The role of informal communication in the engineering design process: design notebooks

The preparation of design notebooks by engineering students is discussed with reference to a required course for senior mechanical engineering students at Rensselaer called `Design of Mechanical Systems´. The guidelines provided for the students at the beginning of the semester for preparing a design notebook of their work are presented. Experiences to date, covering approximately six semesters, with having the students prepare a design notebook are summarized. The students have trouble at the beginning of the semester filling in design notebooks. It is found out that students have trouble distinguishing between essential and non-essential facts. Faculty members find the notebook a useful tool to assess a student´s contribution to the team effort