Skills for Seeing What's There

Data gathering is a key skill in a failure investigation. While engineering classes in school are great at teaching theory and background, what is sometimes neglected are the practical thinking and observation skills to make sense of the complicated data. In failure analysis, use of one’s basic senses, as well as careful observation and note taking, are key to unraveling the mystery of any investigation or accident. This presentation will illustrate some skill training methods to help students and failure analysis novices focus on critical elements of the data, to show how to formulate probable or root causes from simple but critical observations.