Overview

  • Two semester class (fall and spring)
  • Primary goal is to introduce students to engineering concepts related to product design and the product development process
  • Design project:
    • Teams of 3 or 4 students
    • Projects provided by both internal and external customers
    • Follow a rigorous design process that includes formal design reviews
    • The final result is a functional prototype (yes - hardware!) provided to the customer

Design Project Timeline

  • In September interested customers are invited to present potential projects to the students
  • Student response
    • Resume and career plan
    • Cover letter (x2) that is written “to the project” and includes information on why they should be on the team and what skills they bring to it
    • Rank their interests in the different projects
  • Students are assigned to project teams
  • Assign a faculty advisor to each team
  • Teams meets weekly with their faculty advisor to discuss progress and weekly (or bi-weekly) with a customer representative (remotely by Skype if needed)

Design Project Milestones (fall)

  • Voice of the customer (~Oct)
  • Statement of work
  • Create a preliminary specification document
  • Brainstorming concepts
  • Preliminary project plan
  • Long lead item identification
  • Preliminary risk assessment
  • Conceptual design review
  • Key concept demonstration (Dec)

Design Project Milestones (spring)

  • Preliminary design review (~Feb)
  • Finalize specification document
  • Bill of materials
  • Test plan
  • Critical design review (~March)
  • Order parts, build and test prototype
  • Senior design day (April)
  • Final wrap-up presentation
  • Deliver hardware (May)