ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

PANEL DISCUSSION PREPARATION WORKSHEET

Keep in mind the over-arching CEP1 questions:
What do engineers do?
How do engineers communicate in Singapore?
Frame your panel discussion:
Guiding qns: What purpose does the panel discussion serve? How will the audience benefit from it? Write your
objective below:
The objective of my sharing is to

Plan your content:

For each of the CEP1 theme, plan the scope and flow of discussion. Consider W-H questions/pros &
cons/effects/factors etc.
Form your personal opinions about the theme/sub-themes. It is important to have a clear stand towards
the issues to be discussed.
Extract relevant evidence from the interview as well as materials from additional research to support your
stand.
Additional tip: Take a balanced approach by researching on opposing viewpoints too, this would help you preempt what others might say and you may think beforehand how you can reconcile your stand with an
opposing one. However, a word of caution: Its good to have diversity of viewpoints, but dont turn it into a
debate!
CEP1
themes/scope
1) Communicating
in the workplace

My opinions
1. Communication comes in
the form of verbal and

Supporting evidence from

interview
There is sometime a need for
people from different sectors

Additional research
60% of their time talking,
32% is verbal
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ES2331 Communicating Engineering

Communicating
non-verbal speeches
internally
- verbal includes face to
(subordinates,
face talk, meeting,
peers,
informal talks
management,
- non-verbal includes
etc.)
email, messaging
- Communicating
2. It isnt all about talking
externally
but also listening to what
(Government
others have to say before
bodies, clients,
making your comment
investors,
- active listening. Knowing
general public,
the content of what
suppliers,
someone is telling you
contractors, etc.)
before saying something.
- Communicating
It is a form of respect and
to technical and
it could add more values
non-technical
to what you are saying.
audiences
3. A place where there are
- Communicating
times you have to use
in a multi-cultural
technical term and times
environment
where layman
- Use of dialects,
term/simple term is
Singlish, English,
easier.
Bahasa Malaysia,
- Different people from
Mandarin, etc.
different fields can relate
Scope:
to one another.
1. How important
- It gets work done more
is
easily because.
communication
in a
4. Respecting the older
workplace?
generations even though

OPT tutorial notes

to know the technical term

especially in a plant so that it
would be easier for the
engineers. They need to
know about thing like
parameter which in other
word is known as dimension.
E.g the people that are in
charge of ordering the stuffs
that are not commonly
known need to know the
name of the items and their
dimensions so that it can
help to minimize error.
Representatives from
different sectors are required
to attend a daily operation
meeting before they start
work.
-Get the urgent issues sorted
out and make sure everyone
is on the same page because
sometime whatever 1
department is doing can in
fact affect the progress of
another team of people. It is
just a like a 3 legged race,
you can only move forward if
everyone is coordinating
well. Outside leg then the
tied legs then the outside leg

communication while the

other 28% is through email
(Trevelyan)
Elizabeth Bernstein from
wall street journal wrote an
article about How active
listening makes both
participants in a
conversation feel better
-it talks about how to use
verbal cues and body
language to encourage
another person talking and
prevent listener from
burning out.
-overcoming your own
natural instinct to want to
solve problem and listen to
what others got to say
-analogy of listening music.
You can out it in the
background while doing
work or you can just pluck
in your headphone and
listen to the music. The
ultimate feeling is different
from the 2 different
approaches.
Belle Beth Cooper from a
blog known as buffersocial
commented on how to get
ideas more consistently.
One of the ways was
2

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

2. Why is there a
need for
communication
?

you are of a higher

again and repeat. It is not
authority then you
possible for the team to
- the older people have
progress if one person
more experience than
decides to move his outside
you. A quote directly
leg and the tied leg together
3. Different ways
translated from Chinese
while another doesnt move
of

his outside leg. The team will

communicating
meaning the salt that
fall.
with your
they eat is more than the
peers, juniors
rice you have eaten. The
According to my engineers,
and your
meaning is that they went the companies actually
bosses/ what
through much more than
follow a set of instructions as
are the
what you have just
to how to priortise the issues
characters or
started to experience.
that can arise in the plant. So
qualities that
They know how certain
they have this matrix that
you should
things work and it can be they are supposed to use.
have while
more efficient than what
The shift team leaders are
communicating
it is being taught in notes. the people that will actually
in a workplace
use this matrix to aid them in
5. Bouncing of ideas among rating the seriousness of the
one another
issue. However the problem
- dynamic approach.
is the matrix is not entirely
There will always be
perfect because it is
someone talking. There
constantly changing. This
will definitely be more
change is due to the change
idea generated than when in the administrator that is
you are on your own
handling this matrix. So in
trying to figure it out what the end the shift team
should be done.
leaders are not well-versed
with the matrix and they
6. Miscommunication can be could rate the seriousness of
a problem if the receiver
various wrongly. This can

