[FTC]: Engineering Notebook

[gblake]

Folks,

In real life one of the most important reasons to keep a log book is for recording patentable ideas properly. Rewriting the information might be done to create a neat version of the info; but the crucial version is the initial handwritten version. I suppose electronic tools are now useful for keeping records, but I have a hunch that they aren't as valuable as a handwritten log on sequentially numbered pages in a bound book.

Don't worry about making everything pretty. Instead make it useful. Show consistent iteration to progress toward (and beyond) clearly stated performance goals that are derived from a clearly expressed strategy (the strategy can/should also be iterated), and you will impress judges that are looking past superficialities to find real evidence of the "Engineering" part of keeping a notebook.

In the real world very, very few people have time to make notebooks pretty. I believe good judges will look for notebooks that were used, rather than notebooks that were created.

Blake
PS: In the real world many, many engineers don't keep notebooks. In plenty of contexts, just about all professionals record notes using various tools and media; but "notebooks" are hardly universal, and pretty notebooks are very rare. So again, my advice is to show a notebook that was a useful tool, not one that looks like a hothouse orchid. Don't confuse style with substance.