I know there are a few engineers/technicians/IT guys on the boards and I am curious - In the course of your classes, did you ever have to do an ethics assignment/project that centers around the "Gilbane Gold" video? The video is, essentially, designed to test the ethics of a budding corporate somebody who might be soon entering the workforce. It's definitely designed for US audiences. The video centers around an environmental engineer who finds out that the silicon chip company for which he works is, accidentially, putting out increased levels of arsenic and lead in their sewage byproducts. The company and the state are both aware of the fact that their sewage has always had minute quantities of arsenic and lead, but the technology company is trying to get around the problem by putting stress on the environmental engineer (the main character) and telling him to "ignore it." The name "Gilbane Gold" comes from a fertilizer byproduct that's sold by the local city, who uses sludge (including sewage from the silicon chip company) to make the fertilizer. Oh no - the silicon chip company may not only be polluting the downstream sludge, but may ALSO be polluting the local community because the fertilizer will include increased levels of arsenic and lead. The whole video is set up as if you're watching a news article on the dilemna presented above. It includes a few "flashbacks" to set up backstory for the dilemna - the rise in arsenic and lead levels, how the company initially responded, etc. The reason I'm asking about it is because the video is OLD. I mean, I was waiting for the A-team van or the DeLorean to go driving past in the background. It looks like Stephen J. Cannell productions could have done this vid. I've also seen it in two different engineering classes at this point and there are quite a few "ethics package" education links for it on google. Anyone else had to suffer through this vid? Anyone else find it lol-inducing? Does anyone find it seriously useful?
I thought the production value was fantastic. It is my firm belief that the only ethics question here, is you being a dong face. Additionally, you will never be an engineer if you can't complete a simple assignment about sewage. Boner. _Huge_Machine_four_eternity_
Being an out of US-er, I haven't seen that, but we have similar stupid outdated/just plain rubbish ethics stuff over here. For my course we had to do 'Social, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Systems Engineering', which has the apt acronym, SLEASE...
