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Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Course 24-441 / 24-442

Course Objectives

In this course, students will gain hands-on, practical experience applying engineering principles, theories, thought processes, and problem-solving approaches to the design and prototyping of a physical product. Students will develop skills for working in teams, working with open-ended problems, and making appropriate engineering assumptions. Students are expected to research the topic area, identify opportunities and design criteria, generate creative concepts, synthesize detailed design of the concept, analyze the design on a number of criteria to make improvements, and prototype and communicate the final solution.

While most courses in the mechanical engineering curriculum focus on structured transfer of theoretical knowledge in analysis of mechanical phenomena, this course aims to provide students with a chance to build complimentary experiential knowledge in application and synthesis. Topics covered include design process, project planning, product dissection, design for manufacturing and assembly, engineering ethics, failure mode and effects analysis, life cycle assessment, design for environment, market research, concept generation and concept selection techniques, quality function deployment, intellectual property, detailed design, engineering drawings, tolerance selection, prototyping, professionalism, design optimization, machine component design, and engineering economics.

Learning to design is a bit like learning to write. It is not the case that you will enter the course without knowing how to design and exit the course knowing the formula for design. Like writing, there is typically no unique “right” answer in design – but some answers are better than others, and some are more well-justified than others. You will learn through experience, feedback, interaction, failure, and iteration about how to conduct a more robust, thoughtful, systematic, and objective-focused process for making decisions and justifying those decisions through analysis in the design and development of an engineered product.

Fall 2009 Syllabus

• Class
  • MWF 12:30-2:20
  • SH-125 Lecture, SH-324 Team Meetings
• Instructor Professor Jeremy J. Michalek
  • Scaife Hall 324
  • (412)268-3765
  • jmichalek@cmu.edu
• Administrative Assistant Nancy Beatty
  • Scaife Hall 422
  • (412)268-2908
  • nlbeatty@andrew.cmu.edu
• Teaching Assistant Ching-Shin (Norman) Shiau
  • HH-B129
  • (412)268-3606
  • cshiau@cmu.edu

Text Book

• Required:
  • Dieter, G. and L. Schmidt, Engineering Design, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2009.

• Recommended Additional Reading:
  • Ullman, D., The Mechanical Design Process, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2002.
  • Ulrich, K. and S. Eppinger, Product Design and Development, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill, 2003.
  • Shigley, J. C. Mischke and R. Budynas, Mechanical Engineering Design, 7th edition, McGraw Hill, 2004.
  • Cagan and Vogel, Creating Breakthrough Products, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2002.
  • Otto, K. and K. Wood, Product Design: Techniques in Reverse Engineering and New Product Development, Prentice Hall, 2001.
  • Papalambros, P. and D. Wilde, Principles of Optimal Design, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2000.
  • Hendrickson, C., L. Lave and H.S. Matthews, Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach, RFP Press, 2006.

Resources

• The machine shop on the Hamerschlag C-level is available to students who have taken the safety course. All 24441 students are required to pass the course. The shop contains basic machines, hand tools, a 5-axis CNC machine, rapid prototyping equipment, and some storage. Some materials and components are available for use.
• The tool room in Hamerschlag B-134 is available to students on a pre-arranged basis and under supervision of the TA. The room is locked and may not be used without a TA present. Students are responsible for cleaning and returning all tools to their proper places after using the room. The room also contains shelving for project storage.

Websites

• Course Website: http://blackboard.andrew.cmu.edu
• Course Wiki Website: http://ddl.me.cmu.edu/ddwiki/index.php/ED2

Course Websites

All class material will be posted to the course website on the Blackboard Learning System: http://www.cmu.edu/blackboard. Students are expected to check the website regularly for announcements and schedule changes. In addition, the Design Decisions Wiki (http://ddl.me.cmu.edu/ddwiki) will be used for submission of some student reports, as discussed in class and specified in individual assignments.

