Ethical Responsibilities For Mechanical Engineering

   

Engineering is a very challenging field that requires hard work and uses critical thinking. Engineering classes branches out to many other types of engineering like mechanical, civil, computer science, and fire protection engineers etc. Therefore, it has vast combinations of professions to choose from. As for mechanical engineers have to learn about how things work and how the mechanics of a gear functions.

Going into further details with mechanical engineering, there are many other branches that extend from it as well. For example, there are mechanical engineers for gears, cars, machines, and robotics. While the content is hard to grasp at school, people must be able to deal with ethical responsibilities at work. Therefore, in a difficult situation engineers would have to be smart about the choices they make and how it will benefit the team.

What are Ethics in the work field?

Ethics are "the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles." (Dictionary.com)

In other words ethics are the choices people make, given the situation they are in. Another way of thinking about ethics is the Golden Rule: "treat others the way as you want to be treated." Therefore even engineers have to uphold that value because most engineers work as a team and not by themselves; communication is key.

Field and Position

The mechanical field that I want to choose to work in is dealing with robotics and prosthetic limbs. The position that I want to be in this field is designing the parts and executing the test runs for these parts.

Ethical Responsibilities

Everyone in the world is different because everyone is unique in their own way. Thus everyone has different beliefs and perspectives. However when it comes to their work they have to have a professional atmosphere. They have ethical responsibilities that they have to fulfill and uphold to. It is true that people have to keep their standard morals close to them, but when they are in the work field they also have to consider their co-workers decisions and work from there. Engineers should not be selfish and solemnly worry about themselves, they should be aware of the choices they make and how it can benefit everyone.  

History of ethic disasters

In many cases, engineers usually have everything checked over and over again by their teams to make sure that there is no room for errors. Going back to September 11, 2001 the twin towers (World trade center) was attacked by terrorists and minutes later the towers began to collapse. The science behind it was due to small errors made my engineers. Supposedly the towers were built to withstand massive settlement loads, heavy winds, and airliner collision. However they forgot to take into consideration of the massive heat levels. According to the article, "World Trade Center Disaster" the massive heat generated by the airplane's fuel heated up to about 800 Celsius degrees. The verdict was that with this much amount of heat the explosion causes the interior structure of the building to give in and collapse.(World Trade Center Disaster 1)

If engineers were to take more precautions about the structure designs and their responsibilities then the tower probably would have taken longer to collapse; given a chance for more people to evacuate. That is why engineers have strict code ethics that helps them maintain their responsibilities. The only problem is that they left the factor of heat affecting the metal in the buildings because no one assume that the whole tower will ever reach these high temperature; and that was the downfall of the twin tower structures.
     

Word Trade Center (Twin Towers)

Ethics for the future

Near to the future engineers want to create a way that energy can be persevered and more efficient. They want to make the environment Eco friendly and reusing resources freely, rather than putting them to waste by using it once. For example, some engineers are thinking about solar panel cars that use the sun's energy to power to car. Instead of using gas which cause pollution to the environment. However, some of the ethics is that people can argue that car fuel have more power than electric cars. So engineers have to consider this and see if the project of solar cars are efficient or not. Also making solar cars will require some glass design that might be difficult, but the results of solar cars could be very resourceful. 

According to the document "Will electric cars soon have solar roofs?" It states that solar roof option will initially be offered in Japanese models only until Toyota develop a better formulated reinforced curved glass roof for the U.S.

Overall, when it comes to being an engineer I think that you are free to value your beliefs and being able to maintain your responsibilities as a professional. It is important to have excellent communication skills and leaders ship skills if you are the CEO of a company. As the head of the company one must consider others and what they have to say. Therefore, when making an ethical decision you have to be smart about the choices you make and that it is an honest answer. Everyone is human and we are bound to make a mistake somewhere in life; that is why we learned from them. When the time rises, engineers should be able to do the right thing and stay true to their ethical responsibilities in order to server their clients. Ultimately, engineers want the best for society and they do their best to increase efficiency and improve the environment each and everyday. Also as an engineer we have to put safety first(as top priority), be fair, and fulfill our duties to the world.  

References:

• http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ethical
• ENGINEERING.com. "World Trade Center Disaster." World Trade Center Disaster ENGINEERING.com. N.p., 17 Oct. 2006. Web.
• Mack, Stan. "What Is the Meaning of Ethical Responsibility?" Chron.com. N.p., n.d. Web.
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• Rom, Joe. "Will Electric Cars Soon Have Solar Roofs? Toyota and Tesla Say yes." ThinkProgress. N.p., 7 Mar. 2017. Web.