Uncalculated Risks - Essay Example

Uncalculated risks Uncalculated risks The article uncalculated risks shed light on the benefits and procedures that are followed when making engineering decisions, as well as the implication of the procedures. Mention of licenses comes up throughout the article to settle issues of liability and who should be allowed to make decisions pertaining to the integrity of projects involving drilling out at sea. As such, there is widespread need to know who was responsible or liable for the blow out that took place at the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Following this, decision makers need to have licenses for public accountability rather than to be accountable to the organizations that employ them. The above issue takes centre stage as to why licensing is not a compulsory issue for drilling engineers, while the aeronautical industry requires that all engineers in its field be licensed. In addition, the experience of these engineers is in question following the lack of need to attend classes for academic qualification. Rather than this, all that is required is experience, and this does not allow the engineers to make sound decisions, as they cannot calculate the cost of their negligence or lack of knowledge of the technicalities involved.

As such, further concerns come up as to whether having licensed engineers would culminate in responsible conduct and decision making at drilling rigs. The exemption of licensing for these engineers is to be thought of again and a sound decision made regardless of the political pressure involved. The practice of exempting drilling engineers from getting licensing stands to be unethical owing to the lack of accountability to the public and that the said persons cannot stand prosecution. This is because if they are accountable, their accountability is only owed to their employers and the shareholders of the said company for which they work.

In addition, the lack of licenses for engineers points to their ability to get away with their mistakes and failures to follow standard operating procedures that have been approved. Mitigations Mitigation practices would entail passing legislation that cuts across the board on a federal scale rather than state law. This is to ensure that in light of public concerns and their safety, all engineers have undergone training and are licensed. This allows employers to distinguish clearly between unscrupulous persons masquerading as engineers, while they are not willing to take responsibility for their actions as they lack qualifications to comprehend the gravity of their mistakes.

As such, having a central data base of registered engineers would also serve to ensure that employers do not pay for the mistakes of their employees, but instead engineers suffer the consequences. This would also save the public in regard to safety and failed products, as well as economicallyChallenges Putting in place legislation for all engineers to have licenses would draw a lot of attention from different employers and especially those that work in defence contracting. This is because it would require all engineers to undergo training and rigorous testing in an attempt to gain certification.

The politics involved in this would be tremendous facing opposition from all sectors considering that it is said only roughly 20% of American engineers possess licences as professional engineers. As a result, it would best to go through a form of vetting or instigate new rules that require upcoming engineers to undergo rigorous technical training for purposes of making calculated risks to eliminate uncalculated risks.