Ohio University ME Sr.
Design 2006-2007
Energy &
Environmentally Appropriate Vehicle Design Projects
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Benchmark ideas
from alumni and faculty
MIT
Smart Cities Concept Car Project
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“Best Design” |
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The Prototype Demonstration (May th,
10AM): |
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Preliminary Designs |
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Concepts |
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Needs |
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Background on the Project The Need: Responding to the current energy
situation, the students formulated a Needs
Statement which was further refined by faculty into a Project Call
for proposals that each team responded to. The Specifications:
In order to meet the need, the students iteratively formulated a set of Specifications
and design criteria for the EPCT project. |
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Other Info about the SrD course
and the EPCT Project: Do you worry about the
price of gasoline or whether there will be enough of it to go around in the
future as the worldwide demand exceeds the supply.
The students in After selecting a project
that directly addresses a current societal need, the students worked out the
design specifications (what the EPCT needed to be able to do). To accomplish this major task, the 48-person
class was divided into six 8-person teams based on diversity of skills and
natural team roles. Each of the 6
teams developed and evaluated numerous EPCT concepts and synthesized them
into a recommended concept. A concept
showdown was held to select the three best concepts to build and test. The 8-person teams were then combined into
three 16-person teams for detailed design, construction and testing of the
three alternative EPCT designs that will be tested in the competition on
Saturday May 6th. Since the overall
specification states that the EPCT "must meet student/faculty/staff
personal hub-to-hub transportation needs at a range of college and university
campuses, and result in a positive user experience with energy-efficient
transportation", the design competition requires each of the 16 team
members to drive their vehicle around a 3300 foot course that winds through
the West Green and involves varying road conditions, hills, accelerations and
stops. There will also be a usability
test in which members of the ME advisory board, other students, and community
members are invited to attempt to start up and drive the vehicles at slow
speeds, and comment on their ease of use and comfort. The capstone design
experience is truly an integrative learning experience for our students,
where they not only apply many of the skills they have developed over their
academic careers but also make the connection between learning and life. The context in which engineers work is
extremely important, so in this year's project we put a lot of emphasis on
selecting an important problem to work on and on developing appropriate
solutions that can truly benefit society.
Another important aspect
of this experience is the emphasis on teamwork and professional skills. Students often work in groups for labs and
class projects, but in this class we focus on how to work effectively in
teams, and for many students this is the first time they find themselves in a
situation in which the project is so complex that they cannot succeed without
contributions from all team members.
So they are forced to find ways to work together, to listen to each
other, to communicate with each other, and to make good decisions based on
consensus. Through experience they
come to realize the importance of non-technical characteristics such as
leadership, organization, integrity, patience, initiative, dedication,
resourcefulness, humility, and being a team player. In learning design, there
is no substitute for actually building and testing your "paper
design" and having to deal with the manufacturing issues caused by your
design decisions. The students learn
many lessons by building and testing the prototypes that can never be learned
in a classroom. They go through a
period of frustration in which it looks like they won't be able to complete
their projects, to a period of great pride when they pull together as a team
and overcome all of the issues and produce a prototype that actually does
what it is supposed to do. Instructor Comments: The
role of the instructor of the class changes significantly over the course of
the year. Since the purpose of the
class is to help the students make the transition from being students to
being engineers, my role is to put myself out of a job. In other words, early in the year I have to
help them see what it means to be a good engineer, and to force them to act
like professional engineers and to justify all of their decisions. As the year progresses we focus on teamwork
issues and other professional skills since we are not only interested in
"how to do engineering" but "how to be an engineer". As the year progresses the most satisfying
thing for me is to see myself become unnecessary. When the students get to the point where
instead of looking for someone to tell them what to do they are making good
decisions on their own and confidently defending them, I know they have begun
to see themselves as engineers, and they don't need me anymore. ·
Team Formation activities and Conceptual Design Activities – Fall 06 ·
Design Refinement Activities – Winter 07 ·
Prototype Construction and Testing and Final Design – Spring 07
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