Consider the engineering disaster you address in the Code of Ethics assignment. 1. Identify any engineers who attempted to act to prevent the engineering disaster. Describe their roles and actions taken by the engineers. 2. Identify and describe how organizational impediments to responsibility contributed to the engineering disaster. 3. Identify and summarize a standard that applies in some way to the engineering disaster. Explain whether strict adherence to the standard would have prevented the engineering disaster.
Codes of Ethics in NSPE
The national society of professional Engineers has the set guidelines and rules that govern its operations; hence the engineers are expected to exhibit high standards for integrity and honesty (National Society of Professional Engineers 1). Notably. The services of the engineers need impartiality, honesty, and fairness. Therefore, the engineers should perform such duties following the professionally accepted behaviors that require the highest ethical conduct principles. According to the NSPE, the first code of ethics is that the engineers should hold the public’s paramount welfare, health, and safety. Secondly, the engineers should ensure they perform their services in areas of their specific competence. Thirdly, the engineers provide that public statements which are truthful and objective. Besides, the engineers ought to act for each employer or client as trustees or agents and avoid deceptive acts. Moreover, the engineers should conduct themselves responsibly, ethically, lawfully, and honorably to their profession.
Code of Ethics of the ACM
The American Computing Association main aim is to change the world; hence, there is the need to act responsibly in relation with computer engineering (Association for Computing Machinery para 1). Therefore, to act responsibly, computing engineering professionals need to consistently support the public good and the broader impacts of the work. One of the codes of ethics for computer engineering professionals is to ensure they contribute to the human being and society and acknowledge that all people are the computing profession’s stakeholders. Secondly, computer engineering professionals should avoid harm. Thirdly, they should be honest and trustworthy. Consecutively, they need to act not to discriminate but should uphold fairness.
The code of Ethics for the IEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics engineers recognizes the essentialness of the technologies that affect the world’s quality of life (IEEE para 1). One of the IEEE codes of Ethics is to ensure that the workers should uphold the paramount to health warfare and the public’s safety. Besides, they should improve the understanding of society and individuals by checking on the new technologies. Consecutively, they should ensure that they avoid the unlawful conduct of professional activities and should reject bribery at all costs. Moreover, they should improve and maintain technical competence by upholding the technological tasks of others.
The ASCE code of Ethics
The American Society of Civil engineers upholds that civil engineers should maintain the engineering profession’s with dignity and honor (American Society of Civil Engineers 1). One of the civil engineers’ codes of ethics under the ASCE is that they should understand that the general public’s safety and lives are dependent on their judgment and, hence, need to be careful. Secondly, the engineers should seal or approve the design documents prepared or reviewed by them. Civil engineers should ensure that judgments overpull professional assessments. Moreover, the engineers should issue statements truthfully and objectively.
The Common Characteristic
The professional organizations like the ASCE, IEE, ACE, and ANSPE have common characteristics. First. They all aim to uphold honor and integrity when performing their duties to ensure that their dignity is maintained. Secondly, they all aim at providing the truthfulness is up to help when conducting their activities. As such, they expect fairness when executing their duties to ensure that society and individuals develop. Furthermore, all professional organizations’ common characteristics aim to be impartial and honest when executing their duties. Moreover, all the professional organizations’ statements issue aims to produce those documents that are appropriately and adequately verified to avoid complications that may arise. Additionally, all the professional organizations aim to respect and uphold the intellectual property, assess all the issues, and give credit where needed. Therefore, all the organizations have common targets adherable to the set code of ethics to ensure their smooth running.
Code of Ethics
Fundamental Principles for Our Engineering Profession
Our aim of attaining engineering excellence can change society by giving accurate information on engineering matters to the clients. To act responsibly, we need to reflect on our work’s broader impacts, which consistently supports the public good.
Fundamental Codes of Ethics
Explanation of the Components in the Code of Ethics
Avoid Harm
Our team of Engineering profession upholds avoiding distractions that can result to harm. Remarkably, it is vital to prevent harms like the unjustified hacking of the information to facilitate transparency. Notably, when damage is wrongly perpetuated, engineers should justify it immediately. There are applicable laws that hold our accountability to ensure the accepted best practices to reduce unintentionally or indirectly are maintained.
Contribute to Humans and the Society
The Engineering profession have the concerns of the safety of the people. Besides, the Engineering professionals should use the acceptable means to access the environments to ensure safety in all dimensions. Moreover, there is the need to ensure that the efforts of the engineering professionals follow diversity. Therefore, Engineering professionals should encourage the proper Engineering techniques that are of benefits for all the people.
Be Trustworthy and Honest
Honest trustworthiness is an essentiality that the Engineering professionals should have. Notably, the engineering profession professionals should ensure transparency in their duties’ performance and avoid disclosing the available system limitations and potential problems for the client to understand. Moreover, Engineering professionals should be honest in their profession.
Act and Be Fair not to Discriminate
When serving in the Engineering profession, professionals need to be fair in their services’ providence. Subsequently, they need not discriminate against persons because the failure to access and inclusiveness leads to unfair discrimination.
Respecting Privacy
Notably, it is the responsibility of the Engineering professionals to honor privacy. Remarkably, this is because technology involves monitoring exchange and computing personal information’s. Therefore, due to respecting privacy facilitates the virtue of upholding the welfare of the persons.
Honoring Confidentiality
The engineering profession needs to ensure confidentiality because they handle confidential like the client’s research data, hence giving credit when it is due based on the information provided. When handling such information, there is the need not to disclose the information to anyone except the appropriate information. Therefore, there is a need to maintain confidentiality when handling such data.
The Three Mile Island Incident In 1979
The three miles highland is located in the USA’s Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, which had two reactors (World Nuclear Association para 1). Notably, the mile Island was brand new when the incident occurred. The accident occurred when a reactor performing at 97% caused the core part to tear and melted the second reactor. The disaster that happened in the US was the three-mile island nuclear power plant in 1979 (World Nuclear Association para 1). Notably, a cooling malfunction happened. Subsequently, the TMI- 2 reactors were destroyed. Consecutively, gases released radiations after some days. However, there were no adverse health effects or injuries. After the incident, it facilitated the engineers, specifically mechanical engineers, to improve all the nuclear power plants’ performance capability.
Prevention of the Engineering Disaster
The adherence to our team’s code of ethics could not have prevented the engineering disaster. Notably, this is because it was the accident that occurred unexpectedly. Moreover, the code of ethics upholds the safety of the workers’ welfare, health, and security, which could be applicable if it occurred due to incompetence, which was not in this case.
Works Cited
American Society of Civil Engineers, “Code of Ethics” Accessed from https://www.asce.org/uploadedFiles/About_ASCE/Ethics/Content_Pieces/Code-of-Ethics-July-2017.pdf
Association for Computing Machinery, “Advanced Computing as a Science & Profession” Accessed from https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
IEEE, “IEEE Code of Ethics. Accessed from https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
National Society of Professional Engineers, “NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers” n.d. Accessed from https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/resources/pdfs/Ethics/CodeofEthics/NSPECodeofEthicsforEngineers.pdf
World Nuclear Association, Three mile Island Accident. 2020. Accessed from https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/three-mile-island-accident.aspx