Major Milestones, Team Activities, and Individual Deliverables

Major Milestones, Team Activities, and Individual Deliverables Milestone #1: Team Semester Proposal Your team should write a proposal that describes project objectives, existing relevant technology, engineering specifications, and plans for the semester. This should be a professionally prepared and fully integrated document (i.e., not just a collection of individual contributions). Here is a suggested format: 1. Introduction 2. Customer Analysis and Project Objectives (from team activity #2) 3. Project Background and Assessment of Relevant Existing Technologies (from individual deliverable #2) 4. Functional Analysis and Preliminary Engineering Specifications (from team activity #3) 5. Optional: System Concepts and results of initial prototypes (from team activity #5) 6. Project Plan (from team activity #4) 7. Project Challenges and Opportunities Major Milestone # 2: Mid-term Design Review and Technical Report Design reviews are an opportunity to share information and get feedback as part of an open and honest dialog with reviewers. They are often used in practice to determine whether a project should proceed forward to the next stage in the development process. Your midterm reviews will be conducted to encourage individual participation among the team members working on the project. One or two team members will be selected at random by your faculty advisor(s) to make a 20 minute presentation on behalf of the entire team with 5 minutes for Q&A by the whole team. Your mid-term technical report should be a professionally prepared document that presents a clear description of the system design concept(s) that your team intends to pursue. The document should build on the Team Semester Proposal, with updates based on your growing understanding of the project challenges. Here is a suggested format: 1. Introduction 2. Customer Analysis and Project Objectives 3. Project Background and Assessment of Relevant Existing Technologies 4. Functional Analysis and Engineering Specifications 5. System Concept Generation and Evaluation and results of initial prototypes (from Team exercises 5 and 6) 6. Summary of Preliminary Engineering Analyses (from Team Activity #7) 7. Optional: Preliminary Design Drawings and status of fabrication and procurement (from exercise 10) 8. Revised Project Plan 9. Project Risks (From Team Activity #8) Teams will be evaluated by faculty and peers based on quality of communication, application of appropriate design methods, and understanding of the technical challenges associated with their project. Major Milestone #3: Final Report and Presentations Your final report and presentation is the culmination of your semester project. At this stage your team should have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the problem and design solution. All of the prior steps have lead to this point where your team will present the final report, which includes both a written technical report and oral presentation. The written report and final presentation should be prepared in cooperation with all members of the project team (i.e., including participation from students from other disciplines). The final presentation should be scheduled (by the project team) for some time during the last two weeks of the semester. One to two hours should be allocated for the review. It is the responsibility of the project team to invite reviewers. Reviewers should include sponsor mentors, the faculty advisors associated with the project, and at least one additional faculty member from the school of engineering. The final report should build on the Mid-term Design Review Report. Be sure to include your key accomplishments compared to your objectives. You should also include a statement for your sponsor on the significance of what you have achieved, and what you recommend for next steps. 1

Team Activity #1: Team Formation Ineffective meetings waste time. In this activity you will take first step toward team formation, and exercise effective meeting practices. You should convene a meeting with those students who have expressed an interest in the project. During your meeting you should all introduce yourselves and create a list of action items for getting started. You should be guided by the requirements to accomplish the next few team and individual activities. For example, for Team Activity #2 someone will need to arrange a meeting with your sponsor. For each action item, identify the responsible individual (or individuals) and the completion date. Some best practices for effective meetings include: Appoint a note taker and meeting facilitator Have clear objectives and an agenda Keep the discussion focused and maintain one discussion Test for consensus and bring discussions to a close Record and communicate decisions made, action items, open issues Review meeting results and plan for follow-up Be on time and don t waste time! Share the list of action items with your faculty advisor at the end of the session. Include a list of all meeting participants. Team Activity #2: Defining Customer Requirements Product and process designs that do not satisfy customer requirements ultimately fail in the marketplace, resulting in wasted time and effort. Understanding customer requirements is one of the first steps to develop a successful design. This activity is intended to make you think about and gain an appreciation for the customer requirements related to your project. For this activity your team should: 1. Create a concise statement of who the customer(s) are for your project. Customers should include the sponsor, but you should also include others such as end users who will benefit from the results of your work 2. Develop an organized listing of the customer requirements (in the voice of the customer ) for your project. 3. Rate each statement of customer want and need according to relative importance (i.e., high, moderate, low). 4. Create a concise statement of the specific measurable objectives for your project. 5. Summarize your results for inclusion in the Team Semester Proposal (Milestone 1). 6. Get faculty advisor(s) feedback on the results of this activity. Team Activity #3: Functional Analysis and Preliminary Engineering Specifications Prior to concept development, engineers usually create a functional description of the intended design. Accompanying the functional description is a set of engineering specifications, which serve to quantify the functional requirements. Every project involves design and construction of a physical prototype or a system to produce engineering design data. For this activity your team should: 1. List the key functions of the system you will be building. 2. Create a function block diagram that shows relationships among the functions. 3. Make a list of preliminary engineering specifications (an estimated range of acceptable values). 4. Comment on the relative technical difficulty associated with achieving the engineering specifications. You may want to refer to what you know about existing similar systems you encountered in the Technology Assessment and Benchmarking exercise. 5. Create a concise statement of the most important engineering specifications from the standpoints of both the customer and the design engineer. 6. Describe how you would propose to improve upon the design. 7. Generate a document describing the results, and share it with your faculty advisor(s). 2

