AES Senior Projects: Best
Practices for Project-based
Courses
James A. Nabity, PhD
Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering Sciences
Aerospace Ventures Workshop
25 January 2016
Course Objectives
• Provide a Capstone Experience to seniors
• Integrate technical knowledge from previous
courses
• Learn and practice professional skills in a team
environment
• Exercise and refine technical skills
• Acquire and apply new knowledge
• Provide an engineering solution
• Learn Systems Engineering methods and skills
employed in industry
2
Transition from Student to Professional
• Two-semester course requiring
industry/government sponsorship (non-ITAR /
no IP)
• Self-directed teams w/ 8-10 students - Quality
teamwork is essential
• No one knows the “answers”; its up to the
team to:
• Understand the project needs
• Seek out advice/help/knowledge/information
• Apply engineering principles/tools/reasoning to
make (and support) sound design decisions
• Benefit from the Systems Engineering methods
taught in this course
• Faculty advisors
• Coach two teams during design development
• Part of review board to evaluate presentations and
reports
43
The Projects Advisory Board (PAB)
James Nabity
(Course Coord.)
Ryan Starkey
(Team Advisor)
Bob Marshall
(Team Advisor)
Matt Rhode
(Machine Shop
Supervisor)
Jelliffe Jackson
(Team Advisor)
Bobby Hodgkinson
(Elect./Mech.
Shop)
Joe Tanner
(Team Advisor)
Trudy Schwartz
(Electronics Shop
Supervisor)
4
Design Process and Course Milestones
Project Definition Document
(PDD) - wk 2, 3
Concept Definition Document
(CDD) - wk 5
ANALYZE
CONCEPTS
FOR
FEASIBILITY
Preliminary
Design Review
(PDR) – wk 8, 9
DETAILED SYSTEM DESIGN
DEFINE PROBLEM
DEVELOP CONCEPTS
Project Final Report
(PFR) – wk 17
Spring Final Review
(SFR) – wk 15, 16
FUNCTIONAL &
MODEL VALIDATION
REQUIREMENTS
VERIFICATION
Test
ANALYZE TEST DATA
DEVELOP
Readiness
CONCLUSIONS
Review
(TRR) – wk 8
Critical Design Review
(CDR) - wk 15, 16
Fall Final Report
(FFR) - wk 17
ORDER/BUILD PARTS
ASSEMBLE Manufacturing
Status Review
SYSTEM,
UNIT TESTING (MSR) – wk 4
5
Required Project Elements
• All projects must have
•
•
•
•
•
A Mechanical/aerodynamic/thermal design component (> 25%)
An Electrical/optical/radio design component (> 25%)
A Software/firmware design component (> 25%)
Functional objectives that can be prototyped and tested
Engineering models that predict performance and can be
validated with prototype testing
• Be careful to evaluate design content separately from
purchasing, building, and testing aspects
Components
Lowest weight
Highest weight
M, E, S
25%
50%
6
Lecture Topics
• General topics: course overview, project descriptions,
ITAR, ethics in engineering, presentation skills, surviving
design reviews, readiness levels
• Project Management*: project planning, organizing team
meetings, team roles / lead positions, work breakdown
structure, fire & safety, finance / travel
• Systems Engineering*: project / concept definition,
requirements development & flowdown, critical project
elements, trade studies, risk assessment / prioritization,
Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA)
• Technology-driven: power feasibility, electronics,
sensors, processors, manufacturing, measurements &
uncertainty, data presentation
* Most important to project success
7
Grading
• Each assignment gets a team grade; Notebooks are
the only exception
• PAB discusses team grades on all major
assignments to ensure uniformity across projects
• Team members are differentially
graded within each project
according to:
• Peer and self evaluations
(twice per term: at MSR and SFR)
• Advisor evaluations
• Discussions among the whole PAB
• Customer input
• Grading scale is absolute, based on
performance with respect to assignment
objectives. (See syllabus for more info.)
