Answer all questions. (Total 100 marks)

Question 1
Fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas are currently the world’s primary energy source. Scientists have concluded that most of the observed global warming is very likely due to the burning of coal, oil, and gas.

In US, crude oil prices per barrel dived from $115 in June 2014 to $35 in February 2016, a reduction of two-third in 20 months. Some economists credit the support and funding from the previous USA government in renewable energy development as one of the key factors for this low oil price. The other contributing factors are the slowing growth in emerging markets, most importantly in China, while the major members in OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) are competing among themselves lead to over-supply of crude oil.

Over the past year, oil companies have discovered volumes on Alaska’s Arctic territory North Slope with an estimation as much as 5 billion barrels or more of recoverable oil (an oil barrel is approximately 159 litres). This is a 14 percent increase in US’s proven oil reserves.

In 2017, the new US government is exploring way to open the Arctic drilling under the America First Energy Plan to unlock “vast untapped domestic energy reserves” from environmental protection and that oil exploration will add to new employment. But energy experts are throwing cold water on those plans for the market force and low oil prices are making Arctic drilling economically unappealing.

(a) Describe the invisible hand metaphor of Adam Smith. (3 marks)
(b) Could ‘invisible hand’ help to drive the oil price down and protect the environment? Give TWO (2) reasons to support your answer. (6 marks)

(c) Define sustainable development. (2 marks)
(d) Examine and state the TWO (2) main criticisms of the concept of sustainable development? (6 marks)
(e) Discuss the roles of governments in sustainable development and environmental protection. (4 marks)

(f) The “American First Energy Plan” emphasizing on creating jobs for Americans, implicitly uses the Right Ethics in its justification. Compare this to the bio-centric ethics view on environment. (4 marks)

Question 2
A six story building named Hotel New World in Singapore collapsed on 15 March 1986. The building was built in 1971. It had 36 reinforced concrete columns that supported 6 concrete floors, totaling a weight of 6,000 tons (one ton is 1,000 kg). The building comprised an underground car park, a commercial bank on ground floor, a night club on level 2 and a budget hotel from level 3 to 6. All the heavy mechanical equipment, water tanks and air conditioning compressors were installed on the roof.

Signs of trouble began a day before the collapse, with cracks and fissures spreading across internal walls and in several columns. The building collapsed into piles of rubbles near noon on 15 March 1986, in less than a minute. The rescue operation went on for 5 days, among the 50 people trapped in the rubbles 17 people were rescued and 33 were killed. The unexpected speed of the building collapse was out of the ordinary. A full investigation was carried out on the cause(s) for collapse. As investigations progressed, the experts ruled out causes such as explosion, inferior building material, soil softness and composition. They also ruled out that the adding of new loads of 110 tons was the main cause. The new loads included a bank vault, three additional cooling towers and heavy duty ceramic tiles on each exterior wall.

The investigators traced to the engineers responsible for the structural system and integrity of the building as well as building’s blue prints and calculations, and found that the building’s dead load was not accounted for in the original design. This monumental mistake meant that the building columns were stressed to their limit from day one and their collapse was inevitable. Dead load of a building is the weight itself plus all fix structures in it. Hence, the primary reason for the collapse was proven to be the under-designed columns and foundations; with the adding of substantial new loads of 110 tons that resulted in an overload. There is also a lack of emergency inspection when the warning signs of building fatigues appeared.

A new “Building Control Act” was passed in Parliament in 1989 to form a new Accredited Checkers Bureau, to provide additional help and inspection on the engineering designs, all calculations and structural plan. This higher level of quality control is to prevent recurrence of the mistakes.

(a) The investigation suggested that the primary reason for the collapse was due to the building designers’ missed out consideration for dead load of the building, and it appeared as a slip in the building safety approval process.

(i) Present the highest ethical obligation of engineers. (3 marks)
(ii) As an engineer, what would you do when you discover such a safety slip? (5 marks)

(b) Define risk-benefit analyses. (6 marks)

(c) Discuss the problem in risk-benefit analyses. (6 marks)

(d) Examine if the above building collapse could have been prevented by risk- benefit analyses. (5 marks)

Question 3
Genomic testing is associated with personalized medicine, or precision medicine. It is a new field in medical study, focusing on the activity and interaction of certain genes in the body, including their role in certain diseases. It is ushering in a new age of medicine, patients can be treated with much more precision, tailored-made to their own individual genetic makeups for more effectiveness, particularly for breast and ovarian cancers.

Genomic data is extremely sensitive. Most people are unaware that their DNA contains information about their life expectancy, tendency to depression or schizophrenia, complete ethnic ancestry, expected intelligence and maybe even their political inclinations. As the research progresses, within a decade or two, genomes are likely to reveal even more information about the individuals.

