I know brown bags (lunch and learns 1

[BMart006]

I know brown bags (lunch and learns) can be a sensitive and sometimes hated topic, but I've been tasked with coming up with a topic I can present. The difficulty is arriving at a topic that is interesting to a multi-discipline engineering office. Are there any that you've found interesting, useful, or for those that hate them, not loathsome?

p.s. I actually like them.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

If this is the first time you have done this, pick a subject you know well. The unspoken objective of these events is to give you experience making a presentation to a group; the presentation's content is important, but secondary. With a familiar subject, your delivery will be better. Later, step up to more challenging subjects.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[EngineeringEric]

Does it have to be technical?
-Efficient Vacations to Disney?
-How to make the perfect Cocktail?

If it does....
-Maybe something that effects you but not something you do daily. Like Building Envelope? Thermal Envelopes? GeoTech Testing? Green Roof Design?
- Maybe something new, like changes in the new Masonry Code!
- Compare future code to currents are always useful and interesting. I think
- pick a few failures and analyze what went wrong. who doesn't want to learn from that. Even one per discipline. Don't do all from one field, i'd be annoyed listening to a bunch of HVAC system that caused mold due to outside air infiltration.

 

[urgross]

By brown bag, do you mean something to eat or something to drink?

 

[CWB1]

What's the most common question you're asked?

 

[berkshire]

Make absolutely sure you are well versed in the subject matter.
A favorite game at these events is asking the presenter a question on topic, that he does not know the answer to.
If you don't know say so. If you try to bluff or bluster your way out, you have fallen right into the gamers trap.
Good luck.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[jfpe]

Are you one of the more senior engineers or just unlucky? When I get requests like this I cover the topics the junior guys ask about all the time or the holes I spot in their knowledge.

-JFPE

 

[Compositepro]

The worst presentations and reports are written by people who write because they were told to write something. If you want to be interesting talk about something that interests you.

 

[BMart006]

Thanks all. It doesn't have to be technical, but it does have to be relevant to our work (so business topics are ok, but I'm not sure Disney is). I'm a junior guy (5 years) so SlideRuleEra may be right about the experience being the goal. I do want to find something of interest to both me and others though. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[tygerdawg]

How about something operational or procedural? Some clever method you've developed along the journey that improves customer relations or communications? For example I worked for a research company staffed by Ph.D.'s. I presented to my method of writing a machine specification, and how effective process documentation and communication to machine builders actually got me what I wanted. Oddly enough, those Ph.D.'s were never exposed to such things and it was very well received. Or perhaps some innovative method of retaining customer communications etc. that works for you? Or clever tricks that you discovered in some software package? I suspect you are only limited by your imagination to present something with relevance to your role or workplace.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[Agent666]

If you are a technical minded of person, and want a bit of a fun challenge, maybe go through the stability fun modules for MASTAN2.

Then present/demonstrate what you learned, guarantee you'll learn some of the basic and more advanced topics relating to first principles stability and how the code goes about addressing these. I wish more people understood this type of stuff, and I wish someone had explained it to me earlier in my career as it gets you thinking a lot more about how your structures ultimately might fail and ways of improving them.

Its a self directed learning exercise (MASTAN2 is free). However it might be boring to non-structural engineers, or it might amaze them that we get to do all this cool stuff while they fiddle with their ductulators...

 

[TheTick]

Consider the audience first. What would they want or need to know about what you do?

 

[epoisses_]

Ask a supplier to come and do a technical presentation. They will be glad to take all the work out of your hands

 

[hendersdc]

Some of the more interesting internal lunch and learns I have been involved in looked at lessons learned on projects that everyone was familiar with. This way, only a light amount of background info was needed to get the audience up to speed. Try to stick to higher level issues and include lots of pictures.

One pointer if you do choose this kind of topic. Don't point any fingers for the problems, blame the new type of project, schedule constraints, budget or customer requirements, etc if possible.

 

[Agent666]

Similar in idea to hendersdc, I alway found case studies on famous collapses to be of interest. Both due to the path taken to get to the point that something failed, and the technical details of the failure. Go watch some 'engineering disasters' on YouTube for some ideas!

 

[SlideRuleEra]

...blame...customer requirements...

Be certain that no one records or ever discusses the presentation. If we found out that one of our Consultants was talking like that behind our backs (in a formal presentation), the Consulting firm's management would have a lot of explaining to do.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[hendersdc]

SlideRuleEra,

I think you are taking that comment differently than I meant it. I work in product design, lots of medical electronics, telecom, consumer, etc. We routinely get customers that ask for something that has not been done before and is not easy to do. What I mean by "blame customer requirements" is that if a particular set of requirements like "must not exceed L x W x H" and "must be able to withstand X load or Y pressure" conflict and require additional rounds of design and testing, driving schedule or unit cost, that would be worth mentioning. As opposed to "hendersdc was responsible for this aspect of the design and didn't get it right so we had to make more prototypes and coulddn't hit our unit cost target".

I wouldn't have any problems giving the same presentations with the customer in the room, they should know what the challenges and risks that were realized in the design were just as well as I.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

hendersdc - I consider the advice you offered to be quite good (speak on project familiar to audience, higher level issues than the audience may already know, plenty of pictures).

I have no problem with a presentation explaining challenging "schedule", "budget", or "project innovation". Your explanation of "blame customer requirements" makes sense, too... but you did not say that (until now). The original advice could be easily misinterpreted; the OP is making a presentation (admittedly to an in-house group) sponsored by his employer. Any hint of criticizing a customer might not go over well with the OP's Boss.

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[hendersdc]

SRE, makes sense, thanks for helping me clarify things!

 

[casseopeia]

You can also describe how you have learned and how far you have come in 5 years. Maybe describe your own mistakes along the way.

Or volunteer opportunities that interest you such as learning CPR or getting CERT training.

I'm planning a presentation for November or December for myself, describing my experience teaching a couple of coworkers to drive. I want it to be after they have both passed their practical exams. they have both passed their written exams. So not exactly related to what the company does, but kind of related to work in a general sense.

BTW, you will get more people if lunch is provided, even if it's sandwiches or pizza.

If you are offended by the things I say, imagine the stuff I hold back.