Suggested Readings for Engr Students 40

[braxtonlewis]

Quite a few of my undergraduate students from this semester have been asking me to recommend to them 'books' or other readings that will help them toward their development as a human being as well as an engineer. So I created my first ever blog to answer this question.

http://braxtonlewis.blogspot.com/

The books listed are the one's that I seem to recommend most to just about everyone. Would you mind taking a look and letting me know what you think? What else would you recommend to me and to our students?



Braxton V. Lewis
Morgantown, WV

 

[waterpipe]

I fully agree with JohnRBaker regarding the presentation skills. Here's what I suggest in this context:

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery

Your students might find the following free short "ebook" useful to get rid of boring power point presentations:

http://school.salescrunch.com/free-ebook-designing-presentations-that-sell/

In a general perspective, I recommend "Unwritten Laws of Engineering" by W. J. King.
Mechanical Engineering magazine has published a summary of this book in a series of three articles starting in its October 2010 issue. I'm sure that you've got this magazine in your library. Here's a scan of the first page of the first article to give a taste:

http://files.engineering.com/getfil...490-18ffbbbd3de4&file=Engineering_Lessons.pdf

Good readings!

 

[SAITAETGrad]

Waterpipe, good add. Along the same veins as King's book there is "Stuff You Didn't Learn in Engineering School" by Carl Salinger:

http://books.google.com/books?id=GZ...ook_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA

 

[jmw]

I think I'd add "The Delinquent Teenager" to the list.
This is a scary book.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

I just finished reading '13 Things that Don't Make Sense' and it was very interesting and thought provoking, although I didn't quite agree with the author's topic for Chapter 10: SEX: There are better ways to reproduce ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[cry22]

I'd add literature, lots of it, anything away from engineering, especially psychology. That'll make your Engineers nice to people to talk to. Well, here is an incentive for the male students: tell them that they can get laid more often in their life if they knew more about literature and psychology, etc.
Try Balzac, Montesquieu, Dostoevsky, etc.

And, Every engineer should get a therapy as soon as they get out of school or at least as soon as they get married. We Engineers tend to get into more divorces than any other trade, college graduate level i.e.
We tend to think we know it all, when we don't know s..*

I wish I did, I would've avoided a Psychotherapy late in life. I should have gotten my therapy early on in my life. I wish I knew more about psychology.

 

[Brad1979]

Actually, if you rank occupations by divorce rate, engineers are pretty low on the list. Dancers and bartenders are near the top at about 40%. Most types of engineers are closer to 10-15%.

But I do second your suggestion that engineers read literature.

 

[JimRogers]

I liked Good to Great by J Collins. It had an objective approach about it. I alsi think that the Hitchiker's Guide has a lot of good philosophy and some great humor.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Well, here is an incentive for the male students: tell them that they can get laid more often in their life if they knew more about literature and psychology, etc.

We Engineers tend to get into more divorces than any other trade, college graduate level i.e. We tend to think we know it all, when we don't know s..*

I can't help but see some irony here. Maybe someone convincing you of the former leads to the latter...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[GregLocock]

I strongly suggest everybody numerate read Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. Although it is directly concerned with the abuse of statistics by the health industry in the UK, the lessons apply to many fields. Very easy to read.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[JohnRBaker]

And, Every engineer should get a therapy as soon as they get out of school or at least as soon as they get married. We Engineers tend to get into more divorces than any other trade, college graduate level i.e.

I don't know, we'll be married 45 years this next June, but then I did take some psych classes my senior year when I needed a few more 'humanities' electives to graduate.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

UG/NX Museum:

http://www.plmworld.org/p/cm/ld/fid=209

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[lacajun]

On Speaking Well by Peggy Noonan.

It's not political so no political comments are needed. It's a good read on how to make a speech, which some engineers are called to do sometimes.

Pamela K. Quillin, P.E.
Quillin Engineering, LLC

 

[drawoh]

Has anyone mentioned J. E. Gordon's books?

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

The New Science of Strong Materials or Why You Don't Fall through the Floor

These are not proper engineering texts, but they really help you understand the subject.

JHG