Australian Engineering Practices
Learning outcome 1: Explain the historical impact of engineering on society
The practice of engineering does not exist outside the domain of societal interest. This implies that engineering practices have an unavoidable impact on the society. In the 19th century, Australian society founders were the most prominent and innovative engineers. Prior to 1920, some Australian engineers made positive impacts on the society through technical innovations. However, other engineering practices led to project failures and resulted in loss of lives in the society. A Student Sample: ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Edward Hargraves was the first Australian engineer to discover gold in a waterhole near Bathurst. The intersection of scientific knowledge with societal needs made his innovation a success. The mining of gold in Australia contributed to socio-economic growth in the country where the society got access to more jobs in the sector. The project of Edward benefited the society greatly and offered a tangible impact on the population growth and survival of most Australians. He further modified his scientific research by creating various structures, home appliances, and other infrastructure tools and equipment that safeguarded human lives and brought convenience to the society (Male, Bush, and Chapman, 2009, p. 882). The proper arrangement of technological innovations by engineers depends on the society.
The major project of Edward Hargraves was launching the Victoria Gold Rush in Australia. In this project, the engineer possessed creative and innovative skills of cradling mining methods and discovering the gold (Male, Bush, and Chapman, 2011, p. 160). The engineers portrayed excellent technical and technological know-how in this project. His experience in California made him excel in his gold rush project in Australia. The knowledge of cradling also enabled Edward to sift and sediment large amounts of golds in a more creative manner. Also, this engineer was hardworking, focused, and determined to discover the gold and this contributed to his gold rush project success. Despite his failure at California, Edward did not give up; he proceeded to Australia where he applied the concepts used in California in this project. As a result, the gold rush project benefited the society in terms of job creation and economic growth.
In contrast, some other engineering projects in Australia went wrong and led to the loss of lives in the society. Engineering projects have been failing down the history. The Australian society is designed by a flawed culture and is adversely affected by engineering project failures. For instance, bridges used to collapse, building apartments crumbled, and ships sunk; these catastrophes led to the loss of lives in the society (Pahl and Beitz, 2013, p. 12). In particular, the Maddur railway bridge collapse in 1897; a project by Rapattoni collapsed due to its poor engineering design. The collapse claimed 150 lives of people who drowned in the river. In this project, the bridge design was pathetic and the engineer failed to establish the appropriate risk management strategies. The design disaster happened when the river flooded. The society had foreseen the risk of its collapse but still, the engineers failed to renovate the bridge to prevent the risk from occurring.
If I was the engineer, I would have designed the bridge properly and ensure that its construction leaves more room from the river. Constructing a bridge immediately in a river was risky, and building it some meters above the river would have been wise of the engineer. Further, I would have ensured that the bridge is built using strong materials such as stones and cement in a manner that it cannot collapse (Guo et al., 2015, p. 150). The used materials should be in a way that it is not easy to crump, and this would make the society happy and prevent the bridge from collapsing. A good engineer foresees, assesses, and evaluates any potential risk and establishes proper mitigation strategies prior to its occurrence. A Student Sample: ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Learning outcome 2: Explain engineering professionalism and ethics in the Australian contexts
In addition to technical skills, expert engineers are guided by other skills, knowledge, and values in undertaking their engineering projects. Engineers Australia is Australia’s engineering professional body that accredits engineering courses as well as assessing whether the engineers trained overseas are capable of practicing as engineers in Australia. Engineering graduates in Australia are expected to portray a set of skills that meet Stage 1 Competency Standards. The Stage 1 Competency Standards in the Australian context clearly explain the professional ethics and conduct of engineers.
Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competencies explains the eligibility requirements for an engineer to qualify to practice in Australia. In particular, Stage 1 Competency assessment applies to migrant engineers whose technical qualifications are not recognized by Engineers Australia (EA). For example, it applies to those people who possess Australian engineering degrees but the degrees are unapproved by EA. Also, the assessment applies to overseas engineers whose engineering degrees are not recognized by the Engineering Australia. Another example where Stage 1 Competency assessment is called for is when a candidate has an engineering degree and the degree is not approved by Engineers Australia but the may have a graduate degree in engineering (Shore, 2008, p. 160). In this regard, EA categorizes engineers into three classes; engineering associate, professional engineers, and engineering technologists.
All Engineers Australia (EA) members commit themselves to practicing in accordance with the engineering code of ethics. Professional codes of ethics are principles designed to guide and help professionals conduct projects diligently with honesty, objectivity, and top integrity. The EA requires engineers to exhibit the highest code of ethics in their projects and exhibit due care and diligence. Engineers are required to maintain the confidentiality of clients’ data as required by the law of this code. Matters safety, health, and public welfare must be held paramount and not disclosed without the client’s consent. Also, the EA requires engineers to show competence in the planning, design, assessment, and implementation of engineering projects to enhance society safety (Son, 2008, p. 405). For an engineer to join EA, he or she must have the right skills, knowledge, experience, and competence in the field. Further, integrity, honesty and being straightforward is an ethical code required of all engineers that practice in Australia. Furthermore, engineers are only allowed to issue public statements in an objective and honest manner. The reports given on completion of projects have to be objective and straightforward, failure to which engineers are punishable under this Act.
However, there have been cases where some bosses ask engineers to write dishonest and non-objective reports to conceal certain matters that they do not want the client to know. This is called compromise (Son, 2008, p. 405). As an engineer, I would not allow my boss to compromise my integrity, objectivity, and honesty in my report. In such an instance, I would reveal all the facts about the project and submit it to the boss unaltered, for this is what professional code of ethics in EA and by the law requires. Also, I would note it in my report that the boss tried to compromise me in an attempt to ensure I write a concealing project report that suits his self-interest and not for the benefit of the intended beneficiaries of the project.
In other instances, customers behave in an unethical manner. For example, some customers want to compromise engineers in their engineering projects by giving them deceptive facts about a certain project. These instances made engineers to unintentionally falsify and misrepresent their reports something leads to poor reporting. In such instances, engineers should avoid surveying or interact with such customers for this puts them at a risk of giving a false report whose facts are misrepresented. It is the obligation of an engineer to detect any false information given by a customer before submitting the final report. A Student Sample: ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
References
Guo, K., Prévoteau, A., Patil, S.A. and Rabaey, K., 2015. Engineering electrodes for microbial electrocatalysis. Current opinion in biotechnology, 33, pp.149-156.
Male, S.A., Bush, M.B. and Chapman, E.S., 2009. Identification of competencies required by engineers graduating in Australia. In 20th Annual Conference for the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, 6-9 December 2009: Engineering the Curriculum (p. 882). Engineers Australia.
Male, S.A., Bush, M.B. and Chapman, E.S., 2011. An Australian study of generic competencies required by engineers. European Journal of Engineering Education, 36(2), pp.151-163.
Pahl, G. and Beitz, W., 2013. Engineering design: a systematic approach. Springer Science & Business Media.
Shore, B., 2008. Systematic biases and culture in project failures. Project Management Journal, 39(4), pp.5-16.
Son, W.C., 2008. Philosophy of technology and macro-ethics in engineering. Science and Engineering Ethics, 14(3), p.405.