OPT tutorial notes

through debating. A team

that accept every idea
without criticizing it is
actually more harmful to
the team than one that
does question about
another person idea.
According to a study he
found, there should be
more debate in order to
make ideas/ solutions more
concrete. I believe that a
person blindspot can be
covered up by another
eagle eyes.

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

2) Problem solving
in engineering
- Successes &
challenges in
problem solving

doesnt receive the

lead to resources being
message or mis-interpret
channeled to the non-urgent
the message. There is
cases.
always a need to ensure
that the intended receiver Last time there is a need to
understand your
send email to inform the
instruction correctly
individual parties responsible
about issues that happen in
7. Advancement in
the company but now there
technology has actually
is Whatapp that allows better
made communication
communication. Once a
more efficient and better
problem is found out, the
especially in this current
problem will be raise
world where most people
informally though Whatapp
demand for fast respond.
so that everyone can know
Towards the late 90s, we
what is happening in the
start having pager and
plant. They will still need the
normal cell phone to now
use of mail to formalize the
we are having smart
situations happening in the
phone. We are able to
plant. Things get resolved
send images or files or
faster beacause of the
documents by using
improvement in technology.
telegram. All this can be
He also told us that
done in a matter of
companies are still trying to
seconds
come out with better mean
of communications as
technology continues to grow
1. Lack of financial
Prioritisation is a skill that is
resources because there
needed to gauge which is the
is a budget to how much
issues that should be solved
you can spend per
first. The company actually
annual.
prioritise the various issues

OPT tutorial notes

Different engineers have

different approaches as to
how to solve the issues.
Hence, there might be a
clash of ideas. Therefore,
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ES2331 Communicating Engineering

Individual/team
work in problem
solving
- Role/importance
of technical
knowledge and
skills in problem
solving
- Typical problems
across
engineering subdisciplines
Scope:
1. What are the
problems that
engineers face
while solving
problems
2. Teamwork and
individual work
3. Technical
knowledge
more
important than
other things or
other things
are more
important than
technical
knowledge or
both are
equally

2. Too many problems

coming out at a time and
it could become
complicated on which
issue should be solved
first than others.
3. Clashes in ideas
4. The problem that
suddenly arises can be
super complicated.
5. Teamwork is important as
we can see that most of
the problems can be quite
sophisticated and certain
engineers are only good
at solving certain small
problems. So there is a
need whereby the team
leader can break down
the sophisticated problem
into smaller problem and
communicate the smaller
issues to the various
engineers to get things
done. Of course, there
might be times whereby
engineers from different
field need the assistance

OPT tutorial notes

by following the guideline

stated in the Global
Manufacturing Excellence. It
is a manual which talks
about a lot of things and one
of it is prioritization. It rate
each issue with number 1
being the most urgent and
the bigger the number, the
seriousness of the issue
decreases.

there is a need to know

how to resolve the issues if
there is any conflicts.
(panel discussion)
A big problem might
happen and there is a need
to know what the small
issues are that contributes
to this to happen. For
example an oil plant shut
down. This is a big problem
and what could be the
small issues contributing to
it. It could be issues such
as a power failure, pipe
failure and sensor faults.
These are all small issues
which engineers from
various field can solve
because of the technical
skills that they acquired.
Therefore, when these
small issues are solved. At
the end of the day, the big
problem could be solved
through the joint effort of
various engineers (panel
discussion)

