ESG 201: Learning from Engineering Disaster is a 3 credit, 100% online course taught by Dr. Gary Halada.

Please see below for the current syllbus and a link to my Engineerign Disaster blog, which will provide additional information.

The course will be open for all registrants in Summer 2020 (as well as Spring 2020 for current SBU students).  Please write to gary.halada@stonybrook.edu for more information, or check the summer course registration page at: https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/summer/registration.php

ESG 201 – Learning from Engineering Disasters – Summer Session 2020 – Online course

(Draft – subject to revision)

STAS (DEC H) Course

Instructor:  Gary Halada

–      Department of Materials Science and Engineering

–      Office: 308, Engineering Building

–      Office Hours:  By appointment (please email – can also meet by Skype).

–      We will also have discussions and virtual office hours via the Discussion Forum on Blackboard and using SB Connect link on Blackboard.

–      Email:  gary.halada@stonybrook.edu

–      T.A.s:

• TBA

Course description and learning objectives:

Engineering disasters are usually catastrophic failures of a human-made system, structure, process or material, which are perceived to result in an outcome with a high cost to human life or health, the environment, our communities and societal structures, our industry, or the economy.  The potential for disaster is often judged based on the probability or likelihood of failure, the vulnerability of a community, ecosystem or business to failure, and the likely severity of such a failure should it happen.  The role of engineers (and others) is to design, create and maintain human-made systems so that the likelihood of failure (which causes a system to not perform its intended function) is as low as reasonably achievable and so that any failure that would occur would have as benign an impact as possible.

The purpose of this course is to help you to understand the nature of engineering disaster and failure.  This includes learning about:

–      What it is (more complex than you may think)

–      How it affects society (including business, politics, and the human psyche – how we think and react)

–      The nature of “risk” and how we perceive risk from engineered systems, structures and materials

–      How engineers learn from engineering failure (and why they must learn from these incidents to create better designs)

–      The role of ethics and values in engineering

–      How it fits into your course of study (and why it matters to you)

In order to achieve these learning objectives, the course will be organized as follows (subject to change):

Resources:

• Books (required):
  • Lessons Amid the Rubble, Susan Pfatteicher
  • Drilling Down, The Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma, Tainter and Patzek

Recommended texts (not required):

• Inviting Disaster, James Chiles
• Drift into Failure, Sidney Dekker
• Blackboard:  Extensive use of BlackBoard site (syllabus, announcements, Voice Thread, videos, assignments, additional materials, grading, surveys, SafeAssign)
• All assignments submitted via Blackboard
• SB Connect room
• Blog: https://you.stonybrook.edu/disaster/
• News sources (on line and print)  -- semester project will require you to analyze a current (or very recent) engineering failure (causes, implications, societal impact, etc.)

Notes:

• No cheating or academic dishonesty of any kind
• Your responsibility to stay aware of assignments and changes emailed/announced through BlackBoard (if your email on BlackBoard is wrong, get it fixed….)

Teaching philosophy:

• Problem-based learning and project-based learning

–      Real-world case studies (including videos)

–      All learning is multidisciplinary (aspects of engineering design and analysis, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, business, economics, political science, sociology, psychology – your major or interests are incorporated)

–      The information you need is out there – you need to learn how to find it, how to make sure it is valid information, how to interpret it, and how to use it.

–      Final project – report and presentation on current failure (with special emphasis on ethical, legal and societal implications, and the role of complexity and “system-ness”)

• Online tools and methods

–      You are to view all lectures in VoiceThread format

–      You will create your final presentation in VoiceThread

–      Other students will view and comment on your presentation

–      All video content will be included under Documents

–      Whenever you view a lecture or video or set of videos, you must include a brief reflection on Blackboard

Grading: (SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

• ~ 50% -- assignments (which must be completed on your electronic portfolio)
• ~ 25% -- final report
• ~ 15% --   presentation
• ~ 10% -- overall quality of work, including reflections and readability – which in turn impacts the other grades.
• Curve based on final performance of class
• I will use the grade book in BlackBoard
• Cheating = F
• Incompletes must be arranged in advance, and for good reason

Note that final grading percentages, assigned letters, etc. may not follow these guidelines exactly (based on class performance as well as technical details with electronic media, including class experience with portfolios.)

Attendance Policy:

As an online course, you are required to view (and comment on as appropriate) all materials on Blackboard, and read all materials for assignments.  

Academic Integrity:

Intellectual honesty is the foundation for all academic and scholarly work, not just in the Honors College or just in the University, but in the whole academic community, national and international. In this course, we expect you to care about your own intellectual development, as well as about your grades. When grades are achieved through dishonest means, everyone in the academic community suffers, and the intellectual development of the person who was dishonest is compromised. Plagiarism is using another person's ideas or expressions in your writing as if they were your own, without acknowledging the source. Because it is taking credit for an idea or information that you did not originate, it is a serious violation of university rules, for which the penalties range from a zero on the assignment to F in the course to expulsion from the university. For Honors College students, the standard penalty includes dismissal from the Honors College. University regulations require us to report any case of suspected academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary Committee. Plagiarism is intellectual theft — theft of ideas and theft of a grade. Unlike other kinds of theft, however, it is possible to plagiarize unintentionally; that is why it is important, as you are writing to stay aware of the rules and format for citing your sources.

When you hand in any written assignment, you are thereby declaring that everything in it is original: every idea, every word, every fact, every way in which ideas, words, or facts are arranged or presented, is your own creation or discovery and no one else’s, except if you state otherwise. You may certainly include ideas, facts, words, arrangements, etc., that you obtained from someone else (a book, article, internet site, television program, teacher, or friend), if you give credit to that source. If you use any actual words from the source, you must enclose them in quotation marks as well as state the source. If you do not indicate sources and use quotation marks correctly you are plagiarizing: presenting what you got from a source as if you originated it yourself. Material derived from electronic media is as much subject to these rules as material communicated on paper. If a friend reads your draft or talks with you about your project and makes suggestions (and you use any of them), it is appropriate to mention your friend in your paper. In addition, you must not falsify official records of academic work, assessment or attendance—either your own or someone else’s. If you have any questions, as an individual or as a team, about how to handle matters of academic integrity in this course, ask one of the instructors before you submit the work, not after.

Faculty are required to report any suspected instances of academic dishonesty to the Academic Judiciary. For more comprehensive information on academic integrity, including categories of academic dishonesty, please refer to the academic judiciary website at http://www.stonybrook. edu/uaa/academicjudiciary/

Americans with Disabilities Act:

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Disability Support Services, ECC (Educational Communications Center) Building, room128, (631) 632-6748. They will determine with you what accommodations, if any, are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Critical Incident Management:

Stony Brook University expects students to respect the rights, privileges, and property of other people. Faculty are required to report to the Office of Judicial Affairs any disruptive behavior that interrupts their ability to teach, compromises the safety of the learning environment, or inhibits students' ability to learn.

Learning from Engineering Disaster: A blog by Gary Halada, Stony Brook University

https://you.stonybrook.edu/disaster/