Lecture 2: Project Presentations

Agenda

1. •Review project bid portfolio
   

2. •Project presentations & questions (5-10 minutes each)
   

Project - Presenter - Disciplines

1. 1)Hybrid Powertrain [abstract] - Edwin Odom - ECE & ME
   

2. 2)Foliar Sampling UAV [slides, abstract] - Mark Kimsey - ME
   

3. 3)Kendrick Pool Solar Heating [abstract] - Don Ingle - ME
   

4. 4)Electronic Shifter [abstract] - Randall Keeney - ECE & ME
   

5. 5)AUV Battery Charging & Propulsion [abstract] - Kyle & Kyle  - ECE & ME
   

6. 6)Tie-Down Track Finishing Machine [abstract] - Steve - ME
   

7. 7)Reed Forming Machine [slides, abstract] - Jay - ME
   

8. 8)Sodium Reactor Cold Trap [abstract] - Jay - ME
   

Action items

1. •Complete project bid portfolio - due Wednesday by close of business
   

2. •ECE students should also email their project bid portfolio to Brian Johnson -  bjohnson@ece.uidaho.edu

6-16-09

Lecture 1: Course Overview

Agenda

1. •Instructor introductions
   

2. •Syllabus review (roles, responsibilities, ABET)
   

3. •Course website review
   

4. •Schedule and deliverables overview
   

5. •Logbook guide and rubric 
   

6. •Assessment exercises and HAC statement
   

7. •Discussion questions
   

Small group discussions (groups of 4-5)

1. 1)What terms in the glossary are you least familiar with?
   

2. 2)Examine the documentation of past student senior design projects. What are four best practices for use in your capstone project? Choose a few best practices that is not related to documentation.
   

3. 3)Capstone design represents (for many) the culmination of your engineering education and the last step before your engineering careers begin. With that perspective in mind, what skills do you most want to gain or refine?
   

4. 4)What experiences are you most interested in having over the course of your project?
   

5. 5)What are your most burning questions about the course?
   

Large group reporting and Q/A

Action items

1. •Get a logbook
   

2. •Make your first entry!

6-15-09

Lecture 3: Design Process

Agenda

1. •Reminder - bid portfolio due today
   

2. •Discussion of design process model
   

3. •Watch videos and capture design tips and techniques
   

4. •In groups of 4-5 compose models of design process then share them with the class
   

Modeling design process

What is in a model of design process? What are the features of a design process model?

1. •decomposition
   

2. •milestones
   

3. •actionable techniques, tips, tools, and activities that get us closer to the intermediate and final milestones
   

4. •overarching philosophies on teamwork, performance, and focus
   

Watch and document techniques

Watch the series of design videos about the design of four different products. Capture techniques, activities, and philosophies employed by the designers. Indicate when during the process the technique, activity, or philosophy would be useful.

1. •Pushchair (a.k.a baby stroller) video [4:08]
   

2. •Charger video [4:56]
   

3. •IDEO Part 2 [7:16]
   

4. •Folding bike [11:45]
   

Mapping to the model

In a group of 4-5, map what you have observed today (techniques, activities, and philosophies) and what you know about design onto our capstone design model.

1. •identify a the milestones that define each phase and mark its closure
   

2. •indicate where the techniques and tips that you observed fit into each phase
   

3. •indicate where other techniques or activities that you are aware of fit into the design process

6-17-09

Lecture 4: TEAM Formation

Agenda

1. •Announce teams
   

2. •Team contract activity
   

3. •Report results to class
   

4. •Team roles and responsibilities
   

5. •Establish meeting times/places
   

Team contract

In order for a design team to perform at a high level, it is important to establish ground rules, expectations, and goals that define your “culture”. As a team, define consensus expectations about productive within-team relationships. Please address the following issues by identifying two specific guiding principles per item.

1. 1)Inclusive Climate. Describe what is required for all members of the team to feel safe and valued, and explain members’ commitments to achieve this inclusive climate.
   

2. 2)Work Allocation. Define how work will be allocated to individual members of the team. Address issues of leadership, backup, and fairness.
   

3. 3)Knowledge Assets. Define how project information assets will be developed and safeguarded. What project records will be maintained and by whom? How will personal design journals and team records be developed to produce greatest value?  How will documentation be monitored?
   

4. 4)Conflict Resolution. Define the strategy your team will use to resolve conflicts that arise and leverage these challenges into opportunities for growing team performance.
   

Difficult situations arise in nearly every team environment. Discuss and document your agreed upon response to the following situations. Indicate the role of the team, team leader, graduate mentor, and faculty mentor in reaching resolution.

