ME 470 Ethics Case Study 120 points Draft Due: Wednesday, 28-Sep, 2011 Final Submission to ANGEL: Wednesday, 12-Oct, 2011 Relevance: In engineering practice you will encounter situations that demand you to make decisions with ethical dimensions. Many times these situations are encountered in the design stages. (Example: Shipping crate, determination of velocity and acceleration from position data.) Benefit to Student: Practice with case studies helps develop awareness, identifies resources, and clarifies possible actions. Rose-Hulman requires that graduates demonstrate an understanding of ethics as applied to their disciplines. The institutional requirements are shown below. RH 5. ETHICS REQUIRES THE USE OF APPROPRIATE MORAL THEORIES, ETHICAL PRINCIPLES, OR PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS TO WEIGH ALTERNATIVES AND DETERMINE A PROPER PROFESSIONAL COURSE OF ACTION. Criterion A1. Explain important ethical obligations associated with your discipline. Primary Traits: A passing submission for this criterion must: 1. Explain at least one major ethical obligation. 2. Explain how the obligation applies to professional action. 3. Use a systematic argument to support the application. 4. Give several specific examples of professional activities where the ethical obligation applies. Criterion B1. Apply a systematic ethical framework to an ethical issue or situation in a disciplinary context. Primary Traits: A passing submission for this criterion must: 1. Clearly explain the issue or situation to be analyzed. 2. Show which professional duties apply to the issue or situation by citing a relevant code of ethics. 3. Resolve any conflicts among the applicable duties through a reasoned analysis. 4. Show how an appropriate stance on the issue or situation follows from the analysis. Criterion C1. Analyze a complex situation involving multiple conflicting ethical interests or principles to support an appropriate course of action. Primary Traits: A passing submission for this criterion must: 1. Clearly explain the facts relevant to an ethical evaluation of the situation. 2. Show what competing interests are at work in the situation. 3. Resolve disputes among the competing interests using a systematic ethical framework and/or professional standards. 4. Justify an appropriate course of action and explain why it is the best among the available alternatives. Requirements for ME 470 1. As a mechanical engineer, ASME is the governing professional organization. The ASME Code of Ethics is attached to this handout. Read the Code and discuss each item with your group. Do you see any requirements that you think are unreasonable? Try the following web-site: http://professionalpractice.asme.org/home.cfm Read the information provided about ethics. If the web link doesn’t work, let me know – I have a back-up. When you finish, keep in mind the three philosophical approaches for exploring how an individual reached, or might reach, an ethical decision: Malpractice or minimalist, reasonable or due care, and good works. The information also discusses perspectives for exploring the impact of engineering decisions on society using either utilitarianism or respect for persons. After you have discussed the introduction, you should assign various cannons to your group members. Before you begin work on the ethics case study, each group member should read the information about their assigned canon. There is an on-line ethics quiz that each member of your group should take before the final. We will put something from this quiz on the final. Go to the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science at the following address: http://www.onlineethics.org/ Click on the Cases and Scenarios tab (http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/Cases.aspx ) to find a list of cases. You must select an actual case rather than a fictionalized case. You may select any cases except the following: the Case of the Killer Robot, the Kansas City Hyatt Regency, the Love Canal, Aberdeen Three, Three Mile Island, or the BF Goodrich Air Force A7D Brake. Try to find a case that will have at least three reasonable alternatives. If you select a particularly long case (>20 pages) you may confine your discussion to a portion of the case. You will need to describe your case in your submission, so make wise choices. There may be NO duplicates within a section. 2. Read the situation for your case study. When everyone in your group is finished, start “ideation” on what the participants could have done immediately. This means that you should spend about 5 minutes writing down as many alternate responses as you possibly can. After 5 minutes share your ideas with your group. Try to identify as many options as possible. It is okay to have crazy ideas at this point. 3. From all of your possible responses, develop at least three feasible alternate responses. 4. Type a report that describes your case briefly and justifies the three alternatives that your group selected. Your report will be submitted to the electronic portfolio under ethics for criterion A1, B1, and C1. Your justification should indicate the pro’s and con’s of each alternative and the relationship of your alternatives to the ASME Code of Ethics. You should quote the ASME Code in your defense of your alternatives. The group should identify the alternative that they feel is the best. 5. You should make one submission per group to the electronic portfolio. You will be told how to do this later in the class. Do NOT make any submissions until AFTER the peer review. 6. Include your brainstorming list in the Appendix of your report. Criteria for evaluating your submission to the electronic portfolio: a.) The clarity of your summary of the case. b.) You should explain at least one major ethical obligation. Explain how the obligation applies to the alternatives that you have identified. c.) The relevance of the portion of the ASME code that you quote. (You should quote the canons.) d.) The quality of alternatives. e.) Evaluation of alternatives: Students should recognize the limitations as well as the strengths of each of the alternatives. f.) Rationale for selecting your desired alternative. Criteria for your grade on the ethics case study: 1. Quality of your peer evaluation 2. Quality of your draft 3. Quality of your final submission 10. On the due date indicated above, bring 8 copies of your report to lab. You will be required to