Team Activity #4: Project Planning Project plans are used to help keep everyone on a team working together toward a common goal. Project plans are used to coordinate activities and maintain focus on important milestones and the associated deliverables. Deliverables, such as, analysis results, prototypes, model testing, and completion of design documentation, measure progress in an engineering design project. This activity is intended to give you practice in creating a project plan for your semester project. In this activity your team should: 1. Define the project goals and how they support the customer and engineering design requirements. 2. Identify the activities required to meet project goals along with key deliverables coming out of each activity. 3. Estimate time and resources related to each activity. 4. Create a Gantt chart showing the timing of project activities. 5. Specifically identify critical path activities associated with the project plan. 6. Develop a budget with estimates for purchased material and shop labor. Be as specific as possible. 7. Document the plan, and share it with your faculty advisor(s). Team Activity #5: Concept Generation Most engineers will quickly think of a possible solution to a design problem. But effective engineers do not simply jump to the first concept that appears to solve the problem. Rather, they will engage in activities aimed at generating a variety of creative approaches. For this activity your team should synthesize three to six viable system concepts. Each system concept should include a sketch and a brief written description that clearly communicates the critical system elements. This is a key element of the Mid-term Design Review and Report (Milestone #2). Preliminary results can be included in the Team Semester Proposal (Milestone #1). Team Activity #6: Concept Evaluation and Selection Although it is important to always remain open minded to new ideas and design concepts, ultimately the show must go on and a design team must converge on a system concept that allows them to move forward and take advantage of limited resources (i.e., time and money). Team members must learn how to critically evaluate and distinguish between good and bad ideas, and how to fully integrate ideas into workable system concepts. There are many ways of approaching concept evaluation and selection. In this activity, your team should use a rational decision making approach to help determine which one or combination of the system concepts from the previous activity is the best option. Generate a document describing results from Team Activities #6 and #7 for use in the Mid Term Design Review and Report (Milestone #2). Share the document with you faculty advisor(s) for feedback. Team Activity #7: Critical Areas Requiring Engineering Analysis Most real engineering design problems require many decisions on system configurations, geometry, materials, and other characteristics of system elements. Some decisions are made using engineering judgment. But increasingly, engineering analysis is used to make optimal or near-optimal choices for critical elements. There are never enough resources to analyze everything, so a challenge is to focus on the important decisions. What are the items that cannot simply be over-designed or fixed later through trial and error, and which need to be specified with care? In this exercise, your team should clearly identify the important design decisions and the engineering calculations that will be done by each individual team member to help make those decisions. You should submit a list to your faculty advisor that indicates the specific problems needing analysis, how the analysis results will be used in your design, and who will be responsible for doing the detailed analysis and calculation. Your faculty advisors will provide feedback based on this list to help you as you carry out those analyses. Team Activity #8: Risk Assessment Most, if not all, engineering design efforts involve risk. Risk level can be measured as a function of severity and probability of occurrence. In this exercise your team should brainstorm all of the possible risks associated with your project. After organizing and clarifying each risk issue, the team should rate the severity of risk on a 3 point scale (i.e., 3=high, 2=moderate, 1=low). Similarly, the team should rate the probability of occurrence for each risk issue. Starting with high severity and high probability risk issues, your team should then develop remediation plans for each risk issue. Create a spreadsheet to document your results and share it with your faculty advisor. 3