Schedule

A copy of the course schedule is posted on the course website. When significant changes to the schedule occur, a new schedule will be posted with an announcement about the change. Check the course website for the latest information.

Meetings

Each team will meet with the instructors on a weekly basis, except where indicated on the schedule. Teams are expected to bring a progress report to each meeting listing the team name and members and detailing in bullet list form: 1) progress since the last meeting, 2) planned next steps, and 3) questions and items for discussion. Meetings are intended to check in with team progress and provide guidance, advice, feedback and clarification as needed. Students are expected to be proactive in setting an agenda for each meeting that best fits with the needs of the project.

In addition, the TA will be available to meet with teams to answer questions and provide feedback on preliminary student work during TA office hours or by appointment. This is a good opportunity for seeking detailed feedback and advice beyond what is possible in the weekly team meetings.

Design Project

This course is centered around one major open-ended design project for each team (teams will be assigned during the first week). Topics covered in class, as well as general mechanical engineering knowledge expected of seniors, will be applied in the design and development of the product. By nature, each team will have somewhat different tasks and areas of emphasis, and each will use different subsets of mechanical engineering analysis skills. However, all projects will address the criteria and guidelines described in the reports and assignments, and teams will be graded on their ability to select the appropriate and relevant scopes, areas, and levels of analysis necessary to complete the design of a new product and justify all major decisions. Details and guidelines on the design project are available on the blackboard website.

Prototyping Budget

A budget of up to $500 will be reimbursed to each team for project costs including cost to obtain an initial product for dissection and prototyping expenses beyond those covered by the machine shop. Valid receipts for each purchase are needed to process reimbursement – receipts should be submitted to Nancy Beatty at the end of the semester according to the guidelines available on the blackboard website. Students are welcome to use their own funds if they wish to build a more expensive prototype; however, prototype expectations are based on the allocated budget, and contribution of additional funds is not necessary for achieving strong marks. Carnegie Mellon cannot reimburse sales tax. If the item to be purchased is costly, the team may ask Nancy to purchase it for them to avoid being charged for tax.

Course Expectations

Students are expected to attend and participate in all lectures and all team meetings. Lecture times are MWF 12:30am-2:20pm; however, many of the Wednesday and Friday times will be used for team meetings with the instructors rather than lecture (see schedule), and teams are strongly encouraged to use these blocks of time for team meetings and team project work. The course is twelve units, so each student should spend about twelve hours per week working primarily on the project. With a team of four members, this is over 650 person-hours, with the majority devoted to the project.

Design Notebooks

Each student should maintain a bound design notebook used exclusively for this class for ideas, sketches, notes, and thoughts. Entries should be dated in order to record the process and provide a support mechanism from a legal standpoint to protect intellectual property. The notebook will also help teams to compile their reports, document their process, and write a provisional patent application draft.

Teamwork and Peer Review

The experience of working in teams on this project will serve as preparation for teamwork in industry. Each team will be asked to explicitly assign roles, such as team leader. Tasks can and should be divided among team members for efficiency; however, consistent meeting for debriefing and determining team direction and individual tasks is essential. A good model is to meet as a group every week before meeting with the instructors to review progress, execute tasks that must be performed as a team, identify next steps, and assign individual tasks. Each student can then work somewhat independently or in small groups to complete tasks for the next meeting. This process will help to ensure that all team members have a strong understanding of the state of knowledge of the project and justification for decisions made without requiring all members to be together in order to make progress. On certain days, team members will be selected at random to present the team’s project. All team members are responsible for making sure each member is informed and involved.

