Research Conference

John Lauer

ENGL 250

Research Conference

4/4/2014

2014 Graduate and Professional Student Research Conference

               When I first go to the conference, it seemed like it would be pretty boring. But after looking around at all the booths and talking to some researchers, it was actually pretty cool and interesting!

               I went around 2:00 pm on Friday for Session V, to look at the only booth that had a researcher in the Mechanical Engineering field. The booth was about the “Characterization of Information Automation on the Flight Deck” and was led by Rachel Dudley. Her major specifically is: Mechanical Engineering and Human Computer Interaction. I was led to this booth because it had the most to do with my major, but also interested me in the sense that not only was research being done on how to properly engineer and program a flight deck, but also looking at the safety of humans when operating and controlling a plane.

               If you have ever looked at the flight deck on a plane, you will realize how crazy complicated it really is. There are so many buttons and switches that control all aspects and commands the plane must be told to lift off and land the plane with no casualties. The automation systems in the plane are in charge of informing the flight crew when something is going wrong with the engine or flight system, and then the pilot and his crew must work together to solve any problems and keep the flight safe for all passengers. One of the problems with this is how complicated flight deck systems are, so making them more user friendly and easier to solve problems on is the first step to a safer flight. The paper that the researcher has written, went over the human factor issues and challenges that the aircraft flight deck systems may go through, and how to reduce any risk and problems that happen during a flight. The big idea here is that planes and other automotive devices go through many problems throughout their life, and if other systems can be implemented to eliminate those risks and help the technology grow in smartness and effectiveness, then important systems like planes can be more trusted and no one will die from errors in automation systems.

               This was actually a real cool booth, where not only engineering is involved but human computer interaction is considered in operation of those devices. A lot of people want to get a system working right, but when humans have to interact with it and operate it, what kind of designs can be put towards making the device easy to work and smooth with controls. Design is one part of mechanical engineering that I can consider focusing on in the future, and this gave me a good example of one unique thing I could do in my field someday.

               

Research Paper

Iowa State University

 

 Technical Communications in Mechanical Engineering

John Lauer

 

 English 250

Angie R. Mallory

April 4, 2014

 

As many majors in college have, writing is a substantial part of the main focus that every college student must be proficient in. This forces students to be active in learning to write better and specifically better in the styles and formats that they must write in for their specific major. Each major has a different writing style, along with different setups of memos, reports, presentations, and drawings that must be done in the correct format. How will other students in the mechanical engineering field know how to produce this writing? Obviously, they will learn over time, but what better way to prepare for the next four years of college then to learn about these different writing styles in the beginning. This paper encompasses four general types of communication that Mechanical Engineering encounters, which is the following: Problem Sets, Written reports, Oral Reports, and Lab Notebooks. To be a successful engineer, and specifically a Mechanical Engineer, it is important to master each of these types of writing and apply them through your entire career.

In case you were wondering, I’m John Lauer, a student at Iowa State University, currently working on my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. I have now been exposed to the start and basics of the Mechanical Engineering degree. This paper is to be used to help engineering students with all types of technical communications and how to develop each type successfully. The information in here is universally based, so it may differ from other university standards and situations, but my hope is that if you need any help with communication styles in this field, that you can look to this paper and get something out of it to improve yourself as a Mechanical Engineer.

Problem Sets:

One of the first types of writing you will do as an engineer is problem sets. When analyzing and completing problem sets, there is a certain standard that all professional engineers must follow so that their work can be documented properly and understood, while serving as an understandable reference material for yourself in the future. When carrying out problem sets, there are two ideals that you must consider: the form the problem is written in, and the problem solving method. There are many guidelines for writing the problem itself.

First, “Engineer’s Pad” paper is very strongly recommended to be used when doing problem sets. It has been around for a long time, and has many advantages to it. When using the paper, only use the front side without the gridlines. The gridlines are faintly visible from the front. This is used to draw accurate diagrams, as they are visible against a light background and invisible against a dark background. The paper is usually a tinted green color with gridlines on the back having five lines to the inch with one inch major divisions. These lines work great to be slightly visible for drawing, but not obscure other writing on the page.

(Example of engineer’s pad paper: http://www.theofficedealer.com/mm5/graphics/product_images/1300/seo/1384215058/Tops-35500-Engineering-Computation-Pad.jpg)

Second, the paper should also be properly labeled on the top of each page. The reader should be able to identify easily what he is reading, who is responsible for it, and keep the pages in order. You should also consider basic good practices that you follow with all assignments, these include: writing legible and uncrowded, always staying out of margins, using the same color for a whole problem, and writing with a pencil.

(Example of labeled paper: http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/pset-format.pdf)

There are also requirements that deal with the problem solution itself. These include starting the problem with a list of givens and what is to be determined at the end of the problem. You should also sketch any diagrams to help you and the reader visualize the problem better. You should also overall explain in words what you are doing throughout the problem. Other recommendations are to always write the symbolic form of an equation before you plug in numbers and solve.

Finally, always be careful of units throughout the problem, box your final answer, and explain, interpret, and discuss the final answer to show what you have deduced. All of these steps should be used to help write helpful problem sets that can be useful to anyone.

(Example of homework problem: http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/samplehomework.pdf)

Written reports:

When looking at written reports, there are two concepts that need to be applied, which are the format of the written report, and the sentence structure of the technical writing. The sentence structure that all engineers must follow is the same, universally between all fields. So first I will go over how to write as an engineer, and then touch on how written reports can be formatted.

            When starting in the engineering field, you must first consider how your writing will change when communicating with other engineers. Out of all majors, engineering is very unique in how data and information should be communicated. There are a lot of engineers out there that had the same reason for going into engineering that I did. That major reason being, “I like science and math, and I hate reading and writing.” Most engineers do not like writing in large amounts. So the way we engineers go about writing reflects that mindset.

