3.  What are the responsibilities of engineers when developing new technologies whose risks are difficult to foresee?

Our group’s talk mostly centered around the requirement that someone is able to pick up your work after you, and do so in a way that allows both for development of the technology and the continued safe development of the technology.  AKA: An individual with no previous knowledge of the project can read the documentation and have a thorough understanding of the technology and implications.

-Need to fully document assumptions (of risk?) made during the design process ad make document easily accessible

-Communicate intent of design and known limitations (including thought process)

-Document full design process and technology details.

 

4.  Because the experience base for a new technology is limited, it is difficult to write technical specs.  If engineers believe that the specifications are inadequate for future needs, should they recommend a system with characteristics exceeding those specification.  Why or why not?

The answer to this will vary depending on the role of the engineer (management, consultant, designer, manufacturer), the institution(s) involved, and the current project timeline.  Engineers should be consulted in the initial spec creation to account for future needs, but once those specs have been passed onto the designer, it becomes a business decision to make changes to the design.  As long as the current design does NOT HAVE any foreseeable future HARM, then it should not be up to the engineer to recommend spec changes during the design process.

Addendum: Maybe the design engineer should also recognize and recommend to management changes in the spec that make the product cheaper, easier to build, etc, but changes that do not change the intent of the design.