Dear Dennis...
EN-Genius Network's Dennis Feucht answers your design
queries in his new Circuit Design Clinic!
March, 2010
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EN-Genius Network presents a new, interactive
analog design service to readers! Send us your design questions (with
relevant data; schematics in JPEG or GIF, please) for some free
engineering advice from EN-Genius Network's circuit
consultant, Dennis Feucht, on how you might solve a design problem or
improve circuit performance. Submissions may be edited for clarity or
brevity, and submitters and their email addresses will remain anonymous
(unless otherwise indicated). Please send your questions to Dennis here.
Exploring Engineering: An Introduction to Engineering and Design
by Dennis L Feucht
Second Edition by Philip Kosky, Robert Balmer, William Keat, and George Wise
Published by Academic Press, October 2009.
ISBN 978-0-12-374723-5, hardback, 400 pp, $89.95
This book is intended to introduce engineering to undergraduate students mainly, though not exclusively, engineering majors. It is divided into “minds-on” and “hand-on” sections.
The first chapter describes what engineers do and lists several branches of engineering including bio, electrochemical, and electrical engineering with mention of various engineering organizations. The discussion immediately moves into ethics, “professional ethics,” and the NSPE Code of Ethics. Using an engineering decision matrix, ethical decision-making is taught. What is missing entirely is any basis for ethics in the first place. The default authority for right and wrong appears to be the authors themselves.
Engineering analysis next includes units and systems of units and significant figures. Notably missing is an explanation of pseudo-units or scale factors such as radians, dB, or turns (of wire). Chapter 3 moves into problem solving and is oriented around spreadsheet computer use. While this might be useful, at an engineering level I would have expected use of MathCAD or Matlab instead because these programs provide far more mathematical power than spreadsheet programs, which are more optimal for business majors. The last chapter of the minds-on part of the book does indeed discuss engineering economics, a good topic to include in an overview of engineering.
Various areas of engineering are discussed in intervening chapters, with a chapter for electrical engineering. Unlike the engineering intro books around when I was in school (late 1960s), the emphasis is not on motors and generators or electric power distribution but on electronics. Another chapter is on “Logic and Computers” and yet another on “Control System Design and Mechatronics.” Electrochemical engineering is deemed important enough for its own chapter, which includes alternative energy sources. In effect, four of these chapters apply to electronics engineering, making this a book that might well appeal to EEs. Even the chapter on materials engineering, with molecular mechanics or “nanotechnology” and on manufacturing engineering apply to the electronics industry.
The hands-on part of the book is intended to give students something engineering-like to do, and is oriented toward project procedure, beginning with the well-established ideal model of the engineering method. Included are communications skills such as defense of a design, engineering reports and performance evaluation. Some design competition examples end the book.
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