LECTURE-5 SOCIAL & ETHICAL ASPECTS IN

ENGINEERING
BY: ABDUL HANAN TAQI
 ENGINEERING AS EXPERIMENTATION

Example: Titanic (1522 dead)!

Affected ship design
Example: Software engineering and test:
– How much? Expensive!
– Sophistication level of software, how deployed matters
– Historical information about software test is used to know how much is needed
now
– But your project helps contribute knowledge to how much is needed later!
Engineering projects are experiments that involve technology development and humans
 THE DESIGN PROCESS

Engineering product design steps:

◼ Concepts
◼ Preliminary designs, tests
◼ More detailed designs
◼ More tests (? - may cost $$)
◼ Production
◼ More tests! (? - may cost $$$)
◼ The public purchases/uses the product
◼ More tests!!! How to gather results of these tests?
◼ Role of profits/competition with other companies?
Dangerous!!! Engineers are asked to do this!
 SIMILARITIES TO STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

◼ Projects carried out in partial ignorance, outcomes are uncertain

– Engineers are asked to make things work without all the
available scientific knowledge (including that about humans),
safety facts, environment, health, social influences, etc.
– Good design relies on information gathered before and after
a product leaves the factory - especially when the product is tested
in its true “environment,” not fake ones used to simulate the real
environment (e.g., temperature cycling electronic products)
 USING THE PUBLIC TO PERFORM TESTS

◼ We redesign using the public to test our products!

◼ Special care is obviously needed for safety, avoiding loss of customers

Example: Software test for popular software (e.g., word processing
programs, spreadsheets, etc.), computer hardware

◼ Diligence helps, but also…

 LEARNING FROM THE PAST

◼ Product history matters! Respect the past!

◼ Can you always know it? Competence, openness to learning. Do not be
afraid to ask!
◼ Can you know about a competitor’s safety statistics?
◼ Are there good communication channels in your own company?
◼ Between different departments?
◼ Across “generations” of engineers?
◼ Is there a dangerous “generation gap” between young and old engineers?
 CONTRASTS WITH STANDARD EXPERIMENTS

◼ Experiment control?
– Cannot control what humans may do with a product
– What applications will it be used for?
– Will they subject it to unforeseen stresses?
• Informed consent? (e.g., in medical trials)
– Keystone of engineer - public interaction
– What “experiments” are acceptable? Keep in mind that there is a large variance on the
types of customers you might have. Can they all read?

• Knowledge gained? Seek the unexpected!

 RESPONSIBLE EXPERIMENTALISTS

◼ Conscientiousness: Protect safety knowledge, respect right of

consent of public
◼ Comprehensive perspective: Awareness of experimental nature of
projects, forecasting, monitoring
◼ Moral autonomy: Personally engaged, thoughtful, involvement in
project
◼ Accountability: Accept responsibility for results of a project (avoid
fragmentation, diffusion, time pressures)
 TAKING CHARGE

◼ Engineers are not the sole experimenters

– Managers
– Marketing people
– Public
• But, “with knowledge comes responsibility”
• Engineers are in a unique position to:
– Monitor projects
– Identify risks
– Develop facts for informed consent

◼ An engineering professional will take on the responsibility!

 ROLE OF LAWS IN ENGINEERING

Rules of responsible experimentation:”

- Laws can produce many benefits
- Produce minimal standards of professional
conduct
- Provide motive to comply with standards
- Provide support and defense for people who wish
to act ethically
 BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW

◼ Not covering engineering law here

• You may learn some on-the-job
• Likely to learn some “industrial standards,” some of which directly pertain to safety
• Tendency toward more detail
• “Minimal compliance” Is it enough?
– Morally acceptable?
– What about push of new technologies? Areas where there is no law?
• Government/law can be too detailed - can squash moral autonomy of engineers - good
balance?
 CASE STUDIES (FROM STUDENTS) FOR ENGINEERING AS SOCIAL
EXPERIMENTATION

◼ Student: “I was involved in designing and testing network communication software. Some
tests were still being run when clients requested the software. We were unable to finish the
tests, and gave the product to the customer knowing that the system caused lock-ups and
loss of data.
◼ We then used the feedback from these clients to debug the software, and repeated the
process.” What to do?
◼ Similar student case: "In software engineering I have encountered problems in that the time
required for testing the product and the deadline for testing may conflict, and some parts of
the testing may have to be compromised to meet those deadlines.” What factors enter the
compromise in deadlines?
 COMPUTER TESTING

Student: “On a recent co-op job my company had just shipped its latest and
greatest computer product. After a few months in the field it was found to
vastly lack the processor power it needed to do what it claimed to do. The fix
that followed had to have the shortest turn around time I had ever seen. The fix
was top quality, but the damage had been done. A full scale test, or even
simulation, would have predicted this problem before shipping.” What should
the co-op do?

