EE/CpE322 Lecture 9
Bruce McNair
Based on Chapter 9
Engineering Design: A Project-Based Introduction
(the 3 rd ed.), by C.L. Dym and P. Little

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General guidelines for effective communication of technical work (Pearsall):
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Know your purpose
—   to inform, to persuade, to educate …
Know your audience
—   clients, users, team members, peers, …
Choose and organize content around your purpose and audience
Write precisely and clearly
Design your pages well
—   headings, fonts, highlights, space, …
Think visually
Write ethically
—   favorable and unfavorable results …

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Oral presentations are an important element of engineering communication
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Inform clients (decision makers) who may have no time to read the technical report
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Present the work and get feedbacks
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Knowing the audience
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Their interests
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Their technical knowledge

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A typical presentation outline :
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Title slide
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Overview of the presentation
Problem statement
Background material
Key objectives of the client and users
Functions the design must fulfill
Design alternatives
Highlights of the evaluation procedure and outcomes
Selected design
Features of the design
Proof of concept testing results
Demonstration of a prototype
Conclusions

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Presentations are visual events
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Avoid using too many slides or graphics (Allow 1-2 slides per minute)
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Beware of clutter – highlight key points so speakers can expand upon them
Keep graphics simple (flashy, clever, of weird graphics may distract the audience)
Use color skillfully
Don’t reproduce graphics directly from the final report (e.g. objective trees, morph charts, etc.) Instead, simplify them with highlighted points.

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Consider addressing the following questions:
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What are you trying to do?
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How is it done now?
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What are the limits of current approaches?
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How will your efforts influence the current limits?
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If you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams, what would the impact be?
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How will you be measuring progress to your end goals? How will you know if you are moving ahead or are stuck?
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What is this effort likely to cost? What is the schedule?
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Many psychological studies have shown that the right and left halves of the human brain process information differently
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The Left Brain processes text, speech and symbolic communications
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The Right Brain processes images, diagrams
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If your slide consists only of text, like this one, your slide and oral presentation are only engaging half of the audience member ’ s attention. Some people do not process written or spoken information well - you are missing them altogether
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Text-only slides are:
—   boring – especially if you read the entire slide
—   easy to forget
—   hard to skim through if you are pressed for time
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If you write everything, why are you needed for the presentation in the first place? Just send a memo
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

Text audio symbols
Images relationships
… turn left at the third street, then turn right onto …
Φ ( ) =
x
−∞
1
2 π t
2
2
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Graphics slides are more:
—   engaging
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—   memorable flexible
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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What
Where
When
Why
How
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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What Describe the problem you are trying to solve
Where
When
Why
How
Indicate the course number on Title Slide
Indicate the date, semester on Title Slide
Describe the background of the problem - why is it interesting?
Describe your approach
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Tell them
Tell them what you told them
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Tell them The body
Tell them what you told them The summary
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Summary
Challenges
Approach
Problem
Background
Outline
Design of a
Cryptographic
Mouse Trap
Senior Design Fall ‘ 06
Seymour Clearly
Angus MacHinery
L.E. Vator
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A top-down presentation is usually the easiest to follow
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It is also the easiest to adapt to the time available
—   understanding of the audience
Back-up material is good, all.
’ t have to use it
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Besides the Who, What,
Where, When, Why, How, some specific questions to consider:
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What is the problem you are trying solve?
Who is the customer?
How has the problem been approached in the past?
What are the current limits?
What are you proposing to do to remove the limits?
What impact will your solution have?
What challenges do you
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Schedule your presentation with the advisor ’ s calendar in mind. They need to grade your work, to avoid duplicating your presentation, find when they may be available and invite them.
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Structure the presentation to be effective
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Emphasize graphics to maximize impact
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Anticipate questions/issues and plan to address them
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Rehearse!
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Schedule your presentation with the advisor ’ s calendar in mind. They need to grade your work, to avoid duplicating your presentation, find when they may be available and invite them.
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Structure the presentation to be effective
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Emphasize graphics to maximize impact
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This is 16 point Arial (~ Tahoma , Helvetica, Lucida Sans )
Anticipate questions/issues and plan to address them
Avoid anything smaller (this is 14 point)
Rehearse! Serif fonts (this is 16 point Times Roman) are harder to read than sans-serif fonts
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Animations
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They look silly in a professional presentation
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UNAA (or at least UNAAWPD)
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Disjointed transitions between sections
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Speling errers (“Fore yeers ago, I cudn’t evun spel injuneer, now I are one”)
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Irrelevant clip art
EE/CpE-423:
Senior Design
Fall 2008

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Practice is essential to successful presentations
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Teams should allocate time to practice presentations and to learn how to manage time
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Prepare for expected questions in advance
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It is better to admit that you don’t know something than to be caught pretending to know
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Select a “batting order” for speakers

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Writing process is similar to design process
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Delineate the objectives of the report
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Focus on the needs of the intended audience
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Be reflective and analytical
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Write for the client, not for history.
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Avoid turning the final reports into chronologies.

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Abstract
Executive summary
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Introduction and overview
Analysis of the problem, including relevant prior work
Design alternatives considered
Evaluation of design alternatives and basis for design selection
Results of alternatives analysis
Design selection
Supporting materials such as detailed drawings, fabrication specifications, etc.

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Topic sentence outline (TSO) is a particular type of detailed outline
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This outline includes the topic (or theme) sentence for each paragraph of the report.
This approach makes the overall structure of the report, and each element in it very clear.
The writers need only write the paragraph consistent with the topic sentences to have a clear and coherent paper.
The TSO makes it very easy to see when a paragraph or topic is being raised in the wrong context, when a section is too short to be clear, and also when a topic has been discussed more than once.
The topic sentence outline also encourages a fair distribution of the writing work load

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Development of a first draft
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The raw material of the first draft often is written in the each of the voices and writing styles of the individual team members.
An editor is essential.
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The tasks of the editor include continuity of flow, consistency of style and content, and accuracy of material. The editor should have the authority to rework material into a single voice.
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Revision into a final draft
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A review process involves team members, advisors, managers, clients

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Team writing is a dynamic event
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Dependence on co-authors, on the technical contributions, and on the need to ensure a uniform style
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Effective communication, conflict resolution, and other team dynamics issues
Fair allocation of work in writing and oral presentation

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Project post-audits are widely used in industry to learn from a project and to help insure that the knowledge will be useful on the next project. The basic steps are:
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Review the projects goals
Review the project processes, including the original plans such as the initial activity network or logical ordering of the tasks.
Review the project plans, budget, and other planning tools for use of resources.
Review the outcomes - was the plan followed? If not, why not?
If so, did it work? What could have been done better?