Paper

ECS 392

Fall 2017

PAPER 4

(Details)

Date due: Monday, October 9, at 10:00 pm (via Turnitin).

Length: 600 to 700 words.

Topic: First, review pp. 77-91 of Introduction to Engineering Ethics and pp. 95-102 of Inviting Disaster. In addition, you should read this article on the Mark 14 torpedo:

http://www.historynet.com/us-torpedo-troubles-during-world-war-ii.htm

Then, in your paper, please address these questions:

1. What professional obligations as engineers did those who designed, tested, and produced the Mark 14 fail to fulfill?

2. What are some plausible reasons why they were so resistant to recognizing the problems with the Mark 14?

3. What difference might it have made had the Navy’s Mark 14 engineers seen themselves as engaged in social experimentation (as Admiral Hyman Rickover seems to have done)? (This is the most important of the three questions, so you should devote more of your attention to it than to either of the other two questions.)

If you use any other sources, be sure to cite them.