PoE : Fall 2013

aka. Principles of Engineering / ENGR2210

http://courses.olinarchive.org/2013-fall/ENGR2210

(or http://tiny.cc/poe13f)

Instructors and NINJAs

  Chris Murphy, christopher.murphy@olin.edu

  José Oscar Mur-Miranda, JoseOscar.Mur-Miranda@olin.edu

  Gui Cavalcanti, gui@olin.edu

  Kate Maschan, Katherine.Maschan@students.olin.edu

  Ian Daniher, Ian.Daniher@students.olin.edu

  Nikolay Lapin, Nikolay.Lapin@students.olin.edu

Credits: 4 ENGR (4-4-4)

Prerequisites: ENGR 1110

Grading: ⅓ Labs, ⅔ Project

Course Description

Through a significant project experience, students will learn to integrate analysis, qualitative design, quantitative optimization, experiments, and simulations to improve their ability to engineer real systems. Students will work in small multidisciplinary teams to design and to build a mechatronic system of their own choosing. Each project must include both a nontrivial mechanical system design and a nontrivial electronic system design involving both hardware and software components. Projects will be subject to realistic materials, process, and budgetary constraints.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to

• Work effectively as a member of a project team.
• Develop design concepts and create technical specifications that address defined needs.
• Balance tradeoffs and make defensible choices among design alternatives. Use modern tools to construct mechatronic systems. Assess and select appropriate components for mechatronic systems.
• Use written, oral, and graphical communication to convey design ideas and solutions, electronic system analyses, and experimental results.

Labs

  During the first third of the semester, you will be working in groups of two or three on a series of labs in which you will gain experience working with the Arduino microcontroller.  Each lab group will submit a joint lab report for each lab.  Microcontrollers are essentially single-chip computers, with a small amount of data and program memory, and a host of peripheral devices that are useful in embedded systems and computer interfaces. You will be learning how to build circuits around these processors, how to write firmware for them, how to program them, and how to use those peripherals that are most relevant to designing mechatronic systems.

Project

  During the last two thirds of the semester, you will be working in a group of three to five students in the class on a design project of your own choosing.  We may provide some project suggestions, which you can adopt, modify, or ignore and devise your own.  At the start of the project phase of the course, each group will be required to submit a brief project pre-proposal sketching out your project idea.  Then, one week into the project phase of the course, each group will turn in a project proposal, which more fully specifies the system you would like to design and prototype. As the project progresses, each group will be required to schedule and deliver two oral design reviews, detailing the progress of your project. Finally, at the end of the semester, each group will need to submit a final report, documenting the entire project. Your report can either be a written report or a project web site. On the last day of class, each group will be required to provide a demo of their prototype for all of the other students in the class.

Course Policies

Late Reports/Milestones:

  Lab reports and project milestones will be due in class on the announced dates. Late reports/milestones will be penalized at a rate of up to 5% per day or fraction thereof.

Project Budgets:

  Each project group will have a total project budget of $250 to cover the cost of materials, supplies, fabrication, and shipping.  One component of this course is working within time and dollar budgets.  Please expect this limit to be firm.

Reimbursing Project Supplies:

  Electronic components should generally be ordered through the ECE Stockroom. To purchase other types of supplies, there are two options:

• Fill out the “Request to Process Order Form” which is an Excel spreadsheet located in the “Student Projects” folder on the public drive. You can fill it out and e-mail it to your instructor, and he will forward it on to one of the administrative assistants for processing.
• Purchase them yourself and get reimbursed. To do so, you will need to provide original receipts, fill out a copy of the “Student Reimbursement Form,” which is also an Excel spreadsheet located on the public drive in the “Student Projects” folder, have your instructor sign it, and turn it in to Holly Bennett (MH 360) or Paul Coveney (MH 250).

Notes on Reimbursement:

• Olin will not reimburse you for purchases made from another student in the class. In such cases, the student who made the original purchase and has the original receipt should seek reimbursement.  This is true even of “bulk purchases”.
• You must have direct deposit set up with the College in order to be reimbursed.
• Olin generally refuses to reimburse expedited shipping.  Make your orders well before you need the items.