ChatGPT : 10 useful prompts for Engineers
How can ChatGPT help Process Engineers ?
Find here example on how ChatGPT can help you for Engineering works
Follow us on Twitter 
Question, remark ? Contact us at contact@myengineeringtools.com
1. Introduction
2. 10 prompt examples useful for Engineers
1. Introduction
ChatGPT can be a new asset for process engineers working in factories. It offers quick access to information and troubleshooting guidance, helping engineers on the factory floor in ways that were previously not available. Engineers can seek assistance in optimizing processes, improving efficiency, and adhering to safety guidelines. ChatGPT also aids in training and education, assisting newcomers in understanding complex processes and machinery.
Engineers can use ChatGPT's data analysis capabilities to interpret sensor data, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions for process enhancements. It simplifies documentation tasks like creating a presentation, writing and email or producing minutes of meeting, aids in project planning, and supports multilingual communication in diverse work environments.
It can also serve as a collaborative platform for knowledge sharing among engineers. It helps them stay updated with industry trends, research, and innovations. In cases where experts are not physically present, ChatGPT can offer a new kind of remote assistance, guiding on-site personnel through maintenance, repairs, or inspections.
| You can also check more resources about ChatGPT on
MyEngineeringTools.com : |
Top 5 Most
Popular
1. Compressor
Power Calculation
2. Pump Power Calculation
3. Pipe Pressure
Drop Calculation
4. Fluid Velocity in pipes
5. Churchill Correlation
(friction factor)
2. 10 prompt examples useful for Engineers
2.1 Get Physical properties
When Process Engineers are looking for physical properties, there are different possible sources, handbooks, internets, database in the company... but very often the data that is looked for is hidden in a lot of other data making the process very tedious. This has also to be repeated for each of the components you are looking for. ChatGPT can help to quickly get the data for a whole array of materials. Here an example prompt to get physical properties with ChatGPT.Prompt example : "Please give the specific heat of water, toluene, benzene and ethanol, express it in metric unit system and present the results as a table"
There is one limitation here that you need to recognize : ChatGPT is not giving you sources... so you still must be careful with the results you get and should use your Engineering skills to check the results. Here water is correct, propanol and ethanol are 2 close components and ChatGPT returns specific heat that are close, so this looks about right.
What can be done to work around that is actually to use Microsoft Bing running ChatGPT. Bing has the additional possibility to be able to browse the web, and gives you sources of the replies :
What is interesting is that the values differ from what ChatGPT replies. You can then go through the different sources to check and get the right value.
2.2 Get explosion properties
You can also get other kind of properties Engineers are always looking for such as dust explosion data like MIE.
Prompt example : "Please give the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of the following dusts : wheat flour, rice flour, coal dust and baking soda, express it in metric unit system and present the results as a table"
Once again you must be careful. However note that ChatGPT is putting a warning that is about right : yes MIE depends on many factores, especially the particle size of the dust.
2.3 Commissioning procedure
When you need to start a new equipment, ChatGPT can help you create quickly a commissioning checklist. The output could simply be bullet points, but the checklist format makes immediately more actionable. Let's say that you need to start a new pump and need help, ChatGPT can give you some ideas.
Example prompt : "Act as Engineer. You need to commission a new pump. Can you please create a checklist that will explain what must be checked before starting the pump for the 1st time ? The checklist should have a format of an actual checklist (box to tick)"
As with everything ChatGPT gives you must be careful ! Read and use your Engineering skills to adapt the checklist, using also the manual / documentation from suppliers. But it can help to quickly draft something that makes sense that you can then enhance and give for example to a technician on the field.
2.4 Troubleshooting procedure : how to solve an Engineering problem wit ChatGPT
A bit similar to the previous prompt, ChatGPT can help you to get ideas on how to solve a problem. For example if a pump has a problem, then maybe ChatGPT can give new leads or organize ideas.
Example prompt : "Act as a Process Engineer. One pump on a glycol tank has recurrent problems. The problems are leaks at the bearing seals. Can you suggest a step by step procedure to find why the packing is leaking and solve the problem ? For each of the steps, present the actions as bullet points"
2.5 Interpret data
If you are working on a process that you don't know necessarily well but on which you got a bunch of data that you need to take benefit of to improve the process, then ChatGPT can be a starting point to help you.
Example prompt : "Act as an Engineer, you have a table of pressure, temperature, mass flowrates in and out of a reactor. Can you suggest a method to interpret those data and get useful information on the reactor ?"
2.6 Negotiate prices
As an Engineer working in a factory or a project, you need to buy equipment quite often, and very often the budget is constraint. ChatGPT can help to craft some negotiation strategy, or emails to try to convince the supplier to adjust its price. It can very handy for people not used to negotiations.
Prompt Example : "Act as an Engineer. You have received 3 offers for a new pump you want to buy. One offer is very expensive, the 2 other offers are quite close. They both meet your requirements. The less expensive is still higher than your budget and you need to save 2000 euros (the pump costs 17000 euros). Can you please suggest an email to the supplier to get a better price, if possible by 2000 euros ?"
This is a very good starting point. You can continue to dialogue with ChatGPT to improve that, or you can also adjust directly the message.
2.7 Create a presentation for a project
Engineers are often tasks to make presentations to the management for example to explain the status of a project, or to justify an investment. As most Engineers are working in factories and are very busy it can be very helpful to have an AI assistant to craft a presentation for you. ChatGPT cannot yet output directly a powerpoint file, but it can certainly help to structure logically the presentation.
Example Prompt : "Can you propose the outline of a powerpoint presentation to explain to the CEO in which factory an investment should be made. Act as an Engineer."
Looks good but way too long for a busy person like the CEO. You can just ask ChatGPT to be more concise in a follow-up prompt.
Example Prompt : "Ok, please be more concise, there should be max 5 slides. Note that we have 12 factories, the factory we propose to make the investment is in France. Reason is competency of people and more decarbonated energy vs Germany"
2.8 Create an email
Sometimes as an Engineer you need to write an email to your boss, the factory manager, the CEO, must make it quite formal while conveying the right ideas and asks in a short message. ChatGPT can help to make the draft of such an email, that you can then quickly check and rework wherever necessary.
Example Prompt : "Can you please write an email to the CEO to explain why you propose to hire a consultant to improve operations in a factory in Germany"
2.9 Source code
Going further than generating only CSV or JSON file, ChatGPT can code, this can be very useful for Engineers, especially Engineers who have only basics in programming but, this way, can quickly get a working code, in many language. You can for example chose to code in Python or VBA which are extremely useful coding languages for Engineers.
Example prompt : "Can you propose a piece of code in Python. The code is a function that receives a Pandas dataframe as argument. It returns a series for the index, a series for the columns names, a list for the average of the data in each column"
You can also get a source code in VBA if you need :
2.10 Create minutes of meeting
It is often tedious to write minutes of meeting within a project, or simply during factory works. You can use ChatGPT to create minutes of meeting and save a lot of time. It is even more powerful when you can get an automatic transcript of a meeting, for example via Microsoft Teams. Check out the below example, a transcript of 3 pages has been given to ChatGPT which needs to change it to minutes of meeting of 250 words.
Example prompt : Please summarize the meeting transcript below as minutes of meeting, maximum 250 words, you can use tables or bullet points where appropriate. "[paste here your transcript]"
