ME4054 Advisor's Handbook

Welcome to ME 4054 Design Projects, the senior capstone design course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. The Department appreciates your commitment to leading a student design team this semester. This handbook describes how the course works and your responsibilities as an advisor. Some suggestions for running your team are also provided.

More information about the course, including the schedule and a list of projects, can be found on the course web site, the first place to go if you need more detail. If you have any questions at all, please contact the faculty course coordinator, the course teaching assistant, or the course secretary.

Contents

1. Basics
2. Project Definitions
3. Project Description
4. Project Kickoff Meeting
5. Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Agreements
6. Project Expenses
7. Parking
8. What to Do at the First Meeting
9. What to Watch For at Later Meetings
10. Suggestions for Running Your Project
11. Advisor Responsibilities During the Semester
12. Advisor Responsibilities at the End of the Semester
13. Grading
14. Final Thoughts

Basics

You get 4-6 very bright Mechanical Engineering seniors working on your project for 15 weeks. In return, you must meet with your team every Tuesday or Thursday afternoon on the UMN campus for at least 90 minutes to guide them through their project.

The course defines a design process that all projects should follow, regardless of their specific topic. In addition, each project has a set of common, specific deliverables. However, each team is free to organize themselves and their work to match the project.

As an advisor, you also participate in student evaluation. This includes:

• Reviewing and assessing team project
• Attending and grading mid-term project reviews
• Reading and evaluating your team's final report
• Attending and judging several teams at the end-of-semester Design Show
• Submitting suggested final grades for the team members

Project Definitions

Coming up with the project for your student team is largely up to you. Our number one priority is to provide a rich educational experience for the students, but we also want to maximize the benefit to the sponsors. Good projects have these features:

Innovative: Projects should be open-ended and amenable to multiple solutions. We want the teams to write a specification based on customer needs, generate multiple potential solution concepts and apply a formal selection procedure to identify the most promising concept. Advisors should avoid imposing a particular solution on the students at the start. However, you are invited to guide them in appropriate directions by providing all relevant information about the problem.

Familiar: Students do particularly well developing products or systems in domains with which they are familiar. Consumer products or easily understood designs or manufacturing systems are good examples. Students do best on new products, one-of-a-kind manufacturing systems, or mature products where new technologies open opportunities for novel solutions. Students do not have the highly specialized knowledge where they can compete effectively with seasoned experts in a narrow design area such as mold design or automobile engines.

Significant mechanical engineering content: Our students been trained in the fundamentals of mechanical engineering, so the project should have some mechanical component. Nevertheless, interdisciplinary projects are encouraged. Manufacturing, industrial engineering, computation, electronics, mechatronics, software, and controls have all been featured in past successful projects.

Requires engineering analysis: We want students to exercise their considerable analytic skills in their projects, to capitalize on their years in the mechanical engineering curriculum. The specific analyses required will be project dependent and might be done on a calculator, a spreadsheet or a computer-aided engineering package.

Realizable: We encourage physical, working prototypes to be delivered at the end of the course. Thus, simple systems that can be prototyped by the students in our student shop, or at your facilities, are encouraged.

Appropriate scope: Projects must be completed within the fifteen week semester.

Project Description

Three to four weeks before the course starts, you write a 200 to 300 word description of your project. Your audience is the students in the course who must choose among the many projects offered based entirely on the written project descriptions. A Project Description template form is available from the course staff.

Divide your writeup into two sections. The "Background" section should provide some context to the design problem. If the project is company sponsored, give a brief description of the company. The "Objectives" section should describe the specific project goals. What will be done? What are the expected project deliverables? Design calculations? Pro/E drawings? Mockup prototype? Working prototype? Be as clear as you can. Go to the course web site to see examples of current project descriptions.

Limit the description to 300 words. Additional detail can be given to the students in a handout when you first meet the team. Or, point the team to a web site where they can learn more about the problem. Use .doc format because the description will be posted on a web site.

In the description, alert the students if they will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement for the project (more below). Also, if you expect your team to occasionally meet off-campus, for example to tour a company site, please state this in the description. Although the weekly meetings the teams have with their advisors are held on the UMN campus, we encourage the student design teams to make multiple field trips to their sponsoring company's site during the semester.

In writing the description, put on your marketing hat and make the project sound exciting. Your goal should be for every student in the class to request your project as their first choice!
At the top of the description, put the following:

1. Project title
2. Project sponsor
3. Name, address, phone, fax, email of project advisor
4. Name, phone, fax, email of secondary advisor (if any)

Project Kickoff Meeting

Project advisors are invited for lunch on the first Thursday of the semester. This gives us a chance to welcome you to ME 4054, to go over some course logistics, and for you to meet the course staff and other advisors. Attendance at the lunch meeting is strongly encouraged. (If you are going to show up at 1:25 to meet with your students team, you might as well show up at noon for a free lunch!)

You meet the student team assigned to your project for the first time on the UMN campus at 1:25 PM on the first Thursday of the new semester (consult the course web site or coordinator for the date). This is a must-happen meeting whose date and time cannot be changed.

Students all report to the lecture hall at 1:25. The students will learn of their project assignments and then depart to meet with their advisors in separate break out rooms. Later in this handbook are some suggestions for conducting this meeting in the "What to Do at the First Meeting" section.

You may want to come to the kick-off meeting with copies of a "design brief" that describes the project in more detail. If the project has a company sponsor, come with copies of the annual report, and/or product catalog or product data sheets for each student. Students love handouts; flood them.

The first class meeting for the course takes place the Tuesday before the kickoff meeting. Students will have received descriptions of all of the projects available during the semester and will have indicated their top five selections. The course staff assigns students to projects based upon preferences and an even (more or less) distribution of students among the projects. The goal is four to six students per project, but on occasion projects may have more than six students if course enrollment is unusually large.

Confidentiality and Intellectual Property Agreements

The University of Minnesota's policy on intellectual property (IP) is that it is owned by the University when it is created by students while using University resources. If patentable IP is created by the students during their work in this course, a disclosure form should be completed and submitted to the University's Office for Technology Commercialization (OTC). The process for reporting IP to OTC and the intellectual property disclosure form can be found at: http://www.research.umn.edu/techcomm/report.html#.Tx7N7_nF98E. If the company for which the advisor of an ME 4054 team works wants to license IP created by the students on the team they're advising, they must inform OTC. This is generally done in Section 7 of the OTC will screen the IP claims to confirm that none were the result of University-sponsored research. If none are, then negotiations can begin for acquiring rights to the IP. An overview of the process for licensing intellectual property from OTC can be found at: http://www.research.umn.edu/techcomm/license-process.html#.T2s6QNV0Q4k.

Students can sign non-disclosure agreements if they are working on particularly sensitive projects, or if some of the documents they will be receiving from the company are sensitive. Standard NDA forms are available on the course web site. Keep in mind: students do have to present their work at the mid-project design review and at the Design Show. The latter is deemed a "public disclosure" for patent purposes because the Design Show is a public event. Portions of the final report can be kept confidential if necessary. A better solution might be to "sanitize" the report by omitting all references to specific company or product names. If at all possible, structure the project so that most or all of it is non-confidential, simply to make the logistics easier on everyone.

We strongly encourage you to advise the students to disclose intellectual property that they create to OTC if you feel it is patentable and could have commercial value.

Project Expenses

No fee is charged for sponsoring a project. However, for projects sponsored by companies, the company is responsible to pay all expenses for prototyping, parts purchasing or other costs directly related to the project.

No purchases will be made without the approval of the advisor. The total cost is entirely dependent on the project and will vary widely. Work with your team to determine budget limits and reimbursement procedures.

Each project headed by a UMN Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty member receives $100 from the department for prototyping expenses. Reimbursement works through normal department petty cash procedures. Reimbursement forms must be signed by both the project advisor and by the course coordinator.

Parking

The course will pay the parking costs for advisors who come from off campus for weekly team meetings. Parking will be reimbursed for University of Minnesota ramps only. The closest parking to the MechE building are the Church Street and Washington Ave ramps. The UMN Parking Services department web site has maps and directions.

For reimbursement, bring your parking ticket to ME 1100 for validation. We are unable to do an after the fact reimbursement, so please remember to bring your parking ticket with you.

