EXCEL ENGINEERING COLLEGE

(Autonomous)
Department of Aeronautical Engineering
VI Semester
20AE603 Professional ethics in engineering
Regulations 2020
Question Bank
UNIT –II (ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION)
PART- A
Q.No Questions Marks CO BL
What are the conditions required to define a valid consent?
(April 2015)
The consent was given voluntarily.
The consent was based on the information that rational person
1 2 CO2 U
would want, together with any other information requested,
presented to them in understandable form.
The consenter was competent to process the information and
make rational decisions.
What are the two main elements which are included to
understand Informed consent? (OR)
Define Informed Consent?
Informed Consent is understood as including two main elements:
2 Knowledge [Subjects should be given not only the information they 2 CO2 U
request, but all the information needed to make a reasonable
decision].
Voluntariness [Subjects must enter into the experiment without
being subjected to force, fraud, or deception].
What are the general features of morally responsible
engineers?
Conscientiousness.
3 Comprehensive perspective. 2 CO2 U
Autonomy.
Accountability.

What is the purpose of various types of standards? (OR)

What are the advantages of Industrial Standards?
Accuracy in measurement, interchangeability, ease of handling.
Prevention of injury, death and loss of income or property.
4 Fair value of price. 2 CO2 U
Competence in carrying out tasks.
Sound design, ease of communications.
Freedom from interference.

What is meant by accountability?

The people who feel their responsibility always accept moral
5 2 CO2 R
responsibilities for their action.It is known as accountable.It means
being culpable and hold responsible for faults.
What is balanced outlook on Law?
6 A balanced outlook on laws stresses the necessity of laws and 2 CO2 U
regulations and their limitations in directing engineering practice.
 List out the analytical methods used when testing is
inappropriate?
Scenerio Analysis.
7 2 CO2 R
Failure models and Effect Analysis
Fault Tree Analysis
Event Tree Analysis
What are the principles of strict Liability?
Consider the importance of chances of defects that are causing
injury against the cost of minimizing defects.
8 The following and implementing the accepted practices and 2 CO2 U
observing standards are not sufficient.
Standards and practices are simply the checklists. so the
engineers have to use them creatively and judgementally.
Enumerate the roles of codes?
Inspiration and Guidance
Support
Deterrence and Discipline
9 2 CO2 R
Education and Mutual Understanding
Contributing to the Profession‟s Public Image
Protecting the Status Quo
Promoting Business Interests
Give the limitations of codes?
Codes are restricted to general and vague wording.
Codes can‟t give a solution or method for solving the internal
10 conflicts. 2 CO2 U
Codes cannot serve as the final moral authority for professional
conduct.
Codes can be reproduced in a very rapid manner

What are the problems with the law in engineering?

11 2 CO2 R
Minimal compliance
Many laws are without enforceable sanctions.
What is the need to view engineering projects as experiments?
(OR)
Why engineers are considered as responsible experimenters?
Any project is carried out in partial ignorance.
The final outcomes of engineering projects, like those of
12 experiments, are generally uncertain. 2 CO2 U
Effective engineering relies upon knowledge gained about products
before and after
they leave the factory – knowledge needed for improving current
products and creating
better ones
Differentiate scientific experiments and engineering projects?
Scientific experiments are conducted to gain new knowledge, while
13 “engineering 2 CO2 R
projects are experiments that are not necessarily designed to
produce very much knowledge”.
14 What are the uncertainties occur in the model designs? 2 CO2 U
Model used for the design calculations.
Exact characteristics of the materials purchased.
Constancies of materials used for processing and fabrication.
 Nature of the pressure, the finished product will encounter.
Define Moral Autonomy?
It refers to the personal involvement in one‟s activities. People are
morally autonomous only when their moral conduct and principles of
actions are their own i.e., genuine in one‟s commitment to moral
values.
15 Moral beliefs and attitudes must be integrated into an individual‟s 2 CO2 R
personality which leads to a committed action. They cannot be
agreed formally and adhered to merely verbally.
So, the individual principles are not passively absorbed from others.
When he is morally autonomous and also his actions are not
separated from himself.