There is a need to learn how

to manage the various issues
that are always coming in a
plant. All the departments
will think that their issues are
the most important so there
will also be a person that
aids in prioritizing the
various issues across the
plant. This is one the
systems that the company
hold to govern the process of
the plant. Everyone has to
abide by the systems and
the administrators will be
those that enforce these
In Trevelyan articles, there
systems are being followed.
is this table that showed
According to my engineers,
the companies actually

the steps taken by

engineers as they approach
a problem. So the first step
5

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

important
4. How the team
overcome the
problem

OPT tutorial notes

from engineers of another

field, so this is where
teamwork comes in.
6. Communication problems
can arise if the message
that the sender sent out
is not being received by
the receiver or misintepreted by the
receivers. Sometime they
can dont understand
what you are saying.
7. They follow a model to
solve the issue.
8. Since we kept talking
about communication,
working in a team,
wouldnt it be bad if I am
an introvert but I want to
be an engineer thinking
that I would not need to
talk a lot but end I do talk
most of the time like a
businessman. I something
believe that people that
are introvert or softspoken or like to do their
own things actually
benefit the team too.

follow a set of instructions as

to how to priortise the issues
that can arise in the plant. So
they have this matrix that
they are supposed to use.
The shift team leaders are
the people that will actually
use this matrix to aid them in
rating the seriousness of the
issue. However the problem
is the matrix is not entirely
perfect because it is
constantly changing. This
change is due to the change
in the administrator that is
handling this matrix. So in
the end the shift team
leaders are not well-versed
with the matrix and they
could rate the seriousness of
various wrongly. This can
lead to resources being
channeled to the non-urgent
cases.
Dan Stelter, author of the
Anxiety Support Network, an
anxiety recovery blog
dedicated to reinventing the
way people think about
anxiety disorders.
Cautious thinking.

is a problem arises or a
client request for them to
do something. So they will
identify what are the things
that they do not
understand. They will then
go and find information,
data regarding the issues.
They will come out the
solution to solve the
problem, come out with the
prototype to analyse
whether the things or
solutions that they create
work. Finally if the things or
solutions meet the client
requirement or solve the
issues respectively, they
will then present their
recommendations or
products. If not they will
repeat the whole cycle
again until they meet the
customer satisfaction or
the problem can be solved.
Nicole Fallon Taylor from
Business News Daily shared
some expert tips in helping
the introverts and
extroverts to excel in the
workplace. The experts say
that introverts prefer to
have one to one
conversation. They do not
6

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

They have traits that

people that are outspoken usually overlook.

3) Educating
engineers
- Experiential/acad
emic knowledge
- Lifelong
learning/On-thejob training
- Key skills for
aspiring
engineers
Scope:
1. What are the

1. One main obvious

thing/skill that the
institute teach to
engineers is the problem
solving method. It
inculcates this problem
solving mindset in the
students so that they are
able to identify what is
the problems that could
lead to a certain issue
such as the breakdown of

Thinking before
speaking. In some
situation where things
can be urgent and
decisions need to be
made quickly. It can
cause someone to
make implusive
decision which might
not be good for the
overall situation. So
that is where the
cautious thinker can
benefit as in they are
able to take a step
back, think through
and consider the
various outcome from
various different
angles.
Communicating efficiently
with other people. It is the
most basic thing but it is
hard for one to realise until
they start working. Learning
how to build a rapport with
everyone and be able to
speak to them on a personal
basis so that you can work
together easily and
efficiently. But of course, now
we have modules like

make any sound during

meetings do not mean that
they are not focusing but
as a matter of fact, they
are listening and trying to
process the information.
Therefore, instead of
getting any ideas from
them during meeting, they
recommend the bosses to
talk to those introverts on a
one to one talk to get their
thoughts

Living in the hall, you have

to participate in the hall
activities, take part in hall
CCA or be part of the hall
committee or block
committee. Through this
various kind of activities, I
believe that there would be
a lot of interaction among
one another. You might not
just know people from your
hall but also people from
our halls. This kind of social
7

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

things that are

being taught in
school?
2. What are the
things or skills
that is needed
for the field of
engineering but
the school
cannot actually
teach? Why is it
not possible for
the institute to
teach you?
3. How can we
overcome it?

