Engineering Design I/II

Capstone Research Design Project Guidance

Capstone Research Design Project Guidance

Spring AY15

(Class of 2016)

United States Naval Academy

Engineering Design I/II

Capstone Research Design Project Guidance

Table of Contents

Overview

Course Shared Drive

Design Communication: Formatting, Conduct, Submission, and Archiving

Purchase Orders

Shop Work Requests

Operational Risk Management Assessment

Design Communication Guidance and Rubrics

Project Proposal Description

Project Proposal Rubric

Project Proposal Presentation Rubric

Preliminary Design Report Description

Preliminary Design Report Rubric

Preliminary Design Presentation Rubric

Detail Design Report Description

Detail Design Report Rubric

Detail Design Presentation Rubric

End of Term Status Memorandum Guidance

End of Term Status Rubric

Engineering Design I/II

Capstone Research Design Project Guidance

The Capstone Research Design Project

This document describes the requirements for capstone designas they apply to research students, students in the VGEP program, and students who plan to spend the fall semester of their 1/C year abroad. The specific deliverables for the first and second semesters are summarized and guidance about the form and content of these deliverables is provided.

Overview

All Engineering students must participate in a capstone design project as part of the engineering curriculum. The capstone design project is an opportunity for you to solve a practical engineering design problem using the engineering skills and knowledge that you have developed over the past three years. You will be challenged to define a problem, explore different ways of solving it, apply technical reasoning to select the best solution path, and to carry out your proposed solution – demonstrating that the design objectives have been achieved.

The design courses have some traditional course content, but they mostly consist of open time to develop your project. Your exact course path will differ according to your circumstance. Here is a map of the design sequence options:

Student Group / 2/C Spring / 1/C Fall / 1/C Spring
“Traditional” / Project selection / Design I / Design II
Trident Scholar[1] / Design I / XX5XX (counts as Design II) / XX5XX (counts as MJ EL3)
Bowman Scholars and other Independent Study students1,[2] / Design I / XX495 (counts as Design II) / XX496 (optional, counts as MJ EL3)
VGEP candidates / Design I / XX495 (counts as Design II) / Begin graduate coursework
Semester Study Abroad candidates / Design I / Semester Abroad / XX496 or Design II

You will document the design process in a report that you’ll revise and add to throughout the academic year. You’ll also present your work regularly to a panel of outside customers, faculty and staff members, and your peers in order to check your progress and offer additional guidance along the way. The due dates for these reports and presentations are detailed in the syllabus.

Course Administration

You are scheduled for four class hours per week. One class hourwill be a lecture for about half of the 16 weeks in the first course. Each lecture will start with a review of the reading guide that covers the assigned reading. The reading guides are linked from the syllabus, which is available on the course website. For one of the remaining hours each week you’ll have a group meeting with your project mentor(s). The remaining two hours of class time each week are yours to work on your project tasks, though you will certainly need to work more than these four hours per week to be successful. The mentor will be the instructor for your follow-on research courses where you will complete the design sequence. The Design I instructor will consult with your mentor in assigning the grades for the first course.

This document provides the course guidance only for Design I for students conducting capstone research design projects. Students who will go on to research courses to complete their design requirement should consult with their project mentor for the requirements for those courses. Semester Study Abroad students who will go on to take Design II in their 1/C Spring after a semester break should consult with their department capstone coordinator to ensure that they are properly merged with their classmates in the second semester of the “Traditional” design sequence.

Course Shared Drive

For the “traditional” design track, there is a course shared drive which contains a number of resources that you may wish to access. You can access this folder from anywhere on the yard by mapping the drive to the computer you wish to use.

Use the following procedure to map the course drive:

  1. From the Start menu, select Computer. You can also right-click on the Computer icon on your desktop
  2. From the ribbon across the top of the window, select Map network drive
  3. In the Drive box, leave the default drive letter (e.g. X:)
  4. In the Folder box, copy the following address: \\nautilus\projects$
  5. Make sure the Reconnect at login box is checked (default is checked)
  6. In the Username box, type your e-mail userID (e.g. m123456)
  7. In the Password box, type your e-mail password
  8. This should bring up the shared drive. For help contact CSB at x6470 or
  9. The course shared folder located in the main projects$ folder and is called Design1&2. The folder is further divided into academic years.