PART- B
Q.No Questions Marks CO BL
1 Explain Research Ethics? 16 CO2 U
This is the most common way of defining "ethics": norms for conduct
that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
Most people learn ethical norms at home, at school, in church, or in
other social settings.
Although most people acquire their sense of right and wrong during
childhood, moral development occurs throughout life and human
beings pass through different stages of growth as they mature.
Most societies also have legal rules that govern behavior, but ethical
norms tend to be broader and more informal than laws. Although
most societies use laws to enforce widely
accepted moral standards and ethical and legal rules use similar
concepts
Another way of defining 'ethics' focuses on the disciplines that study
standards of conduct, such as philosophy, theology, law,
psychology, or sociology. For example, a "medical ethicist" is
someone who studies ethical standards in medicine. One may also
define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding
how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues. For
instance, in considering a complex issue like global warming, one
may take an economic, ecological, political, or ethical perspective on
the problem.
Codes and Policies for Research Ethics
Given the importance of ethics for the conduct of research, it should
come as no surprise
that many different professional associations, government agencies,
and universities have adopted specific codes, rules, and policies
relating to research ethics.
Many government agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), the National
Science Foundation (NSF), the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), and the US Department of Agriculture
(USDA) have ethics rulesfor funded researchersThe following is a
rough and general summary of some ethical principles that various
codes
address:
Honesty
Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly report
data, results, methods and procedures, and publication status. Do
not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. Do not deceive
colleagues, granting agencies, or the public.
Objectivity
Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data
interpretation, peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert
testimony, and other aspects of research where objectivity is
expected or required. Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception.
Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect research.
Integrity
Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for
consistency of thought and action.
Carefulness
Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically
examine your own work and the work of your peers. Keep good
records of research activities, such as data collection, research
design, and correspondence with agencies or journals.
Openness
Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and
new ideas.
Respect for Intellectual Property
Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property.
Do not use unpublished data, methods, or results without
permission. Give credit where credit is due. Give proper
acknowledgement or credit for all contributions to research. Never
plagiarize.
Confidentiality
Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants
submitted for publication, personnel records, trade or military
secrets, and patient records.
Responsible Publication
Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to
advance just your own career. Avoid wasteful and duplicative
publication.
Responsible Mentoring
Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare
and allow them to make their own decisions.
Respect for colleagues
Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.
Social Responsibility
Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms
through research, public education, and advocacy. Non-
Discrimination
Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of
sex, race, ethnicity, or other factors that are not related to their
scientific competence and integrity.
Competence
Maintain and improve your own professional competence and
expertise through lifelong education and learning; take steps to
promote competence in science as a whole.
Legality
Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental
 policies.

