Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in Information Technology

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Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in
Information Technology

• Using an Engineering Notebook

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What IS an Engineering Notebook?

• A Blow-by-Blow record of all laboratory
  procedures and observations
• Audience the engineer
• Answers the why and how of the experiment(s)
  and measurement(s)
• May become important legal record
• Record of failures as well as successes

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Engineering Notebook Entries

• Objectives of the project
• Preliminary analysis
• Equipment diagram
• Experimental procedure
• Data including proper labeling
• Graphs with proper labeling
• Calculations
• Results and conclusions
• Comments for future work

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What an Engineering Notebook ISNT

• A notebook is not a report
• The data from a single notebook record might be
  used for several quite different reports
• A notebook is not intended to be completed after
  the work
• Dont use scratch paper. If its worth
  recording, its worth putting directly into the
  notebook

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Dialectic Notebook Entries
Observation Response Need-to-know Questions Dialogue Later Reflections
........
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Engineering Notebook

• A significant fraction of engineering time is
  used just writing things down in the book.
• If it isnt documented, it didnt happen.