Some teams may experience an imbalance in team member contributions, effort, or reliability. The course instructors are available to provide advice and intervene as necessary to resolve team inequity and conflict; however, students should view this time as a learning experience: Such situations occur with regularity in the industrial world as well. If you experience challenges within your team, it is a good chance to develop strategies and figure out how you will address such challenges in the future. Addressing challenges within the team, when possible, is the most beneficial learning experience, and the instructors are available to provide guidance in doing so. My general advise is to bring everything out into the open and on the table – share perceptions, personal goals, needs, levels of commitment, and expectations to understand where one another is coming from. Construct a common vision, and then figure out the best way to achieve the vision given the needs of each team member. One common question asked at job interviews is: “Describe a time when you experienced difficulties working in a team or experienced a team failure. What did you do about it?” This is a good chance to build a strong answer to this question. While projects are graded as a unit, each team member will receive an individual course grade based in part on participation, attendance, and contributions. Teams are asked on each report to itemize individual team member contributions, and it is not uncommon for members of a design team to receive different grades.

Several mechanisms will be used for peer review.

• Between Teams: Each team will receive feedback from other teams in design review sessions and/or presentations scheduled prior to the due date of each report. These sessions will sharpen communication skills, help to catch oversights and simple mistakes, and identify possible new ideas or areas for improvement in order to strengthen the project.
• Within Teams: Every student is required to turn in peer evaluations with each report for each member of their team (including themselves). These reports are primarily to help the instructors identify difficulties and miscommunications, and they will also be used as information for grading.

Final Project Exhibition

The final design exhibition will take place on Wednesday, December 9th, in the University Center Wean Commons and Connan Room. Faculty, local industry members, media, and campus and community members will be invited to see student projects. The exposition has received media coverage in the past. Teams will have tables and poster easels for displaying and communicating their design solutions. All students are expected to attend the exhibition except during conflicts with a scheduled course or final exam.

Evaluation

This course is of an open-ended nature. Rather than check student solutions to predefined problems against a solution key, students are asked to participate in defining the problem and justifying decisions – skills that are critical in post-undergraduate work. As such, general evaluation criteria include:

• Completion of Assignment Requirements: Is each requirement defined in each assignment adequately addressed at a level expected of a young practicing engineer? What is the quality of the final product?
• Process: Did the team consciously follow a purposeful design process that captures essential elements? Did the student extend appropriate effort, attend class and meetings, participate in discussion?
• Well-Justified Choices: Are decisions backed up with evidence and clearly defined rationale? Does the report clearly document analysis and rationale for decisions?
• Communication and Professionalism: Is the design fully defined? Does the report provide sufficient context and explanation for the client to understand? Have the students drawn appropriate conclusions from the analyses and summarized findings? Is the report written properly for the intended audience?

Most students who put effort into their project and complete assignments receive A’s and B’s, although some students have failed the course in the past due to lack of effort and responsibility. The best way to think about this course is that it is your chance to show off what you can do while preparing yourself for industrial expectations.

Late Policy

Late assignments will not be accepted.

Policy on Electronic Devices

Electronic devices such as cellular phones, blackberries, laptops, music players, and other devices that may create a distraction are not permitted in class.

Policy on Recording

No student is permitted to record or tape any classroom activity without the express written consent of the instructor. Photographs of product dissection activities are permitted. If a student believes that he/she is disabled and needs to record or tape classroom activities, he/she should contact the Office of Disability Resources to request an appropriate accommodation.

Design Project Guidelines

Project Overview

This course is centered around one major open-ended design project for each team (teams will be assigned during the first week). Topics covered in class, as well as general mechanical engineering knowledge expected of seniors, will be applied in the design and development of the product. By nature, each team will have somewhat different tasks and areas of emphasis, and each will use different subsets of mechanical engineering analysis. However, all projects will address the criteria and guidelines described in the reports and assignments, and teams will be graded on the criteria of completion of assignment requirements, process, well-justified choices, and communication professionalism, as described in the syllabus.

