Engineering hero of your choice - Assignment Example

Engineering Hero – Roger Boisjoly Engineering Hero – Roger Boisjoly Introduction The world of engineering has witnessed the birth and operations of several engineering heroes and one such hero is Roger Boisjoly who was born on the 25th of April, 1938 and continued to live while adding value to the field of engineering till 6th January, 2012 (Telegraph.co.uk, 2012). Boisjoly is recognized as a citizen of America who devoted his life primarily to mechanical engineering and worked on other secondary fields including fluid as well as aerodynamicist.

Above all, he is most recognized for his expertise as he was the one who raised concerns regarding the Space Shuttle Challenger just one day before the shuttle and the people working in it lost their lives (Opie, 2008, p.110). Career The great hero started his engineering career by being an employee with different companies located in California and in these companies he was working the projects of creating life support systems that were based on the lunar module and the development of moon vehicle.

After his early career operations, he started working on the Space Shuttle program for the company named Morton Thiokol. The Greatest Contribution Boisjoly is recognized as an engineering hero not only because of his work, but even because of the purpose behind his great findings which could have saved important lives and heavy capital losses. On the date of 28th January, 1986, it was decided that the Space Shuttle Challenger mission was to take place but the mission was contradicted by Boisjoly and his colleagues as the figured out that the mission would foil and result in heavy losses.

He later took the matter to the people managing the company Morton Thiokol who even agreed that it would not be correct to continue with the mission and they decided to inform NASA about it. The company informed NASA about their concerns but later added that they were not completely sure that their findings will prove to be true or not and the mission was not aborted (Vaughan, 1990). As soon as the mission started taking place, all the findings of the great hero started proving correct. As soon as the shuttle was started, the O-rings started burning and this caused the occurrence of black puff as seen on the tapes of the event.

Later the shuttle started taking off, at that very moment, Boisjoly believed that he was wrong as the shuttle did not explode, but while the shuttle was in air, it exploded into pieces and proved the hero correct (Dalal, 1989).Future Endeavors and Rewards Although, Boisjoly conducted a courageous act of identifying the fault with the space shuttle and tried to save cost and life, he was looked down upon by his own coworkers as well as company heads and he decided to quit the company. Later he continued to add to the development of engineering by working as a public speaker on the subject of workplace ethics and during his sessions he identified the dilemma experienced by the organization he was working in.

His courageous acts might not have been appreciated by his own company, but he was presented with an award including Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. ReferencesDalal, S. R., Fowlkes, E. B., & Hoadley, B. (1989). Risk analysis of the space shuttle: pre-Challenger prediction of failure. [S.l.], American Statistical Association.Opie, J. (2008). Virtual America sleepwalking through paradise. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=219105.Telegraph.co.uk. 2012.

Roger Boisjoly - Telegraph. [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/9067491/Roger-Boisjoly.html [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014].Vaughan, D. (1990). Autonomy, interdependence, and social control: NASA and the space shuttle Challenger. Administrative Science Quarterly. 35.