One major concern is over privacy and security of genomic data. One might be denied health insurance because of carrying genes linked to breast cancer. One might be denied a job promotion because, according to their DNA, their skills set does not fit with the expected job profile. Genomic data can be misused by potential employers, unscrupulous corporations and governments in many number of unexpected ways. The conflict between privacy and scientific progress makes the promise of genomic science and medicine particularly tricky, without a stringent solution against data hacking, the scientific progress on genomic study would be blocked.

A new promising solution is identified; it is called *Blockchain. [*Note: A Blockchain is a distributed database that is used to maintain a continuously growing list of records, called blocks. By design, Blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the collusion of the network]

(a) Genomic data testing helps to enhance human health but might be subject to misuses. Discuss the adverse impacts on individual when data is misused. (6 marks)

(b) Debate if Rights Ethics is applicable to address the above problem. (8 marks)
(c) Determine whether the patients have the right to be educated on the implication to make an informed consent prior to genomic testing. (2 marks)

(d) Give THREE (3) conditions for a valid informed consent. (9 marks)

Question 4

The growth in budget airlines traffic and proliferation of using private drones (low-flying unmanned aircraft) for aerial cinematography in recent years has increased the potential risks of collision between aircrafts. It has put tremendous pressure to the current air traffic control systems operating in many major airports.

Fred, Frederick Luhrmann is a principal software test engineer in the aerospace division of Hindenburg Engineering Corporation. For the past 24 months he has been leading a project “Clear Skies” to build a prototype software for a new generation air traffic control system. The project, funded by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), is very important for the survival of Hindenburg Corp amid governmental budget cutback and stiffening competition. A successful completion of the project could lead to much larger projects. Hindenburg had bid very aggressively at a bidding price less than it would take to properly complete the project. The company is in a shaky financial position, which resulted in the project being underfunded and understaffed. Nevertheless, the project team is putting in 120 working hours a week to meet the deadline, for the survival of the company and their own job security.

When the prototype sample was completed, Fred carried out extensive testing and found that it works according to design specification except when there are too many aircrafts in the system, the system will sometimes lose track of one or more of the drones that have strayed into the airport’s airspace. This was due to the fact the drones are of much smaller dimension and fly at a very low altitude. The ‘undetected’ drones will simply disappear from the system with no trace, it will then be ignored by all of the collision avoidance and other safety tests. The risk is estimated at 1 in 80,000 occurrences.

Fred and his team managed to identify the root cause and are confident that they can complete a redesign and testing in an additional month. He discusses the extended schedule with his project manager Liza Sun. Liza tells him that the contract with FAA requires that the company to deliver a fully certified, working version of the software within a week for system integration and testing; and the government has recently adopted a new get-tough policy on missed deadlines and cost overruns. If Hindenburg misses this deadline they would be subject to fines and losing the remainder of the prototype contract. They might also not be allowed to bid on the contract for the full system. This would have a devastating effect on the aerospace division, resulting in a loss of thousands of jobs.

Liza suggests to do a quick patch to the software, but Fred firmly refuses to release any prototype that has not been tested thoroughly for there is a high chance that the patch would interact with some other algorithms of the software program to create new bugs. Liza reassures Fred that the FAA will do a lot of simulations to ensure the prototype software works with the hardware and meet all functionality per design. FAA would next do live tests, only at a small airport with a backup system active at all times. FAA thereafter will make some change requests and Hindenburg could deliver an updated version of the software program.

Liza justifies that “We can slip the bug-fix into the updated version, FAA will never discover the problem. Even if they do, we can claim it was a random occurrence that would not necessarily show up in our tests. The important thing is no one is in any real danger.” Fred disagrees: “Maybe FAA won’t find the bug, but I know it’s there. I would not lie to say the system passed all the necessary tests, this is like delivering a car with defective brakes, and it would be illegal and unprofessional.” Liza further pressurizes Fred: “You can certify that it is safe, because it is, the way they are going to use it. Otherwise we risk losing many jobs in Hindenburg with a late submission of prototype software”. Fred signs off on the software. In the end, Hindenburg’s software won the FAA approval and is awarded major contracts and much-needed business, the aerospace division saved some 500 jobs and allowed the company to create hundred more jobs.

(a) Give THREE (3) defining features of an ethical corporate climate. (12 marks)
(b) Discuss whether Hindenburg Corporation’s ethical climate plays a part in the ethical dilemma. (3 marks)

(c) Briefly illustrate Act Utilitarianism Theory. (4 marks)
(d) Determine whether Act Utilitarianism is applicable for Liza’s justification. What is the limitation? (6 marks)