1. 1)Your project client is a challenge to work with. She is frequently unavailable to meet with the team and is unresponsive to queries about design selection and preferences. What should be done to ameliorate the difficulties in client-team interaction and ensure a maximum amount of client and team satisfaction with the project?
   

2. 2)One of the members of your three person team is frequently late when completing assigned tasks. When work is completed, it is done so in a rushed manner. Ignoring this team member will add significant burden to others on the team, but waiting around for them will put the project at risk. What will jump start this underperforming team member?
   

3. 3)Two team members are in constant conflict about the quality of work produced. Team member A is meticulous and particular about every choice and detail added to the project. His work is very good, but proceeds at a very slow pace. Team member B is responsible and does not cut corners, but also strives to finish as much project work as quickly as possible by not being as meticulous. How can this difference in quality expectations be resolved?
   

4. 4)Several members of a design team are striking out on their own path. They are resistant to following suggestions by mentors with respect to their process, fabrication, and teamwork. When they do take part in recommended activities, it is done so without care in order to “get it over with” and get back to doing things their way. What can be done to ensure that resources to the team are leveraged in a responsible manner?
   

Action item

1. •Bring a copy of the completed team contract (typed and signed by each team member) to the team meeting.
   

2. •Determine team name and email it to Jay by Friday.

6-18-09

Lecture 5: Understanding the Opportunity

Agenda

1. •Assessment activity
   

2. •Overview
   

3. •Identify activities
   

4. •Group activity - identify learning opportunities
   

5. •Share learning plan
   

Assessment activity

1. Problem scoping processes assessment
   

2. •Create a list of project learning activities and bring them to class tomorrow and team meeting this week
   

3. •Each team will complete a problem scoping assessment by Monday July 7
   

Project learning overview

1. •With conceptual design is known as the “fuzzy front end” of design
   

2. •This stage in product development is the
   

3. •greatest impact on project success and cost
   

4. •greatest risk
   

5. •greatest opportunity for innovation (a.k.a. doing some thing cool)
   

6. •least likely to be recognized as time well spent by you and other engineers
   

7. •Talk is cheap!!! – Documentation is a must. – data (logbooks, webpage), schedules, decisions – You don’t know it until you can show your mentor where you documented it. – Be efficient in documentation.
   

8. •Project learning can be simplified by systematically identifying and performing activities that clarify issues surrounding the problem, the people, the products, and the technology.
   

The problem

Your problem was likely presented in an incomplete or solution biased manner.

1. 
   

2. Activity - Create a product opportunity statement (a.k.a. problem statement)
   

3. •You must create a clear statement of the problem that is vetted by the stakeholders.
   

4. •This “product opportunity” statement is best kept short (1 or 2 sentences)
   

People

1. Activity - Identify stakeholders and experts
   

2. •Stakeholders are people that have an interest in the creation of a new product
   

3. •Experts are people that have specific knowledge about related products, processes, and technologies
   

1. Activity - Conduct an interview
   

2. •Extracting information from stakeholders and experts will net you substantial needs and constraints
   

3. •Customer satisfaction – Kano model -
   

4. •Latent and direct needs (communicate them back to customer for validation) 
   

5. •Interviewees focus on solutions and anecdotes,you must extract the needs
   

6. •Focus on what, not how (5 whys)
   

7. •Watch for priorities - must, should, wish
   

8. •Prepare a list of questions - don’t waste client’s time
   

9. •Be sure to address broad classes of requirements
   

10. •Functional performance
    

11. •Human factors
    

12. •Physical requirements
    

13. •Reliability
    

14. •Life-cycle concerns
    

15. •Resource concerns (time, cost, etc.)
    

16. •Manufacturing requirements
    

1. Activity - Conduct an observation
   

2. •People often do not realize opportunities, realize their problems, and communicate all needs.
   

3. •Apply anthropological techniques to document activity lists, characterize user types, and characterize value to the user.
   

Products

1. Activity - Product dissection
   

2. •Teardown competitive products and products with comparable function that may be helpful for conceptual design
   

3. •Build model of geometry and performance
   

4. •Benchmark performance of competitors
   

1. Activity - Empathetic activities
   

2. •Use the product, perform the process, swim in cold water!
   

