ENGINEERING DATA ANALYSIS

Chapter 1
Obtaining Data
1.1 . Methods of Data Collection
1.2 . Planning and Conducting Surveys
1.3 . Planning and Conducting Experiments: Introduction to Design of Experiments
After careful study of this chapter, the students will be able to:

1. Discuss the different methods that engineers use to collect data

2. Identify the advantages that designed experiments have in comparison to other methods of collecting
engineering data

1.1 Methods of Data Collection

The task of data collection begins after a research problem has been defined and research design/plan
chalked out. While deciding about the method of data collection to be used for the study, the researcher should
keep in mind two types of data viz., primary and secondary. The primary data are those which are collected afresh
and for the first time, and thus happen to be original in character. The secondary data, on the other hand, are those
which have already been collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the statistical
process. The researcher would have to decide which sort of data he would be using (thus collecting) for his study
and accordingly he will have to select one or the other method of data collection.

Different methods of data collection:

- Observation method
- Interview method
- Collection of data through questionnaires
- Collection of data through schedules
- Case Study Method

Observation Method
The observation method is the most commonly used method especially in studies relating to behavioural
sciences. In a way we all observe things around us, but this sort of observation is not scientific observation.
Observation becomes a scientific tool and the method of data collection for the researcher, when it serves a
formulated research purpose, is systematically planned and recorded and is subjected to checks and controls on
validity and reliability. Under the observation method, the information is sought by way of investigator’s own
direct observation without asking from the respondent. For instance, in a study relating to consumer behaviour, the
investigator instead of asking the brand of wrist watch used by the respondent, may himself look at the watch.

Interview Method
The interview method of collecting data involves presentation of oral-verbal stimuli and reply in terms of
oral-verbal responses. This method can be used through personal interviews and, if possible, through telephone
interviews.

(a) Personal interviews: Personal interview method requires a person known as the interviewer asking questions
generally in a face-to-face contact to the other person or persons.
(b) Telephone interviews: This method of collecting information consists in contacting respondents on telephone
itself. It is not a very widely used method, but plays important part in industrial surveys, particularly in
developed regions.
 Collection of data through questionnaires

This method of data collection is quite popular, particularly in case of big enquiries. It is being adopted by
private individuals, research workers, private and public organizations and even by governments. In this method a
questionnaire is sent (usually by post) to the persons concerned with a request to answer the questions and return
the questionnaire. A questionnaire consists of a number of questions printed or typed in a definite order on a form
or set of forms. The questionnaire is mailed to respondents who are expected to read and understand the questions
and write down the reply in the space meant for the purpose in the questionnaire itself. The respondents have to
answer the questions on their own.

Collection of data through schedules

This method of data collection is very much like the collection of data through questionnaire, with little
difference which lies in the fact that schedules (proforma containing a set of questions) are being filled in by the
enumerators who are specially appointed for the purpose. These enumerators along with schedules, go to
respondents, put to them the questions from the proforma in the order the questions are listed and record the replies
in the space meant for the same in the proforma. In certain situations, schedules may be handed over to respondents
and enumerators may help them in recording their answers to various questions in the said schedules. Enumerators
explain the aims and objects of the investigation and also remove the difficulties which any respondent may feel in
understanding the implications of a particular question or the definition or concept of difficult terms.
This method requires the selection of enumerators for filling up schedules or assisting respondents to fill up
schedules and as such enumerators should be very carefully selected. The enumerators should be trained to perform
their job well and the nature and scope of the investigation should be explained to them thoroughly so that they
may well understand the implications of different questions put in the schedule. Enumerators should be intelligent
and must possess the capacity of cross-examination in order to find out the truth. Above all, they should be honest,
sincere, and hardworking and should have patience and perseverance.
This method of data collection is very useful in extensive enquiries and can lead to fairly reliable results. It
is, however, very expensive and is usually adopted in investigations conducted by governmental agencies or by
some big organizations. Population census all over the world is conducted through this method.
Case Study Method
The case study method is a very popular form of qualitative analysis and involves a careful and complete
observation of a social unit, be that unit a person, a family, an institution, a cultural group or even the entire
community. It is a method of study in depth rather than breadth. The case study places more emphasis on the full
analysis of a limited number of events or conditions and their interrelations. The case study deals with the
processes that take place and their interrelationship. Thus, case study is essentially an intensive investigation of the
particular unit under consideration. The object of the case study method is to locate the factors that account for the
behaviour-patterns of the given unit as an integrated totality.
According to H. Odum, “The case study method is a technique by which individual factor whether it be an
institution or just an episode in the life of an individual or a group is analyzed in its relationship to any other in the
group.” Thus, a fairly exhaustive study of a person (as to what he does and has done, what he thinks he does and
had done and what he expects to do and says he ought to do) or group is called a life or case history. Burgess has
used the words “the social microscope” for the case study method.” Pauline V. Young describes case study as “a
comprehensive study of a social unit be that unit a person, a group, a social institution, a district or a community.”
In brief, we can say that case study method is a form of qualitative analysis where in careful and complete
observation of an individual or a situation or an institution is done; efforts are made to study each and every aspect
of the concerning unit in minute details and then from case data generalizations and inferences are drawn.