This semester, each design team will select and obtain an existing mechanical product or system. We will spend approximately the first one-quarter of the semester analyzing the design of the existing product. Each team will then use this knowledge to create a new product to address an opportunity unaddressed by the existing product and/or make significant changes to the existing product to improve it. The following guidelines should be used in selecting a product. All products must be approved by the instructor:

• Mechanical System: The product should involve multiple mechanical components that interact.
• Moving Parts: In almost all cases, the system should involve moving parts.
• Moderate Scope and Complexity: The system should involve a sufficient level of complexity (number of parts, number of functions, geometric constraints, etc) to provide challenges in studying the product and to leave open opportunities for making design improvements. The system should not involve so much complexity that the project cannot be reasonably completed in one semester. Some students may choose to study a family of products that share components as a way to introduce design complexity. Be ambitious – it is usually easy to limit scope later if it becomes necessary.
• Cost: Each team will be given a budget of $500 to be reimbursed at the end of the semester for valid receipts (tax cannot be reimbursed – contact Nancy Beatty if you have a large purchase). This budget is intended to cover cost to attain the product and to develop prototypes for a redesign or new design. Therefore, it is best if the product itself can be attained at low cost to leave a significant budget for prototyping.
• Portability: Teams will need to store the product and bring it to campus as needed.
• Safety: You will be disassembling and working with the product during the class, so products with compressed gas, explosive or corrosive materials, or other significant safety issues should be avoided.

Examples: Wheelchair, Can/jar opener, Bicycle derailleur, Staple gun, Electric toothbrush, Weed whipper, Vacuum, Coffeemaker, Paper towel dispenser, Food processor, Paintball gun, Umbrella, Sewing machine, VCR/DVD player, Toaster, Printer, Hair clippers, Electric trimmer, Auto components, Shredder, Office chair, Drill, Card shuffler, Camera

Client Project Letter

24441 Project Design Team
24441 Consultants
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Thank you for agreeing to examine our competitor's product and develop new product design recommendations for us. Your expertise in design and mechanical engineering will be very valuable to us, and your findings and recommendations will help us determine if we should enter what would be a new market for our company. For legal and administrative reasons, you will need to obtain the competitor's product yourself and study it through dissection. We are expecting a full report on your analysis of the competitor product design with recommendations for improvement plus identification of a new opportunity in the product domain and a complete design and prototype of a significant redesign improvement or novel design solution to address the opportunity. We are looking forward to seeing your results.

We have sketched out some deadlines for project deliverables where we can review your progress and provide feedback:

• September 21: Analysis of the Current Product
  • Please provide a wiki page report outlining the following:
  • Please identify all major stakeholders and list major needs for each
  • Please document how the product is used
  • Please document how the system functions
  • Please include pictures of the disassembly, label all components, and indicate the function(s), material, and likely manufacturing processes for all components
  • Please include a preliminary analysis of DFMA, FMEA, and DFE. Highlight your findings and opportunities for improvement.
  • Please include a mechanical analysis to support quantitative understanding of the product’s most critical mechanical aspects.
  • Please identify team member roles during this phase and summarize your process.
  • Of course, please include an executive summary, citations of references, and formatting expected of any professional report. Please be sure to highlight your findings and recommendations.

• October 9: Research, Opportunity, and Concepts
  • Please provide responses to our comments on your first report and any final revisions to the wiki report on the analysis of our existing product
  • Please provide a description of your research and observations. Define the design problem as you understand it, and identify insights and opportunities.
  • Please provide sketches and descriptions of your top three to five design concepts, describing what opportunities have been identified and how they will be addressed. Compare pros and cons of each on a standard Pugh chart.
  • Provide a Gantt chart to map out the team plan for design and prototyping through the remainder of the semester. Please be detailed to your particular project and individual member contributions.
  • Please identify team member roles during this phase and summarize your process.
  • Summarize your recommendations

• October 19: Design Review I – Conceptual design
  • Please provide detailed, labeled sketches and/or CAD models of your chosen design
  • Please bring rough prototypes (sketch-prototypes) and back-of-the-envelope calculations to support your choices.

• November 16: Design Review II – Detailed design
  • Please bring a second generation prototype reflecting design changes and detailed design decisions for a preliminary demonstration of design function
  • Please bring CAD models to define the design, and clearly identify differences between the planned production design and the prototype.
  • Please bring a mechanical engineering analysis of any critical components, as appropriate (sizing, factors of safety, fatigue, optimization, etc.) to justify your design choices.

