"Using it by one engineer makes his/her work organized; using it by 80-some Civil/Structural engineers in a project makes the whole team outshine the rest. Dr. Mote helped train the whole Civil/Structural team to use it in a multi-billion-dollars project, involving multi-areas and multi-workshare-offices, which I was the overall Civil/Structural Lead. The result makes a first-ever Standardized Electronic Documentation output, creates an impact and sets a superior model for future projects to follow."
Pao-show David Chen, P.Eng., Ph.D.
Special Consultant
Calgary, Canada
"Having worked closely with Bob for a number of years, I am grateful to have benefited from Bob's knowledge on the use and application of common software packages such as MS Word & MS Excel to generate efficient and effective calculations. The key is organisation and presentation and the methods which Bob employs delivers results that impress even the most experienced of engineers. I have benefited personally, and not only related to the development of calculations. Robert's methods have taught me to plan in advance and deliver results in a simple format for the layman to understand across every aspect of my work. I have been using Bob's methodology in a number of varying circumstances for more than six years and don't even choose to remember how I managed before. Thanks to Bob's level of enthusiasm and willingness to help others in this regard, improvements in the development of electronic engineering calculations are already evident in the industry. What a great contribution!."
Paul Sawyer Int.P.E C.Eng M.I.Struct.E
Engineering Manager
Canada
"Robert and I were colleagues at Jacobs Engineering in Calgary from January 2006 until December 2008. We worked together on the design of the Suncor Firebag 3+ Project, a 75,000 BPSD Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Facility that is being built North of Fort MacMurray, Alberta, Canada.
A significant part of the structural engineering work was to be performed by the Jacobs office in Mumbai, India. Robert was the Stamping Engineer and the International Workshare Coordinator. I was the Lead Civil, Structural Designer for the main interconnecting piperacks and the water treatment plant.
At the beginning of the project and at intervals during the project Robert travelled to India to train the engineers working on the project in the preparation and presentation of calculations using electronic tools. Because of the training and mentoring of the engineers by Robert the calculations presented showed all the information in a concise and simple manner that was easy to pass on to the designers preparing the 3D models and drawings.
In my opinion, the work of Robert Mote contributed significantly to the success of the project.
Alastair Smith, Structural Lead Designer, Calgary
"The methodology laid out in this publication was practically life-changing.
I started by believing that there could not be anything out there that would enhance my ability to produce engineering calculations, after all, I have been doing this for nearly 30 years, I knew it all, didn’t I???
Well obviously not, the easy to follow steps and graphical samples encouraged me and many of my colleagues to produce clear, concise, and more importantly, accurate calculations.
The quality of presentation you can achieve from applying just a few of Robert’s principles is astonishing, as well as receiving a consistent and coherent format, there is a noticeable reduction in man-hours mainly due to the removal of repetitive input.
I can certainly recommend the “Mote Method” for anyone who wants to streamline their production of calculations as well as presenting to your client / contractor a clear, concise professional looking document."
Stewart Kennedy
Senior Design Supervisor (Civil/Structural)
for the Petro-Chemical Industry, UK.
In an engineer's world, preparing good calculations is a big task and one of the key engineering activity for any project. Being a lead engineer, one of my focus areas was always to get the team deliver quality calculations in the least possible time
I had a chance to work with Dr. Mote few years back while I was in India. At a time when the team was pressed with challenges to deliver good quality calculations within the tight schedule and budget allocations, Dr. Mote's simple ideas as listed out in his book drove innovation and helped the team in achieving the goals with increased personal and organizational productivity.
I am more than happy to endorse the work of Dr. Mote. He has impressed me with his knowledge and dedication and his interest to teach engineers of all abilities to succeed in projects by developing structured techniques to prepare good calculations in short period of time.
While Dr. Mote has many capabilities and strengths, I believe what differentiates him is his philosophy of - first break the rules to come with unconventional views and solutions for the critical and strategic areas of engineering design, then show his ability to make the team execute those unconventional solutions with ease.
Having worked closely with Dr. Mote, I can say that his skill set is exemplary and his passion to utilize the Microsoft Office tools for professional engineering activities makes him an authentic author who has translated his years of experience to time saving solutions.
I am sure that his strategic vision, business acumen and professionalism would add tremendous value to any individual who gets a chance to go through his work (The Mote Method)
His innovative concepts captivates.
Srivalsan K.G, P.Eng
“The Mote Method will do for engineering what Stephen R. Covey and Dale Carnegie did for business leadership.”
Dee Justesen, Northern Lights Sandpoint Idaho
The importance of proper Engineering documentation had not been considered for many years. Most structural project documents are stacks of hundreds to thousands of sheets of paper. It’s extremely difficult for a checker to go through all those pages. Robert Mote’s process of Engineering documentation summarized these documents into a few sheets without compromising any of the important information. The Mote Method rightly reminds the importance of visuals; gives a lot of emphasis on graphics which cuts short the lines of statements making it crisp, easier to visualize and check. The other very important fact is that he uses the most common software of Microsoft Office which is very well known and widely available everywhere. The final output adds a great value to the project as well as to the engineer.
Samita Chakrabarti, Structural Technologist EIT, Vancouver, BC
"Dr Mote's method has helped us a lot to improve our efficiency on generating project deliverables. Even though the book was aimed at Civil/Structural Engineers, the method is quite generic and I could easily use it as a Process Engineer."
