Communications in engineering

1
Communications in engineering

• Dr. Yan Liu
• Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human
  Factors Engineering
• Wright State University

2
Factors in Professional Communications

• Audience Analysis
• Is the communication to an expert or a general
  audience
• How formal should the communication be
• What level of detail is expected
• What is the importance of the communication to
  the recipient(s)
• What is the time available for this communication
• Selection of Format to Convey Message
• Written
• Email, memoranda, letters, engineering report
• Oral
• Telephone calls, informal talk, formal
  presentations
• Graphics
• Drawings, pictures, maps

3
Factors in Professional Communications

• General Rules
• The purpose of the communication should be
  clearly stated at beginning
• The communication should be direct and to the
  point
• Conciseness is necessity
• Communications have been edited, refined, and
  practiced, as appropriate
• Communication should be complete
• Contains all the required information
• Select an organizational format appropriate for
  the communication

4
Why Are Engineers Often Ineffective Communicators

• Many engineering students have a natural
  inclination for math and science but little for
  writing or oral communications
• Engineering students often have little
  understanding of grammar and basic sentence and
  paragraph structure

5
Writing Resources

• WSU Writing Center
• http//www.wright.edu/academics/writingctr/
• Helps people become more competent writers within
  a peer tutoring environment
• WSU Writing Web
• http//www.wright.edu/cola/Dept/ENG/wsuwweb/
• An online community for writers
• Grammar and Language Information
• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
• http//www.grammarbook.com/
• An online reference guide and workbook
• Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization
• http//www.sti.nasa.gov/publish/sp7084.pdf (free
  to download)
• A handbook for technical writers and editors from
  NASA
• etc.

6
Presentation Resources

• Presentation Skills
• http//www.mindtools.com/page8.html (career
  training website)
• http//lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/dept/Tips/present/pre
  sent.htm
• Organization
• Toastmasters International
• A nonprofit educational organization that
  operates clubs worldwide for the purpose of
  helping members improve their communication,
  public speaking and leadership skills
• http//www.toastmasters.org/
• Wright State Toastmasters meets at E103 Student
  Union at 1200pm on Mondays (brookins.5_at_wright.edu
  )

7
Engineering Report

• Purpose
• Records how and why the work was accomplished and
  what the results, recommendations, and
  conclusions were
• Often the only document related to work that is
  maintained on file for future reference
• Typical Elements
• Title
• Authors
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Technical approach
• Results and discussion
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgement
• References
• Appendix

8
Engineering Report

• Title
• Brief and descriptive of your work
• Clearly states what the work was about
• Use adjectives that describe the distinctive
  features of the work (e.g. reliable,
  high-performance, robust, low-cost, etc.)
• Avoid jargon or vernacular
• Authors
• Name
• Affiliation
• Contact information of the corresponding author
• e.g. phone, email

9
Engineering Report

• Abstract
• A brief (200 words or less) statement of the
  essential components of the report
• Objective(s)
• Methods(s) used
• Significant results
• Conclusions
• Introduction
• Provide the necessary background
• Describe the objective(s)
• Define the scope of the investigation
• Identify any previous studies or efforts that are
  related to the work

10
Engineering Report

• Technical Approach
• Provides detailed information about how the work
  was accomplished
• Theoretical/design principles involved
• Equations used
• Design sketches and diagrams
• Experiment setup and design
• etc.
• Results and Discussion
• If experiments were involved
• Describe data analyses and their results
• Describe any complications (e.g. missing data,
  outliers, etc.) and how they were handled
• Statistical techniques
• Understand the techniques applied and the
  statistics you are reporting
• Try to use the simplest, appropriate technique
  that meets the underlying assumptions

11
Engineering Report

• Results and Discussion (Cont.)
• Each major conclusion should be clearly
  substantiated
• Any contradictory theories or results must be
  explained
• Use carefully planned tables and graphs
• Recognize the limitations of the work
• Suggest future work
• Conclusions
• Provide a quick reference about the main
  conclusions for the reader with limited time
• Conclusions reached in the results and discussion
  section are restated in a more general manner

12
Engineering Report

• References
• There should be a one-to-one match between the
  references cited in the report and the list of
  references
• Various styles of references
• Chicago Manual of Style
• http//www.chicagomanualofstyle.org
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics
  Engineers) Style (Use in your project reports)
• http//www.ece.uiuc.edu/pubs/ref_guides/ieee.html
• APA (American Psychological Association) Style
• http//apastyle.apa.org/
• Appendix
• Provide supporting information that is necessary
  yet not significant enough to be included in the
  body of the report
• A complex mathematical proof
• A questionnaire or survey instrument (unless it
  is the main contribution of the work)

