Engineering Ethics Notes 1st Year 3g694b

Professionalism Common law is a law developed by judges through decisions. Premise is different decisions can’t be made for same or similar cases. If a new case arises, then the judge that makes the decisions will set a new precedent. Tort law are principles of common law written in statutes Tort law mainly tries to minimize or control -

Intention to cause harm Intereference of reputation Interference with possessions and property Failure to take reasonable care

Learned professionals include dentistry, medicine, law, archintecture, engineering. These are professions are highly regarded as they posess massive responsibility. Society allows them to be self-governing professions which govern the practice of learning as other outside parties may not have the knowledge and expertise to make decisions regarding cases in the profession. Society bestows upon these professionals a status that is highly regarded. of the profession dictate the status of their profession through their acts each day, which may increase or decrease esteem and opinion of profession. Engineer derives from the word ingenious in French which means ingenious. Professional Engineers Act “practice of professional engineering” means any act of deg, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising wherein the safeguarding of life, health, property or the public welfare is concerned and that requires the application of engineering principles, but does not include practising as a natural scientist. Profesionnal engineers Ontario Section 77 of Regulation 941 It is the duty of the practitioner to the public, to the employer, to the clients to other of the profession to at all times act with: 1. Fairness and loyalty to associates, employers clients, subordinates and employees. 2. Fidelity to public needs 3. Devotion to high ideals of personal honour and integrity of profession. 4. Knowledge of developments in the area of professional engineering relevant to services undertaken 5. Competence in the performance of any engineering services undertaken.

A practioner shall 1. Regard the practionner’s duty to public welfare as paramount 2. Endeavour at all times to enhance the public regard for the profession by extending public knowledge by discouraging untrue, unfair and exaggerated statements with respect o engineering. 3. Not express publicly or while the practionner is serving as a witness before a court or tribunal opinions on professional engineering matters that are not founded on adequate knowledge(can’t make an opinion on something you didn’t study or have reasonable knowledge in) and honest conviction. 4. Endeavour to keep the practitioner’s license temporary license, limited license or certificate of authorization, as the case may be, permanently displayed in the practitioners place of business. The engineer shall also act as a faithful agent or trustee and shall regard as confidential information obtained by the practitioner as to the business affairs, technical methods or processes of an employer and avoid or disclose a conflict of interest that might influence the practitioner’s actions or judgement. If a practionner is an employee engineer and is contracted in the practionners own name to perform professional engineering work for other than the practionner’s employer, must provide the practionner’s client with a written statement of the nature of the practionner’s status as an employee and the attenant limitations on the practitioner’s services ot the client, must satify the practionner that the work will not conflict with the practionner’s duty to the practitioner’s employer, and must inform the practionner’s employer of the work. Practioner must cooperate in working with other professionals engaged on a project. Practionner should be courteous to other practionners 1. Not accept an engagement to review the work of another practionner for the same employer except with the knowledge of the other practitioner with the the work has been terminated. 2. Not maliciously injure the reputation of another practitioner 3. Not attempt to gain advantage over other practitioners by paying or accepting commission in securing professional engineering work 4. Give proper credit for engineering work, uphold adequate compensation for engineering work, provide opportunity for professional development and advancement of the practionners’ associates and extend the effectives of profession through the interchange of info and experience. Practionner shall maintain honour and integrity of the profession and without fear or favour, expose to the proper tribunals unprofessional, dishonest or unethical conduct by any other practitioner. Professional misconduct

Various acts that the profession deems unacceptable, punishment is relative to the offense committed but can include revoking of license Negligence is the act or omission of the practionners work that doesn’t meet or fails to meet minimum standards that other prudent engineers would have despite the circumstances. Negligent actions, failure to make reasonable provision for the safeguarding of life, health, property of a person who may be affected by the work responsible by practionner. Failure to act to correct or report a situation that the practitioner believes may endanger the safety or the welfare of the public. Failure to make responsible provision for complying with applicable statues, regulations, standards, codes in connection with the work being undertaken by practionner Sigining or sealing documents such as drawings not checked by the practionner Failure to report the consequences to an employer for the deviation in proposed work that might be made by non technical authority, practionner is responsible for all technical work. If these conseuqneces are overruled by non technical authority then engineers have discharged their duty and are non negligent. Harassment Engaging in vexatious(frustrating annoying) comments or conduct is known as unwelcome that is known as interfering in a professional engineering relationship. Anything having to do with race colour creed gender etc. Professional misconduct includes conduct in engineering that in all circumstances would be deemed unprofessional, disgraceful to the profession. If a misconduct does get reported they are brought to a disciplinary committee such as PEO where decision is made. Every individual who provides engineering service to public will have a seal that will be placed on all documents as part of a service before it is issued. Must put seal only on documents that meet high standards of engineering. Duty to protect public most paramount. Taccoma narrows bridge collapse, no wind load taken into . Negligent Theft of property Tort law deals with interference of possessions of property, break it you fix it. If it can’t be fixed, replace it. If it can’t be replaced provide compensation.

