An Engineer's Guide to Solving Problems


Book Description

Engineers want to get employed and stay employed. "An Engineer's Guide to Solving Problems" targets engineering students and recent graduates. The transition from engineering school to real world problem solver can be rough. Suddenly, there is not just one correct response for a problem. There might be an infinite number of correct solutions, where some are simply better than others. Some problems are so layered and twisted that their solutions seem absurdly complex. Arm yourself for success with the methods in this book: * The Five Questions every problem solver must answer. * The best and worst ways to communicate your ideas. * New ways to see what other observers miss. * Mastering the right tools. * Six warnings to heed when you think you have a solution. * Critical challenge questions you must answer before you declare victory. Employers and customers cherish engineers who consistently meet their toughest challenges. This book delivers simple methods, practical advice, and entertaining stories to help you sharpen your skills. This book is intended for mature readers. The author occasionally uses strong language to humorous effect or makes references not intended for children. The Second Edition includes some updates plus a new cover and shorter title. The first edition was originally published as "The Dog Barks When the Phone Rings: An Engineer's Guide to Solving Problems."




10+1 Steps to Problem Solving


Book Description

Going far beyond "plug-and-chug" solutions, this relatable guide simplifies the scientific principles and breaks down the art of efficient problem-solving. Andrew Sario breaks down years of experience into digestible tips. Boost your career with 10+1 steps to solve real-life engineering problems effectively. Can engineers improve their problem-solving skills? Sario guides readers through ten steps of practical problem-solving with each step including engineering stories from his career as a lead systems engineer in the critical infrastructure and operational technology fields. The 10+1 Steps are an unorthodox way of looking at things but spend its efforts on improving your average time to solve. 1. The Question 2. The Obvious 3. Eyes 4. Check Yourself 5. Doctor G 6. The RTFM Protocol 7. Strip 8. What about the environment? 9. Phone-A-Friend 10. PrayThe last step? The Secret step. The steps are designed so that they can work with formal engineering methods giving you ways to improve your approach. 10+1 Steps to problem-solving provides that extra "+1" step for those situations when you have run out of options. The book shows the reader how their problem-solving skills can lead to better pay, more respect and land bigger projects. By following the guiding principles in this book you can confidently help solve problems regardless of current skill and experience.




The Dog Barks When the Phone Rings


Book Description

Engineers want to get employed and stay employed. The Dog Barks When the Phone Rings: An Engineer's Guide to Solving Problems targets engineering students and fresh graduates. The transition from engineering school to real world problem solver can be rough. Suddenly, there is not just one correct response for a problem. There might be an infinite number of correct solutions, where some are simply better than others. Some problems are so layered and twisted that their solutions seem absurdly complex. Arm yourself for success with the methods in this book: * The Five Questions every problem solver must answer. * The best and worst ways to communicate your ideas. * New ways to see what other observers miss. * Mastering the right tools. * Six warnings to heed when you think you have a solution. * Critical challenge questions you must answer before you declare victory. Employers and customers cherish engineers who consistently meet their toughest challenges. This book delivers simple methods, practical advice, and entertaining stories to help you sharpen your skills. This book is intended for mature readers. The author occasionally uses strong language to humorous effect or makes references not intended for children.




Process Engineering Problem Solving


Book Description

Avoid wasting time and money on recurring plant process problems by applying the practical, five-step solution in Process Engineering Problem Solving: Avoiding "The Problem Went Away, but it Came Back" Syndrome. Combine cause and effect problem solving with the formulation of theoretically correct working hypotheses and find a structural and pragmatic way to solve real-world issues that tend to be chronic or that require an engineering analysis. Utilize the fundamentals of chemical engineering to develop technically correct working hypotheses that are key to successful problem solving.




Thinking


Book Description

Thinking: A Guide to Systems Engineering Problem-Solving focuses upon articulating ways of thinking in today’s world of systems and systems engineering. It also explores how the old masters made the advances they made, hundreds of years ago. Taken together, these considerations represent new ways of problem solving and new pathways to answers for modern times. Special areas of interest include types of intelligence, attributes of superior thinkers, systems architecting, corporate standouts, barriers to thinking, and innovative companies and universities. This book provides an overview of more than a dozen ways of thinking, to include: Inductive Thinking, Deductive Thinking, Reductionist Thinking, Out-of-the-Box Thinking, Systems Thinking, Design Thinking, Disruptive Thinking, Lateral Thinking, Critical Thinking, Fast and Slow Thinking, and Breakthrough Thinking. With these thinking skills, the reader is better able to tackle and solve new and varied types of problems. Features Proposes new approaches to problem solving for the systems engineer Compares as well as contrasts various types of Systems Thinking Articulates thinking attributes of the great masters as well as selected modern systems engineers Offers chapter by chapter thinking exercises for consideration and testing Suggests a "top dozen" for today’s systems engineers




How Engineers Solve Problems


Book Description

Did you know that engineers are people who design things to solve problems? They use math, science, and creative thinking. Learn more in How Engineers Solve Problems, a title in the What Engineers Do series.




