At 01:31 PM 1/29/2006, James Cownie wrote:
On 28 Jan 2006, at 03:37, Andrew Piskorski wrote:
A whole CLASS on "team work" or "presentation skills"? As fundamental
to an ENGINEERING curriculum? God save us... Or rather, let's hope
all the engineers we import from India and China save us - from faulty
automobiles, process plant disasters, collapsing bridges, etc. etc.
A whole class may be more than is necessary, but the inability of the
Morton Thiokol engineers
to produce a convincing presentation of their results which made
their concerns clear to their management
and also convinced NASA was a major contribution to the decision to
launch Challenger...
So, some education in presentation skills seems worthwhile.
Actually, the problem in NASA is that too much reliance is made on
"presentations" which are fundamentally "selling tools", and not enough on
writing engineering reports. See Edward Tufte's comments on PowerPoint for
instance (and, in fact, the report of the Columbia Accident Investigation
Board and the Return To Flight committee).
--
-- Jim
--
James Cownie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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James Lux, P.E.
Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group
Flight Communications Systems Section
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
tel: (818)354-2075
fax: (818)393-6875
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