2 Describe the safety issues that were ignored in

launching of the space shuttle challenger?
The space shuttle that carried astronauts to the moon had three
stage rockets safety point of view. A similar design was suggested in
case of Challenger, but it was rejected by the government sincere it
was too expensive. The crew had no escape mechanism.
The shuttle programme was an experimental and a research
undertaking. Challenger astronauts were not informed about the
problems such as the field joints. They were not asked for their
consent towards unsafe condition. 16 CO2 U
Another cause for the failure of the Challenger was the NASA‟s
scientists were unwilling to wait for proper weather condition.
Weather was partially responsible for Challenger‟s disaster.
Because, a strong wind shear may result in rupturing of the weak O-
rings.
The safety concerns were ignored by the management. One
engineer said this “A small amount of professional safety effort and
the support of the management will cause an enormous quantum
safety improvement with little expenses”. The important role of the
management is for safety first and the schedules second.
3 Challenger disaster-discuss? 16 CO2 R
The space shuttle by name “Challenger” was launched by “National
Aeronautical Soc iety of
America (NASA) in the year 1986. The main components of the
space shuttle „challenger‟ are:
1. Main rocket
2. Booster rocket
3. Orbiter
4. O-rings in the field joint
5. Satellite
6. Shuttle
Challenger – The Space Shuttle
For launching satellites and other missions, U.S. Air Force was
directed to use the NASA
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) shuttle, instead of
its own shuttle. In the
Space Shuttle, each orbiter has three main engines, fueled by a few
million – newtons of liquid hydrogen. The fuel is carried in a very big
external divided fuel tank, which is abandoned when becomes
empty.
During liftoff, immediately after firing, much of the thrust is supplied
by two “booster rockets”.
These booster rockets are of the “solid-fuel type”, each burning
about a million - newtons load
of a mixture of aluminum, potassium chloride and iron oxide.
The casing of each booster rocket is about 50 meters long and 4
meters in diameter. It consists of cylindrical segments that are
assembled at the launching site. The four field joints use seals made
of pairs of O-rings, manufactured from vulcanized rubber which is
less heatresistant.
To make it more heat – resistant, a putty barrier made of zinc
 chromide is provided.
After unexpected delays, Challenger‟s first flight was set for
launching on Tuesday morning,
January 28th 1986. Mr. Alan J.McDonald, one of the Design Engineer
at Cape Kennedy was worried about the freezing temperature
predicted for the night. Also another design engineer
of the solid booster rocket, knew the difficulties that were
experienced with the field joints, on a previous cold-weather launch.
The seal experts explained to the NASA engineers that how of
launching, the booster rocket walls will bulge and the combustion
gases will blow past both O-rings of the filed joints. The
O-rings will fail, as had been observed on many previous flights. In
cold weather, the problem is still worse because the O-rings and the
putty packing are less pliable.
The NASA engineers agreed that there was a problem with safety.
According to specifications, no launching should take place at less
than 53`F, but the temperature predicted at that night was very near
to freezing temperature. This made the engineers to postpone the
launching.
In order to save the image of the company which fabricated booster
rockets, its engineers thought that the seals could not be shown to
be unsafe. Considering the other factors the engineers expressed
that the launching will be unsafe, but their suggestion was not
heeded.
Somehow, the NASA engineers decided to go ahead with launching
of the space shuttle.
The temperature had risen to 36`F. As the rockets carrying
“challenger” rose from the ground, there was puffs of smoke that
emanated from one of the filed joints on the right side of booster
rocket. Soon these turned into a flame, which hit the external fuel
tank. The hydrogen in the tank caught fire, and the challenger‟s wing
was smashed. Within 75 seconds from liftoff, the challenger and its
rockets had reached 16,000 metres high and it was totally engulfed
in flames.
The crew cabin separated and fell into the ocean, killing all the crew.
Thus the challenger‟s disaster was totally not only a technological
disaster but also a financial
Disaster

4 Briefly list down the code of ethics for corporate 16 CO2 R

members as per institution of engineers, India?
A balanced outlook on laws
In 1969, at Santa Barbara Offshore in California, there spilled about
12 lakhs litres of crude oil. This made the spectacular beach, a black
one, for a stretch of about 50km. This also damaged wildlife and the
tourist trade was affected. This disaster prompted new laws and
strict controls to prevent such occurrences in the future.
In drafting safety regulation for offshore drilling experienced
petroleum engineers, geologist and well drillers are to be involved.
Some safeguards are also required by law. Following the
Santa Barbara incident, then Secretary of Petroleum department
ordered an inspection of thousands of offshore oil wells. The
inspection showed that hundreds of wells lacked mandatory safety
chokes. The Secretary ordered prosecutions.
A regulated society
In order to live, work and play together in harmony as a society we
have to balance individual needs and desires, against collective
needs and desires. Ethical conduct provides such a balance.
Engineers should play an active role in establishing rules of
engineering as well as in enforcing them.
Industrial Standards
Among many areas, industry is one which welcomes greater
accuracy and quality in respect of standards.
Standards decrease production cost. Standards not only help the
manufacturers but also benefit the clients and the public. They help
the industries to be more competitive but reduces importance on
name brands and give the smaller manufacturer a chance to
compete.
International standards are becoming a necessity in world trade.
The proper roles of law in engineering and sincere attempts on
regulations have often failed.
It would be wrong to say, rule making and rule following are futile.
Good laws effectively enforced, clearly produce benefits. Good laws
establish reasonabl minimum standards of professional conduct.
Moreover, standards serve as a powerful support and defense for
those who want to act ethically.
Rules that govern the engineering practice should not be viewed as
rules of a game but to be viewed as rules of responsible
experimentation.
Such a view fixes greater responsibility on the engineer who is
connected with his or her experiment. Precise rule and enforceable
sanctions are expected to give good result in case of ethical
misconduct. Rules must neither attempt to cover all possible
outcomes not they must force the engineer to adopt a rigid, specified
course of action. Regulations should be broad but it has to make the
engineer accountable for his or her actions.
Laws serve as a protector of the ethical engineer, some laws are
being slowly modified from the precedence of court verdicts.
Sometimes engineer will try to settle cases out of the court, though
this helps an engineer. It will not establish a legal precedence.
A BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW
A balanced outlook on laws stresses the necessity of laws and
regulations and their limitations in directing engineering practice.
In order to live, work and play together in harmony as a society,
there must be a balance between individual needs and desires
against collective needs and desires. Only ethical conduct can
provide such a balance. This ethical conduct can be applied only
with the help of laws. Laws are important as the people are not fully
responsible and because of the competitive nature of the free
enterprise system which does not encourage moral initiative.
The model of engineering as social experimentation allows for the
importance of clear laws to be effectively enforced.
Engineers ought to play an effective role in promoting or changing
enforceable rules of engineering as well as in enforcing them. So the
codes must be enforced with the help of laws. The following are the
 two best examples.

