Welcome to Northwest Engineering Inc. I’m the CEO, boss, and your supervisor. Here at NEI we characterize the performance of large mechanical machinery for use in other engineering systems.

Before we tour the lab and assign projects, you need to know how the class is structured. Here’s a link to the course syllabus with the schedule: ME 406 syllabus Sp26.

During this first Engineering Experimentation third of the class, each class lecture corresponds to the portion of your report and presentation you need to complete. Let that be clear, if you keep up with the class lectures, the work of completing your report and presentation will be spread out over the next month and you can probably finish the work during the lab time without the need for homework. The amount of work you need to do for these reports and presentations is extensive — in many ways like running a marathon. It’s up to you whether you want to run the marathon in increments over the next month, or attempt to do it the night before… and I don’t award misery points.

Welcome to Chapter 1 — Into the Introduction

99.5% of readers finish the first sentence of a report regardless of whether the sentence is written well (Holtz et al. 1994). This first sentence sets the tone, creates a hook, and an expectation for the rest of your report. Utilizing citations to justify your point builds relevance and credibility. Keeping this first sentence, and those thereafter, less than 22 words is a good rule of thumb. It’s your first sentence — you’re trying to convince me that you understand and care about the importance of this project. If I gave you the context and motivation for your project, and you just returned that to me, what does that tell me about your investment into the assignment? Don’t simply TELL US you understand, SHOW US you understand by doing a thorough job of reading and quantifying the significance of the problem. Pandering gets annoying very quickly. For example, “We’ve read the project requirements and fully understand what’s at stake.” — That’s the kind of desperate writing I see when people wait too long to write their reports and use filler the night before. Anybody can say that. Don’t waste our time!

Go to Google Scholar and find a few articles or theses to see what opening sentences and paragraphs appeal to you and which ones do not. You’ll likely notice the following:

  1. Good introductions clearly specify/define a problem/need.
  2. Good introductions specify/define what a solution MUST and SHOULD do.
  3. Good introductions define goals/objectives/tasks that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bounded).
  4. Good introductions define a scope so that it is easy to know what the work entails, and just as importantly, what the work does not entail.

Does this sound like the first phase of the Design/Engineering Problem Solving Process? That’s because it is! It’s just being given to you within the context of Experimental Design. As you’ll see, there’s a natural progression here.  Chapter 2 — Background Literature reviews the prior art and paradigms (what has and hasn’t been done) for how we could approach this. From there, a clear need to investigate a specific concept, and necessary equations will lead to Chapter 3 — Theory. The theory section is useful to show you can validate your theoretical predictions with an experiment, hence Chapter 4 — Experiment. Ultimately, you’ll conclude with a thorough comparison of the theory and experimental results, which will hopefully solve the needs and concerns of your client/boss, hence Chapter 5 — Results and Conclusions. This is completely synergistic with the Design/Engineering Problem Solving Process because it is that process.

Now let’s partner up for our A projects. In the past, we’ve defined partners for A projects based on GPA. I’ve found through experience that nearly all metric-based attempts at team formation fail to predict who you do your best work with. The best way to form a team is to allow you to use your judgment. You know who you work best with, and I demand that you deliver your best work.

Here’s the list of projects we’re going to run as “A” — ME 406 Project A assignments. I want you to use a sticky note to vote for each project with a 1, 2, or 3 and your team members. Discuss these with your partners and we’ll have you mark them on the board.

Now let’s go down to the lab space and do a safety review before you get started. You must use the WSU standard laboratory safety sheet for your assigned project prior to turning on your equipment: https://ehs.wsu.edu/laboratory-safety-manual/section-ii/ii-l/lsmsample/. These are, indeed, powerful machines and they can break. As an engineer, you need to make it a common practice to conduct a safety overview before you operate a machine as you should never delegate your safety to others in the workplace. Not just for your own safety, but the safety of the machine as well.

Once you have completed the safety sheet, review it with the TA and follow the instructions to turn your machine on for the first time (to know that it works). Time to document everything you can about your equipment before we go to the Library on Thursday to pull all the relevant testing standards and publications we can find.

By the end of lab today you should have the following completed:

  1. Complete the Safety checklist and submit for approval by the TA. This is required before you operate the machinery.
  2. Demonstrate to the TA that you can follow the operating procedure to turn your equipment on and off.
  3. Draft an Introductory chapter for your A project report. Use the 4 stages of habit formation (cue, craving, response, reward) to make finishing a draft of your content before the end of the lab period habitual.

If we setup these daily habits well, by the end of this semester you’ll be doing the type of experiments that add serious value to your 416 projects, develop patents and companies, and land you awesome job offers.