ENGINEERING ETHICS – A CASE STUDY

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Instructions: The following questions are example of scenes/cases related to ethics. You are required to answer all questions based on your own ethical judgment. Please answer in paragraph in NOT less than 200 words. Format Times New Roman only, size of 12 and 1.5 spacing. This case study should be done individually and if found plagiarized, it won’t be graded. Submit one week after the day the report is assigned.

Case 1: Plagiarism

Mr A is an undergraduate student of Civil Engineering and currently in his final year. He has to perform a final year project in the lab and it requires him to write a report individually. Mr A used to work in a group with his friends when performing any assignments. However, this time it is an individual work. At first, he has no idea what to write in the report. By hook or by crook, the work has to be done since he is graduating. He asked for an example of report from his senior and from his friends. His report has no difference with both reports that he has. He also did not recognize both of his friends’ piece of work in his report.

1) From the perspective of you as a student, explain some reasons why students tend to plagiarize in assignments or in lab report.

2) State the effects of plagiarizing other’s work in our society.

Case 2: I am the expertise

If a pilot who has no educational background, skills and experience on how to ‘drive’ an airplane, I believe you won’t book the flight and dare not to have a pleasant fright high above. Take this as an example of the second case. A woman who has a chemistry background has been hired as a lab technician by an engineering college which was just opened to the public. Her job scope is to assist chemical engineering students in the lab which deals with equipment such as distillation column, liquid-liquid extraction and heat exchangers. Since the college is still new and the organization is not yet stable, the woman was hired just for a while until they find another suitable person. However, it has been years, and the woman operated the equipments based on supplier’s manual.

1) State your opinion, whether the woman is the right person for the job or not. If yes, why, if not, why not?

2) Give relevant effects that might occur if the woman continues working as the lab technician.

3) Explain the ethical procedures for the employer when hiring their employee.

Case 3: The only option

Mr X got a big project in building a bridge which will connect Johor and Singapore. The government of Malaysia has approved the project and has allocated big amount of money to build the bridge. Unfortunately, economic turned down in that year and the supplies of raw materials soaring up. The project has to move on and the company asked him to find a way to cut down costs so that their profits are well-maintained. The suppliers could only offer the cheapest raw materials with the same quality as the original raw materials. Mr X was in dilemma as the project should not be postponed.

1) If Mr X did not learn ethics, what he might be doing?2) If you were Mr X, what will you be doing?