Planning and Executing Credible Experiments

Book excerpt: Covers experiment planning, execution, analysis, and reporting This single-source resource guides readers in planning and conducting credible experiments for engineering, science, industrial processes, agriculture, and business. The text takes experimenters all the way through conducting a high-impact experiment, from initial conception, through execution of the experiment, to a defensible final report. It prepares the reader to anticipate the choices faced during each stage. Filled with real-world examples from engineering science and industry, Planning and Executing Credible Experiments: A Guidebook for Engineering, Science, Industrial Processes, Agriculture, and Business offers chapters that challenge experimenters at each stage of planning and execution and emphasizes uncertainty analysis as a design tool in addition to its role for reporting results. Tested over decades at Stanford University and internationally, the text employs two powerful, free, open-source software tools: GOSSET to optimize experiment design, and R for statistical computing and graphics. A website accompanies the text, providing additional resources and software downloads. A comprehensive guide to experiment planning, execution, and analysis Leads from initial conception, through the experiment’s launch, to final report Prepares the reader to anticipate the choices faced throughout an experiment Hones the motivating question Employs principles and techniques from Design of Experiments (DoE) Selects experiment designs to obtain the most information from fewer experimental runs Offers chapters that propose questions that an experimenter will need to ask and answer during each stage of planning and execution Demonstrates how uncertainty analysis guides and strengthens each stage Includes examples from real-life industrial experiments Accompanied by a website hosting open-source software Planning and Executing Credible Experiments is an excellent resource for graduates and senior undergraduates—as well as professionals—across a wide variety of engineering disciplines.