Politics in Engineering

Hunter Cottrell

John Ervin

Kevin Garvey

Alison Goodwin

Jeff Lawley

Political Interaction

In January 26, 2001 an earthquake hits India.

It measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.

30,000 people were killed.

Could this amount of damage been avoided?

Political Interaction

Pacific Earthquake Engineer Research (PEER) believed that the damage should have been less.

PEER questioned the building codes of the area.

Could political constraints have allowed for change of the buildings?

Political Interaction

Earthquake-resistant construction has been in practice since 1967.

Political and economic constraints did not allow for updates to buildings.

Some of the damage and death should have been prevented.

The Role of Politics on Engineering Through Time

The 1973 Oil Crisis brought about sweeping changes to the US automotive market.

CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) law passes, mandates 35% increase in fuel efficiency for passenger cars.

American manufacturers now had to compete heavily with import cars.

Engineering Responses

Cars become smaller, lighter, more efficient

Most older cars couldn’t meet specs

Engineering Responses

New technologies were developed to meet fuel efficiency requirements.

EFI Aerodynamic body Front wheel drive

                         

             

Pro-active Engineers

Compromising safety of passenger jets in Australia

Virgin Blue Airlines allowed inexperienced pilots to make pre-flight inspections on their planes.

Company was cutting corners by allowing pilots to take this action when it should have been licensed engineers making the inspections

Fatal repercussions may have been the result, had engineers not spoken out about the issue

Speaking Out in Politics

The engineers realized that persistence was needed in order for the action to be stopped.

The claims being made by the licensed professionals were going on deaf ears.

Virgin Blue denied any wrong-doing.

Preventing Disasters

After much deliberation with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association(ALAEA), Virgin airlines changed their policy of letting pilots make inspections.

The ALAEA was pro-active in their attempts to break through the politics involved with this corporation, vastly breaking the mold that engineers should not be involved with the politics involved in making potentially threatening decisions.

A major disaster has been avoided by engineers who realized a problem and saw the need for a change that they fought to get corrected and did.

The Overlooked Engineer

Preventable TragedySpace Shuttle Columbia

Catastrophic Failure

Engineers knew! Email communication

ineffective NASA ignored them!

7 lives were lost

Overconfidence + Inflexibility = NASA

Engineers warned of shuttle safety in emails to senior managers.

These emails were not taken seriously.

Communication in NASA was not organized by any means.

Helmet from Shuttle Columbia

Management & Engineers Engineers did voice “their concerns,” however

concerns “never reached,” the proper management. The scenario for the tragedy was known, however the

way that politics had communications set up at NASA provided no way for the information to get where it needed to go.

It was the system that failed because the individuals knew and they tried; miscommunication caused safety to take a back seat to bureaucracy.

Not working together as a unit of engineers and scientists allowed for no way of working the inherent situation behind the tragedy that was to occur.

Personal Inside

Mr. Folsom

Project Engineer

Bibliography

Bhuj, India Earthquake, January 26, 2001. Berkley University. September 6, 2003 <http://nisee.berkeley.edu/india/>.

Chronology. Vehicle Choice. September 8, 2003 <http://www.vehiclechoice.org/>.

Columbia Disaster Board Faults NASA Communications, Culture. ComputerWorld. September 7, 2003 <http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,84403,00.html?SKC=groupware-84403>.

Bibliography

Engineer Group Criticises Virgin Blue ‘safety compromise’. Travelbiz. September 7, 2003 <http://www.travelbiz.com.au/articles/3e/0c01483e.asp>.

Fuel Economy Technology. VehicleChoice. September 8, 2003 <http://www.vehiclechoice.org/>.

The Bhuj, India, Earthquake of January 26, 2001. September 6, 2003 <http://geoinfo.usc.edu/gees/RecentEQ/India_Gujarat/photos/india_photo.htm>.