Looking for General "Rules to Remember" for Engineering Students 10

[Ron247]

I am putting together a 1 hour or less presentation intended for civil engineering students some of whom want to be structural engineers and some who may wind up becoming one but at this time are not sure. They would range from Freshman to Seniors. Although it is intended to be primarily focused on structural engineering, I decided to broaden it from just structural engineering to a combination of engineering, structural engineering and a little on investigations into problems. Seems like most of college is geared to new design and not much on looking into problems with existing structures. I would like for everyone gets something of value even if it is just one piece of information that helps them.

I decided to just present some very general "Rules-To-Remember" on the 3 topics. These are intended to be very broad rules that everyone could benefit from rather than rules related to some very isolated subject like "pressure vessels" or "investigating crane systems" etc.

Attached is a first draft. I would appreciate comments, additions and ideas on handing the students some sound general advice from experience engineers. Again, I am not looking for specific cases or instances. I have one hour and we all know it takes at least 5 hours to completely teach all you need to know about structural engineering.

I would rather they got one-hours worth of sound general advice rather than 1 hours worth of advice that will apply to less than 10% of what they might ever experience. I have never seen a set of advice like this presented to students but if anyone knows of an existing list, that would be even better.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1558458215/tips/Rules_to_Remember_nvlnoe.pdf[/url]

 

[skeletron]

Engineering Rule #5, Structural Engineering Rule #3, and Investigation Rule #8 are really good tips to focus on.

After reading the document I noticed that there is no mention of drawing/sketching as a way to communicate directions or solve problems. Drawings are so important in communicating your ideas clearly, and often the geometry of a problem will dictate the available solutions.

 

[StrucDesignPE]

Know enough to know when the software's output doesn't make sense.

 

[Sawbux]

A structure is smarter than you think, it will investigate all alternatives before falling down.

 

[CANPRO]

I would consider adding this - Your design has to eventually get built, and needs to be constructable. Keep in mind sequence of work and connections when designing.

I've seen this important aspect of design slip by the experienced and inexperienced.

 

[UcfSE]

Use free body diagrams.
Learn to anticipate the answer.
Be smart enough to make new mistakes.
Be cognizant of significant digits.
When in doubt, ask yourself "would I be proud to tell my mother [or other ethical/moral role model] that I did X".
Gravity always works.

 

[Guest262653]

When designing underground structures or embedded walls for deep excavations, ask yourself "Am I confident enough with my design that I would allow my son to go down there?".
Construction workers have parents as well.

 

[Ron247]

I will add the following to the list. Amazing the things I did not think of at all.

Engineering Rules-To-Remember #6
Learn to communicate both verbally and visually. Some people are more visual than verbal and vice versa. Sketches, drawings and other visual presentations will sometime trigger new ideas that verbal would not.


Engineering Rules-To-Remember #7
You are ultimately responsible for your design, not the software you used. The use of software can easily help you make mistakes more efficiently. You need to have enough experience and knowledge that you can more easily recognize possible software output that does not appear correct. Most of time it will be input errors by you, but not all of them.

Engineering Rules-To-Remember #8
While an efficient engineering design is desired, it must also be constructible. Designing something that cannot be built without extraordinary effort/cost is not practical and is viewed as inexperience combined with lack of knowledge. Mentally go through the construction of your wondrous design in case it is actually a unicorn.

Engineering Rules-To-Remember #9
Taking a position at a company (especially your first one) is a 2-way street. Both parties need something from the other. No one is hiring a recent college graduate because they just want to. The need some help and do not think they need the cost and experience of a seasoned engineer. You need to really think about what you need. All of you need much more from an employer than just an income. They are the ones who are going to mentor you and provide the specialized training you did not get in college. (Sorry folks but college gave you about 10% of what you will ultimately need.) You had better interview and research them more closely than they are doing you. How good are their Engineers? Do they specialize in something you actually want to specialize in? Do they even have a Registered Engineer in the field you are interested in (some don’t). Is their idea of training letting you put in a lot of hours learning what college did not teach you? And I could go on for hours.

