QUIZ PREP

2. QUIZ PREP • Have Quiz sheet ready. Title = QUIZ 9 • Name (L, F, MI), • Today’s date 10/16/12, • Lab day , time • section number

3. Announcements Preliminary Design Report due in lab, next week.

4. Project Rules Check Syllabus for Details! • 7. No items other than Lego parts may be used to add weight to the vehicle. • 10.  The output voltage from the voltage regulator (Vo) must be less than or equal to 10.0V. A penalty of 1 second will be added to the course completion time for every 0.5V above 10V. For example, • Vo ≤ 10.0V = no penalty • 10.0V < Vo ≤ 10.5V = 1 second penalty • 10.5V < Vo ≤ 11.0V = 2 second penalty • etc. • 11.  Each car must be constructed so that the output voltage can be easily measured before the race. • 12.  No modifications are allowed to the transmitter, receiver, or motor control board.

5. Batteries • Voltage drops as battery discharges • Voltage drops as output current increases (increasing load) • Typical 9V alkaline data sheet: • http://208.173.184.182/oem/Pdf/new/MN1604_US_CT.pdf

6. 9 V Battery Data Sheet

7. Preliminary Design Report • Describe design tradeoffs (six minimum) – see format slides. • Justify your decisions. Use Pugh charts. • Explain any disadvantages, and why you’ll tolerate them. • Include supporting drawings, figures, and tables if needed. • Detailed format and rubric are at bottom of public class web page (not Canvas).

8. Lego Car Design Tradeoffs • Output voltage • Higher output voltage increases speed • Penalties apply above 10V • Power supply (batteries) • One 9V battery (light, but less than 10V) • Two 9V batteries (≥10V, but heavy) • Watch batteries (very light, but drain quickly) • Wheel size and gears • Torque vs. speed tradeoff

9. Lego Car Design Tradeoffs • Drive strategy • Front / rear wheel drive – controllability vs. stability • Course path • Passing through all gates vs. missing gates (time penalty) • Pushing block vs. not pushing block (time penalty) • Body • Light vs. heavy – speed vs. ability to push block

10. Pugh Chart BEST

11. Communication in Engineering • Importance of communication in engineering • Document design • Structure in writing

12. Communication in Engineering • According to the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET): • Engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have: • an ability to communicate effectively • an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams • These criteria are driven by industry demand, not ivory-tower wish lists!

13. Integration in Engineering Curriculum • In real life, engineering cannot be separated from writing/speaking. • You should develop the habit of engineering and communicating together. • You can learn to communicate best by communicating about your own work.

14. Communication in Engineering • In a survey of recent engineering graduates, the respondents estimated that they spent 38% of their time in writing tasks. “Here at [my company], engineers who can effectively communicate across a broad range of topics typically move faster up the corporate ladder than those who communicate poorly.”

15. What Do They Do with that 38%?! • Typical examples are: • memos • reports • email • documentation • proposals • technical articles • An engineer’s output is more typically a document rather than a device.

16. Why? • Design • Test • Manufacture • Marketing • These three tasks are typically performed by different people.

17. Why Should We Care -- Really? • Clear communication is closely related to clear thinking. • Thinking through preliminary report • Presenting technical material to a class or project group • Form (grammar, style, structure) can distract or enhance. • You want your audience to focus on your point. • Poor grammar & style reflect unprofessionally.

18. Document Design • Purpose • Audience • Choice of Material

19. Purpose for Writing • An effective technical writer will always be aware of the purpose of the communication. • Report progress on a project • Document results of prototype design • Provide a manufacturing specification • Instruct users about operating your software • Persuade others to buy your product or hire your services

20. Audience, Audience, Audience • Consider your audience. • Consider your audience. • Consider your audience. • Specialists, technical (broad scope), non-technical adults, children • Friendly or skeptical. • Consider your audience.

21. Audience Issues Put yourself in their shoes -- • What do I want them to know? • Why will they care? • How much time will they invest? • Can I find a way to bridge the gap between what I want them to know and what they want to know? • Why am I writing this?

22. Choice of Material -- Two Errors • Leaving out important background material (assuming too much) “We found that adding a capacitor into the circuit didn’t improve the performance enough to justify the penalty.” • Giving needless details “We had trouble finding the capacitor we wanted. After searching for it at several stores, we ordered it over the Internet for $0.79 and received a free laser pointer as a bonus.”

23. Leaving Out Background Info • Intimidates your audience. • Loses your audience. • Offends your audience. Result: You fail to communicate.

24. Giving Needless Details • Obscures the main point • Bores the audience • Wastes audience time • Wastes writer time Result: You fail to communicate effectively.

25. Choice of Material • Define uncommon acronyms and jargon. • Provide short summary at the beginning to hedge your bets with the impatient. • Provide appendices at the end to hedge your bets with the inquisitive.

26. Jargon

27. Avoid “Buzz Words”

28. Structure • Information is interpreted more easily and more uniformly if it is placed where most readers expect to find it.

29. The Topic Position • The beginning of the sentence • Usually contains “old information” • Provides linkage and context • Prepares the reader for upcoming material by connecting it backward to the previous discussion

30. The Stress Position • The end of the sentence • Usually contains “new information” that the writer wants to emphasize

31. Structural Principles • Follow a grammatical subject as soon as possible with its verb. • Place the person or thing whose "story" a sentence is telling at the beginning of the sentence, in the topic position. • Place appropriate "old information" (material already stated in the discourse) in the topic position for linkage backward and contextualization forward. • Place in the stress position the "new information" you want the reader to emphasize.

32. Industry Perspective • One survey of an EE industrial advisory board found the following deficiencies in EE grads: • inability to clearly present ideas • inability to describe reason for a communication • inability to write a logical paragraph • production of long, rambling, unorganized reports • excessive use of jargon, buzz words, and acronyms

33. Are Engineers Really That Bad? • Definitely not. Engineers are some of the best communicators! • Compare English ACT scores at AU: • Engineers -- 24.92 (2nd highest college) • All other majors -- 23.23

34. Whence the Stereotype? • The information engineers must communicate is hard to understand. • Engineers are required to communicate a great deal on top of their technical work. • Engineers tend to lack confidence and motivation in communication and prefer to stick to technical material. 2X

35. Be Humble • Only a few people will read the entire report • Busy managers and your peers will read SELECTIVELY • Title Page, Executive Summary, and Introduction are most widely read. Write these especially carefully. X

36. QUIZ PREP • Have Quiz sheet ready. Title = QUIZ 9 • Name (L, F, MI), • Today’s date 10/16/12, • Lab day , time • section number

37. QUIZ 9 • 1. How many Pugh charts should your PDR have, at minimum? • 2. Where should the Executive Summary of your PDR be located? • 3. Where do you submit your PDR? • 4. When is your PDR due? (a) start of next lecture (b) start of my Lab 10. ---END OF QUIZ---