Chemical Engineering Archives - Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Spring 2022 Volume 6 Issue 1

A Credit Card a Week: The Environmental Ethics of Plastics

In an industrialized world, it seems impossible to live without plastics. From food storage to aircrafts, plastics provide benefits that make them an irreplaceable material. However, a consistent increase in plastic production and use has led to a massive plastic pollution crisis. Plastics are produced from non-renewable resources and can never fully decompose. They end up in our oceans, our environment, and even our stomachs (a credit card’s worth per week). Additionally, the massive amount of plastic waste has created a global plastic trade that unfairly places the burden of waste processing on less developed countries that may not be able to support even their own waste. The effects of plastic pollution are reaching a critical stage, and engineers must find solutions to relieve the growing pressure.

Fall 2017 Volume 1 Issue 1

The Frozen-Undead: Ethical Implications of Suspended Animation and Cryonics

VCE December 13, 2017 Biomedical Engineering Chemical Engineering Cryogenics Health

With the speed of advancement in research and technology, once unrealistic medical procedures and treatments have now started to become a reality. Suspended animation and cryogenics are some of these futuristically imagined ideas. The idea behind suspended animation involves the process of slowing down an organism’s metabolism to an extremely low rate. This puts the organism in a state called the “frozen-undead.” The goal is to revive them back to a normal, stable condition in the future. This process could potentially provide more time for patients in critical condition who cannot be saved by current medicine. However, there has been growing debate about the research and use of suspended animation and cryonics on human subjects. This paper focuses on the ethical implications of continuing this research and critically examines different viewpoints towards freezing organisms.

Fall 2017 Volume 1 Issue 1

Ethics of Decisions Behind the Los Angeles Aqueduct

VCE December 13, 2017 Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Environmental Engineering Water

Moving water from outside a city in for its residents is a challenge in growing metropolitan areas, and engineers are needed to create the systems and structures and to oversee the work. Engineers often go far away to get water, and transporting it can be difficult and expensive. In the early 1900’s, Los Angeles needed its engineers to move water into the drying city. They chose to take water from the Owens Valley, a water-rich valley high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The engineers did so in a legal way, although it was not done in a highly ethical way. This paper will argue that the way the Los Angeles aqueduct project was done was highly unethical. It uprooted a whole area forcing farmers and families to leave their lands. It was hard on the local ecology, drying up the Owens Lake. And it has greatly changed the landscape of Southern California. The engineers on the project used underhanded means when the water could have been procured in an ethical manner.

Podcast

Featured Spring 2023 VCE Podcast

Electric Vehicles: Climate Saver?

VCE January 31, 2023

Hosts Maya and Josh discuss the ethics of lithium battery mining and electric vehicle use with a panel of engineering essayists.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Predictive Policing

VCE October 31, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind predictive policing.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Clean Energy

VCE October 31, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind clean energy.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Cryptocurrency

VCE October 24, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind cryptocurrency.

Fall 2022 VCE Podcast

Autonomous Vehicles

VCE October 24, 2022

In this episode, the Viterbi Conversations in Ethics team explores the ethics behind autonomous vehicles.

Grand Challenges Special Issue

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

Redefining Societal Progress for Engineers

VCE March 29, 2023

Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges focuses heavily on the pitfalls of technological determinism. This paper supports Cech’s argument through a discussion of current examples of the consequences of technological determinism, such as the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, medication accessibility, and facial recognition technology. Though the consequences of a zealous engineering mentality are commonplace in our society, there are also current examples of tech companies neglecting to develop technology due to its possible negative consequences.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

How the Technical Sciences and the Social Sciences Should Go Hand-in-Hand

VCE March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges presented by the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) fail to involve ethics as a part of the solution to these issues. Traditionally, engineers have kept their work separate from its societal implications. Engineers and their non-technical counterparts have an obligation to view all technical solutions under the moral lens of ethicists and futurists. Going forward, engineers must be aware of their limits and work with experts outside of their fields to develop solutions that will be cognizant of society as a whole.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Lies We Tell to Inspire: Responding to the Engineering Double Standard

VCE March 29, 2023

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges are critiqued by Dr. Erin Cech for what she describes as a double standard in engineering. Though Cech rightly discusses a lack of accountability and acknowledgement within the profession, her argument lacks nuance. The Grand Challenges were ultimately a promotional tool meant to inspire the next generation of engineers, yet Cech holds them to a standard of being professional rules and guidelines. This paper will discuss the distinctions that Cech’s argument lacks, including placing an unreasonable amount of responsibility on engineers and overstating their influence.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Grand Challenges: Authorial Particularism and a Lost Opportunity for an Equitable Society

VCE March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges were developed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in an effort to expose future generations to the wide range of innovation and technology that they could one day take part in. As detailed by the Challenges’ creators, the list includes challenges that are most significant to our current world. Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the Grand Challenges is that a lack of diversity in the panel of engineering experts led to a lack of oversight into issues that are actually pertinent to developing nations. Cech’s argument that the Grand Challenges are a missed opportunity for social justice holds validity, but her mischaracterization of the lack of diversity requires further consideration.

Weekly News Profile

Featured Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

Fighting for our Latino Migrant Workers after Baltimore’s Bridge Collapse

Janessi Diaz April 10, 2024

Tragedy struck on the night of March 26 when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore came tumbling down. The collapse occurred after a large container ship, the Dali, collided with the bridge. However, the collapse was far from the most heartbreaking news of the event; Six men who had been working on the bridge when it fell lost their lives. The six men, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Miguel Luna, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, Carlos Hernandez, Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, and Jose Mynor Lopez, were all migrant workers from Central America. As we remember and honor their lives, their deaths highlight the lack of care in the construction industry when it comes to protecting Latino migrant workers.

Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

AI’s Impact on Tomorrow’s Jobs

Mary Karapetyan April 2, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the workforce, with thousands of companies developing advanced systems to streamline productivity. Despite its promise to enhance efficiency, there is a growing concern over its potential to displace millions of jobs across various industries over the next five years. As AI models become more sophisticated, there is a need for a deeper understanding of their capabilities and implications for the future of work and society.

Spring 2024 Weekly News Profile

Engineering Ways to Care for Astronauts’ Mental Health

Rachel Pak March 27, 2024

Amidst plans for space missions designed to establish a stronger human presence in space, concerns rise for the mental health of the astronauts. These astronauts, such as those selected for NASA’s Artemis missions, will embark on trips into deep space that will last months or even years away from Earth’s familiar environment and their loved ones. Since spacecraft tend to have an isolated and confined nature, NASA engineers are devising strategies to safeguard the mental health of their astronauts.