Ethical Engineering

The Center for Learning Innovation has created its first podcast!  This podcast session highlights the special bond formed between an instructor and a student as the result of a thoughtful answer to a difficult ethical question.

TRANSCRIPT:
 
Kelly Roark

Welcome to our first podcast from the Center for Learning Innovation. I'm Kelly Roark, a staff member in the CLI and your host for this episode. Today, we hear from an instructor who posed an ethical question to his engineering class and got an unexpected response.

Bob Anderson

I'm Bob Anderson. I am a 1962 graduate of Illinois Tech. I have been teaching for 20 years. I'm an adjunct professor at the Chemical Engineering Department.

Roark

Could you tell us what it was like to switch to teaching online during the pandemic?

Anderson

Yes, I had already thought that right up through the middle of March, I guess, with in class lectures, but also certain students, particularly outside the country or West Coast, East Coast online. And so I wasn't unaccustomed to dealing with the zoom camera and so forth. But then one day we got told to vacate. Tomorrow you're going to do this all online. And so I got in front of the class. So I said, hey, you guys, I need some help here. You guys probably understand the technology better than I do, but this is not the way I had planned and organized this class. And they were phenomenal. They were so helpful and suggestions they were patient with me when things didn't go so right. But we got through that semester, then summertime, you and some of your colleagues put on some classes on how to customize online teaching, which is quite different from the usual sit-in-the-classroom-and-babble for a couple hours. And I found that very useful and put that into effect. 

Roark

Something Bob loved was the breakout room feature.

Anderson

That turned out to be so helpful. And the best part was the students were up teaching each other and they get to know each other.

Roark

Bob, can you talk about your philosophy about focusing on career planning and professional development?

Anderson

For about twenty five years, I was a campus recruiter at Illinois Tech. My heart has always been in helping students make that transition from the university to the real world.

Roark

One of Bob's students made an impression on him.

Taha Alamin

My name is Taha Alamin. I'm doing my master's in electrical and electronics engineering.

Roark

So was this an unusual class for you, Taha? With the focus not just on solving engineering problems, but thinking about the real world situations?

Alamin

It was very interesting. It was one of the most interesting classes I have been in.  I had worked for the industry for many years. So once I joined this class, many of the things that Professor Anderson was telling, it was useful straight-away. That helped me a lot in thinking about the situations that I've been through and whether to act on them and how to act on them in any new situation that I might come to. So it was really, really one of the most beneficial classes that I have taken.

Anderson

I introduced in my class the topic of ethics. So I was trying to give the students a sense of what their professional responsibility was, and to nearly all of them, this was a whole new concept.  So I said, well, let's process it for a while we discussed and had some lectures and some thought, and I ran across a real situation.  In the middle of winter, a hospital in Colorado had a tremendous power failure, blew the main transformer for this hospital, which was an emergency trauma hospital. It was snowing and power was out completely in the hospital. So they looked to see if they could find their contractor to try to find a transformer. And there was none available in the area. So somebody went to look at the nametag on the existing transformer, called the company and a guard answered because it's a Saturday afternoon. And the guard says "Ajax Transformer Company." And the guy says, "I need to talk to somebody about a transformer." He says, "The office opens on Monday." He says, "No, we have an emergency hospital. We've got to get a transformer place right now." And the guy said, "Well, the only person is some maintenance guy that's working on a project. I saw him when I made my rounds, I'll go see if I can find him."

So he goes and finds this guy who's basically a maintenance mechanic, and he says, "These guys have an urgent need to have the transformer." He says "Well, I got a key to the warehouse. We'll go see if we can find one." They go back and find one like that. So they tell the hospital, "Everything's great. We'll put it on the next truck out here. You'll have it tomorrow."
 

"No, we got surgeries already scheduled that have to go today!" and they say, "Well, the way it could get there is by helicopter."

So what is the dilemma of that guy standing there? He's an hourly worker in the warehouse. What's going through his head?

Alamin

So he doesn't have the authority to solve that issue. It's quite complicated that they can only do it if he takes more authority and makes a moral decision on that case, that he has to raise a helicopter to transfer the transformer. But since there are some people that will die... if you don't take the decision... you have to take it regardless of the consequences.

Anderson

So this was a situation of what they actually did. And so I asked the students, would you do the same thing in that circumstance, and most of them told me "Oh no, I just work here. I don't know about that stuff. I might call the plant manager, but I don't know his telephone number." So, no, we'll just have to wait. And some of the students... What will happen on Monday? "Oh, the guy's going to get fired for sure. I wouldn't take that risk at all." It was pretty unanimous. But Taha, either by body language, I think, he had something to say. So I said, "How would you solve this problem?" and what was your answer?

Alamin

My answer is I will, I'll make the decision, take the helicopter. It's a matter of some people who will die, and I know also that I might get fired on the same day, but it's worth it.

Anderson

It's the first time that’s happened in class. You work hard all semester trying to imbue some sense of values to the students, share your own perspective on the world. What's right? How hard is it to make the right decisions? And that really resonated with me, which is what led to having him join us here this evening.

Roark

Shortly after this experience, Bob wrote Taha an email of commendation, basically saying how impressed he was by his thoughtful, ethical and courageous response to this tough business question. He said he would remember the experience and would be happy to provide him with a letter of recommendation.  How did it feel to get that letter of commendation? 

Alamin

It was great. It was great and it was not expected at all, because when I answered the question, it was like something normal for me. This is what I would do. I didn't think that it required that commendation. But really, the letter had come in a time where I was really down from this Covid and what I was going through the past year. It was quite difficult on me last year, but really, really it affected me a lot. The day before this commendation letter, I was like almost in despair that I cannot complete this semester.  I believe what Samuel Johnson said, “A round of applause from a single human being is of great consequence.”

Anderson

So I followed up with Taha and said you were the only one in the class that really analyzed and made the right solution there. Where did these ideas come from? Who helped you form both senses of ethics? And it's a personal story, but I hope you can share with us.

Alamin

Yeah, yeah, it was from my late father who passed away on 2, 20 January, just before I joined IIT.  He is a man of principle. And although he was a very accomplished man in his career, he always took decisions that were morally right. It doesn't matter how it affects his career. I did affect him sometimes. And they saw that. And the same is about my mom. They think that values are more important than money and more important than status. The moral decisions are the right decisions. They are costly. They will cost you. In the long run, what I've seen is that you will benefit a lot. I don't know how that works. Some people say, karma, some people say religion... you’ll have the peace of mind that you did the right thing.

Anderson

I was very saddened by the news that you lost your dad, but you carry his values and you will have the impact on the world that he already had. And I'm sure he would be very proud of you. And I'm sure your mom is very proud of you.  I certainly am. 

Alamin

Thank you. Thank you. In one month, I managed to do so many things, I completed all of my projects and I got a job.  Also, I got a CBT within like two or three weeks.

Anderson

Well, thanks so much for joining me, my friend. Great to see you. 

Alamin

Thank you. Thank you very much Professor Anderson.

Roark

I loved hearing the warmth between Bob and Taha and how Bob took a few extra steps that seemed to give Taha a boost at a time in his life when he really needed it. Thanks for listening, everyone.