OPT tutorial notes

a power plant
2. Probably this isnt being
taught by the schools.
Rather it is being taught
while in school
compound. That is about
networking. E.g living in
Hall or joining school CCA
etc
3. Communication skills
(look at the first theme
and pick up the relevant
point)
4. Doing it through
internship which is
basically on-job
attachment or if you are
those zealous kind, you
will search for your own
internship during summer
break by writing in to the
companies on your own.
Internship can actually to
some extend teach you
things that you dont
really learn in school.
Example, school teach
you the technical
equations and they give

communication engineering
that we know the importance
of communication.
From my interview, the
engineer said that there is a
lot of communications
between people from
different department. The
admin department,
technicians and various
engineers from different
fields come together to solve
the issue together.

interaction will build a

network which will benefit
you in the near future. If
there is any lobang, your
friends friend might invite
him and in term he might
invite you too. So end up
you actually benefit from
this networking system that
you created.
From Trevelyan articles,
there is this passage which
I quote The end point for
engineering is
communication of the
design or problem solution
(both verbal and written) to
the client, and sometimes
to society at large. Social
interactions and
communication lie at the
periphery of the core
technical issues and, as a
result, cling precariously to
the curricular margins of
engineering education.
From Trevelyan article,
Engineering involves more
than 150 different aspects
of practice and specialized
knowledge, even
within one discipline, most
of it unwritten and difficult
8

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

you a problem to solve

but in the real working
world, this problems are
real problems and they
arent being so nicely put
into one question for you
to solve. Instead you
learn how to apply the
equation to a real
problem. And ofc the
other skills that you learn
like communication etc.
5. School actually inculcate
the habit of working in
team since young and
this is almost as
important as
communicating skills that
we need to know.
6. Engineers should be more
pro-active in their
learning progress.
7. Being street-smart and
alert all the times.
Knowing the boy
language of the boss and
the people you are
working with and being
alert on how their

to transfer to others.
Learning about all of this
is beyond any one
individual in a working
lifetime: there is not
enough time. There is so
much to learn that it is
impossible and there isnt
enough time for one to
finish learning throughout
their entire lifetime.
Therefore, everyone should
help one other. It is about
making up for what the
person is lack in in order to
move on.
From the panel discussion,
one of the panelists stated
that engineers need to be
motivated to continue to
develop his/her own skills.
He should not be stagnant
at a spot. I believe what he
says actually make sense
because we know that the
world is going so fast now
that once we lack behind, it
can be quite difficult for us
to catch up.
From the panel discussion,
one of the panelists
mentioned that it is
important to understand
9

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

emotion actually changes.

8.

4) Engineering in
Singapore
- Singapores
Grand
Challenges in
engineering
- How engineers
will shape
Singapores
future
- Future
engineering
trends in
Singapore
- Use of dialects,
Singlish, English,
Bahasa Malaysia,
Mandarin, etc.

1. Generation gap between

the older technicians and
the young enginners.
a. Communication
barrier
b. Different in
language
c. Authority that the
older technician do
not like
2. Learning how to
communicate with them
a. Respecting them
b. Humility

Learning how to speak

another person language like
Cantonese or Hokkien or
Chinese, it can help to build
connection with them. Lend
to communication error.
Misinterpretation.
Raising the profile of
engineering. There need to
be a change in perception of
how engineering is being
viewed. Values need to be
added into engineering.

Stakeholders need to realise

3. Decrease in interest in the the seriousness of the
STEM field (science,
declining of engineers in the

the body language of their

bosses (body movement,
eye movement, emotion).
They need to be alert to as
when it would be a good
time to discuss with their
bosses about certain
problems or projects so
that firstly, there is a high
chance that the bosses will
approve to your method
and secondly, you would
not get into a bad
relationship with your
bosses.
From the panel discussion,
it was mentioned that This
come from practising. Also,
there is a need to be more
patient with the older
workers because they
might have slower
processing ability or
hearing difficulty. There is
also a need to respect them
because these older
workers have more working
experience than the young
engineers. The younger
one might have more book
knowledge but the older
one might have more skills
as to whether things will
work out a not. Therefore,
the young engineers got to
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ES2331 Communicating Engineering

Scope:
1. Challenges
face in the
engineering
field in
Singapore.
E.g enginner
cannot talk
with older
generation.
2. What are the
prospective
of being an
engineer in
Singapore?