In your academic year there is a folder called zzDesign Team Folder. Make a duplicate of this folder and name it Research Design <LastName> Folder. This will be the folder where you will archive your project. Inside this folder you will find the following sub-folders:

1_Reports and Presentations. In this folder, keep the final version of all reports and presentations. A word of advice with regard to version control: so often we’ve seen student reports titled something like, “Project Proposal FINAL FINAL DO NOT DELETE” followed by “Project Proposal FINAL FINAL FINAL DO NOT DELETE – SERIOUSLY.” Might we suggest using a simple convention: v1, v2, etc. where the largest number is the latest version.

2_Purchase Orders and Budget. In this folder, keep all purchase order paperwork with files named so as to be able to discern their contents without having to open them. Also, save an up-to-date copy of your team’s budget.

3_Work Orders. In this folder, keep any work orders including the associated part files, assembly files, and drawing files. You’ll also keep a copy of your shop hour tracker, which will be covered in a later section.

4_Weekly Progress Reports. Your mentor may wish you to make a weekly record of your progress. Such reports should be stored in this folder. Please name the file or files something logical so they are easy to find, 2014-09-20 progress report for example.

5_ Communications and Correspondence. Following each conversation with customers, technical advisors, etc., either in-person or over the telephone, type a brief summary of the communication and save it in this folder for future reference. Be sure to include who was involved in the discussion. Please use the same file naming convention suggested for meeting minutes. You should also save copies of important e-mails in this folder.

6_Images and Video. A picture is worth 1,000 words as the old saying goes. Today it is easier than ever to capture the design process with images and video, both of which will add to the effectiveness of your reports and presentations. We, the faculty, also use these pictures and video for everything from Capstone Day programs to plebe recruiting. You’ll be famous!

7_Code. If your project involves programming, you should save your programs in this folder. You should also use a logical file naming convention for code in order to preserve version control.

8_Background Literature. Here you should store the .pdf files of literature that is relevant to your project. Establish a file naming convention for your background literature to help you keep the articles straight. I like to use this pattern for my archive: AuthorLastName_JournalShortTitle_Year_ShortDescription.pdf

Design Communication: Formatting, Conduct, Submission, and Archiving

In Design I you’ll give three presentations to the faculty review board. These presentations are your Project Proposal, Preliminary Design, and Detail Design Presentations. There are three additional presentations in Design II for those students (which might include some of the SSA students) who will take that course). Those presentations are the Prototype Demonstration, Progress Update, and the Final Presentation, which is given on Capstone Day. Research course (XX495/6) students will have different presentation requirements that will be set by the mentor and the department. Participation in Capstone Day is required for Design II students and is optional (at the mentor’s discretion) for all other students. A corresponding report for each presentation is due a week or two after each of these presentations. See the syllabus for specific dates. It may sound like a lot, but you’ll see that each successive presentation and report builds upon the last.

Unless otherwise specified, all formal written communications will be submitted according to theDesign Report Template available in thecourse shared folder and on the course webpage.The goal of all design communication is that it should be professional in appearance and make it easy for the reader to access the content.

A computer with PowerPoint, access to the Internet, and a projection system will be available in the presentation room. Students are advised to load their presentation ahead of time – before presentations begin for the day - to preclude the delay of downloading and opening the presentation in front of the audience. Also, occasionally the e-mail server or the shared drive is unavailable. Students should have a back-up plan in the event of a technical malfunction.

Purchase Orders

Your project may require making purchases. Under no circumstances should you buy an item with your own money, expecting to be reimbursed.The following is a guideline for howto handle purchases:

