Answer all questions. (Total 100 marks)

Question 1
Human error was to blame for up to 90 percent of the 1.3 million deaths that occur each year from car accidents around the world, in addition to close to 50 million injuries. Science and engineering experts estimated that a large proportion could be avoided by using self-driving vehicles and there is compelling logic in removing human drivers – the key source of the error. Driven by artificial intelligence, these vehicles will not make errors of judgement the way a human driver does for “they will not drink and drive, they will not fall asleep behind the wheel and they will not get distracted by mobile phone messages and calls.”

A new study in USA in 2016, estimated that self-driving cars will save the United States more than $300 billion per year. The study adds up the costs of traffic accidents and assumes that self-driving cars will reduce accidents by 90 percent.

On the last day of the semester examination in the year of 2028, a student comes out from a party after heavy consumption of alcohol, walks along a sidewalk; trips and falls directly in front of a driverless car which hits and kill him instantly. Should there be a driver at the steering wheel, the death would have been considered an accident as the pedestrian was clearly at fault and no reasonable person could have swerved in time. But the “reasonable person” legal standard for driver negligence disappeared back in the 2025, when the proliferation of driverless cars reduced crash rates by 90 percent. The replacement standard is that of the “reasonable robot”.

The victim’s family sues the vehicle manufacturer claiming that, although the car didn’t have time to brake, it could have swerved around the pedestrian, crossing the double yellow line and colliding with the empty driverless vehicle in the next lane. A reconstruction of the crash using data from the vehicle’s own sensors confirms this scenario. The plaintiff’s lawyer questions the vehicle’s lead software designer,“Why didn’t the car swerve?”

The engineer replied that in order to implement such feature in self-driving vehicle, it may lead to delay of the driverless car on the road, which impedes the expected revenues.

(a) Describe cost-benefit analysis. (6 marks)
(b) Illustrate the THREE (3) limitation in cost-benefit analysis in this case. (6 marks)

(c) Is engineering design a social experiment? Discuss. (4 marks)
(d) Present the THREE (3) aspects of ethical principles for an engineer in serving the public. (9 marks)

Question 2
Dr. Hilmi Kurt-Elli, a senior design engineer who worked in Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace division, was dismissed in February 2012. He claimed at a British employment tribunal in March 2014 that he was dismissed after raising safety concerns of potentially serious problems about the company’s jet engines with the chief executive, John Rishton.

The company said it had thoroughly investigated his claims, relating to alleged errors in computer modelling used in designing engines, and found “no evidence to substantiate product or safety integrity concerns”.

Rolls-Royce said Kurt-Elli was not sacked for blowing the whistle, but his attitude was considered unreasonable and it resulted in total breakdown of his relationship with colleagues.

Kath Durrant, Rolls-Royce’s human resources director, told the tribunal in Nottingham UK that she was horrified by Kurt-Elli’s letter to Rishton with its “extraordinary allegations”.

“We took your claims very seriously,” she told Kurt-Elli. “A genuine whistle-blower coming to us should expect to be taken very seriously, and that is what I did. We would have been on your side.” She said that Kurt-Elli refused to accept the investigators’ verdict that there was no evidence of any safety problem, and he went on to accuse Rishton and other senior executives of “corruption, potentially illegal acts and behaving unethically”.

Kurt-Elli, alleged that “the CEO and Durrant conducted a sham investigation. It was designed specifically to not uncover the truth”.

Kurt-Elli, representing himself at the tribunal, said that the company did not follow proper dismissal procedure, a claim that Rolls-Royce denies.

Tribunal judge Richard Hutchinson said: “We have to decide whether you were dismissed because you made a protected disclosures in a whistle blowing, or if it had at all to do with your behaviour, not the disclosure.”

Kurt-Elli wanted £450,000 in compensation. However, he lost the case eventually.

(a) Examine whether the act of Kurt-Elli qualifies as whistle blowing. (2 marks)

(b) Give TWO (2) reasons to justify your answer in Question 2(a). (6 marks)
(c) Present THREE (3) common mistakes that a would-be whistle blower should avoid. (9 marks)

(d) What are the dire consequences to whistle blowers? (2 marks)

(e) How does a whistle blowing protection law help the public? (6 marks)

Question 3
The world is addicted to hydrocarbons, which represent an abundant energy source to fuel the industrial development.

