ENGR 4381 – Engineering Design VII
Fall 2006
Course Syllabus and Policies
1
Course Description
A capstone design experience with small groups of students, each group advised by a faculty
member. The establishment of objectives, criteria, synthesis, analysis, safety, aesthetics, and
preliminary design of a different project for each group. Robust product design considerations.
Formal written and oral presentations. Prerequisite: Consent of department chair.
2
General Information
Course: ENGR 4381 Engineering Design VII
Web Page: From the Department Local Home page index, go to Senior Design! I’ll also put a
link in Blackboard.
Blackboard: Use weekly1 for announcements and communications
Meetings: 3:35 T(MEB 322), 2:10 R(SLH).
Instructor: J. Paul Giolma, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor
Office: MEB 306G
Telephony: [ofc] 999-7563, [home] 828-5970
E-mail: paul@engr.trinity.edu or jgiolma@trinity.edu
Office Hours: 8:30-10:30 MWF and 10:00-11:00 TR or drop by (or make an appointment!)
Text: O’Hair, Stewart and Rubenstein, A Speaker’s Guidebook, Bedford, Freeman, and Worth,
2001.
Journal: National Brand Computation Notebook #43-648. See Section 4
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Goals and Objectives
ENGR 4381, with ENGR 4382, constitute a “capstone” design experience and will include practice in and exposure to all phases of the engineering design process including the establishment of
design specifications and criteria, analysis, synthesis, aesthetics, health and safety, construction,
testing, evaluation and communication.
These courses are intended to integrate your entire undergraduate engineering education.
You will engage in analysis and design, management, economic analysis, budgeting, scheduling,
and group dynamics; you will need to think for yourself and defend your ideas through oral and
written presentations; you will work alone and as a part of a team.
During the year, we will introduce or review some topics relevant to a career in engineering
design. While we do not intend to cover these topics in great depth, you should achieve, by the
1 At least weekly! Don’t just put your report there–look for announcements and at what your fellow students
have to say.
ENGR 4381 – Engineering Design VII
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completion of your project in the Spring, basic comprehension of these topics in the design process: mathematical modeling; optimization; ethics; safety; aesthetics; robust design; economics
(life cycle); reliability; manufacturability and sustainability (life cycle); social, environmental
and political considerations; and other current topics in engineering design.
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Textbooks and Journals
There is one required textbook: A Speaker’s Guidebook by O’Hair, Stewart and Rubenstein,
that we will use to prepare you for the large public presentations and for the smaller technical
presentations.
Each student will obtain a computation notebook to use as a design journal. The student’s
name, group name, local address, telephone number, e-mail address, and name of his/her group
advisor must be on the cover and the first page. In the back, you must keep a Time Record of
all your time spent on the project. The Time Record must look as follows (time in hours):
Date
10-6-05
10-7-05
Activities
Circuit design meeting, letter to vendor
Library research: buggy whips
Time Spent
2.5
1.5
Total Time
37.0
38.5
Use the journal extensively to document your work and to keep all computations, experiments, estimates, musings, sketches, references, etc. in one place. Each entry must be dated
and initialed.
Obtain a binder to use for materials that can’t reasonably be kept in the bound journal. The
binder should be organized to permit me to find things! Everything about the project should
be available from the the group members’ journals and binders. Also see the course Web Page.
5
5.1
Administration and Grading
Administration
A faculty advisor is assigned to each group. He/she functions as an advisor and consultant,
and makes the largest contribution to the final grade. The course coordinator helps set policy,
manages logistics, organizes the presentation of course topics, and moderates student presentations. Any faculty member may act as a consultant to any design group– indeed, you are
encouraged to seek advice and assistance. Others, both on- and off-campus can be very helpful:
Ernest Romo, Manuel Garza, other Trinity staff and faculty, and experts in the field at SWRI
and other organizations.
5.2
Grading
Individual grades (not group grades) are given! Grades will be based on input from the faculty
advisor, the course administrator, and the other faculty in the Department. Your grade will
be based on the quality of your effort, initiative, progress, accomplishments, expression of the
course topics in your design process, organization and group leadership. Due to the nature of
the course (your work is developed more independently of the faculty than for most courses),
you are responsible for informing your graders regarding your work. This information will be
provided by you in the form of deliverables (I’ll describe those separately) and by the contact
you have with the faculty during the semester.
Course Syllabus and Policies
5.2.1
3
Grade Distribution
Grading of each student is achieved via the following distribution:
Faculty Advisor: 75%
Course Administrator: 20%
General Faculty: 5%
5.2.2
Administrator’s Grading
I will provide my contribution to a final grade, and several progress grades, based upon a set of
deliverables provided by each student. The progress grades will serve to give you some feedback
during the semester and should help to prevent final grade “surprises.” The deliverables consist
of:
Progress Reports: weekly from each student that indicates: the task(s) 2 worked on during the proceeding
week, the progress made, the time spent on the task(s), and the task(s) for the coming
week. I have a sample on the course Web Page. Progress reports will be made using
Blackboard. 10%,
Presentations: given by each group twice during the semester 30%,
Journals: collected twice during the semester (see schedule) 10%,
First Report: Project Description and Specifications 10%,
Second Report: Alternatives White Paper 15%,
Third Report: Prototype and Test Plan 20%, and
Executive Summary: written by each student and provided at the end of the semester. 5%
5.2.3
Group Advisor’s Grading
Your group advisor will have his/her own system for assigning a grade. Since that grade is 75%
of your total, be sure you know what your advisor will be grading you on! If the group advisor’s
scheme conflicts with mine, we can work out a solution.
2 By a task, I mean some well-defined activity that has sufficient description to indicate that it was accomplished
(or not!). E.G., rather than “library research,” “Library research on buggy whips: found 43 references in the
Library and 12 on the Internet–20 are useful for my project (9 hours). This task is completed!”
ENGR 4381 – Engineering Design VII
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6
Course Schedule
Wk
Date
0
AUG
1
2
SEP
3
4
5
6
OCT
7
8
9
10
NOV
11
12
13
14
15
DEC
Day
Activities
Deliverables
24
R
Meet with group advisor
29
T
Project Specifications & Reports
31
R
Career Services
4
M
Labor Day–so labor!
5
T
Careers & Super Seniors
7
R
Summer Activities Presentations
12
T
Dr. L.B. Hill: SLH Preparations
14
R
SLH Speaker, Class meeting
19
T
SLH Practice 5PM to midnight
20
W
SLH Practice 5PM to midnight
21
R
SLH Presentations
26
T
Development of Alternatives
28
R
3
T
5
R
10
T
12
R
13
F
17
T
19
R
24
T
26
R
31
T
2
R
7
T
9
R
14
T
16
R
21
T
Technical Presentations
23
R
Thanksgiving!
28
T
Technical Presentation
Technical Presentation
31
R
Technical Presentation
Technical Presentation
5
T
Course evaluation & wrap-up
Journal & Exec Summary
6
W
Reading Days & then Exams Begin
Project Description Memo
First Presentation
Journal
Fall Recess & Friday the 13th!
Prototype and Testing
White Paper
Halloween!
Prototype Report