  1. Go online and find what you need. Use screen capture to save .pdf files that describe each part—as you will need these for the ordering process. If possible, try not to order one part at a time. The credit card purchase process is time consuming and it’s preferable to keep the total number of orders to a minimum. Order multiple items in a single transaction whenever possible.
  2. Once you’ve found what you need, call the vendor on the phone and get a quote. This is very easy. All you have to say is, “Hello, I’d like a quote.” Most vendors are well acquainted with the ordering process, even if you aren’t. This saves a lot of time in ordering because all the purchase card holder has to do is give the vendor the quote number instead of reading off the parts list. This way you’re more likely to get the parts you ordered too! Be sure to request an estimated shipping charge to zip code 21402. DO NOT commit to purchase when requesting quotes.
  3. If you can’t get a quote, save a screen capture of the “shopping basket” to make things easier on the purchase card holder.
  4. Fill in the purchase card order form (.pdf file, located in the course shared folder) and ensure information is accurate. Save the purchase card order form and all other required items in your teams 2_Purchase Orders and Budget folder. Use your mentor’s name and USNA extension for the requestor blocks.
  5. If there is a chance representatives from the comptroller’s office might view a purchase as inappropriate (e.g. remote-controlled boats, bicycles, etc. - anything fun really), you may have to write a one-page justification memo explaining why you need this particular item and how you will use it. An example is provided in the course shared folder.
  6. Maximum allowed spending is $2,999 per purchase order, including shipping charges. Orders cannot be split (e.g. $5,000 worth of items, purchase from the same company, split between two orders, each totaling $2,500) to accommodate the spending limit.
  7. PAYPAL and other third party payments should be avoided. These are only to be used as a last resort and will require extra paperwork.
  8. Any order that includes an item that can provide input to or receive output from a computer must be accompanied with an ITPR smartform, also included in the course shared folder. You’ll need help for this one. Ask.
  9. HAZMAT purchases require the HAZTRAIN form be filled out and routed to the cardholder with the purchase order. A separate form is required for each line item on the purchase order (each HAZMAT item).
  10. For HAZMAT purchases, please also supply the material safety data sheet (MSDS).
  11. Notify your mentor that you have a purchase order ready to go. Check with your mentor to see whether they prefer to use the share drive or would rather you e-mail them the files.
  12. Your mentor will submit the purchase order packet to the TSD purchasing manager who will assign your purchase to one of his or her purchase card holders. Your mentors should carbon-copyyou so that you have visibility as to who is making the purchase for them.
  13. Ideally, once the order is received the cardholder will notify the team purchaser that their items are ready for pick-up. However, it is your responsibility to follow up on purchase orders. Our purchase card holders process many, many orders. You have a vested interest in tracking the purchase. Be proactive!

Shop Work Requests

Similarly, your project may require a part to be fabricated by TSD (aka, “the machine shop”). Prior to submitting any part for manufacture, students are required to consult one of the TSD shop supervisors: Mike Superczynski or Dave Majerowicz. Once you have talked through your ideas with you TSD representative and one of the gentlemen mentioned above, please submit a shop work request through your team mentor. At a minimum, requests must include:

  • Project Work Request Form
  • At least one professional engineering drawing (submitted on a separate sheet of paper). The drawing must have the following features:
  • Landscape format
  • Sufficient views to show all aspects of the part (these would include views from the top, front and side and an isometric view, and may also require a detailed or section view)
  • Properly scaled,dimensioned, and toleranced
  • Title block filled out completely including desired material and correct units
  • Signature from the team mentor or technical expert

All of the above forms and instructions on how to fill them out are provided in the course shared folder. Work requests submitted with missing or incomplete drawings will be returned. A copy of each work request will be maintained in the team 3_Work Orders folder.

Our technicians are experienced professionals. They represent an excellent resource. Be sure to involve them in every stage of the design process.

Operational Risk Management Assessment

An Operational Risk Management (ORM) assessment will be conducted any time any evolution could potentially result in the loss of life, limb, or property. Written in memorandum format, the assessment shall include:

  • From the student
  • To the project mentor
  • For each potentially hazardous evolution
  • Brief description of the evolution
  • Include equipment/benchmark spec sheets as enclosures, as appropriate (e.g. the evolution involves benchmark testing on a pneumatic pumpkin launcher, include spec sheets for compressor and pressure vessel)
  • Characterization and description of hazard using the risk matrix provided below (Table 1).
  • A specific description of what safeguards will be put in place to mitigate the risk (e.g. PPE, fire extinguisher at the ready, supervised by TSD technician, etc.)
  • Signature of project mentor signifying that the evolution has been discussed with team supervisors.

Table 1: ORM Risk Matrix

Consequence of failure
Probability / Negligible / Marginal / Critical / Catastrophic
Certain / High / extreme / extreme / extreme
Likely / Moderate / high / extreme / extreme
Possible / Low / moderate / high / extreme
Unlikely / Low / Low / moderate / High
Rare / Low / Low / low / moderate

In Table 1, Probability is defined as follows:

  • Certain – the hazardous event will occur during the evolution.
  • Likely – the hazardous event may not occur immediately, but precedence suggests it is almost certain to occur at some point during the evolution.
  • Possible – the hazardous event may not occur during the evolution, but precedence suggests that such events are frequent.
  • Unlikely – the hazardous event likely will not occur during the evolution, but precedence suggests that such events occur, however infrequently.
  • Rare – the hazardous event will not occur during the evolution. Precedence suggests that such events are extremely rare, if they occur at all.

Likewise, Consequences of Failure are defined as follows: