An Ethical Analysis of Engineering Failures in History (Ohio Timed & Monitored Video)

In An Ethical Analysis of Engineering Failures in History , you'll learn ...

• What happened in the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879 and why it matters to engineers
• What happened in the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 and why it matters to engineers
• How to analyze situations and apply ethical criteria to engineering practices

Overview

To meet the Ohio Board's intent that online courses be "paced" by the provider, a timer will be used to record your study time. You will be unable to access the quiz until the required study time of 115 minutes has been met.

Credit: 2 PDH

Duration: 115 minutes

As stipulated in the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics, “Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.” This fundamental canon of engineering ethics is perhaps so self-evident and obvious that it may seem unnecessary to quote it, but it isn’t difficult to locate examples from history where this basic rule has not been followed or upheld.

This course will help engineers understand the ethical relevance of several historical engineering failures. In particular, we will focus on three case studies: the Johnstown Flood of 1889 in Pennsylvania, Scotland’s Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879, and the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. For each event, we will examine the construction history, discuss the causes and effects of the failure, consider possible design changes that might have prevented the failure, and then apply these aspects of the event to engineering ethics. The presentation incorporates maps, diagrams, and photos to help you visualize and learn the material, but we will not address specific design areas, such as structural load calculations.

This video is a recording of a live webinar training session. As a recording of a live event, you will hear the discussion that occurred between the instructor and those who attended this webinar.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define ethics and engineering ethics.
• Describe the fundamental canons of engineering ethics.
• Analyze the Johnstown Flood of 1889 to explain what went wrong and how the disaster could have been prevented.
• Evaluate the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879 to explain what caused the bridge collapse and how it could have been prevented.
• Analyze the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 to explain what caused the storage tank to fail and how the disaster could have been prevented.