1. Babylon’s Building Code: (1758 B.C.)

This code was made by Hammurabi, king of Babylon. He formed a
code for builders of
his time and all the builders were forced to follow the code by law.
He ordered
“If a builder has built a house for a man and has not made his
work sound, and the house which he has built was fallen down
and so caused the death of the householder, that builder shall
be put to death. If it causes the death of the house holder’s son,
they shall put that builder’s son to death. If it causes the death
of the house holder’s slave, he shall give slave to the
householder. If it destroys property he
shall replace anything it has destroyed; and because he has not
made the house sound which he has built and it has fallen
down, he shall rebuild the house which has fallen down from
his own property. If a builder has built a house for a man and
does not make his work perfect and the wall bulges, that builder
shall put that wall in to sound condition at his own cost”.
The above portion of Babylon‟s building code was respected duly.
But the aspects find only little approval today. This code gives a
powerful incentive for self-regulation.
2. The United States Steamboat Code: [1852 A.D]
Steam engines in the past were very large and heavy. James Watt,
Oliver Evans and Richard
Trevethik modified the old steam engines by removing condensers
and made them compact.
Beyond careful calculations and guidelines, explosions of boiler
happened on steam boats, because of the high speed of the boats.
The safety valves were unable to keep steam pressure up causing
explosion. During that period in 18th century, more than 2500 people
were killed and 2000 people were injured because of the explosion
of boilers in steam boats.
Due to this, the ruling congress in USA passed a law which provided
for inspection of the safety aspects of ships and their boilers and
engines. But his law turned out to be ineffective due to the
corruptions of the inspectors and also their inadequate training
regarding the safety checking. Then Alfred Guthiro, an engineer of
Illinoise had inspected about 200 steam boats on his own cost and
found out the reasons for the boiler explosions and made a report.
His recommendations were published by a Senator Shields of
Illinoise and incorporated in senate documents. With the help of this,
another law was passed. Now it is in the hands of the American
Society of
Mechanical Engineers who formulated the standards for producing
steam boats.

