meter Symbol: M

·         Unit: Second Symbol: s

·         Unit: Kelvin Symbol: K

·         Unit: Mole Symbol: mol

·         Unit: Candela Symbol: cd

·         Unit: Ampere Symbol: A

4.    Official SI rules:

·         If the unit abbreviation is a capital letter, it’s named after a person.

·         Symbols of units are not plural (cm, not cms.)

·         You do not put a period after the symbol unless at the end of a sentence.

·         Symbols are written like (m, k, L) not (m, k, l)

·         One space separates the number and symbol.

·         Spaces or commas may be used to group digits by threes.

·         Symbols with multiple units are joined with a space or interpunct.

·         Do not combine prefixes to form compound prefixes. Correct; picojoules (pJ) Incorrect; kiloMegaseconds (kMs)

5.    Difference in SI, AES and USCS. What are they? Which do you prefer? Why?:

·         SI: System International (meters, kilograms, seconds, kelvin, celcius)

·         AES: American Engineering System (feet, pounds, seconds, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         USCS: United States Customary System (feet, slug, second, Fahrenheit, rankine)

·         I prefer to use AES and USCS only because I am used to the units and I have used them before.

6.    Unit Conversion Procedure:

·         This was a difficult topic to understand. However, the procedure is as follows.

·         Write the value and unit to be converted.

·         Write the conversion formula between the given unit and the desired unit.

·         Make a fraction, equal to 1, of the conversion formula in Step 2, such that the original unit in step 1 is located either in the denominator or in the numerator.

·         Multiply the term from step 1 by the fraction developed in step 3.

·         Cancel units, perform mathematical calculations, and express the answer in reasonable terms.

7.    Unit Conversion Procedure involving multiple steps:

Refer to table 7-4 to 7-8 in Thinking like an Engineer. Page 161