The Design Engineer’s Professional Responsibilities (Topic 2)

• Understand the problem. Problem definition is probably the most significant step in the engineering design process. Carefully read, understand, and refine the problem statement.

• Identify the knowns. From the refined problem statement, describe concisely what information is known and relevant.

• Identify the unknowns and formulate the solution strategy. State what must be determined, in what order, so as to arrive at a solution to the problem. Sketch the component or system under investigation, identifying known and unknown parameters. Create a flowchart of the steps necessary to reach the final solution. The steps may require the use of free-body diagrams; material properties from tables; equations from first principles, textbooks, or handbooks relating the known and unknown parameters; experimentally or numerically based charts; specific computational tools as discussed in Sec. 1–4; etc.

• State all assumptions and decisions. Real design problems generally do not have unique, ideal, closed-form solutions. Selections, such as the choice of materials, and heat treatments, require decisions. Analyses require assumptions related to the modeling of the real components or system. All assumptions and decisions should be identified and recorded.

• Analyze the problem. Using your solution strategy in conjunction with your decisions and assumptions, execute the analysis of the problem. Reference the sources of all equations, tables, charts, software results, etc. Check the credibility of your results. Check the order of magnitude, dimensionality, trends, signs, etc.

• Evaluate your solution. Evaluate each step in the solution, noting how changes in strategy, decisions, assumptions, and execution might change the results, in positive or negative ways. Whenever possible, incorporate the positive changes in your final solution.

• Present your solution. Here is where your communication skills are important. At this point, you are selling yourself and your technical abilities. If you cannot skillfully explain what you have done, some or all of your work may be misunderstood and unaccepted. Know your audience. As stated earlier, all design processes are interactive and iterative. Thus, it may be necessary to repeat some or all of the above steps more than once if less than satisfactory results are obtained.

In order to be effective, all professionals must keep current in their fields of endeavor. The design engineer can satisfy this in a number of ways by: being an active member of a professional society such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME); attending meetings, conferences, and seminars of societies, manufacturers, universities, etc.; taking specific graduate courses or programs at universities; regularly reading technical and professional journals; etc. An engineer’s education does not end at graduation The design engineer’s professional obligations include conducting activities in an ethical manner. Reproduced here is the Engineers’ Creed from the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)5: As a Professional Engineer I dedicate my professional knowledge and skill to the advancement and betterment of human welfare.

I pledge:

To give the utmost of performance;

To participate in none but honest enterprise;

To live and work according to the laws of man and the highest standards of professional conduct;

To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the profession before personal advantage, and the public welfare above all other considerations. In humility and with need for Divine Guidance, I make this pledge.