Poor engineering kills people. The Champlain Towers collapse caused 94 deaths; two Boeing 737 MAX crashes caused 346 deaths; the OceanGate Titan implosion caused five deaths. All of these are examples of catastrophic engineering errors that took lives. More significantly, these have all happened within the last decade and were the result of technical issues that were noticed but negligently went unresolved. In the case of the Boeing 737 MAX, low level engineers and training pilots both told senior staff about the issues that led to the crash years before they occurred. No action was taken to correct the issues due to corporate pressure and the company actively concealed safety concerns from regulators. A combination of calculation errors and ethical failures needlessly cut short the lives of over 300 people. Since the conception of the steam engine over 300 years ago, there is no doubt that engineering and safety regulations have greatly improved. Nevertheless, there is still always a risk that the buildings, bridges and vehicles you use everyday may actually be a ticking time bomb.
One wrong equation, an inaccurate model of a system or a poor material selection could disrupt millions of lives. As an engineer you carry this weight on your shoulders. Lead engineers are required to sign their name on work that their entire team has put effort into, needing to trust the work, iteration and testing that each individual contributed to the project. It is crucial that whenever a product is put out into the market that it has been engineered and tested to be as safe as possible. In most cases engineers already have a factor of safety so that even in extreme, one-in-a-million scenarios, lives won’t be lost. Regardless of this measure, it is only as good as the truth of the assumptions behind it — and the honesty of the entity making those assumptions. This second component is just as important as the first: In 2017, Kobe Steel sold products to over 200 companies including Boeing, Mazda and General Motors knowing that their products did not meet customer specifications. If they weren’t caught, the results might have been deadly.
In North America, one of the most significant lapses in engineering was the 1907 Quebec Bridge collapse. The American lead engineer, Theodore Cooper, prioritized cost and minimizing resources while attempting to build the longest bridge in the world. Undersized compression cords and purposely ignoring miscalculations in stress loads led the bridge to collapse. 75 people were killed due to Cooper’s unethical engineering that sacrificed user safety for a selfish shot at fame.
On May 6, Cornell University revived a major link to engineering safety through reinstating the Order of the Engineer ceremony. Initiated by Charlie Trautmann, Ph.D. ’83, 45 students chose to be inducted into this national honorary society through school advertising within parts of the Engineer College. This society began in 1970 at Cleveland State University following in the steps of the Canadian “Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer” which goes back all the way to 1926 that was a response to the 1907 Quebec Bridge collapse. Both of these societies present a ring, stainless steel and iron respectively, to their members. They are worn on the pinky of your dominant hand, so that whenever you sign your name it will touch the paper as a reminder that the work you are doing should be done to uphold the standards and dignity of engineering for the good of society.
During my time in high school in Canada, I had cousins who were receiving their iron rings upon receiving their engineering degrees. I was quite disappointed when I first came to Cornell and learned that there was no such tradition here. There are going to be important decisions that I will have to make in the future and having a ring is a conscious reminder that before I finalize anything, I should double check all my work to ensure safe and ethical engineering is practiced. Even now when I make decisions on my project team, they directly impact whether our plane can lift off or not. One mistake and weeks worth of work for 30 people can go down the drain because of a single person’s poor decision. The presence of the ring to me means a constant check on one’s responsibility, integrity and ethics in everything they do.
Currently, membership in the Order of the Engineer is optional for Cornell Engineering students. However, abiding by engineering ethics is not optional. It is necessary to keep everybody safe. All Cornell engineers should take on the obligation of the Order of the Engineer. Wearing the ring is a reminder to learn from history and ensure that the quality, safety and ethics of our work prevent the same blunders engineers have made in the past.
Trevor Crouse '28 is an Opinion Columnist and a Mechanical Engineering student in the Duffield College of Engineering. His colomn, "Cockpit Conversations," examines the systems, culture, and decisions of Cornell engineering from 30,000 feet in the air. He can be reached at tjc252@cornell.edu.
