Chapter 4: Final Design
Chapter 4 Goal
Now that the project has progressed from initial problem identification through the design exploration process, teams turn their focus for Chapter 4 to documenting their final solution’s prototype, development and testing process, results and the solution’s impact.
Chapter 4 should begin with a strong transition from the Detail Design (Chapter 3) section of the Design Report. Discuss the final design with the below-listed areas as guidance. Remember, every project is unique and some of the sections below may not be applicable. The items below are representative—each team’s project is unique and this chapter should be reflective of their final design.
Prototype Development
- Describe the process used to create prototype.
- Show photographs, sketches, etc.
- Provide a written discussion of your prototype-build process including any difficulties you had creating it or compromises you made.
- Provide a simple explanation of the ideal set of materials and tools that would have helped you build your prototype more effectively.
- What can you still learn from the existing prototype (leading into next section)?
Analysis of Validation Results Summary (put detail in Appendix)
This should be a summary/discussion of prototype testing. Be sure to:
- Display and discuss the results of tests and how well you achieved the three needs.
- Discuss concluding remarks of the results.
Design Refinements
- Based upon your test results, describe recommended design changes for the final release.
- Justify how these changes better meet needs/specifications.
Risk Assessment
Describe the potential failure modes of your prototype. How do these impact meeting your needs/specifications?.
Business Case.
Finalize the business model for your project.
Project Impact
Your objective is to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors. Through this process you should also recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts. This section of your Final Design document should address the impacts of your project in each of the following contexts: Economic, Global, Environmental, Societal. If you judge that your project has NO impact in one of these contexts, you must justify this determination.
Budget
Include an updated budget breakdown. Each team starts with approximately $3,500 to use for fabrication, tooling, measuring equipment, etc. Update the budget to account for funds used, remaining, and remove previous chapter’s version of the budget.
Future Work
Include a detailed discussion of potential future work that would improve the impact of your solution. This section will likely be the starting point for teams in the future, so be sure to carefully consider any suggestions made. Justify all suggestions by including data, images, sketches, theory, etc. Include estimated timelines to complete future work. Discuss potential risks/mitigation strategies. If suggestions include purchasing new equipment, provide potential vendors. Revisit your needs/specifications. Based on your design process and prototype results, can you justify any changes to needs/specs and their priority rankings? Consider any problems encountered in your solution process. If you feel these could be problems again in the future, how would you change your approach?
Conclusion
The final section of Chapter 4 should synthesize the team’s work over the course of this year-long project and the culminating results. This should also include:
- a discussion of areas of concern (as necessary),
- an acknowledgment of the Gantt Chart (what milestones were achieved),
- a discussion of risks, and
- any future considerations.
REFERENCES
The reference list should be updated to include all references in the design document. Teams can use either APA or IEEE citation style, but style must be consistently used throughout the document (both in the reference list and in all in-text citations).
APPENDIX
The final document appendices should include the following (as appropriate to the project):
- Original Project Statement [PowerPoint Presentation from beginning of Autumn Semester]
- Team Charter [Signed]
- Detailed Interview Results
- Detailed Research Results
- Problem Identification Definition Presentation PowerPoint (6 slides per page, omit notes)
- Preliminary Design Review Presentation PowerPoint (6 slides per page, omit notes)
- Critical Design Review Presentation PowerPoint (6 slides per page, omit notes)
- Final Design Review Presentation PowerPoint (6 slides per page, omit notes)
- Project Schedule Update Gantt Chart (or other scheduling tracking application) including more detail for each high-level activity.
- Concept Sketches [Provide any additional concept sketches not included in the design document]
- Detail Validation Results/Raw Data
- User Documentation [Create written user instructions including operation, installation, service/maintenance, and troubleshooting or repair. Refer to them in text as appropriate.]
- Working Drawing Package [follow guidance here for Working Design Package.]
- Weekly Status Review Meeting Agendas, Notes, and Reports
Connection: Final Design Review
The Final Design Review is an overview of the entire project. The sponsor (and course instructors) will be assessing the team’s performance and on the engineering decisions the team made to arrive at the final product. Typically, this presentation takes 30-45 minutes depending on the audience. Usually conducted at the sponsor’s facility in front of various engineers (not just the sponsor advisor). Be sure to be informative yet concise. Include any feedback from the sponsor in the Final Design Section of the Design Document. A rubric is posted on Carmen for grading.
IMPORTANT NOTES
- All teams are required to discuss the social, environmental, and global issues associated with their solution.
- Don’t forget to update the Table of Contents, Lists of Figures and Tables, and Change Notice page for your design document.
- In your final review/revision: Ask yourselves: Does this represent our best work? Is this a coherent, consistent document (content and form) that a later audience will find comprehensive and usable?