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Engineering Research Guide

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Case Studies, Ethics, Disasters & Failures
Engineering Research Guide : COAST : Electronic Resources : Site Index : Help


Case Studies
Numerical Problems Associated with Ethics Cases
Website from conference at Texas A&M in which 35 faculty members worked to create case studies and "to develop engineering ethics resource material." Site includes cases from civil engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering.

Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism Cases
List of hundreds of cases from the National Society of Professional Engineers Board of Ethical Review.

Applied Ethics in Professional Practice (formerly Case-of-the-Month Club)
"The program presents cases taken from professional practice in order to stimulate greater emphasis on ethical issues in real-world context."

Books with Case Studies

  • Case-Based reasoning in design by Mary Lou Maher, M. Bala Balachandran, Dong Mei Zhang (TA 174.M335 1995)
  • Handbook of case histories in failure analysis by Khlefa Esaklul (TA 169.5.H36 1992 2 vols.)
  • Invention by design: how engineers get from thought to thing by Henry Petroski (TA 174.P4735 1996)

Ethics
Online Ethics for Engineering and Science
This website from Case Western University's mission is to "provide engineers, scientists, and science and engineering students with resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant problems that arise in their work, and to serve those who are promoting learning and advancing the understanding of responsible research and practice in science and engineering.

Web Clearinghouse for Engineering and Computing Ethics
Website created in conjunction with a paper presented at the 1996 Frontiers in Education Conference.  Contains links to professional societies, codes of ethics, books, newsletters and journals, online articles, case studies and more.

Ethics in Computing
Website from North Carolina State University covers issue such as commerce, social-justice, intellectual property, abuse, privacy, security and more.

Computer Ethics Institute
Part of the Brookings Institute this site has, "provided an advanced forum and resource for identifying, assessing and responding to ethical issues associated with the advancement of information technologies in society."

Center for Computing and Social Responsibility
"Addressing the social and ethical impacts of information and communication technologies through research, consultancy and education."

National Society of Professional Engineers
Professional Organization with links to Ethics and Liability including a Code of Ethics, articles and links to related content.

Books about ethics

  • Conflict of interest in the professions edited by Michael Davis and Andrew Stark (BJ 1725.C66 2001)
  • Engineering ethics: balancing cost, schedule, and risk--lessons learned from the space shuttle by Rosa Lynn B. Pinkus et al. (TA 157 .E673 1997)
  • Ethical issues of information systems edited by Ali Salehnia (QA 76.9.M65 E843 2002)
  • Introduction to engineering ethics by Roland Schinzinger and Mike W. Martin (TA 157.S382 2000)

Disasters & Failures
Engineering Disasters and Learning from Failure
Webpage from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at SUNY-Stony Brook with bibliography and links.

Importance of Failure
Article by Vicky Hendley with links from ASEE PRISM.

Examples of Engineering Failures
List of books, videos, articles, and websites from the University of British Columbia Library.

Failure Watch
Frequently updated list of various failures with links to newspaper and journal articles.

Aerospace
AirDisaster.com
Apollo 13 1970
Turkish Airlines DC-10 1974
Challenger Shuttle 1986
Concord Accidents
TWA Flight 800 1996
Galaxy 4 Satellite 1998
Swissair 111 1998
Columbia Shuttle 2003

Chemical
Bhopal India 1984
Love Canal New York 1978

Civil
 New Orleans Levee Failure 2005
World Trade Center Collapse 2001
Quebec Bridge Canada 1907
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Tacoma, WA 1940
Aswan High Dam, Egypt 1970
Injaka Bridge Collapse South Africa 1998
St. Francis Dam Los Angeles, CA 1928
Baldwin Hills Reservoir Failure Los Angeles, CA 1963
Los Frailes Tailings Dam Failure Spain 1998

 Computer
Denver Airport Baggage System Denver CO 1994
Pentium Chip 1994
Y2K 2000

Earthquakes
EASY: Earthquake Engineering Slide Information System
San Francisco Earthquake 1906
Kobe Earthquake Japan 1995
Turkey and Taiwan Earthquakes 1999
East Asian Earthquake & Tsunami 2004

Electrical
Great Northeast Blackout Northeastern U.S.1965
Three Mile Island PA 1979
Chernobyl Ukraine 1986
Northeastern US/Ontario Blackout 2003

Mechanical
Titanic 1912
Ford Pinto 1960's
Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse Kansas City MO 1981

 

Books about Failures and why they are important

  • When technology fails: significant technological disasters, accidents and failures of the twentieth century by Neil Schlager (TA169.5 W44 1994)
  • Design paradigms: case histories of error and judgment in engineering by Henry Petroski (TA 174.P473 1994)
  • Inviting disasters: lessons from the edge of technology: an inside look at catastrophes and why they happen by James R. Chiles (T 174.5 C57 2001)
Professional Societies and Organizations
American Society for Safety Engineers (ASEE)
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology
International Conference on Engineering Failure Analysis (ICEFA)
International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Murdough Center for Engineering Professionalism
National Society of Professional Engineers
National Institute for Engineering Ethics
Women in Global Science and Technology

 

Content maintained by Hema Ramachandran, Engineering Librarian