Introduction to Communication Summary Good communication skills are very important in engineering practice. These skills include writing and speaking as well as ascertain unspoken kinds of communication. In a design environment all communication media use the design notebook as a source of the information to be communicated. Once you have decided to communicate information the next step is to decide upon the communication medium. Writing and speaking have much in common. Both need a well-defined purpose, careful planning, repeated rewriting or rehearsal, and much evaluation and refining. Tables 1 through 4 summarize some of the important ideas. Introduction Most communication activities involve solving open-ended problems and they can be addressed by the iterative use of creativity, analysis, and evaluation. These communication skills are developed by repeated practice and refinement. Communication is an essential weapon in the arsenal of a successful engineer. If an engineer cannot communicate effectively, especially to decision makers in a company, then brilliant technical ideas and innovative design concepts may be lost. Good communication relates to all stages of the product realization process, but it is often difficult to achieve because engineers are often more interested in tinkering with apiece of equipment or undertaking mathematical analyses than in communication. In the followings there are discussed 3 kinds of communication: writing, public speaking and some unspoken aspects of public appearances. Common to all three is the need to think and reason. Clear communication requires a clear understanding of the subject and the refinement of ideas based upon that understanding. The final form of the communication requires the author to think, evaluate ideas, and learn from them. 1. Some Basics Communication is important in engineering because the product realization process is a team activity. Rarely will an individual in industry be solely responsible for designing a product. The engineer must interact effectively with a wide variety of people in different disciplines and be able to influence others through communication. You will need to communicate effectively with your subordinates, peers, and management. It has been said that "Communication takes place when one mind so acts upon its environment that another min is influenced, and in that other mind an experiment occurs which is like the experience in the first mind, and is caused in part by that experience." Several different communication processes exist, but they all stimulate the human senses. Communication consists of six elements: 1) a source; 2) an encoder; 3) a message; 4) a channel; 5) a decoder; 6) a receiver. Communication begins with a source. Information is assembled by one or more individuals to be communicated to one or more people. This information is then encoded into a form of message that depends upon the medium to be employed for transmission: the channel. To communicate you must identify the audience and the means of reaching them. Will you telephone, write a letter using paper or email, send a memo, generate a sketch or an engineering drawing, or write a formal report? Are you tospeak to a group or simply exchange ideas with a coworker? Which is most appropriate? Hence there are numerous channels for transmitting information. Upon stimulating the human senses, the message is decoded before it is processed by a receiver such as an individual or a group of people, and feedback is generated. This feedback to the source of the communication can indicate whether the intended message has been received and understood. Appropriate modifications can then be made if necessary to clarify the message. 2 The Design Notebook Communication derives from some source. In engineering design the source for the written word or the spoken word is often the design notebook. It chronicles the product realization process and contains essential information about a product from early marketing studies and the product design specification to manufacturing data. Each member of a design team probably will own several of these books. They are receptors for all information about a product and its evolution. A design notebook should be a resource from which a set of events can be recalled accurately several years later. It must contain the original entries describing events, assumptions, decisions, and conclusions along with relevant theoretical and experimental data. Table 1 lists some characteristics of a design notebook. This notebook is of crucial importance in the context of intellectual properties: namely ideas and how they are represented. It is particularly relevant to publications, computer programs, and inventions that are legally protected by copyrights, patents, and trademarks. Table 1 Some characteristics of a design notebook 1) It should be durable, hardbound, (not loose-leaf), and page numbered sequentially. All entries should be written in permanent ink and dated. Pages should not be torn out of the notebook. 2) The project number or project title should be recorded to readily identify the project. 3) It should record all original work pertaining to a design project. Thus it may contain a mixture of useful and not so useful information. All information must be recorded because the future is always uncertain and in a new context information that appears useless today may be valuable tomorrow. 4) It should contain all of the plans, calculations, observations, experimental procedures, and data from experiments and prototype testing in such detail that the work could be repeated later by someone else. All assumptions, mathematical models, decisions, and evaluative thinking both good and bad should be recorded. This information should be signed, dated, and witnessed. The witness must be an individual who understands the technical aspects of your work. 5) It should be a diary of events; consequently important dates, meetings, and attendees should be recorded. Relevant telephone and fax numbers, email addresses and other information should be recorded. Summaries of important telephone conversations and other communications should be written as they occur. 6) It should contain an index of important information as the project evolves. This index can be established at the beginning of the notebook so that it evolves with the project. The retrieval