HAPI Themes: Final Blog, Yay

Ethics in Engineering

Engineering is a field in which our decisions will directly affect EVERYONE. Considering engineering is almost anything, if not everything, our decisions are very important. In every new invention or innovation, engineers are developing something to be used by others. The most important aspect of ethics, I believe, is the real world impact of the decisions of engineers.

Engineers must better understand the implications of their actions to the real world. When creating a skyscraper, engineers need to analyze the cost, structure, materials, appearance, possibly the aerodynamics, regulations, and many, many other aspects. Clearly, engineers have quite a bit of things on their plate. When trying to decide among different aspects of a project, engineers can overlook the social implications of their plan. Public safety is the biggest application of the social effect. Disasters can be caused due to a flaw in design.

An example of a disaster caused from a design failure was the Minnesota bridge collapse. The bridge had design failures that led to its collapse. But the main concern was the effects it had on society. Over 80 people were injured along with 4 deaths. This could have been avoided with proper maintenance and inspection of the bridge on a regular basis. The bridge was a part of a highly commuted highway. The bridge was a catastrophic disaster that should not have occurred with modern engineering.

As a result of this accident, the engineering firm hired to inspect the bridge is in a world of hurt financially in dues to the victim’s families along with state and national sanctions. The ethics behind this was the fact that it was inspected two years before and was categorized as “structurally deficient” and had visible fatigue cracks. Where did the engineering firm go wrong? There was not a strong enough of a response. The repairs should have been made immediately. Why they were not is beyond me, but my best bet would be financial reasons.

To sum up my thoughts on engineering ethics, I think that engineers need to take on a lot of responsibilities while making these important decisions. When things go wrong, people are inclined to point the finger at somebody. When disasters come about due to design failures in instances such as the Challenger, Gulf oil spill, and this Minnesota bridges, it will almost result in a finger pointed at an engineer. And I believe that is appropriate and necessary. So basically, think about what you’re doin’ folks. Peace. Thanksgiving break, Let’s go!

Things To Do

I want to make a hot tub time machine and contact lenses for 3D television. The hot tub would be super awesome cause I can not only relax, but I could travel time. The contacts would be much better than having to wear glasses and look like a fool.

System Thinking

In my system thinking, I broke down iEFX as a system funneling down to us. Obviously I started with iEFX, but it has everything it is from the university, cause frankly, without the university iEFX would not be around. From the university I went down to the faculty and administrators. These are the people who organize pretty much everything with iFoundry. They help design the program and what benefits they expect to gain from it. They answer the questions. They find the purposes. The administrators and faculty try to find new ways to challenge students to grow and develop new skills for engineering. Below the faculty and administrators come us. Even though we are at the bottom we are still the key component, we are the focus of iEFX. Those above us to succeed give the students the opportunity to succeed Following the students are the results from iEFX. All that we benefit and what we will accomplish are based off of what we learn here. We are gaining critical skills to be engineers that fit in the new society and generation of engineers.

While doing this exercise, I realized something interesting. I placed the system into a hierarchical system from the university down to we the students. But after drawing it out, I noticed that the space between each level is not very far. What I mean is that the bottom is not too far down from the top. The students are given unlimited freedoms from those in “charge.” Thinking back to our first iTeam meetings, I can recall iSA’s saying, “We will do whatever you want. You guys are free to do whatever.” In this sense, we truly have a large portion of the power in the system and I found that really fricken sweet if you think about it.

Labeling

Labeling is a very important demonstrative act in engineering. After having created a new object, system, or any other entity, one must be able to describe it to others. It is one thing to have your new creation, but it is a whole new project to be able to depict your accomplishment to others. New jargon is also a factor in labeling. Jargon is terms or phrases that are significant to the item being labeled. Being able to understand these terms will be critical for a person to understand a new product or service.

