Samuel Brüning Larsen - Doing Projects and Reports in Engineering

Doing Projects and Reports in Engineering

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Doing Projects and Reports in Engineering

Samuel Brning Larsen

Samuel Brning Larsen, under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2019 by

RED GLOBE PRESS

Red Globe Press in the UK is an imprint of Springer Nature Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW.

Red Globe Press is a registered trademark in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 9781352005639 paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Contents

Acknowledgements

I want to thank my awesome wife, Anne Marie, and my three children, Ida, Bertram and Valdemar, for giving me the time to write this book. I could not have come even close without your support. I also want to extend my thanks to my colleagues for valuable ideas and feedback. In particular, to John Clausen and Per Bigum.

Introduction

Project work within universities comes with different names, as shown in . Regardless of the name, this handbook will enable you to conduct great engineering projects and write clear and coherent reports.

Figure 0.1 Project work comes with different names

This book is for all engineering disciplines, it is useful from the first to the last semester, and focuses on group and single-person projects. It is founded on the principle that engineers design solutions to problems. Mechanical engineers design machines, civil engineers design buildings, manufacturing engineers design production systems, electrical engineers design control systems, software engineers design programs, and chemical engineers design chemical processes and products. Great designs of products, buildings, processes, and systems depend on rigorous analyses and are followed by actual implementation. The sequence of analysis, design, and implementation constitutes the core of an engineering project across disciplines.

Figure 0.2 The sequence of the three core activities in an engineering project

Project work within the humanities, social studies, and natural science disciplines, differs quite substantially from engineering fields. Within these disciplines, project work usually means conducting research that investigates unanswered questions and thereby contributes to our common knowledge about the world, human nature, art, and culture.

The purpose of most engineering projects is designing solutions to problems. Designing a solution to a problem differs fundamentally from conducting research that ends with the answer to a research question. This book provides you and your supervisors with concrete advice for conducting each activity in a project and writing a clear and coherent report.