Structural Engineering Rules-To-Remember #7
It is not whether you will stand by your design, will you stand UNDER it.

Investigation Rules-To-Remember #7 (This one is revised)
Every collection of physical things is a structural system of some kind. Even a totally collapsed building became a new structural system when it ceased moving. Don’t go tinkering with components unless you know what you are doing. This new structural system can collapse again if the forces change ( i.e. a new gust of wind, a drizzling rain or your weight with $2.97 in change in your pockets) or you remove a single “innocent” component such as cutting a tightly pulled electrical wire since it was never designed to be a structural component. All structural systems are constantly seeking a new way to fail.

 

[Ron247]

Thanks for the responses. Attached is a 2nd draft that may be close to final.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1558533949/tips/Rules_to_Remember_r2g1wq.pdf[/url]

 

[cliff234]

Hope I am not too late to put my 2 cents in!

To be a good engineer you must know how to design, and how to communicate your design. A good design is worthless if it is not clearly communicated on the contract documents.

Learn to listen both to what is said and what is not said.

Mitigated speech (aka, “speaking in rhymes and riddles” or “beating around the bush”) clouds communication. All communication passes through two filters. We filter what we say and what we hear. Recognize how your filters are skewing what you are saying and what you are hearing. Listen to what others are saying or are trying to say (but do not want to say).

You usually cannot calculate your way out of a mistake. Say something immediately when you discover a mistake.

When reviewing shop drawings, don’t just check what is on the drawings. Look for what is missing? (This is particularly relevant when reviewing reinforcing steel placing drawings.)

Don’t blindly trust the analytical model. Validate your models with manual calculations.

Don’t assume that the computer is smarter than you. If the answer does not look right, there is probably a mistake.

Ask questions. Do not wait for other consultants to ask questions or facilitate communication between consultants.

Most structural failures are connection failures (versus member failures).

 

[Trenno]

When in trouble, double.

When there's space, brace.

If it works, it works.

When it looks or feels wrong, it probably is.

 

[Settingsun]

Learn to communicate both verbally and visually. Some people are more visual than verbal and vice versa. Sketches, drawings and other visual presentations will sometime trigger new ideas that verbal would not.

I would strengthen this to say drawings and sketches are easier to understand (and harder to misunderstand). There's a reason we don't issue 5000 pages of written description of the structure to the contractor for construction. Good luck with this though given the widespread refusal of people to post pictures on this forum even after it becomes clear no-one understands the words...

Structural rule 5: could also say that not all actions on the structure are forces.

Structural rule 6: magnitude, direction and location. Vertical load down web is different to offset load causing torsion.

And Trenno's 'if it looks wrong it probably is' wouldn't be out of place as the golden rule.

 

[Agent666]

Avoid contradictory information like the plague, invariably given a choice (even if not intended to be a choice) a contractor will choose the path of least resistance. Invariably this is not the intended course of action.

Don't ignore eccentricities in member design or connection design. Seemingly small eccentricities can use up proportionally more capacity than you think.

Loadpath Loadpath Loadpath. Always consider how loads are being transfered.

Don't preach conservatism if you have not proved it. How do you know your method is conservative if you have not benchmarked it against any other recognised method

 

[271828]

You might add something about the lack of precision and accuracy of even the best design calculations. There's a BIG difference between the design model and the actual structure.

 

[MIStructE_IRE]

For our young computer modelers... GIGO. Garbage In - Garbage Out.

KISS - Keep it simple, stupid!

Always maintain a clear loadpath.

No Engineer need be more clever than is necessary.

If you can’t build it, you haven’t designed it.

And of course, the most used phrase around my office - it is what it is..

 

[kingnero]

The best weldment is no weldment.
There are no non-load bearing welds (talking about small seal welds).
If you don't find the weakest link in your design, the structure will.
Don't spec .01 mm or 1/128" accuracy in your drawings, unless you're designing for NASA.
Hand calcs matter, even if they don't present as nice as FEA or CAD modelling.