As an engineer, we must be able to explain our “engineering terms” to non-engineer people. Layman’s terms are needed to explain to people who have not been around the project and know foreign phrases. As engineers, let’s admit, we might get a little too technical for others…sometimes. We can get caught up in the moment of solving a problem and just run with it while another person stands by twiddling his or her thumbs. But this just won’t work when we are selling our products. I have talked a lot about selling our ideas or services in my past blogs (if you have read them), and that is because I feel engineer’s need to have a sense of how the business world. Like we talked about with writing in engineering, we need to be very clear, specific, and straight to the point. In labeling, being clear about different parts is necessary for another individual to understand what is going on.

Labeling is very important when we are trying to explain ourselves to other people. Pictures really do speak volumes. I agree with the Back of The Napkin that a hand drawn picture is more eye-catching than a computer generated image. The labeling is more intricate because the creator did it on his own, and all together the image is more detailed. Labeling properly is needed to cross the barrier of just a picture, to an intricate explanation.

Communicating, Writing, and Presenting in Engineering

Besides all the math and science and many other skills an engineer needs to have, I believe communication, writing, and presentation have got to be the most important. As engineers we will always be fighting for our ideas. We will defend our projects even after they fail. In order to persuade some people, we need to have the ability to use these three skills.

Starting with communication, this skill is used day-to-day regardless of what you do. As an engineer, you simply cannot be a silent mute at work. Nobody will know you, nobody will respect you, and most of all nobody will follow you. Each of us needs to be able to converse with others in a comfortable manner to build relationships, which goes along with the Networking blog we just wrote about. Communication is important in conveying our ideas on a personal level as opposed to writing an explanation. Proper communication allows a more in-depth, and detailed description of whatever is needed to be explained.

Writing will always be important in the work place, but it is even more important in the field of engineering. There are many types of writing that people use in their careers, and individuals must know the tone and structure of the writing that they are undertaking. For example, on a regular day, a person may write a note to somebody, send an e-mail, or write a proposal. Of the several types of writing, technical writing is important. From The Entrepreneurial Engineer, we learned that technical writing is most important when writing to busy business people. Time is money and many business people don’t have much to spare. When engineers write a proposal, it is important to get to the key facts in a very plain, understandable language.

Finally, presentation is critical to be a successful engineer. When I think of presentation, I think of one word: CHARISMA. When making a presentation, you can’t be one-dimensional and monotonous. A presenter needs to be able to capture and hold the attention of his or her crowd. Being an extroverted person is important in being an engineer. We need to step out from our stereotype; we aren’t lame stiffs! Engineers need to be able to walk into a presentation with a chest-full of confidence if they want to walk out with a project.

All in all, these skills are important in an engineer’s career. We must have these skills if we want to sell our ideas, and make the big bucks. We are not just calculators; we are also people. These skills are the areas in which we get to turn our swag on to the rest of the world. 

Networking

Networking is very important as an engineer. Knowing “the right people” is the main part of networking. Certainly anybody can just have several friends, but when it becomes to a business standpoint, you need to know the right people. Working with others is a key component of engineering as we already know. In this class, we are stressing “The Missing Basics.” These skills will be used by us in the future to work with other people, in our network.

Almost everyday provides a chance to take initiative and network with others. Whether it is meeting someone new on the bus, or sending an e-mail to your professor, we can all take steps to network with others. I feel that a strong part of networking is keeping the relationships you build. You don’t want to meet a person to simply join together on one project and leave them. I think keeping relationships and not “burning bridges” of past ones is very important in creating a successful network.

In this assignment, I did take the initiative to network. I had an issue with the online homework system for my Microeconomics class because I changed discussion section. At first, I was uncertain as to whether or not my new section teacher was receiving my grades. I could have simply assumed that she was, but it could have led to catastrophic results later down the road. I decided to e-mail my section teacher. We exchanged multiple e-mails trying to solve the problem. After we failed to find a solution, I contacted the support personnel with the online program. We had a live instant messaging chat for about half an hour, and finally, changed my discussion section.

I believe that this has helped me build networking skills. I held back any frustration that I built up during the tedious process of changing one little bubble on the form that selected my discussion section. I learned how to work with different people, and I now have a better relationship with my discussion teacher in case I have any farther issues of the same sort, or with course materials. This little taste of networking has helped me to gain a little more experience in collaborating with others.