◼ Trust specifications of other’s subcomponents?

 MEETING SPECIFICATION

Student: “At my co-op position I was placed in a design team to create an

audio system. The project was a classic example of marketing wanting the
product so bad that time lines were regarded higher than the quality of the
product.
The audio system's first prototypes arrived with many problems, some of
which could not be resolved until after the product was released. It basically
came down to the decision of letting the consumers find all the problems,
and then hoping that the management would provide the team with more
time and funding to fix the problems, to try to keep the customers happy.”
What should the student do?
 ENVIRONMENT

Student: “A turbidity meter was used to monitor if contaminants were

getting into the water that goes into the river. When those meters failed
to alarm us, and a white pigment went into the river, my project that
focused on redesigning the monitoring station was given support.”

Can/should the engineer do anything?

Creative solutions?
 ENVIRONMENT

Student: “In wastewater treatment plants, control systems are tested in the
field. The control systems are designed according to specifications and
ISA/IEEE rules, but the testing of how the systems will operate under real
life situations is done after installing them. Two questions arise, then: first,
can the plant design withstand additional rain, population increases, weather
problems, etc? Second, can the control system adequately analyze these
new factors and operate the plant successfully? If anything fails, the great
danger is the release of raw sewage/sludge and bacteria onto land and into
the water supply.”
What can the engineer do? Will competence solve the problem?
 LAW, MINIMAL COMPLIANCE

Student: “My problem came with a company involved in the design and manufacturing of PC
power supplies. Some manufacturing organizations, have focused on 100% minimal
compliance and hence substituted parts to achieve their cost objectives. This resulted in
unsafe final consumer products. An industry push for CSA and UL certification of power
supply modules enhanced the minimal level achieved for standard sub assemblies. Since the
FCC and FTC act as police organizations, it is not usually known that there is a problem until
much mayhem occurs. When other companies began selling "smoking PCs" the industry
began to push to use only modules which would meet UL and CSA standards. The
minimalists were forced to up the ante or lose considerable business.”
Should an engineering professional be a “minimalist”? Role of tests?
 MEETING SPECIFICATIONS

Student: The heated hoses we manufacture were using a 100

ohm platinum RTD substitute. The hose resellers were rating
the range of heat as higher than the RTDs could actually
model linearly. We had years with no problems until one
customer started running the product at the top of the
temperature rating. We immediately stopped production and
found another RTD that would be suitable. All stock was
pulled and rebuilt. The fix took almost a year. Is this cost,
worth getting it right?
 SUCCESSFUL USE OF CUSTOMERS IN TESTING

Student: Welders built for an alpha run of production

were sent to a select group of customers to be tested in
the field. The customers did have “informed consent”
that these machines were in the early stages of testing.
Many changes were made based on their feedback. A
proper approach to design?
 RECOGNIZING SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION (CASE STUDY)

Engineer A is employed by a software company and is involved in the design of specialized

software in connection with the operations of facilities affecting the public health and safety
(i.e., nuclear, air quality control, water quality control). As the part of the design of a
particular software system, Engineer A conducts extensive testing and although the tests
demonstrate… that the software is safe to use under existing standards, Engineer A is aware of
new draft standards that are about to be released by a standard setting organization-standards
which the newly designed software may not meet. Testing is extremely costly and the
company’s clients are eager to begin to move forward. The software company is eager to
satisfy its clients, protect the software company’s finances, and protect… existing jobs; but at
the same time, the management of the software company wants to be sure that the software is
safe to use
 CASE STUDY (CONTINUED)
A series of tests proposed by Engineer A will likely result in a decision
whether to move forward with the use of the software. The tests are
costly and will delay the use of the software by at least six months,
which will put the company at a competitive disadvantage and cost the
company a significant amount of money. Also, delaying
implementation will mean the state public service commission utility
rates will rise significantly during this time. The company requests
Engineer A’s recommendation concerning the need for additional
software testing.
WHERE IS THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENTATION IN THIS CASE
STUDY?

◼ It is in the case study since it was via social experimentation

that they came up with the new standards
– Old standards, show that there is not enough testing to
catch a problem with the software
– New standards invented to capture the problem via new
testing
• Question: Where will this trend lead us over many years?