THE ENGINEER'S NOTEBOOK

NOTE: In ECE 405 you are required to keep an engineer's notebook throughout the semester. BE SURE TO PUT YOUR NAME AND GROUP NUMBER ON THE FRONT COVER.

INTRODUCTION: The technical notebook is one of the most important tools for any engineering work. This includes: basic research, product development, or engineering design. It is primarily for the experimenter's own use, but another person with similar technical background should be able to understand and duplicate any experiment, data, and conclusion, or to prepare a technical report following only the notebook.

There are many reasons to keep an accurate and complete record of your work:

To establish the authenticity of the work.
To defend patents.
To act as a basis for technical reports and articles.
To avoid duplication of effort.

The nature of the work and the purpose of the experimenter will influence the content and format of the notebook. Many companies have a rigid internal requirements based on the company's specific needs. The notebook formats which follow should not be interpreted as "industry standards". They are intended for work in the Electrical Engineering Department, and provide experience in following some acceptable format.

CONTENT REQUIREMENTS: The notebook must be understandable to a person with a comparable technical background. It must be legible. It must stand alone; that is, "We got circuit from data book" is NOT an acceptable entry.

The notebook must answer the following questions:

1. WHAT WAS DONE?

This includes the approach to the problem or design project.
Any ideas generated should be included.
Circuit diagrams, references used, notes taken, etc. should be included.

2. WHO DID IT?

List all those who participate in the project for a given entry, including yourself, at the beginning of each entry.
Initial all following pages.
Any corrections or alterations should also be initialed.

3. WHEN WAS IT DONE?

It must be obvious to any reader when the work was performed.
Date all entries; entries that extend beyond one page should be dated on each page.
A single design will have more than one date.
Do not leave blank spaces and NEVER "back-date" entries (NEVER make ANY false entries in your engineering notebook).

General: The typical engineers notebook available in bookstores will be blue, brown or black, is approximately 9" X 12", and has about 100 to 150 pages. The notebook will be bound, never looseleaf, and the pages should be numbered consecutively, preferably by the printer. For the our purposes you may use spiral notebooks, as long as each page is numbered and each entry is dated - if one entry covers more than one page make sure you date each page.

A neat, organized and complete notebook record is as important as the investigation itself. The notebook is the original record of what was done. It is not a report to be written after completing an investigation. Do not write on scratch paper expecting to transfer it later to the notebook. Use a blue or black non-eraseable pen. Errors are not erased, but simply marked through with a single line so that they still can be read - later you may discover that your "error" contains important information.

Leave the first few pages in the notebook blank for a Table of Contents. This is important and necessary so that each design entry can easily be found. Use only the right-hand, odd-numbered pages for the notebook record. Use the left-hand, even-numbered pages for sketches, rough calculations, and memos to yourself. You may also place wiring diagrams and graphs on the left, opposite corresponding procedures and calculations. Do not leave any blank spaces/pages in the notebook.

Format - Technical Diary

Organization of this format type is left to the engineer. This format is suited to experimental work, design work, or research. The general format and content requirements must be met. Wiring diagrams, experimental lists, procedures, data, and calculations are blended together logically and chronologically to form a step-by-step diary describing work. Observations and conclusions are entered as they are made, and summarized at the logical end of a section.