Solving Problems in Food Engineering


Book Description

This easy-to-follow guide is a step by step workbook intended to enhance students' understanding of complicated concepts in food engineering. It also gives them hands-on practice in solving food engineering problems. The book covers problems in fluid flow, heat transfer, and mass transfer. It also tackles the most common unit operations that have applications in food processing, such as thermal processing, cooling and freezing, evaporation, psychometrics and drying. Included are theoretical questions in the form of true or false, solved problems, semi-solved problems, and problems solved using a computer. The semi-solved problems guide students through the solution.




Think Like an Engineer


Book Description

Engineers conceive, design, implement, and operate (CDIO). 'Think Like an Engineer' presents CDIO and systematic thinking as a way to achieve the human potential. It explores how we think, feel and learn, and uses the latest brain research findings to help us unlock value and have a balanced life. The practical, easy to follow exercises given in the book can be used by individuals to improve their thinking and learning and by educators to empower their students to thrive for success.




TRIZ for Engineers: Enabling Inventive Problem Solving


Book Description

TRIZ is a brilliant toolkit for nurturing engineering creativity and innovation. This accessible, colourful and practical guide has been developed from problem-solving workshops run by Oxford Creativity, one of the world's top TRIZ training organizations started by Gadd in 1998. Gadd has successfully introduced TRIZ to many major organisations such as Airbus, Sellafield Sites, Saint-Gobain, DCA, Doosan Babcock, Kraft, Qinetiq, Trelleborg, Rolls Royce and BAE Systems, working on diverse major projects including next generation submarines, chocolate packaging, nuclear clean-up, sustainability and cost reduction. Engineering companies are increasingly recognising and acting upon the need to encourage successful, practical and systematic innovation at every stage of the engineering process including product development and design. TRIZ enables greater clarity of thought and taps into the creativity innate in all of us, transforming random, ineffective brainstorming into targeted, audited, creative sessions focussed on the problem at hand and unlocking the engineers' knowledge and genius to identify all the relevant solutions. For good design engineers and technical directors across all industries, as well as students of engineering, entrepreneurship and innovation, TRIZ for Engineers will help unlock and realise the potential of TRIZ. The individual tools are straightforward, the problem-solving process is systematic and repeatable, and the results will speak for themselves. This highly innovative book: Satisfies the need for concise, clearly presented information together with practical advice on TRIZ and problem solving algorithms Employs explanatory techniques, processes and examples that have been used to train thousands of engineers to use TRIZ successfully Contains real, relevant and recent case studies from major blue chip companies Is illustrated throughout with specially commissioned full-colour cartoons that illustrate the various concepts and techniques and bring the theory to life Turns good engineers into great engineers.




An Engineer's Guide to Mathematica


Book Description

Free Mathematica 10 Update Included! Now available from www.wiley.com/go/magrab Updated material includes: - Creating regions and volumes of arbitrary shape and determining their properties: arc length, area, centroid, and area moment of inertia - Performing integrations, solving equations, and determining the maximum and minimum values over regions of arbitrary shape - Solving numerically a class of linear second order partial differential equations in regions of arbitrary shape using finite elements An Engineer's Guide to Mathematica enables the reader to attain the skills to create Mathematica 9 programs that solve a wide range of engineering problems and that display the results with annotated graphics. This book can be used to learn Mathematica, as a companion to engineering texts, and also as a reference for obtaining numerical and symbolic solutions to a wide range of engineering topics. The material is presented in an engineering context and the creation of interactive graphics is emphasized. The first part of the book introduces Mathematica's syntax and commands useful in solving engineering problems. Tables are used extensively to illustrate families of commands and the effects that different options have on their output. From these tables, one can easily determine which options will satisfy one's current needs. The order of the material is introduced so that the engineering applicability of the examples increases as one progresses through the chapters. The second part of the book obtains solutions to representative classes of problems in a wide range of engineering specialties. Here, the majority of the solutions are presented as interactive graphics so that the results can be explored parametrically. Key features: Material is based on Mathematica 9 Presents over 85 examples on a wide range of engineering topics, including vibrations, controls, fluids, heat transfer, structures, statistics, engineering mathematics, and optimization Each chapter contains a summary table of the Mathematica commands used for ease of reference Includes a table of applications summarizing all of the engineering examples presented. Accompanied by a website containing Mathematica notebooks of all the numbered examples An Engineer's Guide to Mathematica is a must-have reference for practitioners, and graduate and undergraduate students who want to learn how to solve engineering problems with Mathematica.