13
IEEE Reference Style

• References in the Text
• References must be numbered in the order in which
  they appear in the text
• Once you label the source, use the same number in
  all subsequent references
• Each reference number should be enclosed by
  square brackets on the text line, with a space
  before the bracket and before the punctuation
• e.g. Visualization is crucial to data analysis
  it provides a front line of attack, revealing
  intricate structure in data that cannot be
  absorbed in any other way 6.
• Do not include author(s) in the reference if you
  want to stress the author(s), mention the
  author(s) in the sentence
• e.g. Cleveland argued that visualization is
  crucial to data analysis it provides a front
  line of attack, revealing intricate structure in
  data that cannot be absorbed in any other way
  6.
• It is not necessary to say "in reference 27. .
  . ." "In 27 . . ." is sufficient
• To cite more than one source at a time
• Vastly preferred 1,3,5 or 1 5
• Acceptable 1, 3, 5 or 1 5

14
IEEE Reference Style

• Reference List
• References must be listed in the same order they
  were cited in text (numerical order)
• List only one reference per bracketed number
• Capitalization and italicization
• Every important word in the title of a book must
  be capitalized and italicized
• Prepositions and articles are not capitalized
  unless they are the first words in the title
• Every important word in the title of a journal or
  conference must be capitalized and italicized
• Capitalize only the first word of the title of an
  article, book chapter, thesis, or dissertation
• Capitalize the "v" in volume for a book title but
  not for a journal
• Abbreviations
• You must either spell out the entire name of each
  journal or conference proceeding you reference or
  use accepted abbreviations You must consistently
  do one or the other
• To indicate a page range (e.g. pp. 111-222)
• Reference one page only, use only one p (e.g. p.
  111)

15
IEEE Reference Style

• Reference List (Cont.)
• Author names
• ltfirst initialgt. ltmiddle initialgt ltlast namegt
• e.g. D. L. Tao
• Two authors
• ltfirst authorgt and ltsecond authorgt
• e.g. D. L. Tao and L. A. Stevens
• Three or more authors
• ltfirst authorgt, ltsecond authorgt, ltthird authorgt,
  and ltlast authorgt
• e.g. D. L. Tao, S. Al Kuran, and L. A. Stevens

16

• Book

S. M. Hemmingsen, Soft Science. Saskatoon
University of Saskatchewan Press, 1997.

• Book Chapter

A. Rezi and M. Allam, "Techniques in array
processing by means of transformations," in
Control and Dynamic Systems, Vol. 69,
Multidimensional Systems, C. T. Leondes, Ed. San
Diego Academic Press, 1995, pp. 133-180

• Journal

G. Liu, K. Y. Lee, and H. F. Jordan, "TDM and
TWDM de Bruijn networks and shufflenets for
optical communications," IEEE Transactions on
Computers, vol. 46, pp. 695-701, June 1997.

• Conference proceeding

S. Al Kuran, "The prospects for GaAs MESFET
technology in dc-ac voltage conversion," in
Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Portable Design
Conference, 1997, pp. 137-142.

• Report (Technical report, Memoranda)

K. E. Elliott and C. M. Greene, "A local adaptive
protocol," Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne,
France, Tech. Rep. 916-1010-BB, July 1997.
17

• Thesis (M.S. Thesis) or Dissertation (Ph.D.
  Dissertation)

H. Zhang, "Delay-insensitive networks," M.S.
thesis, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON,
Canada, 1997.

• Manual

Bell Telephone Laboratories Technical Staff,
Transmission System for Communications, Bell
Telephone Laboratories, 1995.

• From the internet

Computational, Optical, and Discharge Physics
Group, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, "Hybrid plasma equipment model
Inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching
reactors," December 1995, http//uigelz.ece.uiuc.e
du/Projects/HPEM-ICP/index.html.

• Patent

K. Kimura and A. Lipeles, "Fuzzy Controller
Component," U. S. Patent 14,860,040, December 14,
1996.
18
Plagiarism

• You must cite all sources of information in your
  work
• What is Plagiarism
• Presenting someone elses ideas, work, or words
  as if they were your own
• Copying from a source without citing it
• Using the same words without using quotation
  marks (even with a citation)
• More Information
• Wright State University Writing Center
  http//www.wright.edu/academics/writingctr/resourc
  es/plagiarism.html

19
Oral Presentation

• Means to Control Anxiety
• Well prepared and has a thorough understanding of
  the material to be presented
• Become familiar with the size and layout of the
  room
• Availability of audio system and podium, the
  location of light switches, position of
  projectors, etc.
• Wear the proper attire
• Break the barrier between the speaker and
  audience by getting some sort of dialogue going
• Self introduction, talk about fun hot topics,
  etc.

20
Oral Presentation

• Title Slide
• Title of the presentation
• To which group, organization or meeting the
  presentation is being given
• Presenters name, affiliation, contact
  information
• Date of the presentation
• Outline
• Outline of the topics to be discussed
• Body
• Introduction
• Technical approach
• Results and discussion
• Conclusions

21
Oral Presentation

• Use of Visual Aids
• Advantages
• Catch the audiences attention
• Facilitate understanding
• Disadvantages
• Preparation time
• Cost