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Assignment
for One Credit Unit Letter Grade Option
Introduction
Projects for students taking the course for 1 credit unit with a
letter grade are called Individual Projects and are designed to be less
time-consuming for a student whose schedule does not permit working on a
team-based project but wishes to receive a letter grade and one credit unit.
Students working on an individual project must meet with the course instructor
during the first or second week of classes to discuss and agree upon the
specifics of the project. Also see Required Course and Individual Project
Activities below.
Individual Projects differ from Team Projects in that they
(Individual Projects) address simpler problems, have less complex solutions,
may not involve a user, or result in a lower level of prototype functionality
(such as producing a CAD design rather than a working physical
prototype).
Optionally, two students may work collectively on an Individual
Project as a way of enhancing their project experiences and making Individual
Projects more appealing to students currently on the Team Project Wait List. It
is still be offered as 1 credit unit and requires attendance in at least 10
class sessions.
Overview
For your assignment you are asked to choose and pursue a specific
project activity listed below, present your work, submit a final comprehensive
final project report that encompasses your efforts for the entire quarter, and
reflect on your experiences. If appropriate, interview an individual with a
disability or an older adult (or family members or health care
professionals).
Contents
Required Course and Individual Project Activities
Students working on an individual project for one credit unit and
a letter grade are asked to pursue and report on the following tasks /
activities. Note that these tasks / activities are not necessarily meant to be
performed in chronological order.
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Participate fully in the class including attending lectures
as required, listening actively, posing questions to the guest speakers and the
course instructor, engaging in class discussions, verbalizing thoughts and
analyses, reading and responding to emails from the course instructor, and
communicating project progress.
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Attend at least 10 lectures, including the first lecture,
Course Overview & Introduction to Assistive
Technology. Sign the Attendance Sheet to verify your
presence.
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Review the Candidate
Individual Project offerings.
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Focus on one of these activities that
relates to or would potentially benefit the interviewed older adult or
individual with a disability:
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Research an assistive technology topic - report on new
products and research under development.
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Pursue a "paper design" of an assistive technology device -
develop a CAD design or a "low resolution" physical device built from foam-core
or other prototyping material.
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Create a work of art - create an original poem, song, skit,
painting, or video. (This option would be of particular interest to students
who have skills and expertise other than engineering.)
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Engage in an aftermarket aesthetic design - select an
existing assistive product that could benefit from a better appearance, contact
the manufacturer, and work with a user of the device to improve its aesthetic
appeal.
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Engage in an aftermarket functionality / usability design -
select an existing assistive product that could benefit from a better
functionality or usability, contact the manufacturer, and work with a user of
the device to improve its functionality or usability.
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Pursue a project from the Candidate Individual Projects List -
interview an individual with a disability or older adult to get a better
understanding of the individual's life, challenges being faced, successes
achieved, and desires for the future. Review assistive technology used, their
usefulness and limitations, problems experienced, and similar products on the
market.
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Meet with the course instructor to agree
on an assistive technology project and how to report progress during the
quarter.
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Give a final presentation of about 15
minutes in length to be scheduled outside of class time during the week of
March 4th that includes PowerPoint slides,
photographs, and short videos as described below.
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Submit a final report that documents the entire quarter's
effort and addresses the elements described below.
Individual final reports are due Monday, March
18th.
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Compose an Individual
Reflection as described below. Individual
reflections are due Monday, March
18th.
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Individual Project Presentation
Week of March 4th
Schedule a presentation date and time during the Week of March 4th with the course instructor.
Describe your project work in a 15-minute presentation that may employ
PowerPoint slides, photographs, and short videos. Other students and community
members may be in attendance. Your presentation should include the following
elements:
- Personal introduction
- Brief project
description
- Overview of the interview with the
older adult or individual with a disability
- Review of assistive technology
employed
- Choice of and rationale for the
selected project activity benefitting the interviewee:
- Discussion of project activity
process: background research, alternatives considered, selected approach,
rationale for choice, prototypes made, and final design
- Project visualizations: photographs,
videos, sketches, drawings, models, prototypes
- Activity demonstration (as
appropriate, depending on project choice)
- Future work and challenges for
continuing the project, including technical feasibility, engineering
difficulty, estimated cost of a commercial product, and market potential (as
appropriate, depending on project choice)
The teaching team, your classmates, and others in attendance will
be judged on the process you employed, your prototype on its overall design,
and your presentation on its overall quality using the following
metrics:
- Delivery: (How the student
presented) - professionalism, enthusiasm, conviction, confidence, energy,
volume
- Process: (How the student
addressed the problem) - problem information, background research, design
concepts brainstormed, selected, and protoyped & prototyped, testing, and
evaluation
- Presentation: (What the
student presented) - clarity, organization, and completeness of the information
presented
- Design: (What the student
fabricated) - creativity, originality, functionality of the design prototype as
well as the extent to which it meets the user's needs
- Overall: (Overall score) -
combined impression of presentation and project
Other presentation considerations and suggestions:
- Anticipate questions from those in
attendance.
