This is the first semester of the required two semester capstone design sequence. Students are expected to have completed most of the other degree requirements for their EMA degree. The intention is that students bring all their learned skills plus their life experiences to bear on a multi-disciplinary design problem.

No textbook required, Ullman is recommended as a reference and is available on reserve in the library. Students should have their previous course texts available as well as be prepared to seek many other references. Many handouts are provided via Email and many references are available in the EMA 469 design laboratory.

It is the instructor's intention to...

provide an experiential learning environment allowing each student to learn and apply the design process in a manner best suited to the student's individual learning abilities.

allow students to apply their analytical engineering education to solve engineering design problems.

familiarize students with a "Design Process" suitable for solving all engineering design problems. This process is to include generation of a Product Design Specification, understanding the needs of all customers, reporting on progress, developing computer aided design skills, continuously checking costs, developing a working prototype, and generating proper engineering drawings to include part numbers and bills of material.

encourage students to consider their accountability for the engineering decisions to which they are a party.

encourage students to consider their responsibilities to themselves, their employers and society in all of their actions.

acquaint students with how industry determines component costs, calculates overhead, and evaluates tradeoffs when making financial choices.

familiarize students with engineering manufacturing methods.

familiarize students with the mechanics of common engineering components and the use of these components in a design.

make students aware of the world of codes and standards.

make students aware of the utility of engineering reference works.

emphasize the importance of clear, concise oral and written communication.

Course Outcomes: Students must be able to...

apply the "design process," material selection, component selection, factor-of-safety justification, and cost assessment in formulating a design.

explain their responsibilities and accountabilities for their projects.

generate quality CAD drawings.

document their daily progress in a design notebook.

work in a group and get things done.

present their design work in both oral and written reports.

Class begins with an individual design/drawing assignment that develops into a machining project for each student. During this time students are given group building exercises and creativity exercises (including sketching) and asked to explore consumer type, semester length projects which might be of interest. Students are then required to form teams, select a project, develop a Product Design Specification, generate a conceptual model (foam core, clay, etc.), generate drawings through the layout drawing level, and construct working prototypes of their project. During this process students give four formal reports (written and oral), learn about standards and electronic data bases, learn about scheduling, learn about cost estimating, and all requisite details to complete a design process through the first prototype stage.

Class/laboratory schedule

Students meet twice per week for conventional 120 minute periods. Little lecturing is done. Instead of lectures, material is presented in electronic form. Most class time is devoted to working on projects. Students must be aware that significant out-of-class time is required for this course.

Contribution of course to meeting the professional component
This course contributes primarily to the students' knowledge of engineering topics, and does provide design experience.

The following statement indicates which of the following considerations are included in this course: economic, environmental, ethical, political, societal, health and safety, manufacturability, sustainability.

EMA 469 is the first component of a two semester capstone design sequence, and is intended to provide a comprehensive design experience towards the end of the undergraduate program. Economic, environmental (when relevant), ethical, safety and manufacturing issues are all explicitly present in the course and in the decision-making process. Each topic must be specifically addressed in the product design specification form each team must complete for their selected project. Individual group consultation is provided by the instructor as needed on these and other topics.

Relationship of course to undergraduate degree program objectives and outcomes
This course primarily serves students in the department. The information below describes how the course contributes to the undergraduate program objectives.

EMA 469 is the first course of a two component capstone design sequence. The course makes use of all the prior course objectives of the EMA program and adds important components on codes, standards, references, engineering drawings, and communication.

Thus, EMA 469 is focused to satisfy the EMA program objectives in that it will assist in allowing the student to synthesize her/his fundamental skills via project-focused design, problem-solving, teamwork and written and oral communication. In addition, it encourages the students to make well-informed career choices in EMA via integrated design project analyses and presentations; i.e., aeronautics or astronautics and solid mechanics.

Assessment of student progress toward course objectives

• Student participation in their initial individual design projects and the machined part that results.
• Individual student participation in the work of their design group.
• Ungraded commentary for each intermediate report and presentation.
• Ungraded mark-up of intermediate drawings providing direct design feedback as the design process is on-going.
• Final project reports (written and oral) by each four person design group.
• Final project layout drawings done by each design group.
• Final prototype done by each design group.
• Final group meeting between the instructor and each project group.
• Individual design notebooks from each member of the class.
• Peer evaluations done by others in each student's four person design group.
• Instructor opinion as to the difficulty and completeness of the final design by each project group.
• Instructor opinion as to the contribution of each member of each four person project group.

Person(s) who prepared this description
• Frederick T. Elder