Training in trouble shooting should be part of every undergraduate engineer’s education.
Yet, it rarely is, even though the introduction of trouble-shooting examples
receives a warm welcome by the students. As Scott Lynn of UC Berkeley reports,
“Our experience was that most students really got into the spirit of the thing and
trouble shooting was one of the most popular parts of the course.” Perhaps some of
the reasons why the development of trouble-shooting skill is not introduced are the
need for excellent problem-solving skills, the lack of a variety of industrial problems
and, perhaps most significantly, the student’s lack of a rich set of practical experience
and understanding of equipment. There may also be a lack of the faculty’s confidence
in using such open-ended experiences. Whatever the reason, I have designed
this book to overcome these shortcomings. I hope that trouble-shooting skill
development becomes part of every undergraduate experience.
Yet, it rarely is, even though the introduction of trouble-shooting examples
receives a warm welcome by the students. As Scott Lynn of UC Berkeley reports,
“Our experience was that most students really got into the spirit of the thing and
trouble shooting was one of the most popular parts of the course.” Perhaps some of
the reasons why the development of trouble-shooting skill is not introduced are the
need for excellent problem-solving skills, the lack of a variety of industrial problems
and, perhaps most significantly, the student’s lack of a rich set of practical experience
and understanding of equipment. There may also be a lack of the faculty’s confidence
in using such open-ended experiences. Whatever the reason, I have designed
this book to overcome these shortcomings. I hope that trouble-shooting skill
development becomes part of every undergraduate experience.
