Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Your steps on following the engineering process have been helpful, but I still have a few questions.

I'm doing an engineering project on aircraft design (increasing the stall angle of a rear-swept wing) and I wasn't sure how to analyze or display my results. I compared my design to a current design and the results showed my design to be slightly better. In the engineering process, are you supposed to use statistics to analyze the results or, is there a different method that should be used since I'm not using variables or controls? I'm not sure what the judges will be looking for in that area.

Also, what are considered the "steps in the design process"? Are they the specific designs and models I made working up to my first design, or my final design, etc.?

Do you have an example of an engineering paper I could look at as an example?

Can you recommend any books written about the engineering process?

Thanks for your help!

PS This website is a big help!

Hi Christian,

There are many ways you could analyze your results. Statistics is certainly something that you should look at. Our engineering and programming tips page actually says "When engineers and programmers test and retest their creations, they too are doing data analysis. For example, they might measure the performance or improvement of their creation. So, even though we call this step "Redesign and Retest," it usually involves data analysis, just like for a project using the scientific method. Almost always, you will want to present the results of your testing and retesting in a graph."
(It sounds like you have already read that page, but here it is just in case you haven't: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ring.shtml)

If you take a look at the page I just mentioned, it will go through the entire design process. And yes, all of your work, including your initial ideas and models, are part of the design process.

As for examples of engineering papers, I would look for some online using google and/or google scholar. We even have some tips on how to find and read scientific/engineering papers. Looking at published papers in your field will give you a much better idea of what the judges are looking for (they are used to seeing the results presented in the same format as a published paper). You can even try to find papers that are similar to your own work. This is important because you should always know what has already been done in your field and how yours is different. Often you might only find an abstract, but if you type in the title of the paper in google you can sometimes find the entire article for free. Since you were comparing your results to something, it sounds like you might already have some good papers for your bibliography.

Here are the tips about finding/reading papers:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... pers.shtml
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... aper.shtml

As for books, I'll have to think on that one. I did recently read a book about design, but it wasn't so much the engineering process as just some good basic principles: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

You might also check out our advanced project guide if you haven't already. There are lots of pages about the various competitions and how to do prepare for them: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml
I'm glad you are enjoying the website!

I'm going to move your post to the physical science forum so our experts can better help you.

I asked some people about books and here is what they recommend:

High school engineering textbooks, such as:

Design and Problem Solving in Technology by John Hutchinson
Technology Education: Learning by Design by Hacker and Burghardt

Both are available used on Amazon or another online store, or you could check your library

Not a textbook, but interesting to someone who likes aeronautics:
Visions of a Flying Machine: The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention by Peter Jakab

You might be interested in MIT's Open Courseware (OCW), which has resources from many classes at MIT. Here is a mechanical engineering class about design: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mechanical-En ... /index.htm
If you go to "Related Resources" on that page, there is an online textbook. It's geared towards mechanical engineering, but you might find it interesting.

There are also Aeronautics and Astronautics classes on OCW.

Also, our page: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ysis.shtml

Hope some of those are useful to you.

Thanks for all the great information you provided!! It is a huge help!!