1. 1 SPIRIT Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in Information Technology Using an Engineering Notebook

2. 2 SPIRIT 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

3. 3 SPIRIT 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

4. 4 SPIRIT What an Engineering Notebook ISN’T  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  Don’t use scratch paper. If it’s worth recording, it’s worth putting directly into the notebook

5. 5 SPIRIT Observation & Response Need-to-know Questions DialogueLater Reflections........ Dialectic Notebook Entries

6. 6 SPIRIT Engineering Notebook  A significant fraction of engineering time is used just writing things down in the book. If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.