1.2 . Planning and Conducting Surveys

Checklist for planning & conducting effective Surveys:
1. Develop survey’s objectives
 Use different formative research methods to help identify the objectives
 Obtain approval of the objectives from management and/or funders
2. Design the survey
 Choose the most appropriate type of survey
 Decide on how the survey will be administered
 Check to see if there are existing surveys with similar objectives
 Check with other colleagues or agencies conducting similar programs
 Adapt some or all questions from existing surveys
 Decide on question and response types that will get the best responses
 Prepare a draft questionnaire
 Identify samples for both the survey and the pilot test

3. Pilot-test the survey

 Decide where the pilot will be conducted
 Mail or give out questionnaires, supervise the data collection, or conduct interviews
 Analyze the pilot-test data
 Make any necessary revisions to the survey design

4. Conduct the survey

 Assign or hire staff
 Train staff
 Decide if an incentive is appropriate to get a better response rate
 Decide on a timeframe for conducting the survey
 Decide where the survey will be conducted
 Mail or give out questionnaires, supervise the data collection, or conduct interviews
 Monitor the quality of the surveys being completed
 Re-train staff (if necessary)
1.3 Planning and Conducting Experiments: Introduction to Design of Experiments
Basic Principles of Design of Experiments:
The first three here are perhaps the most important...

Randomization - this is an essential component of any experiment that is going to have validity. If you
are doing a comparative experiment where you have two treatments, a treatment and a control for instance, you
need to include in your experimental process the assignment of those treatments by some random process. An
experiment includes experimental units. You need to have a deliberate process to eliminate potential biases from
the conclusions, and random assignment is a critical step.

Replication - is some in sense the heart of all of statistics. To make this point... Remember what the

standard error of the mean is? It is the square root of the estimate of the variance of the sample mean, i.e., .
The width of the confidence interval is determined by this statistic. Our estimates of the mean become less
variable as the sample size increases.
Replication is the basic issue behind every method we will use in order to get a handle on how precise
our estimates are at the end. We always want to estimate or control the uncertainty in our results. We achieve this
estimate through replication. Another way we can achieve short confidence intervals is by reducing the error
variance itself. However, when that isn't possible, we can reduce the error in our estimate of the mean by
increasing n.
Another way is to reduce the size or the length of the confidence interval is to reduce the error variance -
which brings us to blocking.

Blocking - is a technique to include other factors in our experiment which contribute to undesirable
variation. Much of the focus in this class will be to creatively use various blocking techniques to control sources
of variation that will reduce error variance. For example, in human studies, the gender of the subjects is often
important factor. Age is another factor affecting the response. Age and gender are often considered nuisance
factors which contribute to variability and make it difficult to assess systematic effects of a treatment. By using
these as blocking factors, you can avoid biases that might occur due to differences between the allocations of
subjects to the treatments, and as a way of accounting for some noise in the experiment. We want the unknown
error variance at the end of the experiment to be as small as possible. Our goal is usually to find out something
about a treatment factor (or a factor of primary interest), but in addition to this we want to include any blocking
factors that will explain variation.