5 Engineers are Responsible Experimenters – Explain? 16 CO2 U

ENGINEERS AS RESPONSIBLE EXPERIMENTERS

The engineers have so many responsibilities for serving the society.
1. A primary duty is to protect the safety of human beings and
respect their right of consent. [A conscientious commitment to live by
moral values].
2. Having a clear awareness of the experimental nature of any
project, thoughtful forecasting of its possible side effects, and an
effort to monitor them reasonably. [A comprehensive perspective or
relative information].
3. Unrestricted free personal involvement in all the steps of a project.
[Autonomy]
4. Being accountable for the results of a project [Accountability]
5. Exhibiting their technical competence and other characteristics of
professionalism.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness implies consciousness (sense of awareness). As
holding the responsible profession with maintaining full range moral
ethics and values which are relevant to the situation. In order to
understand the given situation, its implications, knowhow, person
who is involved or affected, Engineers should have open eyes, open
ears and open mind.
The present working environment of engineers, narrow down their
moral vision fully with the obligations accompanied with the status of
the employee. More number of engineers are only salaried
employees, so, they have to work within large bureaucracies under
great pressure to work smoothly within the company. They have to
give importance only to the obligations of their employers. Gradually,
the small negative duties such as not altering data by fraud, not
violating patent right and not breaking confidentiality, may be viewed
as the full extent of moral desire.
As mentioned, engineering as social experimentation brings into light
not only to the person concerned but also to the public engineers as
guardians of the public interest i.e., to safeguard the welfare and
safety of those affected by the engineering projects. This
view helps to ensure that this safety and welfare will not be affected
by the search for new
knowledge, the hurry to get profits, a small and narrow follow up of
rules or a concern over benefits for the many and ignoring the harm
to the few.
The social experimentation that involved in engineering should be
restricted by the participants consent.
Relevant Information
Without relevant factual information, conscientious is not possible.
For showing moral concern there should be an obligation to obtain
and assess properly all the available information related to the
fulfillment of one‟s moral obligations. This can be explained as:
1) To understand and grasp the circumstance of a person‟s work, it
is necessary to know about how that work has a moral importance.
For example, A person is trying to design a good heat exchanger.
There is nothing wrong in that. But at the same time, if he forgets the
fact that the heat exchanger will be used in the manufacture of an
illegal product, then he is said to be showing a lack of moral
concern. So a person must be aware of the wider implication of his
work that makes participation in a project.
2) Blurring the circumstance of a person‟s work derived from his
specialization and division of labour is to put the responsibilities on
someone else in the organization. For
example if a company produces items which are out of fashion or the
items which promotes unnecessary energy wastage, then it is easy
to blame sales department.
The above said means, neglecting the importance of a person‟s
works also makes it difficult in acquiring a full perspective along a
second feature of factual information i.e., consequence of what one
does.
So, while giving regard to engineering as social experimentation,
points out the importance of circumstances of a work and also
encourage the engineers to view his specialized activities in a
project as a part of a large social impact.
Moral Autonomy
This refers to the personal involvement in one‟s activities. People
are morally autonomous only when their moral conduct and
principles of actions are their own i.e., genuine in one‟s commitment
to moral values.
Moral beliefs and attitudes must be integrated into an individual‟s
personality which leads to a committed action. They cannot be
agreed formally and adhered to merely verbally.
So, the individual principles are not passively absorbed from others.
When he is morally autonomous and also his actions are not
separated from himself.
When engineering have seen as a social experimentation, it helps to
keep a sense of autonomous participation in a person‟s work. An
engineer, as an experimenter, is undergoing training which helps to
form his identity as a professional. It also results in unexpected
consequence which helps to inspire a critical and questioning
attitudes about the current economic and safety standards. This also
motivates a greater sense of personal involvement in a person‟s
work.
Accountability
The people those who feel their responsibility, always accept moral
responsibilities for their actions. It is known as accountable. In short,
„accountable‟ means being culpable and hold responsible for faults.
In general and to be proper, it means the general tendency of being
willing to consider one‟s actions to moral examinations and be open
and respond to the assessment of others. It comprises a desire to
present morally convincing reasons for one‟s conduct when called
upon in specific circumstances.
The separation of causal influence and moral accountability is more
common in all business and professions and also in engineering.
These differences arising from several
features of modern engineering practices are as follows:
1. Large – scale engineering projects always involve division of
work. For each and every piece of work, every person contributes a
small portion of their work towards the completion of the project. The
final output us transmitted from one‟s immediate work place to
another causing a decrease in personal accountability.
2. Due to the fragmentation of work, the accountability will spread
widely within an organization. The personal accountability will spread
over on the basis of hierarchies of authority.
3. There is always a pressure to move on to a different project
before finishing the current one. This always leads to a sense of
 being accountable only for fulfilling the schedules.
4. There is always a weaker pre-occupation with legalities. In other
words this refers to a way a moral involvement beyond the laid down
institutional role. To conclude, engineers are being always blamed
for all the harmful side effects of their projects.
Engineers cannot separate themselves from personal
responsibilities for their work.

(Note:*Blooms Level (R – Remember, U – Understand, AP – Apply, AZ – Analyze, E – Evaluate, C – Create)

PART A- Blooms Level : Remember, Understand, Apply
PART B- Blooms Level: Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate(if possible)
Marks: 16 Marks, 8+8 Marks, 10+6 Marks)

Subject In charge Course Coordinator HOD IQAC

(Name & Signature) (Name & Signature)