(1) Some water treatment facilities use aeration method for water purifcation. T
ID: 2087091 • Letter: #
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Explanation / Answer
A) Importance of intellectual property
“Intellectual Property” includes trademark rights. If players in the marketplace were allowed to adopt the brands, labels, and names of other competitors, there would be chaos. It's virtually essential to reserve to companies that provide products under-recognized trademarks that they are protected from others who would wish to fool consumers into thinking that they're buying the real thing. To give a bit more insight, here are the securities any business receives with IP:Patents: Patents are limited-duration property rights that protect an invention (not to be confused with an idea). Without patents, businesses and corporations would run into many problems with people attempting to replicate their invention or copy their product/service.Trademarks: Trademarks can range from company names to colors, to even scents that distinguish your distinct business from someone else’s. These are extremely important when establishing your brand name and logo, and allow customers to associate your product with a visual (and in some cases a certain sound or odor) that represents your product and service.Copyright: Copyright protects the works and writings of authors, and now extends to software, graphic arts, design, sound recording, and movies.
B) The potential consequence of turning out poor work
Employees underperformance or poor performance can be exhibited in the following ways:
C) Example of poor engineering workmanship
One piece of ground software supplied by Lockheed Martin - for the failed "Mars Climate Orbiter " (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) project - that crashed, simply because of a mismatch between imperial units (e.g. Feet, inches) and metric units (e.g. meters). This happened on September 23, 1999, at around 09:06:00 UTC, after a trajectory correction was implemented.
This basic mistake costs a total of around $650,000,000. That certainly has to be one of the most expensive mistakes ever (unless of course, you include the widespread and completely unproven use of the OOP paradigm!).
The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that brought it too close to the planet, causing it to pass through the upper atmosphere and disintegrate.
The actual units involved were pound-seconds (lbf×s) instead of the metric units of newton-seconds (N×s).
The cost of the mission was $327.6 million total for the orbiter and lander, $193.1 million for spacecraft development, $91.7 million for launching it, and $42.8 million for mission operations.
D) Unethical behaviors of engineers can be problematic for public
Ethical behavior may be viewed as an individual moral obligation, facing the combined weight of organizational self-interest and bureaucratic inertia. Perhaps a better way to think of it is as a shared obligation. All technology professionals share an interest in protecting their jobs, their organizations, and their profession. If we look at the recent history of financial services, there have been something like half a trillion dollars in regulatory fines for legal breaches. This trend is now found in relation to technology failure. This decade we have seen the cost to BP of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill (tens of billions of dollars), and speculation of the eventual cost to VW for deliberately misleading behavior. Organizations need ethical technologists to protect them from reputational damage and financial loss similarly people need ethical engineers to help them to use better and friendly technological services.
E) Unethical behavior that has had a catastrophic impact
As part of the government project during World War II, United States planed continuous block
construction of all-welded cargo vessels (DWT 11000, "Liberty Ship"). The construction was started with
the outbreak of the Pacific war from 1942.
2708 Liberty Ships were constructed from 1939 to 1945. 1031 damages or accidents due to brittle
fracture were reported by April 1, 1946. More than 200 Liberty Ships were sunk or damaged beyond all
hope of repair. "Schenectady" is one of those, which broke in two with a large sound when it was moored at
the wharf.The accident was caused by occurrence and development of brittle crack, which was due to the lack of
fracture toughness of welded joint. The accident should be the most expensive and huge scale experiments
of the century. The accident showed the importance of fracture toughness, which marked the birth of the
fracture mechanics.
F) What would you do if you become aware of the unethical behavior of an employee
Following steps should be followed-
i) Watch for rationalizations
ii) Consider what’s really at risk
You also want to be clear with yourself about what’s happening.
iii) Understand why people are acting the way they are
A useful skill when it comes to ethical situations is perspective-taking. Rather than casting your colleague as bad, seek to understand the reasons behind his actions.
iv) Weigh the pros and cons
What would be the benefit of speaking up? What would the consequences be if you didn’t?
v) Talk to the perpetrator first
You might be tempted to go to your boss or your colleague’s boss, but it’s often better to give the person the benefit of the doubt and assume that, when he sees how his behavior is perceived, he’ll change
vi)Rehearse
If you decide to say something to your colleague, don’t go in cold.
vii) Ask questions, don’t accuse
Broaching the subject by saying, “I think what you’re doing is wrong,” or giving a lecture on morality is likely to backfire.
viii) Escalate when necessary
ix) Protect yourself
Principles to Remember
Do:
Don’t:
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