Shameless Self Promotion

I guess the whole concept of a blog is pretty self-promoting.  I've tried to keep my entries interesting across the board, but I'm going to do a little shameless self promotion today and share an article that made the front page of the Daily Beacon (UT's student-led newspaper):

Software tutorial helps engineers

Robbie Hargett - Staff Writer
Thursday, September 09, 2010 issue

Theta Tau, UT's professional engineering fraternity, offered a free Autodesk Inventor tutorial to engineering students Wednesday.
Theta Tau members Alex Sheinfeld, senior in industrial engineering, and Stephen Oi, senior in electrical engineering, taught the tutorial.
"Autodesk Inventor is a program that allows the design, modeling and simulated testing of parts and assemblies in 3-D," Sheinfeld said. "This can range from one-piece parts, such as a key chain, all the way up to full, complex pieces of machinery, such as a car."
Karl Hughes, senior in mechanical engineering and Theta Tau professional development chairman, said all industrial and mechanical engineering majors at UT will use Inventor in industrial engineering 330/mechanical engineering 366 and manufacturing processes, but it is not explicitly taught in any class.
"Students are expected to teach themselves via the included tutorials, but the learning curve when starting out is pretty steep," Hughes said. "It took me several hours of tutorials plus hours of trial and error to figure out how to make a simple part."
Sheinfeld said the level of exposure to these kinds of programs in the classroom is much too low.
"The projects are mostly homework and very little time is spent in class teaching the techniques of the program," Sheinfeld said. "Furthermore it's only the very basics of the program which are covered, and it's really up to the student to take interest and try to discover more of the program on their own."
Sheinfeld said he started using Inventor in the manufacturing processes class. He said he developed an interest in the program that remained after taking the class.
"I hope (to) go a couple steps beyond what's normally taught in the classrooms to bridge the gap between learning how to make basic shapes and making the types of assemblies that we, as engineers, will be expected to make in the professional world," he said.
Hughes said Inventor and other similar programs are used frequently in the professional engineering world, and while there are many design programs other than Inventor, the skills are easily transferable.
"The advantage of this free tutorial is that every student who attends will be better equipped to face the challenges of being a professional engineer," Sheinfeld said. "The skills in this tutorial class will be very useful, not only in the context of how to use the program, but also in the context of how a product is designed."
He said he hopes students will obtain a greater appreciation for what it takes to actually make something, to "show students a more practical side of engineering than just bookwork."
"We're entering an age where every product you see, from pencils to jets, has been designed in a program like Inventor," Sheinfeld said. "This allows much greater precision in designing the product which results in more rapid prototyping, more efficient machine layouts, and an overall better and cheaper product."
Hughes said the overall goal of the tutorial was to reach out to fellow engineers, who could likely use the help.
"We will be hosting several more professional development opportunities for engineers this semester and will be working with other engineering student groups to bring guest speakers and company representatives to campus," Hughes said.

 Quoted from http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=57181

I guess I can't take that much credit, the hour and a half class was taught by my good friends Stephen Oi and Alex Sheinfeld, but as the Professional Development Chairman, I did most of the behind the scenes planning. Either way, this is the first time that Theta Tau has made the Daily Beacon, and definitely the first time I've made the front page!

International Ethics

"We know of no case where a nation developed a modem manufacturing sector without first going through a 'sweatshop' phase. How long ago was it that children could be found working in the textile factories of Lowell, Massachusetts; or Manchester, England; or of Osaka, Japan?"

David Lindauer

This is a quote included in the engineering ethics online textbook at UT as justification for the use of sweatshops, child labor, and other sub-standard working conditions abroad. From my experiences with other Religious Studies, Sociology, and Philosophy courses, I imagine that this acceptance of 'the way things are' would be hotly contested by those with a more liberal mindset, but the initial statement is sadly true.

The real question here is the implication that the way societies have evolved in the past is okay, and should necessarily be carried on into the future. Personally, I don't think it's ethically 'right' for international corporations to take advantage of more vulnerable workers in other countries, but what does 'taking advantage' of these people mean?

For example, say there is a group of people living in a developing country where the wealth distribution is very uneven. That is, a very small percentage of the population holds a disproportionally large percentage of the wealth. Is it wrong for American companies to move in and give factory jobs to many of that country's unemployed, who would otherwise starve, be forced into slave labor, or join militant or renegade groups (think drug trafficking in Mexico or rebels in Sudan)? Surely American companies will give the people better conditions than the alternatives, even if these conditions are not up to par with those in America.

On the flip side, I see the argument against this. There are certain standards set for workers in our country. These standards are presumably based on the idea that workers, no matter their location, have certain human rights. It is fast becoming a human right in this country to be given health-care (like it or not), and other restrictions like the number of hours worked in a day, or the minimum age of workers, or OSHA-regulated working conditions have all become expected norms in America - even enforceable by law. Why should companies treat workers differently in other countries? Aren't Mexicans, Thai, Chinese, and Sudanese all people as well? Did we do something special to be given more human rights than they have?

Regardless of your stance on the issue, as the world becomes more homogeneous, and regulations become increasingly international, it is likely that this problem will get better to some extent, but it could take decades. Capitalist business practices have great advantages - they lead to tough competition, which makes for greater efficiency, they breed innovation, and they allow anyone to (theoretically) work their way up from despondency - but we cannot continue a system that does not recognize basic human rights. Business must tread a fine line between maximizing profit, and treating people for what they are - people.