Chapter Four

Engineering Communication

4.1 Introduction.

4.2 Basic Steps Involved in the Solution of Engineering Problems.

4.3 Homework Presentation.

4.4 Progress Report and Executive Summary.

4.5 Technical Report.

4.6 Oral Communication and Presentation

4.7 PowerPoint Presentation.

4.8 Engineering Graphical Communication.

Presentations are an integral part of any engineering project.

Depending on the size of the project, the presentations might be:

brief,

lengthy,

frequent, and

may follow a certain format requiring calculations, graphs, charts,

engineering drawings, etc.

4.1 Introduction

As an engineering student, you need to develop good written and oralcommunication skills.

During the next four or five years, you will learn how to express yourthoughts, present a concept for a product and an engineering analysis of aproblem and its solution, or show your findings from experimental work.

Starting right now, it is important to understand that the ability tocommunicate your solution to a problem is as important as the solutionitself.

Communication Skills and Presentation

of Engineering Work

You may spend months on a project, but if you cannot effectively

communicate to others, the results of all your efforts may not be

understood and appreciated.

Most engineers are required to write reports.

These reports might be lengthy, detailed, technical reports containing

charts, graphs, and engineering drawings, or they may take the form of a

brief memorandum or executive summary.

Communication Skills and Presentation

of Engineering Work

4.2 Basic Steps Involved in the Solution of Engineering Problems

1) Defining the Problem:• You must first thoroughly understand the problem itself.

• What is known? and what is to be found?

2) Simplifying the Problem:• Making some reasonable and logical assumptions.

• Understanding the physical laws and the fundamental concepts.

3) Performing the Solution or Analysis:• Proceed with obtaining an appropriate solution.

• Set up the problem in parametric form (variables).

4) Verifying the Results:• Do the results make sense?.

• A good engineer must always find out way to check results.

• Actual physical experiment must be carried our to verify one’s finding.5

4.3 Homework Presentation

• Engineering paper is specially formatted for use by engineers and engineeringstudents.

• The paper has three cells on the “Top” that may be used to convey suchinformation as course number, assignment due date, and your name.

• A given problem may be divided into a “Given” section, a “Find” section, anda “Solution” section.

• It is a good practice to draw horizontal lines to separate the known information(Given section) from the information that is to be found (Find section) and theanalysis (Solution section), as shown in Figure and example in next pages.

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Example

4.4 Progress Report and Executive Summary

1) Progress Report: are means of communication to others in the organization orto the sponsors of the a project how much progress has been made and whichof the main objectives of the project have been achieved to date.

2) Executive Summary: are means of communicating to people in topmanagement positions the findings of a detailed study or a proposal. It must bebrief and concise. It is generally no more than a few pages long.

3) Short Memos: are yet another way of conveying information in a brief way tointerested individuals . Generally, short memos are under two pages in length.The header of the memo contains information such as the date, who the memois from, to whom it is being sent, and a subject line. This followed by the mainbody of the memo.

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Date: September 15, 2011

From: Khalid Ali

To: Member of Project X

Re: Budget Request

--------------------------------------------------

Main Text

4.5 Technical Report

1) Title: The title of a report should be brief informative description of the reportcontents.

2) Abstract: In the abstract. In complete but concise sentences you state the preciseobjective, emphasize significant findings, and present conclusions and/orrecommendations.

3) Objectives: To state what is to be investigated through the performance of theexperiment. Be sure to list your objectives explicitly (e.g., 1.,2.,„.,etc.).

4) Theory and Analysis: The purposes of the theory & analysis are

• To state pertinent principles, laws, and equations.

• To present analytical models that will be used in the experiments.

• To define any unfamiliar terms or symbols; and

• To list important assumptions association with the experimental design.

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4.5 Technical Report-Cont.

5) Apparatus and Experimental Procedures: Two main purposes

• To present a list of apparatus and instrumentation to be used, including theinstrument ranges, least count, and Identification numbers.

• To describe how you performed the experiment. The procedure should beitemized (step1., step 2., etc.) and a schematic or diagram of the instrument setupshould be included.

6) Data and Results: The purpose of this section is to present the results of theexperiments, as described in the stated objective, in a tabular and/or graphicalform.

7) Discussion of the results: The purpose of the results section is to emphasis andexplain to the reader the important results of the experiment and point out theirsignificance.

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4.5 Technical Report-Cont.

8) Conclusions and Recommendations: The conclusions and recommendationssection compares your objectives with your experimental results.

9) Appendix: The appendix serves several purposes:

• To provide the reader with copies of all original data sheets, diagram, andsupplementary notes.

• To display sample calculations used in processing the data.

10) References: A list of references that have been numbered in the text must beincluded in the report. Use the following example:

For Book: Author, title, publisher, place of publication, date (year), and pages.

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4.6 Oral Communication and Presentation

• Your oral presentation may show the results of all your effort regarding aproject that you may have spent months or year to develop. If the listenercannot follow how a product was designed, or how the analysis wasperformed, then all your effort become insignificant. It is very important thatall information be conveyed in a manner easily understood by the listener.

• The oral technical presentation in many ways is similar to a written one. Youneed to be well organized and have an outline of your presentation ready,similar to the format for a written report. It may be a good idea to write downwhat you are planning to present.

• Rehearse your presentation before you deliver it to a live audience.

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Present the information in a way that is easily understood by your audience.

Try to keep your talk to about half an hour or less because the attention span of most

people is about 20-30 minutes.

Maintain eye contact with all of your audience, not just one or two people.

Do not ever have your back to the audience for too long.

Use good visual Aids. When possible, incorporate charts, graphs, short videos, or model.

Use presentation software such as Power Point to prepare your talk.

You may also want to have copies of the outline, along with notes on the important

concepts and findings, ready to hand out to interested audience members.

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4.6 Oral Communication and Presentation

4.7 PowerPoint Presentation

In this course, we will introduce you to a Microsoft Power Pointpresentation, a tool that is commonly used to give an attractive andeffective presentation.

Power point for your assignments shall be prepared by the all member ofeach group and submitted no later than the 12th week.

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4.8 Engineering Graphical Communication

• Engineers use special kind of drawings, called engineering drawings, toconvey their ideas and design information about products.

• These drawings portray vital information, such as shape of the product, itssize, type of material used, and assembly steps.

• Moreover, machinists use the information provided by engineers or draftspersons, on the engineering drawings, to make the parts.

• For complicated systems make of various parts, the drawings also serve as ahow-to-assemble guide, showing how the various parts fit together.

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