Multidisciplinary Senior Design

Engineering Notebook Overview

The Engineering Notebook is a session-by-session record of what individuals do as members of a project team, and it is updated whenever project work is done. Most research and development work in industry will require that you keep a similar log. It enables you and others to pick up the thread of your past work and carry it forward, and serves as a legal record supporting possible patent claims. The Notebook should include entries made at every working session(or shortly thereafter).
In the context of the Multidisciplinary Senior Design courses, the Notebook serves as documentation of progress. It is often referred to when project demonstrations are not successful. In the past, students who have attempted to obtain patents have found the notebook to be a crucial piece of information in support of their work and claims.
The Faculty Guide will likely review each team member’s Notebook weekly, along with the status and updates to the project schedule, to ensure that each individual is carrying an important part of the design effort. References to the work of teammates is encouraged, but identical notebooks are not a good sign. Please discuss evaluation of the Notebook with your Faculty Guide.

MER·I·T Notebook

The MER·I·T Notebook sold in the bookstore is preferable but any notebook with permanent bindings and designed for laboratory recordkeeping is acceptable. Notebooks with pre-numbered pages are preferred. They should also have graph rulings on alternate pages or quarter-inch square grids on all pages. The first page of the MER·I·T Notebook describes guidelines associated with documentation of patent claims. Spiral-bound notebooks will be accepted for this course but are not permissible in court since pages can be easily replaced.
You may keep your notebook on a computer, but entries must be printed and attached to a physical notebook for weekly meetings.

Notebook entries

Each complete entry should include:

  1. Date
  2. Brief statement of objectives for the session
  3. Record of activities

The record should include equations, diagrams, and figures, and should be numbered for reference in the narrative portion of the record. Drawn figures, diagrams, and photocopies extracted from published sources can beplaced in a separate three-ring binder. Often, a project team will have one common binder but individual Notebooks.
Overall, the Notebook should contain a record that is clear and complete so that someone else can follow progress, understand problems, and understand decisions that were made in designing and executing a project.

What to include

  • All original thought – capture it before you lose it or before everyone else knows!
  • All project assumptions as they occur.
  • Key concepts and ideas from your project proposal.
  • Bibliographic references for any materials that are used as sources. Many of these references will be needed in the written report.
  • Diagrams, schematics, or block diagrams for any system or sub-system which is to be tested. There should be an accompanying discussion of the principle design problems and decisions made.
  • Equations and formulae used in the design process, with references. If derived by you, provide enough information so that someone can recreate your work.
  • Documentation of testing and debugging. Indicate what is being tested and include set-up diagrams and all results. Difficulties should be noted with analysis and next steps defined.
  • Analysis of, and proposed solutions for, any bugs. Include revisions to documents and test configuration.
  • Documentation of final performance tests and design verification.
  • Outlines for oral and written reports.

There is always something to record

Suppose that you are “kicking around” design concepts with a friend or scanning the library for ideas. Record your findings, positive and negative, and any decisions reached. One of the most common mistakes is to fail to record seemingly unimportant activities.

You should go to to view “engineering logbook guidelines” for more information and examples.

1Engineering Notebook Overview