3. •First-hand experience is a great way to grow understanding
   

Technology

1. Activity - Research
   

2. •Identify technologies that are core to the problem or potential directions for the solution
   

3. •Web searches, patent searches, interview experts
   

1. Activity - Experimentation and modeling
   

2. •Gain clarity in relevant physical phenomenon my creating math models and relating them to experiments
   

3. •Useful to determine what can be validated
   

Activity

1. •Start developing your list of project learning activities with your teammates
   

2. •Share a three activities with the class that might help another team
   

Action item

1. •Bring a list of specific project learning activities for your project to class tomorrow and to you team meeting
   

2. •Complete the assessment activity online by July 7
   

3. •Class tomorrow in GJ108

6-22-09

Lecture 6: Project management & Project websites

Agenda

1. •Mentor introductions
   

2. •Team email aliases
   

3. •Project management
   

4. •Web site content
   

5. •Web site technical
   

Project mentors

1. •Foliarrrr - Brandon Butsick
   

2. •SubMerge - Nathan Barrett
   

3. •I-Heat - Adam Oster
   

4. •Shift Happens - Vic Christensen
   

5. •Tie Master - Jason Cyr
   

Project management

Project management concepts

1. •project planning
   

2. •project tracking
   

3. •macro and micro schedule items
   

4. •maintain a schedule, weekly action items, meetings have agendas
   

5. •Gantt charts
   

6. •responsibility for schedule maintenance
   

MS Project concepts

1. •resources
   

2. •tasks
   

3. •milestones
   

4. •dependencies
   

5. •% complete
   

6. •hierarchy
   

Useful milestones

1. •Specs complete (end of phase)
   

2. •Specs approved
   

3. •Design review
   

4. •Concept selected
   

5. •Report due
   

6. •Assignment due
   

7. •and more! (milestones drive the project!)
   

8. •Consult the schedule and the design process websites to start.
   

Notes

1. •MS Project available through ECE department
   

2. •Develop a detailed schedule for immediate tasks and a general schedule for long term tasks.
   

3. •Make the schedule (action items/progress reporting) an integral part of your team meetings.
   

4. •See capstone website for good examples like this
   

Project website

1. •Website expectations document
   

2. 
   

Uses for project website

1. •communicate with client, instructor, teammates, future students
   

2. •present synthesized data and project status
   

3. •repository for raw data and work in progress
   

4. •Note: Be sensitive to proprietary information.
   

5. •Rule of thumb: Do not post things that you did not create.
   

Kompozer is a WYSIWYG html editor that will enable you to easily edit and update websites of sufficient complexity for this course. It is free to download and use and is available in GJ 114. (note that it is a continuation of NVU)

Files are uploaded to the senior deisgn website using an sftp client. Some freely available clients are cyberduck on the mac or the secure SSH client provided by ITS.

Action items

1. •by end of class today
   

2. •send me an email with the email addresses of everyone on your team
   

3. •determine your procedure/tool for maintaining the team schedule and on a weekly basis
   

4. •be sure that you can create and upload your website
   

6-23-09

Lecture 7: SPECIFICATIONS

Agenda

1. •Project scoping activity
   

2. •Snapshot day expectations
   

3. •Specifications
   

Project scoping processes assessment

1. •Due by COB Tuesday
   

2. •Reminder that this is part of your grade
   

3. •Log into TIDEE website http://www.tidee.org
   

4. •Update your lists and complete reflective questions as a team
   

5. •Problem scoping processes assessment
   

Snapshot day

1. •Websites should be updated to include a synthesis of your project learning and all other midpoint of first semester deliverables- see expectations document
   

2. •Bring any hardware - products, experiments, etc.
   

3. •Held in GJ 114
   

Specifications

1. •Definition, alternate terminology, and role in design process
   

2. •specs, requirements, technical requirements, voice of the customer, voice of the company
   

3. •Mapping of needs to specs
   

4. •See process doc on creating specifications for key elements
   

5. •Target values may take other forms
   

6. •a range (i.e. a value and some tolerance)
   

7. •binary
   

8. •probabilities, statistical measures, larger populations of product or components
   

9. •Target values set from
   

10. •client/expert input
    

11. •competitive benchmarking
    

12. •Not all requirements are absolute - clients have preferences
    

13. •must, should, wish
    

14. •9, 3, 1
    

15. 
    

16. 
    

17. •Meticulous requirements management is critical on large projects and on large teams
    

18. •See process docs - house of quality
    

19. •Simple hoq template
    

20. •Note that specs can be one to many or many to one wrt needs
    

21. •Translate needs to specs and specs to needs
    

22. 
    

23. 
    