            To look at the style of writing in engineering, we will first look at the sentence structure of technical writing. Good technical writers in the engineering field practice these points: Planning, Clarity, Brevity, Simplicity, Word Choice, Active Voice, and Committing to Writing as a Process. Each of these concepts plays an important part in writing as a professional engineer. The first concept is planning. When planning your writing, you need to consider your audience, know your purpose, understand what task you are trying to accomplish, organizing your thoughts, and budgeting time to write and revise your writing. The next point to be covered is clarity. This refers to using any kind of jargon or acronyms that are unfamiliar to the reader. These should be avoided if not needed, or defined earlier in the report. Using acronyms is not bad, but making sure the reader understands everything on the page is.

            The next point is the most important out of list, and that is brevity. The dictionary definition of brevity is, “the quality of expressing much in few words, briefness” (Dictionary.com). This relates to engineering writing by the simple phrase of “less is more”. You should never use two words when one word will do, and simplify your writing down to get the main message out in the least amount of words. Engineering writing is all about simplicity, by using details wisely, and efficiency, in relation to redundancy in writing. Putting the most important information first and removing redundancy is always integral to a well written, effective paper.

            Overall, when starting to write some kind of written report, make sure to plan your project and topic before beginning drafting and understand basic qualities of good technical writing and used them throughout the writing. Just remember that good writing is a habit that takes time to develop, so keep practicing the technique and fully develop your writing.

(Good overview of technical writing:http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/technical-writing.pdf)

            The other idea is the format of writing a written report. This can vary greatly between the purpose of the report and what a professor or boss wants for a report. So it’s hard to cover a topic like this specifically. The main idea that should always be followed is to organize all information and data, plan your report with all the information and order of it, and make sure to proofread and edit your writing multiple times before submitting the finished report. These principles will help you write a successful report every time.

Oral Reports:

            Many of the writing aspects of written reports, also applies to oral reports. So for using writing in your presentations, refer to the previous topic. The subject I want to focus on in this section is the development of an oral presentation, and how to strengthen them.

            One of the first things that you should focus on when preparing a presentation is analyzing the audience, time limit, and organization of the topic. The presentation must work for the audience and make sense so that it will be successfully presented. Another thing you must consider is what your audience will be able to understand out of what you’re presenting. This will help the audience stay engaged and not fall asleep during your talking. Overall, be direct with your information when showing graphs or diagrams. Explaining the graphs and the main points that the audience should take from them, helps them to stay with you through the report and stay interested. Making a fancy and colorful presentation is also not a good idea. These things will only distract people from the important things you are trying to present. In the end, making an effective presentation is easy as long as you follow these professional standards and the ones you have already been taught. If you need a refresher, you can visit the link below.

(Refresher on writing effective oral presentations: http://web.mit.edu/me-ugoffice/communication/oral__presentations.pdf)

Lab Notebooks:

When using lab notebooks, there are many standards to keep up if you want to keep a successful notebook. First off, keeping a complete and accurate record of your experiments is a very important part of engineering, especially when keeping your research and findings accredited to you. Your laboratory notebook is a permanent record of what you did and observed in the laboratory. Learning to keep a good notebook now will establish good habits and help you become a successful engineer.

Every lab, you should write everything you do, including what you did and why you did it. You should also record your mistakes and difficulties performing the experiment. This is sometimes more useful than reading all the perfect things that went with the lab. It is extremely important that you keep an accurate and correct notebook. A good test is to ask yourself if someone else were to read you’re your notebook, could they follow it and go through the same experiment and carry out what you did. This also means that you could come back to your own work and still be able to interpret it.

Some key points that you always want to follow when carrying out a lab and completing it are: always write neat and legibly, the experiment title and purpose are clearly stated, the procedure explained clearly and thoroughly, include errors and the steps taken to correct them, computations performed neatly showing all steps, and date all pages at the top and signed by lab professor and yourself on the same date. If you follow these tips and carry out labs with a purpose, then you won’t have a problem with you lab book and the recording of it.

Conclusion

            In conclusion, each writing and presentation style will be useful in some way to every engineer. Some jobs may focus on certain ones, but having a library of knowledge that covers the ins and outs of technical writing in your field, will truly be of use to you for the rest of your life. I hope this paper was informational and helpful to the readers. Please email me with any questions you may have about any items covered in this paper. Thank you.

(jalauer@iastate.edu)

Works Cited

Banuazizi, Atissa. Creating Your BE.109 Presentation. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, 15 Mar. 2006. PDF.

Cheng, Wai K. A Guide to Writing 2.672 Analytical Reports. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, Fall 2007. PDF.

Hunter, Ian W., and Barbara Hughey. Instructions for Using Your Laboratory Notebook. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, 5 June 2007. PDF.

Kelley, Nicole. Sentence Structure of Technical Writing. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, Fall 2006. PDF.

Lauer, James. "Communication in an Engineering Career." Telephone interview. Mar. 2014.

Perelman, Leslie C. Effective Oral Presentations. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, n.d. PDF.

Poe, Mya. Effective Written Communication: Storyboarding a Technical Report. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, Sept. 2005. PDF.

Sample Problem and General Advice for Homework. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, 24 Oct. 2001. PDF.

"Technical Communications in Mechanical Engineering." Technical Communications in Mechanical Engineering. MechE Department, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://web.mit.edu/meugoffice/communication/>.

The Preparation of Engineering Problem Sets. Cambridge: MIT Mechanical Engineering Office, Mar. 2002. PDF.