Multi-factor Designs - 2k designs, 3k designs, response surface designs, etc. The point to all of these
multi-factor designs is contrary to the scientific method where everything is held constant except one factor which
is varied. The one factor at a time method is a very inefficient way of making scientific advances. It is much better
to design an experiment that simultaneously includes combinations of multiple factors that may affect the
outcome. Then you learn not only about the primary factors of interest but also about these other factors. These
may be blocking factors which deal with nuisance parameters or they may just help you understand the
interactions or the relationships between the factors that influence the response.

Confounding - is something that is usually considered bad! Here is an example. Let's say we are doing
a medical study with drugs A and B. We put 10 subjects on drug A and 10 on drug B. If we categorize our
subjects by gender, how should we allocate our drugs to our subjects? Let's make it easy and say that there are 10
male and 10 female subjects. A balanced way of doing this study would be to put five males on drug A and five
males on drug B, five females on drug A and five females on drug B. This is a perfectly balanced experiment such
that if there is a difference between male and female at least it will equally influence the results from drug A and
the results from drug B.
An alternative scenario might occur if patients were randomly assigned treatments as they came in the
door. At the end of the study they might realize that drug A had only been given to the male subjects and drug B
was only given to the female subjects. We would call this design totally confounded. This refers to the fact that if
you analyze the difference between the average response of the subjects on A and the average response of the
subjects on B, this is exactly the same as the average response on males and the average response on females. You
would not have any reliable conclusion from this study at all. The difference between the two drugs A and B,
might just as well be due to the gender of the subjects, since the two factors are totally confounded.
 Confounding is something we typically want to avoid but when we are building complex experiments
we sometimes can use confounding to our advantage. We will confound things we are not interested in order to
have more efficient experiments for the things we are interested in. This will come up in multiple factor
experiments later on. We may be interested in main effects but not interactions so we will confound the
interactions in this way in order to reduce the sample size, and thus the cost of the experiment, but still have good
information on the main effects.

Steps for Planning, Conducting and Analyzing an Experiment

The practical steps needed for planning and conducting an experiment include: recognizing the
goal of the experiment, choice of factors, choice of response, choice of the design, analysis and then
drawing conclusions. This pretty much covers the steps involved in the scientific method.

1. Recognition and statement of the problem

2. Choice of factors, levels, and ranges
3. Selection of the response variable(s)
4. Choice of design
5. Conducting the experiment
6. Statistical analysis
7. Drawing conclusions, and making recommendations
What this course will deal with primarily is the choice of the design. This focus includes all the
related issues about how we handle these factors in conducting our experiments.

Factors

Researcher usually talk about "treatment" factors, which are the factors of primary interest to him. In
addition to treatment factors, there are nuisance factors which are not his primary focus, but he have to deal with
them. Sometimes these are called blocking factors, mainly because the researcher will try to block on these factors
to prevent them from influencing the results.

There are other ways to categorize factors:

Experimental vs. Classification Factors

Experimental Factors - these are factors that you can specify (and set the levels) and then assign at
random as the treatment to the experimental units. Examples would be temperature, level of an additive fertilizer
amount per acre, etc.
Classification Factors - can't be changed or assigned, these come as labels on the experimental units.
The age and sex of the participants are classification factors which can't be changed or randomly assigned. But
you can select individuals from these groups randomly.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Factors

Quantitative Factors - you can assign any specified level of a quantitative factor.
Examples: percent or pH level of a chemical.
Qualitative Factors - have categories which are different types.
Examples might be species of a plant or animal, a brand in the marketing field, gender, - these
are not ordered or continuous but are arranged perhaps in sets.