1. Engineers and geoscientists are creative people and are usually employed to create intellectual property (drawings, plans, patents, copyright, trademark, integrated circuit plans, etc.). Most professional employees are asked to sign a waiver of intellectual property rights, so that if an employee invents a new device that is subsequently patented, he/she is named as the inventor, but the rights to the invention are assigned to the employer. Discuss the ethical aspects of this requirement. Is this an unfair infringement on the employee's rights? What should happen if the employee invents a new device in the evenings or on weekends when not on duty? Does it make any difference if the new device is in the same area as the employee's employment or in a totally unrelated area? What action could a new employee take to avoid this conflict?

2. Assume that you are a member of a community service club (such as Rotary, Lions, or Kinsmen). As a fundraising activity for a local children's hospital, your club takes part in a fall fair by building and running a "dunk tank". People pay the club to throw baseballs at a small target. When a ball hits the target, the impact activates a mechanism that tips a perch (or seat) on which a well-known local politician has volunteered to sit, and the person falls into a large tank of (warm) water. Since you are a professional, the club asks you to design the mechanism, and you do so. The mechanism works fine for several days and is a profitable fundraising activity. However, on the last day of the fair, the politician sitting on the perch inadvertently gets a finger caught in the mechanism. The next baseball trips the mechanism, and it accidentally severs most of the politician's index finger. An ambulance rushes the politician to the hospital, but surgeons are unable to reattach the finger. The question of liability arises. Note that you would contact your lawyer for proper legal advice, but the goal of good engineering practice is to avoid situations requiring such advice. Answer the following: a) What could and/or should you have done to prevent this situation from occurring? b) From your perspective, who is liable? c) If your design were to be judged unsafe, what liability insurance would you have (or should you have) to cover this liability? Would secondary insurance cover this case?

3, Assume that you are a professional consultant engaged by a government agency to supervise an earth fill operation for a road construction. You calculated the amount of fill required from the design drawings, and issued a contract for that volume of fill. However, as the work progresses, it becomes clear that there is an error in your calculations, which means that the volume specified in the contract is wrong. Much more fill is required than the contract specifies. The error is clearly your fault. The contractor works for several more days, delivers the additional fill, and is eager to get paid. Unfortunately, since the contractor delivered more fill than the contract stipulated, some complex bureaucratic contract revisions are needed before you can approve payment. In addition, the revisions require an explanation, which may be very embarrassing to you. However, the contractor is starting to work on a similar project that is also under your supervision. It would be easy to compensate for your error on the first project by inflating the contractor's payments on the second project.

Question: Discuss this dilemma. Should an ethical person insist on the first choice (explaining your error)? Under what conditions, could an ethical person to select the second choice (inflating the payments on the second project)? What choice would most closely agree with your Association's Code of Ethics? Is it ever acceptable to switch payments on contracts, as suggested?

4. Assume that you are a professional consultant engaged by a government agency to supervise an earth fill operation for a road construction. You calculated the amount of fill required from the design drawings, and issued a contract for that volume of fill. However, as the work progresses, it becomes clear that there is an error in your calculations, which means that the volume specified in the contract is wrong. Much more fill is required than the contract specifies. The error is clearly your fault. The contractor works for several more days, delivers the additional fill, and is eager to get paid. Unfortunately, since the contractor delivered more fill than the contract stipulated, some complex bureaucratic contract revisions are needed before you can approve payment. In addition, the revisions require an explanation, which may be very embarrassing to you. However, the contractor is starting to work on a similar project that is also under your supervision. It would be easy to compensate for your error on the first project by inflating the contractor's payments on the second project. What are the four main ethical theories and what would they suggest to solve this ethical dilemma?

5. You are a professional engineer with XYZ Consulting Engineers. You have become aware that your firm subcontracts a lot of printing and publishing of reports, including artwork and editing. Your wife has some training in publishing, and now that your children are at school, she would like to go back into business. You decide to form a publishing company together with your neighbors, another couple. Your wile will be the president, using her maiden name, and you and your neighbors will be directors. Since you see opportunities for subcontract work from your company, you believe that there must be similar opportunities to get printing contracts from other consulting firms. You know the existing competitors in this business and the rates they charge for services. You think this could be a profitable business for your wife. Can you do this ethically?