$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay ... · $3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship...
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$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package: 5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014 Page 1 of 5 Research essay topic: July 6, 2013 Lac-Mégantic train derailment, explosion and fire To start: Please see the graphic and the photos on pages 4 and 5, and read the paragraph below: Failures of engineered systems, inadequate personnel operating and safety training procedures, and deferred maintenance, may all have contributed to the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec train derailment explosion and fire. The disaster, which took place at 1:15 A.M. on the night of July 6, 2013, occurred when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying crude oil ran away, and derailed on a rail curve in the middle of the town. The resulting explosion and fire, with a one-kilometer blast radius, killed 47 people and destroyed 30 buildings. On the night of the accident, uphill from Lac-Mégantic, the train operator had set the brakes before departing the train for a break, but the brakes lost pressure after a small fire started on the train at 11:30 pm. The fire was quickly extinguished, but somehow the brakes released, allowing the unattended train to start rolling downhill. The condition of the track had been allowed to deteriorate through deferred maintenance. Upon reaching the town, the train, going too fast for conditions, jumped the curve and caught on fire, then the rail cars started to explode. The explosions destroyed many buildings, killing people who were enjoying a late summer night out in the downtown cafés. The fires, fed by oil flowing from the ruptured tank cars, spread through parts of the town. The fires were not extinguished until well into the following day. This disaster was the fourth deadliest rail accident in Canadian history, and the worst since the St-Hilaire train disaster of 1864. For more details, please read the Wikipedia summary of the disaster and the preliminary stages of the cleanup, shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-Mégantic_derailment. The train and track are owned by a U.S. company - the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) - and was operating on a former Canadian Pacific Railway main line that is owned by Rail World, Inc., which also owns and operates MMA as a subsidiary. Costs of the rebuilding, liability payouts for wrongful death and property destruction, and cleanup of the disaster site are estimated to approach $U.S. 1 billion. Before any reconstruction began and before liability was assessed, the short-term oil mop-up costs alone approached $8 million. Here’s an example news story on the railway’s inability to cover the costs: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/railway-says-it-can-t-pay-for-lac-megantic-disaster-cleanup- 1.1390881 The above links should be enough to get you started, and you can then move on from there to the library research that is a required part of the essay. Scholarship Competition Instructions: 1) Obtain the Nevada Society General Information Qualifications, Instructions and Forms, fill out the form and ask your chair for a letter of recommendation. The packet is available from Jennifer Kennedy, Scholarship Coordinator (phone; 895-2522, email: [email protected]). This competition is open to full-time UNLV undergraduate students majoring in ANY engineering or computer science discipline at UNLV, who will graduate in or after December 2014.
Transcript of $3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay ... · $3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship...
$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package:
5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014
Page 1 of 5
Research essay topic: July 6, 2013 Lac-Mégantic train derailment, explosion and fire To start: Please see the graphic and the photos on pages 4 and 5, and read the paragraph below: Failures of engineered systems, inadequate personnel operating and safety training procedures, and deferred maintenance, may all have contributed to the Lac-Mégantic, Quebec train derailment explosion and fire. The disaster, which took place at 1:15 A.M. on the night of July 6, 2013, occurred when an unattended 74-car freight train carrying crude oil ran away, and derailed on a rail curve in the middle of the town. The resulting explosion and fire, with a one-kilometer blast radius, killed 47 people and destroyed 30 buildings. On the night of the accident, uphill from Lac-Mégantic, the train operator had set the brakes before departing the train for a break, but the brakes lost pressure after a small fire started on the train at 11:30 pm. The fire was quickly extinguished, but somehow the brakes released, allowing the unattended train to start rolling downhill. The condition of the track had been allowed to deteriorate through deferred maintenance. Upon reaching the town, the train, going too fast for conditions, jumped the curve and caught on fire, then the rail cars started to explode. The explosions destroyed many buildings, killing people who were enjoying a late summer night out in the downtown cafés. The fires, fed by oil flowing from the ruptured tank cars, spread through parts of the town. The fires were not extinguished until well into the following day. This disaster was the fourth deadliest rail accident in Canadian history, and the worst since the St-Hilaire train disaster of 1864. For more details, please read the Wikipedia summary of the disaster and the preliminary stages of the cleanup, shown here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-Mégantic_derailment. The train and track are owned by a U.S. company - the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) - and was operating on a former Canadian Pacific Railway main line that is owned by Rail World, Inc., which also owns and operates MMA as a subsidiary. Costs of the rebuilding, liability payouts for wrongful death and property destruction, and cleanup of the disaster site are estimated to approach $U.S. 1 billion. Before any reconstruction began and before liability was assessed, the short-term oil mop-up costs alone approached $8 million. Here’s an example news story on the railway’s inability to cover the costs: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/railway-says-it-can-t-pay-for-lac-megantic-disaster-cleanup-1.1390881 The above links should be enough to get you started, and you can then move on from there to the library research that is a required part of the essay. Scholarship Competition Instructions:
1) Obtain the Nevada Society General Information Qualifications, Instructions and Forms, fill out the form and ask your chair for a letter of recommendation. The packet is available from Jennifer Kennedy, Scholarship Coordinator (phone; 895-2522, email: [email protected]). This competition is open to full-time UNLV undergraduate students majoring in ANY engineering or computer science discipline at UNLV, who will graduate in or after December 2014.