8
Multi-disciplinary Projects (AY15/16)
• AFRL - Recuperated Turbine Engine
• Aurora Flight Sciences - UAV Wing De-icing
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Deployed FireTracker
System
• CU AES - Wind Tunnel Model Positioning System
• Special Aerospace Services - 3D Printed Solid Motors
• Ball Aerospace - NeoPod for Surface Science on Europa
• Surrey Satellite - Lightweight SmallSat Structure for
Deployment from the ISS
• CU AES - CubeSat Attitude Control Testbed
9
MODEFLIER
Demonstration of Dutch Roll
End of mode
excitation
5° Visibility
requirement
Full control
reestablished
4/29/2015
University of Colorado Boulder
Aerospace Engineering Sciences
10
Customers
• Industry, government & academic
• Course Coordinator lines up with assistance from the
chair, industry outreach staff & OCG
• NOI
• Research contract
• Define the project need
• Provide financial support for the project
• $5K for procurements
• $15K for AES staff and shop support
• Other obligations
• Meet w/ the team once per week to review work & offer advice
• Attend reviews (to the extent possible)
11
Lessons Learned
• The course works - industry, gov’t lab, faculty
assessment and student feedback
• Team organization w/ diverse skills very
important
• Project manager; the right person matters
• Effective & well-run team meetings
• Poorly organized teams leave students struggling to
keep up in the fast-paced course
• Communication equally or more important to technical
• Help from the customer most important to a
good start
12
Challenges with Expected Growth
• AY14/15: 88 students in Senior Projects
• 10 projects (8-9 students/team)
• AY15/16: 68 students
• 8 projects (7-9 students/team)
• AY16/17: Anticipate 107 students
• Expect 10-12 projects (9-11 students/team)
• Recruitment of sponsors already underway
• May need a shift in paradigm to support
increased enrollment
• Shops near capacity in Spring semester
• Major presentations (currently 5 teams/wk, should be
able to fit in 6 teams/wk by eliminating a lecture)
• Senior Projects room at/near capacity
13
THANK YOU!
14
Back up Slides
15
REAPER: REcuperating Advanced
Propulsion Engine Redesign
Model, build, implement, and verify an integrated
recuperative system into a JetCat P90-RXi miniature
turbojet engine for increased fuel efficiency from its
stock configuration.
Recuperator
Inlet
Compressor
Customer: AFRL-WPAFB
Capt. Joshua Rittenhouse
Combustor
Turbine
Nozzle
Advisor: Dr. Ryan Starkey
16
AESIR: Actuated Electromagnetic
System for Ice Removal
Design, build, and test a small-scale prototype of a deicing system for the Orion UAV
Magnetic-actuated ice removal system
Ice
Carbon fiber
skin
• Orion designed to fly for 5 days at
20,000 ft at 65 Knots-Indicated Air
Speed
• Mission limited by icing conditions
Customer: Aurora Flight Sciences
Ellis Langford, Ed Wen
Paramagnetic
Material
Solenoid
Advisor: Joe Tanner
17
ELSA: Europa Lander for Science
Acquisition
Develop and integrate a communications and avionics
systems with a scientific payload to fit within a 25-cm
spherical Europa probe
128 kbps
data transfer
Europa
Orbiter
NeoPod
100 hr lifetime
Customer: Ball Aerospace
Joe Hackel
Advisor: Dr. Robert Marshall
18
INFERNO: INtegrated Flight-Enabled
Rover For Natural disaster Observation
Design and create an aerial sensor package delivery
system for future integration with a natural disaster
observation system
10 minutes
0
1
2
Customer: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Barbara Streiffert
12
13 1/2
minutes
Advisor: Dr. Jelliffe Jackson
19
SPAM: Solid Propellant Additive
Manufacturing
Design & integrate an
additive manufacturing
system to print
Sucrose-potassium
nitrate solid rocket
motors
Customer: Special Aerospace Services
Tim Bulk
Advisor: Dr. Ryan Starkey
20
FISH & CHIPS:
FeatherCraft Integrated Structural
Housing & Computer, Hardware Interface Processing Suite
Design & build a 5 kg FeatherCraft structure for a 100
kg smallsat that: reduces structural manufacturing
time and materials cost and enables launch to/from
the ISS for a nadir-facing mission
Design Features:
• Composite materials
• Woven Carbon Fiber skin
• Aluminum Honeycomb Core
• Low parts count
• Integrate customer provided
systems (propulsion, solar
panels, nadir-facing payload,
radiator, avionics, etc.)
Advisor: Joe Tanner
Customer: Surrey Satellite Technology
Michael Brown
21
COMPASS:
University of Colorado Model
Positioning - DynAmic/Static - System
Design, build, and validate a wind tunnel positioning system with
minimal blockage, capable of moving a test article through four
degrees of freedom: pitch, yaw, roll and plunge
1.19 m
0.76 m
0.6 m
Customer: University of Colorado
John Farnsworth
Advisor: Dr. Jelliffe Jackson
22
STAR: Satellite Testbed for Attitude
Response
Design & build a testbed for preflight verification of
CubeSat functionality; Supports the QB50 project
Matlab Simulation
Interface
Board
Sun Sensor Calibration
Customer: University of Colorado
Scott Palo
Customer ADCS
ADCS Verification
Advisor: Dr. Robert Marshall
23