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EENG 1910: Project I – Introduction to Electrical Engineering

Assignment-10

1. What does it mean to be a professional engineer (PE), what is the process to become one and what are the advantages associated with being one?

2. What is a code of ethics? What is the most relevant code of ethics for electrical engineers?

3. What is globalization and how does it affect you? This URL

(https://www.nexxt.com/articles/how-will-globalization-affect-today-s-engineers--8546-

article.html) has an old article that is still worth reading.

4. What are the world’s biggest problems and how can we (electrical) engineers help mitigate or solve them?

5. Provide a small and coherent summary of the lessons covered on engineering design (all

the processes from problem identification to design, testing, and the presentation of the

results). Note that these lessons were not covered in the “proper” order. Refer to the engineering design lecture in Lesson-2 to determine the proper order.

6. Discuss the tradeoffs involved between using patents and trade secrets to protect intellectual property.

7. This article (https://slcontrols.com/us/9-soft-skills-engineers-need-to-maximise-career- success/) discusses soft skills that are required of engineers to maximize their career success. Do you think this course has helped you develop some of these skills? If so which ones?

8. Answer the questions of the case study below:

Let the Chips Fall Where They May

Introduction

A Buffalo Computing Company (ABC2) located in Fargo, ND, has designed a chip for a new scientific calculator that features high-precision floating-point accuracy to 17 significant digits for all 250 mathematical functions provided with the unit. After one-and-a-half years in development, and after shipping over 500 (or 5,000) beta units to key customers, the company discovers that there is a problem with certain calculations, as described below. In order to expedite floating-point (ft.-pt.) operations (used in handling scientific notation in mathematical operations) in a computer or calculator, often certain tables of values are

used to assist in the speed of execution of these ft.-pt. operations. (For example, a calculator requiring as long as 3 minutes to perform a tangent calculation would have no market appeal.) These tables can contain up to 100 integer entries. During beta testing, ABC2 discovers that several of these values were incorrectly entered before burning them into the firmware. Further testing concludes that because of the location and use of these table errors, the only mathematical results affected will occur in the 13th to the 17th significant digits for the double-precision fl.-pt. operations.

Numerical and Design Problems

1. As the senior engineer on this project for ABC2, you are asked to propose a resolution for

this situation. How serious is the problem? What should be done?

2. Come up with as many different alternative solutions as you can think of. 3. Now, try to project each option's impact on the company. 4. Assign a weighted value (0-100 with 100 as best) to each of the suggestions and resulting

actions proposed above, based on your personal assessment of the quality of the action. 5. Determine the best possible course of action and explain the reasons for your choice, based

on the weightings given above or other criteria you create and document.

Questions on Ethics and Professionalism

1. Are your answers to the above questions the same regardless of whom you represent? In

other words, does one's response change depending on one's stake in the solution? (e.g. company managers, stockholders, engineers in the firm, engineers hoping to use the chip,

purchasers of the product, etc.) 2. Suppose the chip has been installed, 100,000 units have been sold, and an additional

50,000 are on dealers' shelves. Create a new list of possible actions and reactions. 3. Do you see any relationship to the Space Shuttle Challenger decision(s)?