• Question: To what extent has your engineering background required you to be skilled in the analysis of technical reports or information?

    Asked by okoln003 to Amanda, Ben, Dan, Gary, Samer on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Ben Drumm

      Ben Drumm answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      As an engineer you will probably have to either produce or review other peoples analytical work, so it’s important you can understand it!

      For example, for this accelerating cavity I am designing I did a set of calculations to show that the cooling system I had designed for it would cool the parts of the cavity to low enough temperatures that nothing would go wrong! I wrote this into a report which a colleague reviewed.

      In fact technical reports are one of the main ways we gather information relevant to our projects!

    • Photo: Amanda Lewin

      Amanda Lewin answered on 23 Jun 2013:

      Report writing is really important when working in consulting. We write reports detailing how things should be built so they have to be easy to understand and hard to misinterpret! We also have to review other peoples technical documentation so yes it’s really important which can be a pain when like me your not that good at spelling and grammar!

    • Photo: Gary Boorman

      Gary Boorman answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Report writing is essential in my job, and I also have to read a lot of reports by other people.
      It can be hard work writing a report – I usually write it, and then read it two days later to see if what I’ve written makes sense.

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