24. •Check completeness by category: functional performance, human factors, physical requirements, reliability, life-cycle concerns, resource concerns (time, cost, etc.), manufacturing requirements
    

25. •Your specs should be reviewed with the client
    

26. •Your results should be constantly compared to the specs in order to validate design decisions
    

27. •Specs should be updated when new information is acquired
    

Action items

1. •Complete problem scoping processes assessment by the end of day tomorrow
   

2. •Have an agenda ready for your team meeting - include a review of project learning and a discussion about your problem scoping assessment assignment
   

3. •Prepare for snapshot day
   

4. •Logbook review next week
   

6-29-09

Lecture 8: conceptual Design

Agenda

1. •Hand back logbooks & give feedback
   

2. •Assessment activity
   

3. •Overview
   

4. •Identify activities
   

5. •Group activity - identify system function
   

6. •Share models
   

Assessment activity

1. Conceptual design processes assessment
   

2. •Create a list of conceptual design activities and bring them to class tomorrow and team meeting this week
   

3. •Each team will complete a concept generation assessment by Monday July 20
   

Conceptual design overview & guidelines

1. •See process page on conceptual design for overview
   

2. •General conceptual design guidelines
   

3. •explore lots of ideas - diverge then converge
   

4. •do not become fixated on one solution
   

5. •have a systems mentality - methodically move from needs to what to how
   

6. •sketching is a must
   

7. •talk is cheap!!! – Documentation is a must. – data (logbooks, webpage), schedules, decisions – You don’t know it until you can show your mentor where you documented it. – Be efficient in documentation.
   

1. Activity - Functional modeling
   

2. •Translate the technical specifications into a description of what the product will do.
   

3. •Use function as a foundation for finding how to do it.
   

4. •Breaks big problems into small problems without fixating on a solution.
   

5. •Functions and flows describe product behavior as a flow chart.
   

6. •Don’t confuse components with functions. Check for a verb noun pair.
   

7. •Not all functions are immediately known. Some are defined by choosing form.
   

8. •See notes on conceptual design page
   

1. Activity - Morphological charts
   

2. •A mapping of potential solutions to needed functions.
   

3. •A complete solution is formed by choosing a solution for each functional need.
   

4. •See notes on conceptual design page
   

1. Activity - Brainstorming session
   

2. •Qualities of a good brainstorming sessions are 1) present lots of ideas, 2) build on others, and 3) don’t judge.
   

3. •Try to have group events and time to yourself.
   

4. •See notes on conceptual design page
   

1. Activity - Design by analogy
   

2. •Use existing solutions to similar problems.
   

3. •Can be found in similar products, not so similar products, and nature.
   

4. •Sharing function is what allows reuse of idea.
   

5. •Recall videos
   

1. Activity - Prototyping (Physical and Digital)
   

2. •Prototypes should be created with goal of learning something specific, but you will learn something unexpected as well.
   

3. •Prototypes can be scoped to minimize effort and maximize learning.
   

4. •Prototypes can be physical or digital.
   

5. •What are the advantages of each?
   

1. Activity - Design filtering
   

2. •There are many philosophies, heuristics, and rules of thumb that are applicable to particular problems.
   

3. •Often more applicable in detailed design, but can have big impacts now.
   

4. •Examples
   

5. •design for assembly (does your product require frequent assembly?)
   

6. •design for manufacturability (does your product feature complex geometry or other manufacturing issues?)
   

7. •life cycle design (will your product require disposal of frequent servicing)
   

8. •axiomatic design (maximize function independence and minimize complexity)
   

9. 
   

10. 
    

11. Activity - Decision matrix
    

12. •After diverging, the team must converge to a small set of reasonable alternatives to present to the client.
    

13. •Decision matrices should leverage specs and user preferences.
    

14. •Decision matrices should be considered qualitative, not quantitative.
    

15. •See notes on conceptual design page
    

Activity

1. •Develop a hierarchy of top level functions that your solution must perform to satisfy the client needs.
   

2. •Describe some lower level functionality that will support the top level functions.
   

3. •Share your functional models with the class.
   

Action item

1. •Bring a preliminary list of specific conceptual design activities for your project to the team meeting this week
   

2. •Complete the assessment activity online by July 20
   

3. •Next class on July 20

7-7-09

Lecture 9: conceptual Design Web Review

Agenda

1. •Design review overview
   

2. •Conceptual design status presentations
   

Design review

1. •A document discussing the purpose of and tips for your design review is found on the conceptual design process page.
   

2. •A rubric for assessing effectiveness in communication is also found in that document.
   

3. •Presentation responsibilities should be distributed among team members throughout the two semesters.
   

Design report

1. •Outline for contents of design report
   

2. •Rubric for assessment of design report
   

3. •Notes on professional writing
   

Conceptual design presentations

1. •Each team will give a 5-7 minute presentation on their conceptual design process to date.
   

