Empowering Engineering Students in Ethical Risk Management: An Experimental Study

The purpose of our study is to assess to what extent engineers are empowered by their professional training to engage in ethical risk management. Using the concept of self-efficacy and the results from a questionnaire answered by 200 engineering students, we suggest that the present engineering education fails to induce such empowerment.We therefore propose an innovative method to help in this matter. Carried out through workshops with 34 students, the efficiency of this method has been evaluated using group interviews and questionnaires. Our results suggest that such an approach is efficient, at least in the short run, to motivate students to engage in ethical risk management. Maybe more importantly, it triggers reflectivity on what it means to be an engineer today, a first step in engaging into the ultimate Grand Challenge of self-knowledge.

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Function Ordering Within Morphological Charts: An Experimental Study

Volume 7: 30th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology ◽

10.1115/detc2018-86184 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anant Chawla ◽

Joshua D. Summers

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Design Space Exploration ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Design Space ◽

Space Exploration ◽

Integrated Design ◽

Input Function ◽

Output Function ◽

Design Concepts ◽

Morphological Chart

Morphological charts are widely recognized tools in engineering design applications and research. However, a literature gap exists in instructing the representation and exploration of morphological charts. In this paper, an experiment is conducted to understand how morphological charts are explored and what impact functional arrangement has on it. The experiment consisted of two problem statements, each with five different functional arrangements: 1) Most to Least Important Function, 2) Least to Most Important Function, 3) Input to Output Function, 4) Output to Input Function, and 5) Random. Sixty-seven junior mechanical engineering students were provided a prepopulated morphological chart and asked to generate integrated design concepts. The generated concepts were analyzed to determine how frequently a given means is selected, how much of the chart is explored, what is the sequence of exploration, and finally the influence of function ordering on them. Experimental results indicate a tendency to focus more on the initial columns of the chart irrespective of functional order. Moreover, the Most-to-Least-Important functional order results in higher chances and uniformity of design space exploration.

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The Role of Storytelling for Communication in Risk Management

10.5771/9783748925132 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Andrea Kampmann

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

Decision Making ◽

Experimental Study ◽

Risk Management ◽

Risk Environment ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Conceptual Study ◽

Soft Factors

Risk management is confronted with a changing risk environment as both more complex and new risk factors, so-called unknown-unknowns, are arising. To address these developments effectively and to have an impact on critical decision-making processes in companies, this discipline needs to advance. Soft factors—such as communication—are seen as effective levers in this context. This book deals with the potential offered by the communication form storytelling for risk management. In a conceptual study, the author outlines different ways of applying storytelling in risk management. In an experimental study, she analyses and elaborates the advantages of storytelling over purely numerical forms of communication in the same field.

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Legal and ethical risk management with behavioral emergencies.

Behavioral emergencies: An evidence-based resource for evaluating and managing risk of suicide, violence, and victimization. ◽

10.1037/11865-018 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 405-430

Author(s):

Wendy Packman ◽

Houri Andalibian ◽

Kerry Eudy ◽

Brooke Howard ◽

Bruce Bongar

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Behavioral Emergencies ◽

Ethical Risk Management

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Ethical Risk Management

Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2385-1 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 1-5 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ronald D. Francis

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Ethical Risk Management

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Ethical Risk Management

Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-20928-9_2385 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1827-1831

Author(s):

Ronald D. Francis

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Ethical Risk Management

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Games Ready to Use: A Serious Game for Teaching Natural Risk Management

Simulation & Gaming ◽

10.1177/1046878118770217 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 441-470 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Franck Taillandier ◽

Carole Adam

Keyword(s):

Risk Management ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Well Being ◽

Serious Game ◽

Natural Risk ◽

Agent Based ◽

Traditional Course ◽

Multi Agent ◽

The University ◽

Future Work

Background.Risk management, and in particular the management of natural hazards and territorial risks has become an essential skill for civil engineers. Teaching risk management to engineering students is therefore crucial, but is also challenging: it looks too abstract to students, and practical works are complex and expensive to organise. It also involves interconnected mechanisms coupling human and technical aspects, that are difficult to explain. Aim. The challenge is then to propose a serious game able to support the teaching of territorial risk management to engineering students. As part of their curriculum, these students are expected to learn various concepts and notions: territorial risk, vulnerability of a territory, resilience, risk perception, multi-criteria analysis and balanced management. Method. In order to support risk management teaching, we propose SPRITE, an agent-based serious game using a concrete case study which is exemplary in terms of risk management: the coastal floods on the Oleron Island (France). SPRITE places the player (the student) in the role of a local councillor of the Oleron Island, who must ensure the safety and well-being of the island residents, while maximising performance with respect to economic and environmental issues, in a context of coastal flood risk. Results. The model is fully implemented in GAMA, an open-source multi-agent geographical simulation platform, and the game is already playable. It was used at the University of Bordeaux in a course on risk management dedicated to students in the Master of Geology and Civil Engineering. The evaluation of engagement and motivation with the game and learning from playing is very positive. Conclusions. The results from the game evaluation are encouraging. Short term future work will mainly be dedicated to pursuing this evaluation, and comparing results between students using SPRITE vs students following a more traditional course. Longer term prospects include several improvements of the model and the interface and implemented multiplayer features.

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An Experimental Study on the Influence That Failure Number, Specialization, and Controls Have on Confidence in Predicting System Failures1

Journal of Mechanical Design ◽

10.1115/1.4034789 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 139 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Somaiah Thimmaiah ◽

Keith Phelan ◽

Joshua D. Summers

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Failure Modes ◽

P Value ◽

First Year ◽

Psychology Class ◽

Design Activities ◽

Undergraduate Psychology ◽

Domain Familiarity ◽

The Impact

Design reviews are typically used for three types of design activities: (1) identifying errors, (2) assessing the impact of the errors, and (3) suggesting solutions for the errors. This experimental study focuses on understanding the second issue as it relates to the number of errors considered, the existence of controls, and the level of domain familiarity of the assessor. A set of design failures and associated controls developed for a completed industry sponsored project is used as the experimental design problem. Nondomain generalists (students from an undergraduate psychology class), domain generalists (first year engineering students), and domain specialists (graduate mechanical engineering students) are provided a set of failure modes and asked to provide their own opinion or confidence on whether the system would still successfully achieve the stated objectives. The confidence level for all domain populations decreased significantly as the number of design errors increased (largest p-value = 0.0793), and this decrease in confidence is more significant as the number of design errors increases. The impact on confidence is lower when solutions (controls) are provided to prevent the errors (largest p-value = 0.0334) as the confidence decreased faster for domain general engineers as compared to domain specialists (p = < 0.0001). The domain specialists showed higher confidence in making decisions than domain generalists and nondomain generalists as the design errors increase.

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