 

[XR250]

Know your statics. I feel that is the most important skill I have.

 

[milkshakelake]

The draft has some solid advice, but I'd say students are NOT engineers with any real life experience. I'd condense the advice into small single sentences, like Trenno and MIStructE_IRE has. Try to make it quirky and funny, which will make it memorable. Kids will be kids.

For example, I'd do this to your draft, and add your longer explanations in an appendix or something:

#1 People are not textbooks
#2 Focus on the audience
#3 Say "Keep it below 112 degrees." Don't say "Don't let it burn."
#4 Say "tie your shoelaces", not "tie it."
#5 Never say "never."
Structural #1 Never underdesign.
Structural #2 When in doubt, make it stout.
Structural #3 (I'm not really sure what you're saying. If I can't understand it as a professional, then kids definitely won't.)
Structural #4 Load, analyze, code.
etc

Also, I'd distill it into 3 rules for each thing. Students glaze over a lot of stuff, so I'd go for quality instead of quantity. I remember tons of college professors that didn't understand this, so most of what they said flew over my head. I wish I listened to them. But there was one professor that hammered a single point into my head in every lecture ("Check your g******* units!") that I remember to this day, and it always helps.

 

[271828]

(Sorry folks but college gave you about 10% of what you will ultimately need.)

I am assuming you want your talk to be well received, so think about how that will sound to them. "10%" reads like you think their current work and financial expenditures are next to worthless. You wouldn't want a guest speaker to come into your world and belittle it.

I've been on both ends of this. I was an EOR for ten years, then professor, and now professor and firm owner. Thus, I'm about equally in both worlds. Early as a professor, I said some very cringe-worthy and arrogant statements. As a professor, I've seen guest speakers do the same thing and come off as condescending.

BTW, do you really think college only gives engineers 10% of what they need? The goal of engineering school is to provide a good background in the fundamentals. A decent student goes from barely knowing what a vector is (if he or she does) to a pretty solid background. Do you think that background is only 10%?

As older engineers, we sometimes take our technical background for granted. At some point, you didn't know that the sum of the moments had to equal zero or else the object spins. You had to spend time in a lecture learning that and then work problems. A few thousand hours of such work is why you "started" with a good technical background.

 

[Ron247]

271828- Your point is well taken, the 10% was my initial value and I wanted to see what others thought in general about the items, including the 10%. After reading your response, I am thinking more like 20% but that is really as high as I see it. That information is in my part about students being wise about who they take a position with soon after graduating.

I am not coming into their world, I was in their world many years ago. I also know a lot of people who graduated and hired on to companies that afforded them very little future when it was all said and done. A 4 year degree affords you less than 2 years of actual structural related classes. If you get a Masters or PhD, you get more exposure while in college but still not anywhere near what you will need to know. As my post stated, "ultimately need". Graduate at 22, retire at 65, thats 43 years of additional learning you will go through unless you get into cookie cutter work. Going the other direction could be just as detrimental. If you convince them they are getting 60% of what they will ultimately need would not be true either. Just take steel design as one example. API 650 tanks, API 620 tanks, all bridges, steel bins and hoppers are just a beginning list of what was not taught.

You are correct, college is supposed to provide them a good background in fundamentals. I also think college does a good job of that. I also think it could do an even better job. I noticed your resume did not include the years in college and the years as an EIT. That is who I am trying to reach. People take basic tools and use them to build more sophisticated tools. That is what college does, it gives you the basic tools, but it cannot take credit for teaching the more difficult projects you will learn much later without a structured learning environment.

Attached is a revised list but 271828 I do not change #4 of investigation based on your comments, I had already changed it prior to reading your post. Don't want you to think I was being a wise guy. I also edited what is now #11 with consideration of your comments.

[URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1558926001/tips/Rules_to_Remember_v2vblt.pdf[/url]