The discovery of a new energy source – Methane hydrates is also called as
“flammable ice”, hold vast reserves of natural gas, is an exciting news. They are formed at very low temperatures and under high pressure, vast deposits of it is found in sediments under the ocean floor, and beneath Arctic, around the world.

One cubic metre of the compound releases about 160 cubic metres of Methane gas, making it a highly energy-intensive fuel. It’s thought that there is as much as 10 times the amount of gas in methane hydrates than in shale.

Methane is a natural gas that contains carbon, burning it releases less carbon dioxide CO2 into the atmosphere than coal or oil, but emissions still contribute to climate change. Worse, methane itself is a greenhouse gas that’s about 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If it’s not extracted carefully, leaks pose a real risk to the climate.

In recent years, scientists found a possibility to replace the methane in hydrate deposits with excess CO2. It might be possible to remove CO2 greenhouse gases from the atmosphere while extracting methane for fuel, suggesting the carbon dioxide was trapped by the hydrate compound.

This discovery echoes the Technothink argument. However, scientists caution that more research is needed before commercially drilling for methane hydrate and making it a clean energy.

(a) Define sustainable development. (3 marks)

(b) Discuss briefly the roles of governments in combating climate change. (6 marks)
(c) Illustrate the invisible hands metaphor and the negative externalities on the
environment. (6 marks)
(d) Determine THREE (3) areas where an engineer can help to combat global
warming. (6 marks)

(e) Briefly describe Technothink argument. Debate whether flammable ice can be a source of clean energy in the future. (4 marks)

Question 4
(a) Engineers Adrian and Bruce are in a joint venture company named Fabulous Solutions that provides engineering and construction management services for clients in a number of townships within the country.

Fabulous Solutions is hired by a developer to design a community hospital in Milton Town. Adrian provides the engineering design and Bryan provides construction management services for the project.

During a review by officials in Milton Town Council, it is determined by the officials that a second road will be needed to access the hospital. This second road will exit into the next town, Northam, which is adjacent to Milton Town.

Fabulous Solutions owns an undeveloped property in Northam Town, and also provides engineering services to the Northam Town Council. It is clear that the property owned by Adrian and Bruce will be positively affected by the construction of the new road. As a municipal engineer for Northam, Fabulous Solutions discloses its relationship with the developer to Northam with regard to their services in Milton Town, but does not disclose its ownership of the property in Northam. On this basis, Northam Town Council does not object to Adrian and Bruce making a recommendation regarding the feasibility of constructing the proposed road. Thereafter, as a municipal engineer for Northam, Fabulous Solutions recommends that Northam Town should approve construction of the proposed road.

(i) Illustrate the TWO (2) main conditions in Conflict of Interest. (4 marks)

(ii) What are the main concerns in Conflict of Interest? (2 marks)

(iii) Discuss the ethical approach to avoid conflict of interests. (3 marks)
(iv) Discuss whether it is ethical for Adrian and Bruce to serve as the engineers for the developer in Milton and also serve as municipal engineer for Northam (3 marks)
(v) Discuss whether it is ethical for Adrian and Bruce to recommend approval for the road under the circumstances described in this case. (3 marks)

(b) Computer data hacking is becoming a pervasive criminal acts in the world. In July 2018, a cyber-attack took place in Singapore resulting in the leak of 1.5 million SingHealth patients’ personal data. This was deemed as the work of an “advanced persistent threat” group typically linked to foreign governments.

Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are stealthy and they involved continuous computer hacking processes to gain intelligence or steal information.

The Cyber Security Agency’s (CSA) forensic investigations team has extracted the “indicators of compromise”, or pieces of forensic data used to identify malicious activity on a network from the infected computers. The 11 sectors that are affected are aviation, healthcare, land transport, maritime, media, security and emergency, water, banking and finance, energy, infocomm and the government itself.

Of the compromised database of 1.5 million SingHealth patients, 160,000 patients had their prescription data stolen.

(i) Describe the nature and motives of Computer Data Hacking. (4 marks)
(ii) What will be the potential harm caused by the hacking of personal data? (2 marks)
(iii) In general, can “rights ethics” be applied in this data hacking case? (4 marks)