2. •Use your project websites and as a prompt (in addition to any hardware).
   

3. •A general outline for the talk would be to 1) review updated specs, 2) show a functional breakdown of your problem, 3) show your exploration of ideas (sketches, etc.), and 4) provide a quick overview of your schedule for the rest of the semester.
   

Action item

1. •Complete Conceptual Design Processes Assessment
   

2. •Prepare draft of design review slides
   

3. •Schedule design review

7-20-09

Lecture 10: Website review and Snapshot day preparation

Agenda

1. •Website show and tell
   

2. •Team member citizenship assessment assignment
   

3. •Snapshot day protocol
   

Website review

1. •Review the end of semester website requirements
   

2. •Upload all design report assets (pictures, figures, tables, diagrams) to your website
   

3. •Give a 5 minute review of your project by showing the assets on your website
   

4. •Keep working on your projects! It is not time to stop and write.
   

Team member citizenship assessment

1. •Paper version, web-preview, scoring preview
   

2. •Complete the assignment online, individually by Thursday August 6th
   

A good example of identifying team member strengths.

Delegates/completes tasks, as needed

Jane has probably been the best teammate at completing her individual tasks. She has done a great job maintaining the website, and she always stays on top of her work. A lot of her work might go unnoticed by other teammates, but without it, our team would be much further behind schedule because everyone else has done a poor job at documenting of our accomplishments to date. The results of her timely efforts also reminds us what is left to do.

Jane's work ethic is important because it rubs off on all the other teammates. She is usually the first to complete a task or assignment, and usually others are quick to follow her. Although she is not the strongest vocal leader, she has let her amount of work help lead others.

A good example of team member coaching.

Performs competently to team standards

Karl will sometimes have difficulty with assignments because he does not fully understand what is expected. When he is receiving the assignment he acts as if he understands but when the assignment is reviewed it is incomplete. He will sometimes ask for a review to try to remedy this, but it ends up being a pain when assignments require review before they are submitted. He should be sure he fully understands assignments before he accepts them and email questions if he needs help so that he can be sure he is doing the right thing and wont have to do the work twice.

A poor example of identifying team member strengths.

Performs competently to team standards

Helen gets his work completed when she is tasked. She positively contributes to team meetings.

A poor example of team member coaching.

Resolves conflicts constructively

While Ted may have good intentions, he lacks tact in dealing with conflicts and often makes situations worse.

Snapshot day protocol

1. •Snapshot day is this Thursday!!!
   

2. •See the guidelines on the protocol doc

8-3-09

Lecture 11: Course Overview

1. See first semester lecture material.
   

Next Tuesday

mini presentations covering 1) problem statement, 2) progress to date, and 3) fall timeline.

4-5 minutes

8-25-09

Lecture 12: Presentations and planning

Agenda

1. •Professional development plan
   

2. •Detailed design checklist
   

3. •Mini presentations
   

4. •Solution realization activity

9-1-09

Lecture 13: DFMEA

Agenda

1. •Review detailed design checklists and specs
   

2. •DFMEA
   

DFMEA

1. •Presentation
   

2. •Worksheet
   

9-14-09

Lecture 14: Professional practices

Agenda

1. •Pre-class preparation
   

2. •Read the pdf below before class and bring a printed copy to lecture.
   

3. •http://www.mtengineers.org/pd/NSPECodeofEthics.pdf
   

4. •Professional practices activity
   

5. •Group discussion
   

6. •Review TIDEE professional practices activity [pdf]
   

7. 
   

8. 
   

Action items

1. • Complete professional practices activity by 10/20

10-13-09

Lecture 15: design reports

Agenda

1. • Team member citizenship (1st semester)
   

2. • Growth achieved (2nd semester)
   

3. • Report guidelines (1st and 2nd semester)
   

Growth Achieved

1. •Professional development achieved
   

2. •Complete the assignment online, individually by 11/20
   

Reporting

1. •See guidelines for interim design reports (1st semester)
   

2. •See guidelines for final design reports (2nd semester)

11-10-09

Lecture 16: snapshot day and final deliverables

Agenda

1. • Snapshot day guidelines for 2nd semester teams
   

2. • Poster printing guidelines
   

3. • Plotter locations - GJ 114 and JEB 321
   

4. • Try displaying poster with projector to test text size, layout, etc.
   

5. • Setup presentation schedule
   

6. • Setup poster review times
   

7. • See schedule and deliverables for due dates
   

8. • Check out procedure
   

9. • Hardware delivery plan
   

10. • Turn in things to Joe
    

11. • Check with Russ on design suite area
    

11-17-09