Dalhousie Slight Mistake in Computing Industry Could Be Fatal to Any Company Essay
Can you help me understand this Computer Science question?
Please read the requirement very carefully, all the info are in the files that I uploaded.
Pick one of the following topics, and write a report of approximately 1,000 words (excluding the
bibliography) in response to the question posed for your chosen topic. Further instructions follow; please
ensure you review them before beginning to write.
Topic A – Boeing 737 MAX Scandal
The Boeing 737 MAX is one of the best-selling commercial airliners of all time. One of its major selling
points was a new, more fuel-efficient engine design. At the same time, when the plane was put into
service in 2017, Boeing claimed there was no need to retrain pilots familiar with earlier Boeing 737
models to fly it. But it soon became clear that the plane had significant safety problems. In October 2018
and March 2019, two 737 MAX planes crashed, killing nearly 350 people. Governments around the world
responded by banning the 737 MAX from flying in their airspace.
The problem was with a piece of software installed on the planes’ computer systems, called the
Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). This software is designed to automatically
compensate for a design flaw: the new engines on the 737 MAX have a tendency to make the plane tilt
up, potentially causing a stall. MCAS compensates by automatically tilting the nose of the plane down;
this was determined to be one of the major causes of the crashes.
Did Boeing act unethically? Use the sociotechnical systems perspective to analyse the details of the
Boeing scandal, and apply the ACM Code to determine whether the company acted unethically. Make
recommendations for how the company could have handled the problem better.
Use the following article to begin researching this case:
