Preface

This section discusses how you will capture the engineering design process. You will be asked to capture the design process;

In your engineering notebook
In a project portfolio (electronic / hardcopy / or both)
In a presentation format for your presentation throughout the year and at the end of the course.
(Optional) Your instructor may require another type of portfolio our a course binder as well.

Resource β is the introduction to Element M Presentation of the Project Portfolio and Element N Writing Like an Engineer. These should be referenced throughout the design process. Technical communication and technical writing are critical professional skills for students to master. Students should work to remove the “language of affection” and instead use the “language of report.”

Understandings

There are principles and practices related academic research. Topic selection and design decisions should be research driven and driven data whenever possible.
There are principles, practices, and techniques related to technical writing.
There are principles and practices related to documenting an engineering design process that allow teams to work effectively, preserve the work allowing continuation at a later date, and protect the designer’s intellectual property.
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, utilizing resources to achieve specific goals.
Relevant principles and practices of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) should be used to inform and justify design choices. They should be evident and well documented in an engineering design process.
Individuals and other entities put extraordinary effort into protecting their intellectual property so they can control who has access to and use of their work. Intellectual property protections allow individuals or companies to maintain rights to profit from their ideas.
There are many stakeholders involved in an open ended engineering design process.
The ability to communicate as a professional is a critical skill for engineers.
Engineering design projects are typically peer reviewed. Stakeholder feedback and design reviews help guide engineers through the design process.
Presentation of this design process and project findings are critical to the engineering design process.

Knowledge and Skills
It is expected that students will...

Apply ethical standards recognized by the engineering community in all aspects of design.
Use an engineering design process to help guide them through an open ended design problem.
Create documentation to support understanding of a design process that captures critical waypoints in the design process.
Develop professional and project planning skills to complete a design process successfully.
Identify a problem and justify development of a solution from an academic, ethical, or market perspective.
Identify and evaluate current and past solution attempts.
Develop multiple possible solutions ideas.
Create a prototype with a valid testing plan.
Interpret testing results and summarize.
Present the design process to a technical group with an understanding of the design process or the identified problem. Students will present their findings and defend process decisions.

Essential Questions

Did I document each step of the design process in this portfolio well enough that anyone else interested in the problem could pick up this work and both replicate what I have done as well as continue working from where I ended up?
Throughout the entire portfolio, were the explanations, descriptions and information in each section developed and presented with a wide variety of readers in mind?
Is my portfolio more of a scrapbook of disjointed or entries or is it a well written and documented account of my work throughout the design process?

Assessment

Element M - Presentation of the Project Portfolio

The portfolio provides consistently clear, detailed, and extensive documentation of the design process and project that would with certainty facilitate subsequent replication and refinement by the designer(s) and/or others.
Attention to audience and purpose was abundantly evident in the choice of mode(s) of presentation, professionalism of style and tone, and the variety, quality, and suitability of supporting materials.

Element N - Writing like an Engineer

Abundant evidence of the ability to write consistently clear and well organized texts that are developed to the fullest degree suitable for the audience and purposes intended (to explain, question, persuade etc.).
Texts consistently demonstrate the ability to adjust language, style and tone to address the needs and interests of a variety of audiences (e.g., expert, informed, general/lay audience) and to use a wide variety of forms which are commonplace among STEM disciplines (e.g., notes, descriptive / narrative accounts, research reports).
Where required by convention, appropriate documentation in standardized form (e.g., APA) is consistently evident.

References

Abts, Leigh. (2011). Analysis of the barriers, constraints and issues for dual credit and / or an advanced placement® pathway for introduction to engineering. American Society for Engineering Education.
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Grissom, F. & Pressmen, D. (2008). Inventor’s notebook: A “patent it yourself” companion. (5^th ed.). Berkely, CA: Nolo.
Industrial Designers Society of America. (2009). Okala: Learning ecological design. Phoenix, AZ
Innovation Portal. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.innovationportal.org/
International Technology Education Association, (2000). Standards for technological literacy. Reston, VA: ITEA.
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National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and International Reading Association (IRA) (1996). Standards for the English language arts. Newark, DE: IRA; Urbana, IL: NCTE.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.
National Research Council (NRC). (1996). National science education standards. Washington, D. C.: National Academy Press.
Pressman, D. (2009). Patent it yourself. (14^th ed.). Berkely, CA: Nolo
The American heritage college dictionary. (4th ed.). (2007). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Ulrich, K.T. & Eppinger, S.D. (2008). Product design and development. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Webster's New World College Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.yourdictionary.com/intrapreneur
Williams, M. (2008). The principles of project management. Victoria, Australia: SitePoint Pty. Ltd.