OPT tutorial notes

technology, engineering,
Mathematics)
4. Engineering skills have
been commoditized that
skills have been taken
granted of.
wrong focus on what
makes an engineer an
engineer
5. Gender differences to
some extent. More male
engineers than female
engineers.
tradition that there is
more males
notions that

3. How can
Singapore as 6. Engineering is deemed to
a whole
be all hardwork,
overcome the
unglamorous and with
challenges in
limited chance to get
Singapore
promoted
engineering
field
7. Importance of technical
aspect of engineering.
8. Engineers are the one
that add value to certain
things. They model out
something that people

market. All his can happen

when something happen and
by then it would be too late
to realise that they actually
overlook the importance of
engineers.
People only need engineers
when there is a problem.
When things are smoothsailing, engineers are not
that useful. No one actually
bothers how well the
engineers had done.
Companies focus on
delivering the final result in
terms of the design and
marketing. I can find an
incident with regard to this
issue which the breaking
down on MRT. It has been
occurring very often even
since the 2011 period.
Singaporeans are making
noises and complaining
about how slow the thing is
being rectified. Now the
government is changing the
sleeper along all mrt tracks
to concrete one so that is
can last and adding a 3rd
electrical line to supple

listen to the older

technicians suggestion and
not disregard their
opinions.
From the panel discussion,
The lack of interest can be
due to younger generation
going for jobs that are more
prestigious and offer better
momentary benefits.
Younger generations also
might have the wrong
perception of the STEM
field. Scientists,
mathematicians and
engineers are all
professionals just like
lawyers or doctors but the
sad truth is that the society
do not see it the same way.
They see it as doctors or
lawyers are on a higher tier
followed by scientists or
engineers.
From the panelists, Engineers are valued for
their traits of
understanding the
technical stuff easily and
with depth too. This also
gives them the ability to
understand thing in more
details. That is why they
11

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

conceptualize?

electricity along the track so

that power disruption would
not be a major problem. It
takes time for problems to be
solved. Sleepers to be
replaced. I believe that we
have to wait endure through
this period of rectifying the
problem and not just
complain. I believe the
government is trying their
best to gain the citizens
support because of the
advertisement that we can
usually find at the mrt
station. Quotes like
engineers saying we are
changing the sleeper so that
you can have a safer and
faster ride etc.

are needed in many sectors

such as finance and food
industry areas.
From a strait time article
last year on Shrinking pool
of engineers poses national
risk, Singapore isnt known
as an engineering
powerhouse in any way but
rather it is recognized as a
global financial centre.
Dean of engineering
faculty, Prof Chua Kee
Chaing pointed out the fact
that offshore and marine
engineering in Singapore is
a global player in the oil
filed. Singapore produces
70 percent of the worlds
new oil rigs (those facilities
that draws oil from the
seabed) Furthermore, NUS
and Keppel Corp are not
developing a cutting edgeresearch facility to keep the
country ahead of
competition.
Keppel-Nus
Corporate Laboratory
will be based in NUS
(25 NOV 2013)

When companies start to

have problems, they would
soon realise that other
competing companies were
better as they have better
engineers which results in
better and more reliable
products. Until the day where
companies start to value the Business time, More

women moving into fields

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ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

reliability of the product

more than how well the
product can be marketed i.e.
building a product that could
last longer than a product
that is short lived, the mindset would not change. Only
till then, engineering will
become more relevant.
Increased focus in terms of
safety and environmental
aspect. Government are
stepping out on regulation of
this safety requirements so
that engineers can be more
aware of these priorities.
In the field of engineering,
technical expertise has
become a commodity. It
means that we can just get
some guy from China or India
that is being technically
sound and he can resolve the
issue. But at the same time a
lot of people arent focusing
on being technical so

of Science and
engineering, 2014
RSEs going up by a
few hundred per
annual since 2008,
faster than any other
Asia country
From 2008 to 2012,
there is an increase
in number of female
engineers from 6697
to 8462. That is
about 28.1% in
Singapore
engineering field
The world average
percentage is only
14%
Pinnacle @Duxton, Marina
Bay sand. Having the iconic
rooftop garden and the
infinity pool. I read a simple
case study generated by
engineers that built the
Sands skypark pool also
known as infinity pool at
the top of NBS. The pool
span at length of 150m on
the height of 200m above
ground. Currently known as
the highest and largest
elevated pool above
ground. Engineers need to
13

ES2331 Communicating Engineering

OPT tutorial notes

ironically you are more

valuable if you are more
technically sound. As a
young engineer, I am already
thinking about business
management kind of things.
A lot of young engineers are
afraid because it seems that
engineers can be easily
replaced.

tackle the problem of

maintaining the structure
stable because of the
building movement due to
gravity and the wind
blowing.

Companies value you for

your technical expertise
because no one else is as
good anymore or companies
can just outsource the
engineering to some other
firm to help them

14