What to Do at the First Meeting

• You will be running the meeting, but it should be the only meeting you run.
• Put the room in a friendly arrangement. Classroom style is not allowed. Arrange chairs around a table (if needed, move two tables together to make one conference size) or arrange chairs in a circle.
• Have all team members introduce themselves to each other. Exchange names, telephone numbers and e-mails.
• Tell the team something about yourself. What you do, how you got to where you are from college, some of the things you have learned about design. If from industry, tell the team something about your company. Bring along annual reports or product catalogs for each team member. Tell them what you know and what you don't know.
• Emphasize that there is no single correct answer to the problem the team is to tackle... and that you don't know the answer.
• Introduce the problem using a "design brief" format. Background, sponsor, need, target market, expected deliverables. Handouts are encouraged.
• Suggest the team agree on some "rules of the road". For example, show up on time, follow up on all action items, take on only what you can handle, check e-mail daily, and so on. Suggest that someone on the team write these up for next time and have everyone sign. If the team doesn't want to do this, that's fine too. Like everything, make sure important decisions come from the team. Not you.
• Determine the day (Tuesday or Thursday) and time of the weekly meeting with you, the advisor. The students will meet twice a week, but you only have to meet with them once a week. Most Tuesdays and some Thursdays, a whole-class lecture is scheduled for about 70 minutes starting at 1:25 PM, so plan accordingly. Details are on the course schedule.
• Go over important dates: mission statement due, GANTT chart due, midterm design review, design show, report due.
• Suggest that for meetings, the team use a rotating facilitator and scribe. The facilitator runs the meeting making sure it sticks to the agenda and finishes on time. The scribe records all actions, decisions, and action items and posts them to the group by e-mail within 24 hours. Having these roles rotate ensures everyone gets to try. Appoint someone scribe for the first meeting (you are facilitator for this one). They should include the facilitator/scribe schedule in their published minutes.
• Tell the team how and when is best to reach you. If you are going to check your e-mail daily you should tell them. If you are not, tell them that as well.
• Be clear about your expectations. Predicting where the team will be at the end of the semester is difficult, if not impossible. However, once the problem is understood, the team must set goals and deadlines and stick to them.
• Be clear that a good project (and therefore a good grade) will result if each student works hard and pulls their weight. Clarify that every individual must coordinate with the other team members to ensure that everyone's efforts are contributing to the team.

What to Watch For at Later Meetings

• After the first few meetings, turn yourself more into an observer. If you feel bold, have someone in the group keep track of the number of minutes each person talks. If you find that you are dominating, it's time to step back. High performance teams are capable of running themselves.
• If you observe a student not pulling their weight, or a "maverick" member who is not coordinating with the team, give feedback early and often. Groups most often splinter and fall apart if one or two members end up doing all of the work. Check to ensure that the team allocates tasks efficiently and fairly and that all members follow up on their action items. However, remember that it is not your job to assign action items; that should be done by the team.
• If uncertain of how to handle a particular problem, don't hesitate to ask "seasoned" advisors or the course coordinator for advice.

Suggestions for Running Your Project

• Be a coach rather than a leader. Give your team guidance but don't set direction and don't give them a single solution.
• If you have knowledge about prior work or prior solutions, be forthcoming with the information. Don't hide anything or else you may be disappointed in the results at the end.
• If you have a possible solution to the design problem, include it in the pool that the students are considering, but be careful not to give it more importance than other qualified ideas because it came from you. Listen because you will be surprised what the students can come up with.

Advisor Responsibilities During the Semester

• Meet with your project team once per week for 90 to 120 minutes. Team meetings are on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at 1:25 (approximately 2:30 on lecture days, some days later). Your team will be meeting both days, but you need only attend one of them.
• Please do not allow your students to deviate from the officially scheduled Tuesday and Thursday afternoon meeting times to avoid conflicts with other classes and work schedules. (Note that some of the lectures are afternoon workshops so there will be only short team meetings those days. Consult the schedule for details.)
• Ensure that students are on task for completing the formal course deliverables such as the Project Plan, draft report chapters, design notebooks, etc. All deliverables are listed on the course schedule and in the Assignments section of the course website.
• Check your e-mail regularly (daily is preferred) for messages from your design team and course administrators.
• Make every attempt to have the students apply the material presented in lecture on the project. The lecture material covers the basics of design process and is applicable to all projects in the course. Topics include:
• Defining customer requirements in a product specification
• Generating concepts
• Processes for selecting optimal concepts
• Project management
• Estimation & modeling
• Prototyping
• Cost & price of products
• Engineering ethics

