Module 3- Student’s note.

Engineering as Experimentation:

 The engineering process lets us go through a series of different experiments regarding practical use.
 Before manufacturing a product or providing a project, we make several assumptions and trials, Design and
redesign and test several times bill the product is observed to be functioning satisfactorily
 A Trial- and error method is the mostly cured one to obtain results
 The output or outcomes of experiments may not be as expected, as an engineer should always be ready for
the unexpected output
 Several redesigns are made upon the feedback on the performance or failure in the field or factory. Besides
the tests, each engineering project is modified during execution based on the periodical feedback on the
progress and the lessons from other sources. Hence, the development of a product or a project as a whole
may be considered an experiment
Engineers as responsible experimenters:

Engineers, as experimenters, own several responsibilities to society, namely

• A conscientious commitment to live by moral values.
• A comprehensive perspective on relevant information. It includes constant awareness of the progress of
the experiment and readiness to monitor the side effects, if any.
• Unrestricted free personal involvement in all the steps of the project/product development.
• Free accountability for the result of the project.

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 • Consciousness makes the engineers, as social experimenters, respect foremost the safety and health of
the affected while they seek to enrich their knowledge.
• Engineers should grasp the content of their work to ensure that the work involved results in only moral
ends.
• Viewing engineers as social experimenters and anticipating unknown consequences should promote an
attitude of questioning the adequacy of the existing economic and safety standards. This proves a greater
sense of personal involvement in one's work
• Accountability is answerable for meeting specific obligations and is liable for justifying the decisions,
actions, means, and outcomes required by law.

In spite of all these shortcomings, engineers are expected to face the risk and show personal
Responsibility as the profession demands.

Codes of Ethics:

• A code of ethics is a guide of principles designed to help professionals conduct business honestly
and with integrity.
• The goal is to ensure that a business and its employees follow state and federal laws.
Examples of codes of ethics
• Act with integrity, competence, diligence, respect and in an ethical manner with the public, clients,
employers, employer's colleagues in the investment profession and other participants in the global
capital markets.
• Participating and encouraging others to participate professionally and ethically will reflect credit
on themselves and their profession.
• Promote the integrity and visibility of the global markets for the ultimate benefit of society.
• Maintain and improve their professional competence and strive to maintain and improve the
competence of other investment professionals.

PLAGIARISM:

• Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent,
by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.
• Plagiarism may be intentional or reckless, or unintentional.
• The best way of avoiding plagiarism is to learn and employ the principles of good academic
practice from the beginning of your university career.

There are different types of plagiarism, and all are a serious violation of academic honesty

• Direct Plagiarism: Direct plagiarism is the word-for-word transcription of a section of someone

else's work without attribution and quotation marks.
• Self-Plagiarism: Self Plagiarism occurs when a student submits their previous work or mixes parts
of previous works without permission from all professors involved.
• Mosaic Plagiarism: Mosaic Plagiarism occurs when a student borrows phrases from a source
without using quotation marks or finds synonyms for the author's language while keeping to the
same general structure and meaning of the original.
• Accidental Plagiarism: Accidental Plagiarism occurs when a person neglects to cite their sources
or misquotes their sources by using similar words, groups of words, and sentence structure without
attribution.

A BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW:

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 • The ethical conduct which can maintain such balance can be applied with the help of laws.
• The balanced outlook on the law in engineering practices stresses the necessity of law and
regulations.
• And also their limitations in directing and controlling the engineering practices.
• In order to live, work and play together in harmony as a society, we need to carefully balance
individual needs and desires against collective needs and desires.
• Laws are needed to provide a minimum level of compliance.
• Only ethical conduct can provide such a balance.
• So, the code must be enforced with the help of laws.
• It is wrong to write off rule-making and rule-following as ineffective. Good laws, effectively
enforced, clearly produce benefits.
• The following codes are typical examples of how they were enforced in the past.
• Codes for builders by Hammurabi
• Hammurabi, the King of Babylon 1758, farmed the following codes for the builders
• Steam Boat Code in the USA.

CHALLENGES CASE STUDY:

What happened?

