Lecture Notes Flashcards
(59 cards)
1
Q
What word does engineering come from? What is engineering? What do engineers do?
A
- comes from ingeniare
- art of applying science in an ethical/practical manner for the benefit of humanity
1. create what has not been
2. produce processes and things
3. perform design and development
2
Q
What is the decision-making process?
A
- define the problem
- generate solutions
- evaluate solutions and select one
- take action
- reassess situation
- repeat
3
Q
What technical skills are important in engineering?
A
- all the sciences (chemistry, physics, biology)
- math
- economics
- humanities
- information/communications
4
Q
Where do engineers work? What are the 3 streams of employment that these fall under?
A
- industry
- private practice
- government
- management
- research/academia
- all in consulting, entrepreneurship, or employment
5
Q
What is the governing engineering association in Canada? When was it formed?
A
- kinda of started in 1920, truly formed in 1936 as Dominion Council of Professional Engineers
- now known as Engineers Canada
5
Q
What are the top 10 Canadian engineering achievements ever?
A
- transcontinental railway system (last spike)
- DHC-2 Beaver aircraft (little water plane)
- Pickering CANDU nuclear reactor
- Alouette I research satellite
- St. Lawrence seaway (connecting it all via locks)
- TransCanada telephone system
- HydroQuebec high voltage transmission
- Athabaska oil sands
- petrochemical industry
5
Q
What is the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board?
A
- established in 1965 to accredit undergraduate engineering programs in canada that meet academic requirements to be a licensed engineer
- each program must contain minimum number of accreditation units in specific subjects
5
Q
How do you become a professional engineer?
A
- get a BEng/BASc
- iron ring!!
- relevant professional experience
- take exam on provincial code of ethics/legal/practice
- professional membership in provincial association
6
Q
What are the top 5 Canadian engineering achievements from the 20th century?
A
- Canadarm
- Confederation Bridge
- Rogers Pass (longest rail tunnel in North America)
- IMAX
- external pacemaker
7
Q
Important soft skills as an engineer?
A
- teamwork
- problem solving
- communication
- organization/prioritization
- able to process info
- able to analyze data
- technical knowledge
- proficiency with computer software
- report writing
- able to sell to others
8
Q
What are the Tuckman 5 stages of team development?
A
- forming
- storming
- norming
- performing
- adjourning
9
Q
What are the 3 characteristics of successful teams?
A
- high degree of social sensitivity to others
- each team member participated equally
- more successful teams had more women
10
Q
What are the 4 professional values as outlined by the Quebec Code of Engineers?
A
- competence
- responsibility
- social commitment
- ethical conduct
11
Q
How are you expected to remain competent as an engineer?
A
- professional practice (regularly facing challenges at work)
- attending conferences
- formal education (getting more degrees)
- retraining
12
Q
What’s the difference between ethics and professional conduct?
A
ethics
- general goal to do good and avoid doing wrong
professional conduct
- obligation/duties related to engineering practice
12
Q
What does it mean to be competent?
A
- master knowledge necessary for professional practice
- apply principles and standards of good practice
- use of practical judgement
- respect human element
13
Q
What does it mean to be responsible?
A
- only accept assignments that you are competent for
- assume full responsibility for consequences of professional actions
- personally answer to clients/society for their work/choices
14
Q
What does it mean to have social commitment?
A
- maintaining a high level of quality in professional practice
- respecting economic/social/political/ecological development
- promoting well-being of fellow citizens
15
Q
What does it mean to have ethical conduct?
A
- personal interest/profitability come second to interests of client/society
- dedication to integrity, availability, independence, professional discretion, and solidarity with colleagues
- actions are guided by professional conscience
- abide to code of ethics
16
Q
Who are the main stakeholders to engineers?
A
public, client/employer, engineering profession
17
Q
What were Dr. Greene’s ethical experiments? What did he conclude?
A
- subjects responded to different moral dilemmas while undergoing brain scanning using MRI
- found different brain activity in response to personal/impersonal moral dilemmas
- capacity of moral thinking emerged at different stages of human evolution
- moral judgement involves distinct parts of brain (emotion/abstract reasoning/cognitive control)
- lead to conflicts in decision-making
18
Q
What are some reasons why women leave engineering?
A
working conditions (low salary and no advancement), poor work-life balance, don’t like daily tasks, don’t like culture/boss/coworkers
19
Q
What is social capital?
A
access to resources based on group membership, relationships, and networks of influence/support
20
Q
What is cultural capital?
A
education, skills, knowledge, etc. than can be leveraged to one’s benefit
21
What are systematic barriers?
- patterns of behavior, policies, or practices that are part of structures of an organization which create/perpetuate disadvantage for marginalized groups
- can lead to higher unemployment, lower salaries, concentration in low-status jobs
22
What are all the philosophies on technology?
technological anarchy, technophilia, technophobia, and appropriate technology
23
What is technological anarchy?
a philosophy on technology that technology is an instrument to be pursued for wealth, power, and the taming of nature
24
What is technophilia?
a philosophy on technology that technology defines way of life, love of technology, it can solve all problems
25
What is technophobia?
a philosophy on technology that technology is dehumanizing and has detrimental effects
26
What is appropriate technology (as a technology philosophy)?
a philosophy on technology designed to consider environmental, ethical, cultural, social, and economic aspects of the local community
27
What are the pros and cons of biomass production as a renewable energy source, i.e. producing ethanol from corn?
pros:
- reduces consumption of fossil fuels
- lower emissions
cons:
- inefficient production
- uses a critical component of world's food supply
28
What are the pros and cons of controlling malaria using DDT?