Denis Westphalen PEng, Principal Process Engineer, Calgary Canada
"The hands-on approach of 'The Engineer's Word' allowed me to follow step-by-step the implementation of the techniques showed in the book. No more headaches to document my calculations!"
Helena Gerson, Structural Specialist, Jacobs Canada, PhD
"I started to use Dr. Mote’s Method from 2004, my calculation and final reports are now well-organized, easy to read and check, and even easier to update.
It saves me lots of time and makes my high-quality design work appear professional".
Kai Chen P.Eng.
Civil/Structural Engineer,
Calgary, Canada
The introductory material that I received a few months ago on the Mote Method to produce effective technical reports, incorporating calculations and third party outputs, was an interesting read. What impressed me most is the fact that Dr Rober Mote is an experienced and down-to-earth hands-on engineer with a good exposure to the demands of an engineering environment. His experience is vast in the Civil / Structural engineering as applied to the oil / gas / petrochemical sector (to name a few), and the list goes from the specialist dynamics of compressor foundations, through complicated heat transfer and structural connections, to estimating and data bases. This, combined with his passion to turn the Microsoft Word, Excel and VBA into a powerful tool for the engineering profession makes him the most authoritative engineer-author-developer-trainer.
I was curious to find out myself what this Mote Method is all about. I bought the Engineer's Word2003 two weeks ago, little knowing that the licence set up is such that the software is dedicated to a machine and, therefore, can not be copied to other machines, or freely printed (for obvious reasons - just look at the quite reasonable price tag for the software). As soon as I downloaded it onto the wrong laptop (my intention was to use it on my mostly used laptop and not on the original machine where I downloaded the e-Book to), I knew something was wrong. When I contacted the Motagg Technical Support, Dr Robert Mote himself was helping me out (on a Sunday afternoon!). Cancelling the licence on the first machine, transferring it onto my preferred machine, downloading afresh etc complicated the issue because of the security protocol in place. I was very impressed at the attention to detail and sheer promptness (weekends and late into night) which Robert extended to me to sort out the issue. He tried different methods to circumnavigate the protocol to help me download a fresh copy to my preferred machine. He was so patient, yet persistent and dedicated to the task, in spite of his busy schedule - he was in fact flying to Calgary and once over there, busy with his business engagements - still he was in contact with me on mails and eventually accomplished the task to my delight. I was flabbergasted when a complimentary copy of the Engineer's Tables appeared in my Inbox yesterday. He said it should not have taken that long to sort out the licence (my own fault to copy it to another machine and trying to print!).
I have just bought the first e-learning module for Engineer's Word2003. I have had chance only to skim through the Engineer's Word2003, the first e-learning module and the Engineer's Tables. They seem to be incredible for any engineer focussing the power of these Microsoft products for the benefit of the engineering profession. I for one will be eagerly waiting for the e-learing modules and the most revolutionary yet of Dr Mote's gift to the profession, viz the Engineer's Basic (harnessing the power of VBA for engineering applications).
Eur.Ing. Shanker Nair, C.Eng;, M.I.Struct.E, F.E.I
Chartered Structural Engineer
Principal Engineer, Worley Parsons, UK
If you are a practicing professional engineer that utilizes Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word for calculating and reporting, then you need The Engineers Word as a reference manual. It will help you to organize, define and make your calculations professional and easy to read. I am impressed by this book by Dr. Robert Mote. I recommend it highly and I am waiting for his second book on the better use of spreadsheets for professional engineers to hit the book shelves. Robert has struck a home run with his first book.
Paul A Cyr, PEng
Emccorp, Edmonton
Keep it up Bob! I have enjoyed your books as they helped me get organized and more efficient. Your approach is straight forward, yet sophisticated and elegant. I introduced it to many of our young peers and was met with great admiration and appreciation. I and many others are looking forward to your next book.
Please keep me posted on your upcoming seminar in Calgary. I will not miss it for anything.
Best regards
Ahmed Shazly, P.Eng, Calgary
I have had the pleasure of working with Robert Mote over the past 8 months or so. Robert is a highly motivated, inspirational and innovative person. His experience and knowledge have been a great asset to this project. Fine individual.
Downright fine Gentleman!!
Norm Hanson
Mechanical Coordinator
Suncor, Firebag Stage 3
" It was my privilege and honour to be associated with Bob and I learnt a great deal from Bob’s vast experience. We worked closely for over three years on a multi-billion dollar heavy Oilsands projects coming up in Canada. For this project we had 500+ civil/structural engineering calculations and Bob’s method of preparing electronic calculations completely changed the way we did the calculations. He worked very hard and relentlessly with the team of 30+ engineers to produce some of the best calculations that I have seen in my career. Before his training, I always thought preparing sketches in Excel and Word as scary and too time-consuming. But he proved it otherwise. He even took the efforts to provide in-house training to our team of engineers in Mumbai. Using Bob’s methods of preparing calculations, we saved a lot of time on the project, were consistent in our approach (especially with such a large team) and received lots of accolades from the Client for doing such fabulous calculations. I am very confident that the success of any engineer in his workplace will greatly improve if they learn to prepare calculations using Bob’s methods. I wish Bob and all his students the best of success and learning…. It never stops."
Dhruv Jha, P.Eng., PMP Principal Civil/Structural Engineer
