February 2008 North Bay Meeting Notice

This month's meeting will center around the all important topic of engineering ethics. Many of you are familiar with the Challenger story, as well as the tragic incident in Bhopal, India. This meeting will center around a Video called "Incident at Morales" and a discussion led by some of our senior members.

Incident at Morales is a 36-minute fictional drama, commissioned by the National Institute for Engineering Ethics, about a young engineer confronting ethical dilemmas while working on a new chemical plant in Mexico.

Fred Martinez, a licensed professional engineer who has recently signed on to work for Phaust Chemicals, a US division of a French multinational corporation, is tasked to design a new plant in Morales Mexico. His challenge is to reformulate a new paint-stripping product to meet new environmental regulations and to compete with a rival's product. He believes he has fulfilled his ethical responsibility to design a safe and efficient plant, but he and his colleagues are told by corporate headquarters to both cut budgets and get the plant on line faster. Fred identifies environmental and technical problems that could put the safety of workers and residents in jeopardy. In the climax of the film, the viewer sees the impact of his decisions.

Incident at Morales presents the ethical dilemmas faced in the commercial world for audiences of students and professionals who confront these situations daily and somehow must make the right choices. The video and DVD will be used in engineering schools nationwide.

Reservations requested by End of Day January 19, 2008.
On-Line RSVP