(521c) Exploring Technical and Ethical Decision-Making in Chemical Engineering through a Multi-Week Choose-Your-Own Path Simulation

Toward this goal, we have previously developed an interactive, team-oriented activity that immerses engineering students in ethical decision-making based on a real-world engineering design failure that manifests after launch of a product. Two scenarios, an automobile part failure and a biomedical device failure, were developed with multiple potential pathways and unique outcomes. This choose-your-own-path activity requires students to make multiple decisions that have ramifications for themselves, their companies, and their future. However in the game, they also must contend with decisions made by hypothetical colleagues, management, and customers that they may or may not agree with. This work was aimed at early engineering students in their first or second year in college who have just begun to develop their technical skills, with the goal of helping undergraduate students see that engineering decisions are complex and can have larger consequences than originally anticipated. Results from this activity, which has been completed by over 1500 engineering students in the past five years, show a high level of engagement from the students and that students note the difficulty of decision making where there are many considerations.

In the current work, we present an expanded module based on the Flint water crisis for chemical engineering students, where they have to use their acquired chemical engineering skills to help them decide the right path forward. This case study is less well defined than the previous scenarios (more similar to the engineering problems they would face in their careers), requiring students to use their engineering judgment, ability to gather and collate data from disparate sources, and their mathematical skills to proceed. It also spans multiple weeks, rather than being a single 50-min experience. Students are required to complete activities such as calculating flow rates in a large water system with multiple inputs and outputs (Fluid Flow), determining pipe corrosion rates (Reaction Engineering), creating sampling plans (Unit Operations Lab), conducting mass balances and detecting potential point sources of contaminants (Mass and Energy Balances, along with knowledge of environmental chemistry concepts), identifying potential ways to mitigate further environmental and human impacts (Separations, Design), and projecting project costs (Engineering Economics). In addition to providing students the chance to review and build on previous course content, students expand their communication, problem solving and ethical decision making skills. As this case study requires chemical engineering specific knowledge, it is aimed at senior chemical engineering students. Our goal with this work is to cultivate a culture of technical and ethical responsibility among students, thereby preparing them to tackle real-world engineering challenges in their future careers.