Team Activity #9: Preliminary Design Release The ultimate deliverables of most engineering efforts are specifications and drawings. Drawings may include system schematics, block diagrams, flowcharts, part and assembly drawings, and bills of material. When done properly, they provide a complete, unique, and unambiguous description of the intended design. Before a product, process, or system design is finalized it will often go through a series of revisions and ultimately be released by engineering, signifying the design is ready for implementation. In this activity, your team should go through a preliminary design release process. The team should conduct a meeting to obtain approvals to release the preliminary design so that implementation can begin. Even before the design release, discussions should be started with Manufacturing (see Sam Chiappone) and Purchasing (see Valerie Masterson) to schedule shop time and to procure long lead items. Team Activity #10: Cost Analysis and Estimation Successful products and processes provide cost effective functional performance. For this activity your team should: 1. Create a list of the individual components in your system or assembly. 2. Estimate the manufacturing or purchase cost for each component and the entire system. 3. Propose ways to reduce costs for each system component. 4. Revise your budget estimate 5. Share your results with your faculty advisor(s) and document results in your final report Team Activity #11: Design Evaluation Plan and Testing Evaluation and test are important elements of the design process. Most products will go through a myriad of functional, quality, safety, and reliability tests before they enter the marketplace. In this activity your team will create a plan and conduct tests to evaluate the performance of your system design. For this activity your team should: 1. Create an experimental test plan. 2. Conduct the experiment and collect data. 3. Perform data analysis 4. Share your results with your faculty advisor(s) and document results in your final report. Team Activity #12: Detail Design and System Integration Detail design of a piece of hardware means synthesizing a functional unit with commercially available components and manufacturing processes. Detail design of an algorithm means writing a computer program. In either case an iterative process of synthesis, testing/debugging, and analysis is most often necessary to meet the customer requirements. It is crucial that you pace your efforts during the semester to allow yourself adequate time to carryout this iterative process. The activities and deliverables prior to the detail design phase have prepared you for just that. Individual Deliverable #1: Introductory Memo Write a memo to your instructor as if you were applying for a job. Explain why the project that you want to work on is well suited to your capabilities and interests. In other words, explain what you would do for the project and what the project would do for you. Include relevant experience and future career goals. Your memo should be no longer than one page in length. Attach a copy of your resume. Individual Deliverable #2: Technology Assessment and Benchmarking All of your projects require creativity and innovation. Chances are very good, however, that technologies and/or system concepts already exist that you can modify and adapt to your needs. Get together with your team and list the key areas where understanding of existing technologies is critical to the success of your project. Each team member should pick an area (some overlaps are okay) and conduct an assessment of prior art and relevant technologies. Identify relevant existing products, processes, systems, and patents. Describe characteristics of past designs that you would want to copy, and characteristics that need to be improved or modified before being applied to your problem. Each individual must submit a free-standing memo (3 or 4 pages, with figures) summarizing your findings to your faculty advisor. Based on the individual memos, an integrated statement of relevant existing technologies should be written and included in the Team Semester Proposal (Milestone 1). 4

Individual Deliverable #3: Impromptu Oral Presentations Engineers in practice are often called upon to make short impromptu oral presentations and provide status reports on their progress. In this activity you will be given an opportunity to practice and refine your skills in making presentations. A combination of peer and faculty assessment may be used to provide constructive feedback. You may be called on multiple times and at anytime during the semester for this activity. Individual Deliverable #4: Design Notebook Most businesses maintain elaborate computer-based systems to maintain strict control over design documentation. Design documentation may include CAD drawings and bills of materials, technical design reports and presentation review notes, engineering analysis models and calculations, product test data, engineering specifications, and much more. In the course of a design development process, however, individual engineers will also maintain records of the myriad design decisions along with the background and thoughts that may have lead to those decisions. To maintain personal organization, many engineers will use a design notebook to record a log of meeting notes, system concept sketches, critical design parameters, engineering calculations, flow diagrams, system schematics, and any references that serve as a reminder of how and when they arrived at their design decisions. A well organized design notebook provides an evolutionary depiction of the design development process and can serve as an official record of exactly when and how ideas may have been developed in support of potential patent claims. For this course, you should maintain a design notebook as a record of your contributions to the project. Your faculty advisors will periodically ask to see your design notebook to help understand your thoughts and design decisions, and will ultimately use it to help determine your final grade. Your design notebook can be a valuable resource for preparing individual and team deliverables and helping you to remember important design information and to maintain personal organization. It is recommended that you maintain a chronological organization of your design notebook that includes the following types of information: Background Information: The original problem statement and objectives, team organization, meeting notes, customer requirements, functional analysis, research on prior art, competitor benchmarking, critical engineering parameters, references to other peoples work, project plans. System Design Concepts: Alternative ideas that were considered, sketches, flowcharts, system diagrams, figures, diagrams, descriptions of hardware and software, pictures of prototypes and descriptions of how design elements were integrated. Engineering Analysis and Calculations: Design objectives for critical parameters, possible interactions with other parameters, assumptions, mathematical models and formulas with references to their sources, parameter values used with units of measure, design constraints and trade-offs. Test Data and Results: Test objectives, process descriptions, experimental plans and set-up, potential noise factors, input and output parameters, data and analysis, observations. Individual Deliverable #5: Final Semester Memo Write a final semester memo to your faculty advisor that summarizes your accomplishments during the semester. Consider this to be your opportunity to provide direct input to your individual performance appraisal done by your faculty advisor. You should include in your memo a brief statement of the original project objectives. You should answer the following questions: How motivated were you to work on the project? Were you really excited, moderately interested or somewhat apathetic? What influenced your motivation level? How did things change as the semester progressed? What do you think you learned? What kinds of challenges did you face? Was the challenge level too high, just about right, or too low? What were the obstacles to achieving your goals? What is your assessment of your individual performance? Did you play a special role? What kinds of significant contributions did you make toward achieving project goals? What would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again? Answer all of the questions. Your memo should be 1 to 2 pages. 5