2.971 2^nd Summer Introduction to Design

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Prereq.: admission to the program

IAP, 2006

0-6-0

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Introduce students to the creative design process, based on the scientific method and peer review, by application of fundamental principles and learning to complete projects according to schedule and within budget. Subject relies on active learning through a major team-based design-and-build project focused on the need for a new consumer product identified by each team. Topics to be learned while teams create, design, build, and test their product ideas include formulating strategies, concepts and modules, and estimation, concept selection, machine elements, design for manufacturing, visual thinking, communication, teamwork and professional responsibilities.

2006 Teams' Websites

Site Index:

Instructor: Marc Graham	Professor in charge: Alex Slocum

Course Objective
The objective of the course is to enable students through a team-based hands-on product design experience to:

1.  Learn the process of design, based on the scientific method, to combine creative thinking with engineering principles (physics) to turn ideas into robust reality:

·         Identify a problem (opportunity!)

·         Use fundamental principles and appropriate analysis and experiments to select and develop ideas

·         Generate & create strategies for solving the problem

·         Generate & create concepts for implementing the strategy

·         Break the concept into modules and develop the most critical module first

·         Complete the detailed design of the modules

·         Manufacture, test, debug, and modify the design

·         Document the results on a web page and make a professional quality presentation to a group of peers and visiting company representatives

2.  Become familiar with the fundamental issues and applications of  basic mechanical components and manufacturing and assembly techniques

3.  Learn how to manage projects to be “on-time” and “on-budget” and to maintain a high degree of professional ethics
 

This year’s theme:
Office Products!  The challenge for each team is to create a device for use in an office.  The device can be any combination of mechanical, electrical, or software elements.   It just must be realistic to complete within the time frame of the course!

Each team has a TOTAL budget of $250 for your project.  FOOD will not be reimbursed.  See Sonya Greenidge in the 9-216 for a tax-exempt form and for getting reimbursed; one student from each team should be in charge of finances (i.e. only one team member should be meeting with Sonya Greenidge).  You cannot get reimbursed for tax, so make sure to get the tax exempt form!

The teams and their TAs:

Solid Modeling and Best Model Contest

Each student is expected to download Solid Works or Pro/ENGINEER from the MIT web and learn it using the on-line tutorials!  The TAs can be very helpful!

Get SolidWorks from:
https://web.mit.edu/mecheng/computing/SW2005-2006/index.htm

Get Pro/ENGINEER from:
https://web.mit.edu/mecheng/computing/ProEWildfire_2/index.htm

Grading

• This is very much an interactive course, and you will increase your chance of passing if you attend group meetings and pull your own weight.  This is a very demanding course, but the rewards are very high in terms of not just getting a summer job at a sponsoring companies, but getting real responsibility in your summer job.  The design problem solving methods you can learn can furthermore help you in your other classes.
• To pass this course, you need to stay on schedule (carefully read and memorize the schedule attached to the syllabus!) and meet the milestones!  If you are in 8.01L or 18.01A, then make sure your teammates know it, and the team should pick a project that is doable for the amount of effort that will be available!
• Each student MUST have a design notebook, in which you keep ALL your notes and scribbles.  A spiral bound notebook will suffice into which you can also paste printouts from the Internet etc.  These notebooks will be EXTREMELY important to bring to your company interviews in the spring!
• Each team must create a website, and email the URL to Marc Graham by 7 PM Friday January 7!  Each team must update their website daily (just a summary sheet or two is fine).  These summary sheets then become your presentation slides (TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE!!!)

Staff

Webpage (where all announcements are posted) and email lists:
http://pergatory.mit.edu/2.971

Lecture notes will be posted on the web

IMPORTANT:  Students will be assigned to teams (01 – 03) and team email lists are by section and will be active by January 13th:
ss-all@mit.edu
ss-staff@mit.edu
ss-tas@mit.edu
ss-team1@mit.edu
ss-team2@mit.edu
ss-team3@mit.edu

Lectures
Only 1 lecture, Monday January 9, 9:00AM-12:00PM in 2-135.  Final presentation will be Friday, January 27 from 6:00 PM-9:00 PM in room 4-237.