Engineers produce non-tangible items such as documents and ideas that will lead to products, known as intelltectualr property. Intellectual property refers to the product of a thought process. It includes music, written work, spoken work, discoveries, invention etc. It is a product that be interfered with. Patents protect intellectual property, it may describe invention, product or process. Grants inventor exclusive control over the product or process for a fixed amount of time. Patent has value, can be sold to use idea. Copyright grants owner exclusive right to be paid for reproduction of their work. Typtically deals with written work, tv etc. Fair dealings- part of Canadian copyright, allows s free access to material for the purpose of independent study, no income can be made from it. Engineering works : most engineering work is summarized in a report, engineer has the copyright, exclusive control to the work, client purchases right to use work. Some cases engineer may offer a reliance letter to allow other parties to assure and the work. Music and movie s are violations of copyright laws usually. Safety Managing people’s safety now and into the future implies that the environment must be protected against current and future threats. Design for safety during construction, startup, routine operation, maintenance and decommissioning. A lot of health and safety hazards such as mechanical, fall-related, pressure, sound, fire, radiation, biological, explosion etc…. 4609 workers were killed in 2011 in america. If you work for 30 years that’s 1 in 1000 risk. Most deaths preventable Economical considerations training, protective equipment documentation, medical monitoring, rehabilitation Occupational health and safety act gives workers the right to work in a safe environment. Employers have ethical responsibility to provide safe environment. Precauctionary Principle

A political doctrine states that if a material or event has the potential to cause harm to public or environment, proof must be shown that it causes no harm rather than harm. This is an ethical principle. Current products require continus testing to demonstrate continuous safety. Think about food and safety. Preserving environment is important and can be effected in many ways through temperature (global warming), air pollution, soil and groundwater pollution, odour etc. Significant of impact varies. Small scale impacts Increasing sound levels in room It is not acceptable as it can damage the public Workers must be protected from elevated levels of hazard. Largescale impacts Acid rain Radiation Engineering solutions Prevention, contamination, restoration, alternative processes. Is it ethical to outsource manufacturing to developing countries where standards are lower and risks are higher? Solutions: maintain same level of standards even in countries where it goes above and beyond what is required. Reducing carbon footprint, should change lifestyle. Make it less demanding on the environment. Is it ethical to use genetically modified crops, is it sustainable to irrigate arid land, is it ethical to farm captive animals. Change in global population, do we have to grow food or create artificial foods. University regulation Necessary to protect integrity, safety of university activities, peaceful and safe enjoyment and university by students living in residence and neighbours as well as freedom of of university to participate in reasonably in programs and activities in or on university premises.

Code of behaviour The university has a code of behaviour that governs everyone and deals with matters internally. The code uses the word “knows” and is deemed as “ought to know’, ignorance is no excuse. University makes provisions for student discipline that jeopardizes good and proper functioning of academic and non-academic programs. Endangers health, safety, right or property of visitors or and adversely affects the property of University bodies related to it, where such conduct is not, for University’s defined purposes. Tort law principles apply to students and faculty while enrolled on campus. If students cheated on test and got a degree which damages reputation of university, under tort law university can sue the students. To avoid this university has academic offenses, the have a responsibility to ensure that a climate might encourage or conditions that might enable cheating, misrepresentation or unfairness not to be tolerated. Seeking credit or other advantages by fraud or misrepresentation or seeking to disadvantage others, by disruptive behaviour is unacceptable, as is any dishonesty or unfairness. You are a party to the offence if: you commit the offense or help aid or assist the member to commit the offence. Does or omits to do anything for the purposes of aiding or assisting other . Conspires with any other person or member that is a party to the offence Parties to the offence If a group is found guilty for an offence then all share the penalty equally regardless that it was one individual’s offence primarily. Student academic offences Forging, altering or falsifying documents required by university, or to utter, circulate or make use of forged documents weather in print or electronic form. Possess and use unauthorized aid during examination or formal academic work. Impersonating someone for exam or academic work. Plagirism, represent one’s idea as his own

Submit without knowledge of previous instructor previous academic work for which credit has been obtained. Submitting work where references are concocted. Sanctions include: oral reprimand, resubmission of the work, academic grade of zero or a failure of the course or piece of work that offense was committed, reduction of final grade Further sanctions: denial of privileges for facilities, a monetary fine, suspension form attendance in course or program for a given period Non-academic code of conduct, no person shall assault another person sexually or threaten any person with sexual assault. No person shall otherwise assault threaten with bodily harm, No person shall knowingly create a dangerous situation that threatens safety of many persons, No person shall cause harm to another person’s property or fear for their property. Vexatious conduct is not allowed and should not be directed at individuals based on race, gender, handicap etc. that is known to be unwelcome that exceeds freedom of expression and academic freedom. No harassment, no person shall fear for their safety or another person’s safety while on campus, or impede freedom to participate in activities or conduct causes fear, no bullying. i) ii) iii) iv)

Repeatedly following from place to place, Repeatedly communicating with either directly or indirectly Repeatedly watching the place where person resides, works, carries on business etc. Engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person.

No disruptions except for peaceful picketing. Noise that obstructs conduct of a meeting or forcibly blocking access to an activity constitutes disruption Property of another person shall not knowingly be taken, destroyed or damaged. These include, uft property, nothing belonging to them, intellectual property etc… No person shall deface UFT buildings No person shall possess university of Toronto property, any property that is not their own. No person shall knowingly threaten or endangers destruction of university of Toronto property or its

False charges: no person shall maliciously bring false charges to any member of UFT, under this code aiding in the commission of an offence. No person shall conspire or aid in commission of an offence. No person shall refuse to comply with sanctions imposed on them. No unauthorized possession of firearms unless peaceofficer or Canadian armed forces. Plagirism is the use or close imitation of language thought of another author and the representation of them as one’s own work. Plagirism is when elements of someone else’s work is used and represented as one’s own work. Both must be present for plagiarism. Science and engineering is not always reinventing the wheel but proper citation must be given.