pros:
- saves lives
cons:
- human exposure to DDT results in neuro issues, asthma, fertility problems, cancer
- mosquitoes developed resistance to DDT
- effect on wildlife
29
What are the pros and cons of dam construction (specifically the Three Gorges Dam in China)?
pros:
- reduces greenhouse gas emissions
- increases shipping capacity of rivers
- reduces floods
cons:
- floods cultural sites
- causes ecological changes
- displaces communities/people
30
What are the pros and cons of internet-based mapping tools?
pros:
- can be a virtual tourist
- check parking availability
- preview vacation accommodation
cons:
- privacy issues
31
What are the pros and cons of AI?
pros:
- online assistants
- medical diagnosis
- autonomous vehicles
cons:
- autonomous weapons
32
What are the pros and cons of space solar power, i.e. satellite collecting sunlight and then sending to Earth?
pros:
- reduces dependence on fossil fuels
- doesn't depend on weather (unlike normal solar panels)
cons:
- huge size
- cost
- microwave beam may be dangerous
33
What are pros and cons of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids?
pros:
- reduce air pollution, dependence on petroleum/fossil fuels, GHG emissions
cons:
- pollution from material sourcing
- increased vehicle weight
34
What are pros and cons of nanomaterials?
pros:
- lots of applications in medicine, electronics, food, etc.
cons:
- can lodge in respiratory tract
- increased rate of absorption in human body
- can damage DNA
35
What happened in Chernobyl in 1986? What caused it?
- unauthorized test violated safety protocol by shutting down core cooling system
- loss of coolant led to explosion
- caused because plant operators lacked knowledge and training, design flaws in reactor, and no containment vessel
36
What happened in Fukushima in 2011?
- an earthquake and tsunami wave breached the sea wall and knocked out core cooling pumps at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear reactor
- lead to explosion
37
What happened in the De la Concorde overpass collapse in 2006? Why did it happen?
- 2 vehicles were crushed, 5 people were killed and 6 others were injured
- caused by poor design of bridge, improper supervision, and poor communication
38
What is a global engineer?
next generation of engineering students who graduate with
- superior communication skills and an understanding across different cultures and languages
- a facility for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary team work
- sense of social responsibility and ethics
- entrepreneurial talents
- an ability to deal with complexity and systems thinking
39
Why is our ecosystem so important?
provides medicinal products and pollination
40
What is the Environmentalist's paradox? What are the four hypotheses of the Environmentalist's Paradox?
human well-being is increasing as ecosystem services degrade
1. critical dimensions of human well-being are not captured adequately
2. food production is more crucial than other ecosystem services
3. technology and social innovation have decoupled human well-being from ecosystem degradation
4. time lag between ecosystem service degradation and impacts to human well-being
41
What are the 3 pillars of sustainability?
1. environmental preservation
2. social justice
3. economic growth
42
Besides increasing the supply of clean energy, how can we reduce the demand for energy?
- reduce population
- change our lifestyle
- keep our lifestyle, but reduce energy intensity through efficiency and technology
43
What are 8 materials considered "world changers"?
copper, iron/steel, aluminum, concrete, rubber, glass, polyethylene, silicon
44
What are mechanical engineering's top 10 achievements?
1. codes and standards
2. bioengineering
3. computer aided technology
4. air conditioning
5. integrated-circuits
6. airplane
7. agricultural mechanization
8. power generation
9. the Apollo program
10. automobile
45
Who has an electrical engineering degree?
Grant Imahara from mythbusters
46
What is the risk index?
establishes risk based off of consequence, exposure, and probability
R = C x E x P
assigns a numerical value to each and then depending on how high it is they decide how urgently to act
47
What is whistleblowing?
people who believe an organization is engaged in unsafe, unethical, or illegal practices and go public with their charge, having tried with no success to have the situation corrected through internal channels
48
What are consequences of whistleblowing?
getting fired, reputation being ruined, professional blacklisted, public exposure
49
What does risk management look like in engineering?
- engineers are engaged in risky activities
- risk can be managed using proper techniques
- health and safety is main concern for engineers
- dangers should be eliminated at source
- many accidents can be avoided
- when things happen, consequences must be minimized and measures must be taken to prevent a reoccurence
50
What is groupthink? What are the main systems of groupthink?
when a group makes faulty decisions because the group pressures lead to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgement
1. illusion of invulnerability
2. direct pressure on dissenters
3. self-censorship
4. illusion of unanimity
51
Why do engineers make good managers?
1. understand that good problem solving starts with fact gathering
2. process data well
3. understand risk assessment
4. don't let emotions get in the way of decision making
5. creative and intuitive
52
What are important management skills?
1. good communication
2. hard work
3. good people skills
4. skill to handle multiple issues
5. accountability
6. time management
7. good at dealing with ambiguity
8. strategic orientation
9. willing to take risks
10. leadership ability
53
What's an elevator pitch?
- no matter how good an idea is, you need to be able to justify it
- project will yield X benefit in Y months and cost Z dollars
- any deviation from XYZ is considered a failure
- time, cost, quality are key drivers of an engineering project
54
What's Hofstadter's Law?
everything takes longer than expected
55
How do you practice documentation? Why is it important?
- important to pass on information to other team members, give to manufacturers applying for patents, for replacement workers, and for yourself to look back on
- practice by recording ideas as they emerge, keeping record of successes/failures, and avoiding loose paper (keep a log book)
- write as though you are writing to a 3rd party, sign and date every page, write in pen and cross out mistakes
