Semester Project

1
Semester Project
Tough Problems Require Teams. - William Oakes,
Engineering Your Future
2
Why Teams in this Course?

• You will work on teams in your careers
• How many have already?
• Recruiters look for team skills
• Surveys of employers
• Better functioning teams produce better results
• A skill that needs practice
• Senior project is coming!!!!

3
Power of Teams

• Complex problems that require innovation are best
  solved by teams.
• Creative collaboration The process of shared
  creation where two or more individuals come
  together to solve a problem in a way that neither
  could have though of on their own.
• Innovation is the only competitive advantage left.

4
The Curse of Teams

• Bruised egos and Conflict
• Inevitable
• Required for creative tension
• Creative tension leads to innovation

5
Definition of Team

• Team
• A group of people who work together to achieve a
  common purpose.
• Practice five tenets of cooperative learning
• Group
• Collection of individuals
• No common purpose
• Do not follow five tenets

6
Five Tenets

• Positive interdependence
• Rely on each other to accomplish goals
• If a member fail to do their part all suffer
• Individual Accountability
• For individual work
• Understanding all parts of final product

7
Five Tenets Continues

• Face-to-face promotive interaction
• Mutual feedback
• Give and take guidance
• Challenge on another
• Appropriate use of teamwork skills
• Leadership, Communication, Conflict management
  and Decision making
• Regular assessment of team functioning
• Periodically asses functioning of the team

8
So Youre Going to be a Member of a Team. . .

• Have you experienced some of the problems
  discussed in the article?
• What has been your best and worst experiences on
  a team?

9
Brainstorming Basics

• Pursue quantity first
• No criticism allowed
• Humor encouraged
• No judgment allowed
• No evaluation allowed
• Think laterally, uninhibited thinking
• Build on the ideas of others
• Set goals and time limit
• Race do not think

10
Example of Piggy Backed Ideas

• Problem Ice and snow on power lines Cause
  Failure
• Train of ideas
• Shake power lines
• Bears to shake lines
• Pour honey on towers
• Use helicopter to pour honey
• Just use the helicopter

11
Team Roles

• Facilitator
• responsible for making this process run smoothly
• keeping people on task
• making sure that everyone participates
• Notetaker
• keep track of the items generated during the
  brainstorming
• Time Keeper
• timing the activities
• reminding the team of how much time is left.

12
Responsibilities of Members

• Five minutes of brainstorming and 50 ideas
• Example Come to meetings on time
• Lists will be used to evaluate your teamwork
• Everyone should participate

13
Responsibilities of the Team

• Rotate rolls
• Five minutes of brainstorming
• Example Try to schedule meetings when all
  members can attend
• Everyone should participate
• Lists will be used to evaluate your teamwork

14
Processing the Results

• Rank items in each list. Which are most
  important?
• Use consensus
• Ten minutes for this exercise
• Notetaker to record the list

15
Reflections on Team Behavior

• Compare team behavior to to the characteristics
  of a good team performance on page 144 of
  article.
• 1, 2,3,7,8,9 and 10
• What went well?
• What could be improved?
• Rotate Rolls
• 5 minutes

16
Team Hands In

• Refine your lists and their rankings
• Finalize the list
• Hand in signed list Next Week
• Document becomes team Contract
• Place on first page of Team Notebook

17
Each Individual Hands In

• Confidential assessment of how you functioned on
  team.
• Confidential assessment of how the team
  functioned.
• Refer to article.
• Your response the the team building effort
• Activities worthwhile?
• Should teamwork be part of this course?
• What other activities would you recommend?
• Concerns that you would like to share?

18
Team Member Evaluation Instrument

• Create a Confidential Group Member Evaluation
  Form
• Allow at least 4 levels of distinction from poor
  to excellent
• Allow for written comments
• All evaluations will be kept confidential
• Used to diagnose and resolve problems
• Post on Blackboard site

19
Break For Ten Minutes
20
The Design Process
21
The Design Process
22
Specifications

• Specification are . . .
• What the product must do
• Measurable
• Precise
• Example 0-60 acceleration lt 10 seconds
• Specifications are not . . .
• How a product works Product will have a turbo
• Vague car must be fast

23
Constraints

• Constraints - Physical and practical limitations
  that will reduce the number of feasible solutions
• Time
• Cost
• Manufacturing Facility
• Existing Parts
• Size

24
Conceptual Design

• Come up with as many ways to solve the problem as
  possible
• Research existing solutions
• Brainstorm
• Morphological List
• Solution can not be better than the alternatives
  generated
• Beginner Mistake - develop first alternative

25
Analyze/Refine

• Analyze many solutions to come up with a few
  feasible solutions (brainstorming)
• Further reflection reveals some ideas not
  feasible
• Some ideas need to be modified to be feasible
• Generate design selection criteria
• Compare solutions based on criteria
• Identify one to develop
• Decision matrix often used

26
Prototype/Testing

• Build the Prototype or parts of product to test
• Meet specifications
• Meet constraints?
• Safe and Effective?

27
Iterate

• Do it over again
• Seldom does the first design go to market
• Your semester projects most likely will not work
  first time
• Iterations Expected on Design Projects!!!

28
Clothes Guard

• Julie
• Chad

29
Garbage Can Gripper

• Craig
• Dan
• Brian
• Need Three times to see truck

30
Mobil Robot Gripper

• Kevin
• Scott

31
Mobil Robot Chassis

• Andy
• Javier

32
Preliminary Plan

• Include Next Three Weeks at a Minimum
• When will you be meeting
• Who will play what roles at each meeting
• Purpose of each meeting
• What will be done in the meeting and what will be
  done outside of a meeting
• When will you be trying to meet with your outside
  contacts.
• Approve before you leave and post on Blackboard