Agenda for Monday July 16 2007 0900 Welcome

Agenda for Monday July 16, 2007 0900 Welcome for the Day (BC/NG/HD and faculty) AIM for Stars overview (Neal) Lesson Idea List distribution (Neal) 0915 Bill and Jim’s Lesson Samples and Examples (Bill, Jim) 0945 Engineering Design Tools (HD) Objectives and Constraints Scheduling Technical Writing 1015 Breakout (Observations/Questions) (HD? ) Is engineering for everyone in the 21 st century? Who would be good at engineering? 1045 Break 1115 What teachers should know about the Tek. Bot™ (HD) Sensors, Light, Force Sensors, Sound, Position 1200 Lunch 1300 Hands-On Assembly and Test of Analog Brain Board 1530 Adjourn (adjourn directly from labs) SPIRIT

Silicon Prairie Initiative on Robotics in Information Technology Engineering Design Tools 2 SPIRIT

Heuristics g. A heuristic is anything that provides a plausible aid or direction in the solution of a problem. g Heuristics are usually unjustified and potentially fallible. g Engineering design is the use of heuristics. g Heuristics are used to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources. 3 SPIRIT

Sample Engineering Heuristics g. Rules 4 of Thumb and Orders of Magnitude g. Attitude-Determining Heuristics g. Risk-Controlling Heuristics g. Resource Allocation Heuristics g. Miscellaneous Heuristics SPIRIT

Rules of Thumb g Ambient temperature 20 C g Air 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen g Forward biased diode voltage 0. 7 V ¨ LED 1. 5 V g One gram of uranium gives one mega-watt day of energy g Building construction scales as the price of meat g Screws have a point, bolts are flat 5 SPIRIT

Attitude-Determining Heuristics g. Quantify or express all variables in numbers g. Always give an answer g. Work at the margin of solvable problems 6 SPIRIT

Risk-Controlling Heuristics g. Make small changes from previous successful solutions. g. Always give yourself a chance to retreat. g. Use feedback to stabilize a design 7 SPIRIT

Resource Allocation Heuristics g. Allocate 8 sufficient resources to the weak link. g. Allocate resources as long as the cost of not knowing exceeds the cost of finding out. g. At some point in the project, freeze the design. SPIRIT

Miscellaneous g. Break complex problems into smaller, more manageable pieces. g. Design for a specific time frame. g. Always make the minimum decision. 9 SPIRIT

Client Statement (Need) Problem Definition 1. Clarify objectives 2. Establish user requirements 3. Identify constraints 4. Establish functions Conceptual Design 5. Establish design specifications 6. Generate alternatives Design Process Preliminary Design 7. Model or analyze design 8. Test and evaluate design Detailed Design 9. Refine and optimize design Final Design (Fabrication Specs & Documentation) Design Communication 10. Document design SPIRIT

Convergent (left brain) and Divergent (right brain) Thinking SPIRIT

Problem Definition g Methods g Means ¨ Objective Tree ¨ Pairwise Comparison Chart ¨ Weighted Objectives Tree ¨ Function-Means Tree ¨ Functional Analysis ¨ Requirements Matrix 12 SPIRIT ¨ Literature Review ¨ Brainstorming ¨ User Surveys and Questionnaires ¨ Structured Interviews

Building an Objectives Tree 13 SPIRIT

Building an Objectives Tree 14 SPIRIT

Functional Analysis g What does the design DO? g What functions must be performed to realize the objectives? ¨ Put the language of the client and users into the language of the engineer. ¨ Put things into terminology that helps to find ways to meet objectives. ¨ Use terminology that can be used to measure how well the objectives have been met. 15 SPIRIT

What are Functions? g. A relationship between independent variables (inputs) and response or dependent variables. (outputs) g Mathematics: g Business Management Theory: Transformation function 16 SPIRIT

Black and Glass Boxes g Like the mathematical and management models - relate the inputs to the outputs Black Box g All ins and outs must be specified ¨What happens to each input? ¨Where does the output come from? g Remove the cover to see what's going on inside. 17 SPIRIT

Black Box of a Radio 18 SPIRIT

Radio Glass Box (the cover has been removed) 19 SPIRIT

Function-Means Tree g. A graphical representation of the design's basic and secondary functions g Alternating levels of function and means g Begins the process of association of what must be done and how we might do it. g Can be used to separate and sort secondary functions associated with the design. 20 SPIRIT

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Heuristics g. A heuristic is anything that provides a plausible aid or direction in the solution of a problem. g Heuristics are usually unjustified and potentially fallible. g Engineering design is the use of heuristics. g Heuristics are used to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources. 22 SPIRIT

Conceptual Design: Finding a Feasible Concept. g Break down the overall problem into subproblems. ¨Find solutions to each subproblem ¨Combine the subproblem solutions. g The aim is to start with the project definition and generate as many ways as possible of solving the problem. g Then select the most promising ideas that meet the design specification. 23 SPIRIT

Conceptual Design g Methods g Means ¨ Performance Specification Method ¨ Quality Function Deployment (QFD) ¨ Morphological Chart ¨ Brainstorming ¨ Synectics and Analogies ¨ Benchmarking ¨ Reverse Engineering (Dissection) 24 SPIRIT

Convergent (left brain) and Divergent (right brain) Thinking SPIRIT