Engineers are problem solvers. Once they have obtained a solution to a problem, they
need to communicate effectively their solution to various people inside or outside
their organization. Presentations are an integral part of any engineering project. As
an engineering student, you would be asked to present your solution to assigned home-
work problems, write a technical report, or give an oral presentation to your class,
student organization, or an audience at a student conference. Later, as an
engineer, you could be asked to give presentations to your boss, colleagues in your
design group, sales and marketing people, the public, or to an outside customer.
Depending on the size of the project, the presentations might be brief, lengthy, fre-
quent, and may follow a certain format. You might be asked to give detailed tech-
nical presentations containing graphs, charts, and engineering drawings, or they may
take the form of brief project updates. In this chapter, we will explain some of the
common engineering presentation formats.
4.1 Communication Skills and Presentation of Engineering Work
As an engineering student, you need to develop good written and oral communication
skills. During the next four or five years, you will learn how to express your thoughts, pres-
ent a concept for a product or a service and an engineering analysis of a problem and its
solution, or show your findings from experimental work. Moreover, you will learn how to
communicate design ideas by means of engineering drawings or computer-aided modeling
techniques. Starting right now, it is important to understand that the ability to commu-
nicate your solution to a problem is as important as the solution itself. You may spend
months on a project, but if you cannot effectively communicate to others, the results of all
your efforts may not be understood and appreciated. Most engineers are required to write
reports. These reports might be lengthy, detailed, technical reports containing charts,
graphs, and engineering drawings, or they may take the form of a brief memorandum or
executive summary. Some of the more common forms of engineering communication are
explained briefly next.4.2 Basic Steps Involved in the Solution of Engineering Problems
Before we discuss some of the common engineering presentation formats, let us say a few words
about the basic steps involved in the solution of an engineering problem. There are four basic
steps that must be followed when analyzing an engineering problem: (1) defining the problem,
(2) simplifying the problem by assumptions and estimations, (3) performing the solution or
analysis, and (4) verifying the results.92 Chapter 4 Engineering Communication
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