$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package:
5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014
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2) Prepare to research your essay, thoughtfully addressing these two questions:
a) The technical problem: What are the highest impact steps that could be taken to prevent a recurrence? You will have to evaluate alternatives and make recommendations about which steps should be taken first.
b) The ethical problem: From your perspective, as a member of the investigating team that is to propose solutions (note, NOT to affix blame but to solve the problem), how do you balance your obligation to protect the public safety with your obligation to be a prudent steward of the financial resources of the Canadian government, the railway’s insurers, and the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway (the rail line and train owner and operator)?
3) Conduct your research:
a) Use the resources of the UNLV Libraries to locate and read at least five (5) additional, (i.e., not contained in the links cited in this Application Instruction Packet) appropriate technical articles, other than Wikipedia, to develop a factual picture of the current state of knowledge about the cause of the accident and its consequences, in terms of loss of life and property. The articles that you locate and cite should address the topic of what additional design, construction, operations, and maintenance measures should take place to prevent a recurrence.
To do this, you will need to develop an understanding of the current state of knowledge regarding the potential constellation of factors that could have contributed to the disaster, and then propose a set of recommendations in the form of improvements to components of engineered systems that you would make to Transport Canada, the public, the railway’s insurers, and the railway operator, that should be followed to improve public safety.
We suggest that you contact the UNLV Libraries’ STEM Liaison Librarian, Sue Wainscott, for assistance in locating good sources. Sue can be reached via http://guides.library.unlv.edu/content.php?pid=9413.
b) Review the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) Code of Ethics, located at
http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html. This site will not provide you with answers, but it may provide you with some ethical values on which to base your decision.
c) THINK IT OVER – what would you recommend to prevent a recurrence?
4) Write an original, researched, typed essay - 5-10 pages, 12-point font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins all around - thoughtfully addressing the two topics shown in 2) above, and correctly citing your researched sources. Researching and writing the essay must be your own work, a solo effort.
a) In writing your response, be sure to cite using correct bibliographic methods in the text and
in your references, per English 102 or other standard guidelines, such as Modern Language Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association (APA). Be certain to correctly cite:
$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package:
5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014
Page 3 of 5
1. the articles you have read, and 2. the relevant passages in the NSPE Code of Ethics, explaining in your essay how they
apply to your selected topic as principles that should guide the actions of professional engineers.
b) You can ask questions of faculty or engineering mentors, or discuss your thoughts and
reasoning with friends, but all of the writing and researching of the essay must be YOUR own work!
c) You cannot undertake any group efforts or group sharing of the essay award. This is prohibited. Any essay reflecting group work will not be considered for the competition.
5) Turn in the entire and complete printed application package, consisting of both the completed application (item 1), and your essay (item 4) to Shannon Spollen (Mail Stop 4005, [email protected], 895-3965) in the College of Engineering Dean’s office by the January 31, 2014 deadline. Your essay may be submitted in paper form or electronically. It must be complete. Late, partial, or incomplete submissions will not be accepted or reviewed. Completed essays will be reviewed via www.Turnitin.com, and discovery of plagiarism will result in rejection of an application. Please be sure to write a thoughtful, well-crafted essay that has proper grammar, spelling, and construction. Please have someone review your draft - the Writing Center is a great resource. Poor quality essays will NOT receive awards.
The winning essay may be published, with your name in the author byline, in the Nevada Society of Professional Engineers newsletter, and on the Nevada NSPE website, http://www.nspenv.org/.
Good luck!
A graphical summary and several photos are attached on the next two pages.
$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package:
5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014
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Figure 1: An overview timeline and graphic of the blast area:
Source: http://wpmedia.blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/07/0709-lac-megantic_web.jpg Accessed: 11.4.2013
$3,500 Charlie Vaughn Scholarship Application Essay Instructions Deadline for complete application package:
5 p.m. Friday January 31, 2014
Page 5 of 5
Figure 2: Wider perspective aerial photo of the damaged area in the center of the town that roughly corresponds to the graphic shown in Figure 1. The fires are still burning the following day
Source: http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1229566/thumbs/o-LAC-MEGANTIC-EXPLOSIONS-facebook.jpg Accessed: 11.4.2013 Figure 3: Close up aerial photo of the derailed and burned tank cars
http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1359989!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg Accessed: 11.4.2013
