Technical Report Format

The project is mainly a design project, but must also include original analysis and computation. There is no exact outline for technical report. Depending on the tasks of the project different parts of a report may be strengthened or weakened. For example, a design project that involves numerical calculations may not have experimental setup section. The completed report must include the following components:

1. Cover page

The cover page should include the class name, title of the project, date assigned, date turned in, class professor, and members of the group.

2. Technical Abstract:

This is an informative (not descriptive) abstract (about ½ page as defined in the original project list).

3. Introduction

1. What problem is being addressed? Give your “Need Statement.”
2. Why is this problem important?
3. What is included in the following report?

The introduction should acquaint the reader to the project. It should cover the basic concepts being covered in the work — what they are, why they are important, and how they are to be established through the report. The introduction should provide insight as to why the work was conducted in the first place and what the relevant industrial applications the concepts may be. In this effort introduction should show a brief history of the previous work on this subject and what the issues are. At the end, it should include the objectives section that should clearly state the objective of the project relevant to the previous information in no more than one paragraph.

4. Literature Review

This is part of the introduction. It provide a review and discuss information from the literature as it applies to your project – at least three (3) journal papers need to be cited and their relevance to your work discussed.

5. Supporting Analysis

1. Describe analysis. The theory section covers the scientific bases used in the project. It is important to type out all the main equations, to include system sketches and process diagrams, and to highlight assumptions and approximations.
2. An organized list of nomenclature should precede the theory. All symbols or variables should be outlined and briefly described.

6. Design Concepts (preliminary calculations)

1. Describe three (3) “different” possible design concepts for your task. Each team member must be responsible for one (1) concept. Identify the team member in charge of each concept.
2. Describe the individual analysis, use system sketches and process diagrams, and provide preliminary results. Describe the significance of the absolute values and the trends.

This section must include numbers. A sample calculation showing how the equations used, as outlined in Theory and Nomenclature, must be provided for each design.

1. Give advantages and disadvantages for each concept.

7. Final Design Concept and Optimization (more detailed calculations)

1. Select the final design: give supporting computations and factual evidence to

support your decision (no room for “feels like the right choice” type of arguments).

1. Provide details of your final design (these details are beyond what was mentioned in part “5”). This part needs to be accompanied with a engineering design and drawing as needed.
2. Provide results for your optimization of the design (g., show efficiency as a

function of pressure, and show optimum pressure that provides highest efficiency).

8. Discussion and Conclusions

The conclusions section provides the answers to the outlined objectives as drawn from your results and discussion. You need to compare your design with similar projects or designs, if available. Future recommendations and considerations about this project can also be made here.

9. Recommendations for follow-on work
10. References: Numerical List (not alphabetical)

A list of references must be provided in MLA or any other standard format. Also, you may attach any other information that clarifies the report.

11. Tables (alternatively, these may be integrated with the text)
12. Figures (alternatively, these may be integrated with the text)

13.Appendices

The following is the approximate weight of each section. This percentages may change depending on the project needs:

8. Appendices

Appendices may contain your raw data, other calculations or graphs you had made, and other materials used for the report but not included in the above sections as seen appropriate by the authors. This section will be graded as part of the grads for the sections that it belongs to.

Figures and tables need to be numbered and have a caption describing the content of the figures. Plots need to have their axis labeled with proper physical units. If several sets of data is presented in one plot different symbols need to be used for each data set to clearly identify them. Description of the symbols needs to be included either as legend in the plot or in the caption.