The orbiter of the challenger had three main engines fuelled by liquid hydrogen. The fuel was carried in an
external fuel tank which was jettisoned when empty. During lift-off, the main engines fire for about nine minutes,
although initially, the thrust was provided by the two booster rockets. These booster rockets are of the solid fuel
type, each burning a million-pound load of aluminium, potassium chloride and iron oxide.
The casing of each booster rocket is about 150 feet long and 12 feet in diameter. This consists of cylindrical
segments that are assembled at the launch site. There are four-field joints, and they use seals consisting of pairs
of O-rings made of vulcanized rubber. The O-rings work with a putty barrier made of zinc chromate.
The engineers were employed with Rockwell International. Morton-Thiokol, and they worked for NASA. After
many years of postponements, the launch of the challenger was set for the morning of January 2, 1986. Allan J
McDonald was an engineer from Morton-Thiokol and the director of the solid rocket booster project.
The cameras recorded smoke coming out of one of the field joints on the right booster rocket. Soon there was a
flame that hit the external fuel tank. The crew cabin fell into the ocean, killing all the seven aboard.

THE INVESTIGATION
Why the challenger blew up?
The engineers had all the data that they needed. They knew cold O-rings were likely to fail. Engineering
management believed them and told NASA not to launch. NASA asked for supporting data, and engineers
presented the data poorly. NASA was unconvinced. Engineering and management reversed their position and
approved the launch.

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY:

• Bhopal gas tragedy is the world's worst industrial disaster that occurred in 1984.
• It is due to the gas leakage from a pesticide production plant, The Union
• Carbide India Limited (UCIL) is located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
• A leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of
hundreds of thousands of people.
• Among the 5,00,000 people exposed to the gas, 20,000 have died to date and The
• 120,000 continue to suffer devastating health effects as a result of their exposure.
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 • It was believed that slack management and deferred maintenance together created a situation where routine
pipe maintenance caused a backflow of water into the methyl isocyanate (MIC) tank, triggering the disaster.

The cumulative effects of the following factors caused the tragedy in Bhopal on December 3 1984.

1. Maintenance was neglected and reduced as an economic measure. The need for quick diagnosis causes
considerable psychological stress on the plant personnel.
2. Training activities for the supervisory personnel were stopped. This led to inadequate training of the
personnel to handle emergencies.
3. There was a clear lack of management systems and procedures to ensure safety.
4. Vital spares for equipment and types of machinery were not available
5. The absence of capital replacement led to the stagnant economy of the plant.
6. The high turnover of experienced engineers and technicians is demoralized by the lack of development.
7. Lack of experienced personnel to operate and control the vital installations.
8. They have not conducted a thorough process hazards analysis that would have exposed the serious hazards
which resulted in disaster later.
9. No emergency plan was put into practice during the shutdown and maintenance.
10. Above all, the commitment of top-level management to safety was lacking.

Explain the Reasons for Chernobyl Mishap:

The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately
trained personnel
CAUSE:
• Nuclear reactor malfunction
• Largest uncontrolled release of radioactive waste into the environment
• The release of radioactive materials lasted for 10 days
• Worker's lack of knowledge of reactor physics and engineering, as well as lack of experience and
training
• The operators seem to have been unaware of the xenon poisoning
• Insufficient communication between the safety officers and the operators in charge of the
experiment
• Disabled all safety systems.
IMPORTANT QUESTIONS - MODULE -3

 What are the different roles and functions of the “Code of ethics.”
 Write down some examples of the code of ethics
 Explain the Bhopal gas tragedy. Discuss the violation of moral, ethical, and professional codes of standards.
 Description of the Bhopal gas tragedy disaster with sufficient details and reasons for disaster?
 Description of violation of codes, norms etc.
 Explain the term “Balanced outlook on law”?
 What do you mean by engineering as experimentation? Give an example.
 Explain Engineers as responsible Experimenters
 Write a short note on plagiarism?
 Description of the Challenger case study with sufficient details and reasons for disaster?
 Explain the reasons for Chernobyl mishap?