MAE 2250 Project report instructions

Each team will need to prepare one project report. The report will be updated incrementally and uploaded to CMS before the beginning of each section, starting at the first week of the project and continuing to the final week, ultimately uploaded as the "final project report" on the last week of the project. Only one person from the team needs to upload the report to CMS. Failure to update and upload weekly versions will incur 5% grade penalty on this project.

OBJECTIVES:  

• Experience the documentation of the full design process from concept to realization
• Experience collaborative technical writing processes and tools

PROCESS

• The report can be prepared in any collaborative document editing software, including online services (such as Google Docs) or by sharing a static document (e.g. MS Word).

• The report is developed incrementally over the duration of the project. Initially, it will contain just sections 1-3. In subsequent weeks, additional sections are expected and earlier sections can be revised and expanded.

• This is a team effort. Different team members should be assigned responsibility for different sections and subsections of the report. Under each section and subsection, explicitly list the team members who authored or contributed to that section.

• Pictures, photos, diagrams, drawings, charts and tables should be included in the document directly. Videos and other multimedia (e.g. CAD models) should be posted online somewhere (e.g. in your Box account) and pointed to using a URL inserted in the document.

• The updated report must be saved as PDF and uploaded to CMS before the beginning of the section it is due

REPORT CONTENT

The content of the report is fairly open ended. The basic guideline is to include a description of everything you are doing as part of your design process, and everything that someone that would be joining the design team would need to know.

For example, you need to include minutes of your meetings, options considered (even if ultimately rejected), rationale of choices made, results of tests and information about things you tried that ended up not being included in the final design.

At any point in the project, someone who has never heard of your project should be able to read your design report and immediately be caught up and able to contribute.  Write it as though MechE students from a different university needed to read it (as opposed to your TAs who already know the project).

If you feel that the content is not well defined - consider it an advantage. You can show off your creativity and innovation. Unlike an analysis problem, there is no simple right or wrong answer. You will need to take initiative.

Here are some minimal guidelines. If you are planning to omit one of these sections or subsections, you should probably include a better alternative.

• Front Matter:  (update every week)
  • Cover page with section #, team #, TA name, Team member names, Revision date of this report, representative picture of product
  • Table of content
  Section 1: Team overview  (include this section in the first week, update thereafter)
  • List team members contact info
  • Who did what, who is responsible for what
  • Updates by week: What was added/revised in this document each week by section. If nothing added/changed, say "No change".
• Section 2: Product planning (include this section in the first week) This section required for DMS project only. Not required for Air Motor.
  • List products you considered. For each provide description, key features and value statement. competing products on the market. List at least two products for each team member (i.e., eight in total for a team of four). List the person's name next to each product.
  • Describe the product your team chose, and why
• Section 3: Conceptual design (start this section in the first week, update thereafter)  
  • Customers needs: Identify customer types; Get needs from interviews with customers, and analysis of competing products
  • If doing interviews, list of interviews conducted and raw interview responses, who did the interviews
  • Distilled Customer needs: Combine, extend and expand customer needs. Reformulate and prioritize.
  • Specifications: Translation of needs to technical terms. Metrics, ideal values and acceptable ranges (without presuming a solution - as shown in class)
  • Concept generation: Exploration of the design space: brainstorming session results, morphological chart, benchmarking of existing designs.
  • Concept selection: Brief analysis, specification matching and selection, decision matrix for min three best concepts.
  • Project plan: Detailed development schedule and team responsibilioties. Identify bottlenecks and challenges
• Section 4: Detailed design and analysis (start this section in the second week)  
  • Details. Geometries, materials, tolerances, production, tooling
  • Full analyses: E.g., stresses, forces, weight, cost, safety, stability, usability, disposability, manufacturability, other customer needs. Quantitatively analyze at least three performance aspects and compare to specs.
  • CAD model (photorealistic rendered images, animation)
  • Production drawings + assembly documentation
  • Intellectual property landscape analysis (All types of IP, close IP, potentially infringed IP, Public domain IP, IP that could be filed, workaround analysis)
• Section 5: Testing and refinement of prototype  (include this section in the third week, update thereafter)  
  • Fabrication: Quality, finish, precision. Include images of parts and assemblies
  • Performance: Test quantitative aspects against analysis. Include image and video of product being tested.
  • Evaluate Usability: Comfort, safety, reliability
• Section 6: User documentation and marketing materials (include this section in the fourth week, update thereafter)
  • User manual, quick start guide, safety instructions, maintenance instructions, troubleshooting, disclaimers and warnings
  • Marketing material, glamor photos, demo movies, specifications and features, comparison to selected competitors, pricing
  • Website with information, pricing, testimonials, team. No false advertising - you should be able to back up every fact or claim using data this report
  • Truth in advertising. All factual claims must be supportable.

Template: A project report template is provided for your convenience. You may or may not wish to use it. Regardless of what is in the template, all sections listed above must appear in the final report.

Sample: Check out Rebecca Ventimiglia's MAE 2250 notebook from 2012 and Anjit Fageria's final report from 2013. Note that back in 2012, project reports were handwritten in a notebook. Up until 2014, reports were created individually, not as a team. Also, the projects in 2012 and 2013 were different than those in this year. However, you may want to browse tese reports to get an idea of the type of things that you might want to cover in your report.

Remember: Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity. You are allowed (and even encouraged) to use material from other sources, and to make use of ideas developed elsewhere. Just be sure to properly cite your sources!

Revised: February 12, 2014 .