• Review and grade the "Project Plan" documents that are typically submitted in week 4 of the semester. These documents represent what the students will do during the semester and what they will deliver at the end of the semester. The students are expected to negotiate the scope of work and final deliverables with you prior to submitting their Project Plan.
• Attend the Mid-Project Design Reviews (see schedule for date). These presentations are typically 30 minutes long. The scheduled time for your team will be announced 3-4 weeks into the course. Please keep your calendar free from 1:25 PM to 7:00 PM on both dates until your presentation time is confirmed. If you have a conflict, please let the course TA know about it as soon as you can and we will work to accommodate it if possible. You will listen to the presentation of your team and evaluate its progress using a rubric that will be provided. You are also expected to listen to the presentations of 3-4 other teams that day and evaluate their progress. This will give you an opportunity to assess your team's progress relative to that of other project teams.
• Review and evaluate each student's design notebook at mid-semester using the rubric provided. You should collect the design notebooks at your team's mid-project review, evaluate them, and return them to the students in a day or two.
• Provide the students on your team with a tentative mid-semester grade. Don't hesitate to give out B's and C's to keep them on their toes. Anonymous peer evaluations will be a part of this process. Provide list of tentative grades to course coordinator.
• Read and provide feedback on the draft chapters of the final report. Due dates are given in the course schedule.

Advisor Responsibilities at the End of the Semester

• Attend the Design Show (see class schedule) and participate as a judge. This is an important date that can't be missed.
• Read and evaluate the final design report, design notebooks, and Google site for your team using rubrics provided and submit them to the course coordinator. This task must be completed a few days after the Design Show.
• Evaluate the final design using a rubric provided and submit it to the course coordinator. This task must also be completed a few days after the Design Show.
• Offer suggestions to the course coordinator on how the course and/or projects can be improved.

NOTE: After you complete the evaluation of the design notebooks at the end of the semester, all of the notebooks should be returned to the course coordinator.

Grading

As a project advisor, you will be helping the course coordinator to evaluate student performance. You will be doing this twice, once mid-semester and once at the end.

The mid-semester evaluation is a chance for students to get some idea of how they are doing on the project. This evaluation is one you will be doing on your own without any knowledge of how students in other projects are doing. Generally, good work rates a B and up. B- and below is reserved for the non-contributors. A's at mid-semester would be rare because we want to reserve some headroom for students to get better. If you team is doing pretty well, the spread of grades among your students will be B to A-. Feel free to go outside these bounds if the students deserve it. The mid-semester grade is separate from the Mid-Term Design Review grade; the mid-semester grade does not become part of the final grade. The mid-semester grade goes directly from you to the students.

The final grade is computed at the end of the course. Each team will get a team grade based upon several factors:

1. Evaluation of the deliverables submitted over the course of the semester
2. Evaluations from the Mid-Project Review by the course coordinator and advisors
3. Jury evaluation at the Design Show
4. Evaluation of the course coordinator of the Final Report and the final design
5. Evaluation by the advisor of the Final Report and the final design

If the team has done well, that grade will be B or above. If the team has done very well, that grade will be B+ or above. If the team has done really well, that grade will be A- or A.

Once the team has received a grade, the final grade for individual students on the team is adjusted from the team grade. Adjustments are based on your evaluation of individual effort, as well as records of grades on lecture attendance and a quiz on design process collected by the staff during the semester. If everyone was about the same, they all get the team grade. Those who had particularly valuable contributions would go up from the team, and those who did little, would go down. The distribution of student grades from the team grades is determined by the advisor based on observations of team meetings, progress reports, notebooks, the anonymous peer evaluation and any other evidence you might have of individual contributions. It would be rare for a student to deviate by more than a grade level from the team grade, but particularly good or particularly poor students may have a wider range. For example, if the team receives a B+, C or below for a student on the team would be rare.

While you will evaluate the team and the students, the course coordinator has the sole responsibility of assigning the final grade.

Final Thoughts

Have fun and take advantage of having some bright students working on your project. We can't guarantee that they will come up with exactly what you or they wanted, but if the students learn, and you get some added value from the project, it will be a grand success.