• December 7: Final Design Exposition
  • Please put together a poster outlining your study of our product and your proposal for product changes and/or new product concept
  • Please bring CAD models fully defining the design and all of its components, including materials and manufacturing processes for each. Clearly identify the advantages of the new design with respect to our old, and justify your recommendation for whether we should add your new design to our existing product line or whether we should replace the old product with your new design. Estimate expected production volume.
  • Please bring your final prototype demonstrating your design and how it will function. Please also identify any ways in which the prototype differs from your final design planned for mass production.
  • Please include final analyses of mechanical aspects of the design as well as analyses such as DFMA, FMEA, DFE. Highlight findings and use your analysis to justify design choices.
  • If appropriate, please include a sketch of a provisional patent document describing the invention and identifying novelties that we can take to our lawyer for review.
  • Your final report will be expected on December 4th.

We anticipate that you will likely need to use the Carnegie Mellon University mechanical engineering machine shop to complete your prototypes, and we have arranged with Jim Dillinger (jjmd@andrew.cmu.edu) to provide machine shop training for any team members who have not yet been trained. The training course is six weeks at two hours per week beginning right away, and it is free of charge. The training course is required for use of the machine shop, and you can sign up in Scaife Hall 426 or contact Jim Dillinger in HH C-124 with any questions.

We have provided you with a budget of $500 intended to cover acquisition of the product and all prototyping expenses. Availability of materials, equipment, and expert advisors in the mechanical engineering machine shop will help to lower the cost of prototype construction. The reimbursement procedure is outlined in a separate document that will be made available to you. Please keep all receipts, and note that we cannot reimburse tax, so large purchases should be made through Nancy Beatty (nlbeatty@andrew.cmu.edu).

Professor Michalek has agreed to oversee the project and provide guidance by providing training in standards for DFMA, FMEA, DFE, etc.; conducting weekly reviews on your progress; and making himself available to answer any questions. Professor Michalek will expect a one-page progress report each week outlining 1) the team’s progress since the prior meeting (including contributions of individual team members), 2) any questions or difficulties you have, and 3) what your team’s planned next steps are. The teaching assistant, Elizabeth Traut, has also agreed to be available to provide her expertise and support as needed. We are looking forward to working with you on this project, and we are anxious to hear your new design ideas, analysis, and recommendations.

Student Projects

The links below contain a history of projects with links to project wiki reports.

Fall 2009

The fall 2009 theme is to analyze an existing product chosen by student teams under a set of selection guidelines. Each team is assigned to study the design of the existing product, identify unmet needs, and then either redesign the existing product or design a new product to address an unmet need. The links below show study of the existing product.

Fall 2008

The fall 2008 theme was to analyze an existing product chosen by student teams under a set of selection guidelines. Each team was assigned to study the design of the existing product, identify unmet needs, and then either redesign the existing product or design a new product to address an unmet need. The links below show study of the existing product. Some links also show new product design, but many of the new designs were completed offline because of intellectual property concerns.

• CMU Homepage Stories
• 2008 Design Exposition on Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
• 2008 Design Exposition on the Channel 2 KDKA news
• 2008 Design Exposition on the Channel 11 WPXI news

Fall 2007

The fall 2007 theme was to analyze an existing product chosen by student teams under a set of selection guidelines. Each team was assigned to study the design of the existing product, identify unmet needs, and then either redesign the existing product or design a new product to address an unmet need. The links below show study of the existing product. Some links also show new product design, but many of the new designs were completed offline because of intellectual property concerns.

Spring 2007

The spring 2007 theme was analysis and redesign of an existing product or mechanical system chosen by student teams under a set of selection guidelines. Each team was assigned to study the design of the existing product, identify unmet needs, and then either redesign the existing product or design a new product to address an unmet need. The links below show study of the existing product. Some links also show new product design, but many of the new designs were completed offline because of intellectual property concerns.