Recitation
There is no formal recitation.  Daily meeting times are to be arranged with TAs.

Labs & Safety
2.971 students will be divided into 3 teams by last name.  Teams are required to present their ideas to the shop guru for reality checks and feedback!  All teams have access to the Edgerton Lab (4^th floor building 4) for electronics help.  Of course students will be directed to whatever shop has the appropriate tools for the task!

You MUST wear safety goggles or safety glasses (polycarbonate eyeglasses are fine) and closed-toed shoes at ALL times in the shops.

Mandatory shop training hours, where you learn safety and machine operation by building a small project, are in the Hobby Shop (W31-031) on Wednesday, January 11th, 11:45AM-2PM.

If you cannot make your assigned time, it is your responsibility to arrange with the shop guru an alternate time, and to let the instructor know, else you cannot be in 2.971.  If you must, please switch math or physics recitation times.

Quizzes
There are no formal quizzes.

Text Book
There is no textbook for the course; however, course notes are provided for you to review, which will help you become familiar with design process and fundamental principles.  READ THEM the first week of class!

Design Notebooks
An engineer should keep a detailed bound notebook for invention date establishment.  No scrap paper!  Each student is responsible for getting a design notebook (spiral notebook is sufficient for the purposes of this course).  Each student MUST carry their design notebooks with them, and put all scribblings in it etc…IT IS YOUR CREATION DIARY, and you will be asked to show it at your interview!

Milestone Reports/Final Presentation
Each team will make a final PowerPoint presentation to the class and visitors on Friday January 27 from 6:00 PM-9:00 PM, room
4-237.  A laptop projector will be available as well as a video player if needed.  The presentation will have the following format:

Slide 1:  Team name, student members (individual or group picture with everyone’s names so someone can tell who is who!) and TAs AND define the theme area for your team (e.g., a sports device) (Milestone 1)

Slide 2:  Describe the problem you set out to solve (show the different product strategies considered) (e.g., baseball, football) (Milestone 2)

Slide 3:  Show results of Rohrbach (Peer Review Evaluation Process [PREP]) and brainstorming process, and your top selected strategy (the product area, e.g., baseball) (Milestone 2)

Slide 4:  Show results of Rohrbach (PREP) and brainstorming process, and your top one or two concepts (the hardware ideas, e.g., pitching, or batting machine).  Ideally, each person has created a solid model of their own favorite concept, and the slide shows each person’s solid model, as well as the final solid model of the best evolved concept (Milestone 3)

Slide 5:  Show experiments or other things you did to help select the “best concept” (e.g., we are developing a human powered pitching machine) (Milestone 4)

Slide 6:  Show the final concept (solid model and sketch model) (Milestone 5)

Slide 7:  Show the development of the concept (analysis, sketches, models, machining the parts etc) (Milestone 6)

Slide 8:  Show the finished product! (Milestone 7)

Slide 9:  Show the testing of the product (Milestone 8)

Slide 10:  Results (how well it worked?  Cost-to-produce estimate) (Milestone 8)

Slide 11:  Conclusions:  Is this product worth developing for the mass market?  Anything else? (Milestone 8)

In order to pass the course, before the final presentations each team MUST submit to Marc Graham an electronic version of their presentation!

As mentioned above, your summary sheets describing how you met your milestones can be used to form the basis of your presentations!

Bring the draft versions of these slides to your meetings with Marc Graham!  We will resole any open issues at the meeting so that by the end of the day the milestone (and its summary slide which is also part of your presentation) is DONE and posted on the team website.  The presentation will thus write itself!

January 2006 2.971 2^nd Summer Schedule

Past projects are available viewing

• 1998 Class projects
• 2000 Class Projects
• 2003 Class Projects
• 2004 Class Projects
• 2005 Class Projects