ENGR 183EW
Individual Writing Assignment 2
Ethical Case Study—Post-Mortem Report
For this assignment, we would like you to examine, in detail, an engineering ethics case study. A
list of possible topics is presented on page 3.
The paper should be six pages in length plus the bibliography, although you are welcome to write
more if you wish. Most of the topics are recent. Your best beginning sources will probably be the
pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and news magazines such as The Economist
and Time. In some cases, significant papers have appeared in technical journals and/or books.
Please see Mr. Browne if you’re having problems finding materials.
A post-mortem is a common task in engineering. It formalizes the process of learning from past
experiences. The post-mortem analyzes a project once it has ended, and identifies what went well
and what went poorly to improve the next project. This writing assignment asks you to write up
a post-mortem of a well-known case of engineering failure, including not only the technical details
of the failure, but also the ethical lapses that contributed to the failure.
The writing task
Your post-mortem write-up should explain how ethical lapses contributed to the engineering failure.
Describe the actions, as an engineer, that should be taken (should have been taken) to come to
grips with the failure, utilizing one of the ethical frameworks you have learned about as a guide in
influencing or determining your course of action. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the
actions you propose and provide justification using one of the ethical frameworks as a guideline in
the analysis process.
Audience
Identify an audience for your post-mortem write-up. This can be either a government regulatory
agency (e.g. NTSB or FDA), the company’s board of directors, etc. Write your post-mortem
analysis to that audience, including information and analysis that would be of most interest and
of most use to them. The audience you are addressing must be clearly specified in your paper
(consider putting this in the title to avoid awkward writing in the body of your paper).
Researching and analyzing the case
Choose one of the cases of engineering failure most related to your future career or professional
interests. First, read about the case and understand the complex issues surrounding the case,
including the parties in the case (corporate, government, etc.) and the various components including
engineering, management, regulatory, socio-technical, and ethical. Second, decide what the major
issues surrounding the engineering failure are. Also, consider which of the ethical frameworks you
have learned best explains the ethical lapses in this engineering failure case.
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ENGR 183EW
Individual Writing Assignment 2
The post-mortem report
Students prepare a report for their audience that includes:
• a one-paragraph abstract of the paper
• a description of the engineering failure based on news reports, technical literature, or governmental documents
• an in-depth analysis of major issues surrounding the failure
– engineering
– management
– regulatory
– socio-technical
– ethical
• an analysis of the ethical lapses
– stakeholder actions
– decisions or interests
– principles adopted or flouted
– risks ignored and reasons for doing so
– ...
• recommendations for actions, with analysis if possible
• outcomes and justification based on one or more ethical frameworks
• a list of references consulted in preparing the report
Week Due
4
Material Due
-Outline
-Problem Statement
-List of References
5
-Case Study Paper
6
-Peer Review
-Reverse Outline of Peer’s Paper
7
-Revised Case Study Paper
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ENGR 183EW
Individual Writing Assignment 2
Engineering Ethics Case Study Topics
The following is a list of possible topics for the Ethical Case Study assignment. Many cases involve
more than one discipline.
Endovascular Technologies, Inc. — Beginning in the 1990s, Endovascular Technologies, Inc.,
a Menlo Park, California-based company, developed an alternative treatment for aortic aneurysms.
Rather than major invasive surgery, a device was inserted through the femoral artery in the
thigh. Unfortunately, while the initial tests were encouraging, significant problems arose
which management covered up until a number of whistleblowers at the company complained
to the FDA, which eventually resulted in a criminal conviction of the firm in 2003.
Intel Pentium Chip — Soon after Intel’s Pentium Chip was introduced in the early 1990s, a
researcher discovered that in some rare circumstances the chip would produce erroneous answers. Intel’s response was poorly handled, seemingly more concerned with the company’s
bottom line than customer satisfaction and product reliability.
Teton Dam — Teton Dam was a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation dam in eastern Idaho that failed
catastrophically during its initial filling in 1976. There were significant issues raised about
the suitability of the site prior to construction, a continuing series of problems that were not
resolved during construction, and a failure to properly monitor the filling rate of the reservoir
as it filled. All these factors contributed to the dam’s failure.
Cypress Viaduct Failure, Oakland, California, 1989 — During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in northern California, the Cypress Viaduct—a double-decked freeway interchange—in
west Oakland failed, killing dozens. The structure was on CalTrans’ list of troubled structures, but politics seemed to take precedence over risk assessment analyses of the freeway’s
seismic fragility.
The “Aberdeen Three” — In the late 1980s, three chemical engineers at the Army’s Aberdeen
Proving Ground, where chemical munitions were developed, continually ignored federal chemical waste storage and disposal laws until federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against
them. Much of the public press seems to portray them as helpless victims of an out-of-control
Justice Department, yet a closer reading of the facts of the case demonstrate a wanton disregard of environmental laws.
Tetraethyl Lead in Gasoline — Beginning in 1920, the petroleum industry began to add tetraethyl
lead to gasoline products to increase octane values of the gasoline, which would in turn reduce pre-ignition (“knock”) as the automobile industry began introducing high-compression
engines. This was done in spite of a long history of knowledge (going back to the Greeks) that
lead created serious health issues, as well as continuing complaints from medical and public health professionals about the deleterious effects of lead, even at low levels. You should
examine the actions of General Motors (a subsidiary of Standard Oil of New Jersey) that
manufactured and sold the product, as well as the automobile industry generally that resisted
removing it from gasoline until the 1970s.
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