- There may be people from industry
attending the presentation, so please dress professionally (no jeans, t-shirts,
or flip-flops).
- Most important - practice your
presentation to maximize the quality of its content, clarity, conciseness,
completeness, understanding of your design decisions, creativity, pacing, and
timing.
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Individual
Project Report
Due Monday - March 18th at
5pm
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Your report should include all your efforts for the quarter
including background research, user interaction, evolution of ideas, etc. Your
team's report should be at least 10 pages in length.
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Your team's end-of-term report should be submitted by email is due
on Monday, March 18th by 5pm. The suggested
format is:
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Cover page - include course name & year, project title,
team name, team member's names, and team members' photos (do not include a page
number on the cover page)
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Abstract - one paragraph summary of objectives, approach
taken, and results of the project
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Introduction - problem to be addressed, problem
background
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Objectives - project goals and rationale
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Design criteria - background research, interviews with
project suggestors and potential users, design specifications, brainstormed
design alternatives (at least 3)
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Methods - what did your team do and why - include any
sketching, prototyping, model building, preliminary testing, analyses of design
alternatives
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Results - discuss specifics of your design alternatives
such as features, benefits, aesthetics, cost, safety, reliability, usability,
test results, feedback from users, etc.
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Discussion - include engineering challenges and suggestions
to further develop and fabricate a chosen design
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Next steps - assuming this project will be pursued in ME113
or as directed study, identify future challenges and include a timetable of
major tasks to produce and test a functional prototype
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Additional - optionally address issues relating to
commercialization including technical feasibility, engineering difficulties,
safety considerations, potential manufacturing, cost of materials, mass
production, marketing, advertising, distribution, sales, licensing,
etc
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Images - embed photographs, drawings, graphs, and sketches
documenting your design process and activities throughout the body of the
document, not at the end
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References - bibliographic and web
citations
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Acknowledgements - mention all individuals and facilities
who helped your team
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Appendices - detailed sketches, calculations, testing
notes, relevant vendor information, etc. that are referenced in the main body
of the report
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Please submit your report in Word or PDF format by
email.
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This course has received a Cardinal Course Grant Award
(2019) from the Haas Center for Public Service and the Community Engaged
Learning and Research (CELR) Team. One condition of this support is that
abstracts from students' Final Project Reports be shared with them. (The
content will be anonymized by redacting text that identifies the student, the
project partners, and users.)
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Individual
Reflection
Due Monday - March 18th at
5pm
Reflect on your class and project experiences. Provide a
discussion (two pages minimum) of your design process, what you learned, and
what was most valuable to you individually. Here are some items to consider and
address:
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Review
Learning through Structured
Reflection article.
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You have spent the past quarter hearing from different
professionals and users, interviewing community members, brainstorming with
your instructor, doing background research, looking at prior art, fabricating
and testing a prototype device, etc. Please comment on the relative value of
the different parts of this process toward your design.
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How did the different interactions in the class (with users,
community members, speakers, professionals, etc.) contribute to the results of
your design? Was any particular interaction especially rewarding or helpful?
Why?
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If you were to go through this process again, what would you do
differently? Was there support from the teaching staff or course content that
was helpful or that you felt was missing? What advice would you give to future
students?
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Additional questions to be considered for your reflection can be
found here.
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Submit your report in Word or pdf format by email.
This course has received a Cardinal Course Grant Award
(2019) from the Haas Center for Public Service and the Community Engaged
Learning and Research (CELR) Team. One condition of this support is that
students' Individual Reflections be shared with them. (The content will be
anonymized by redacting text that identifies the student, the project partners,
and users.) top
Grading
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Final
Report
Final Presentation
Individual Reflection
Participation
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30%
30%
10%
30% |
- * Participation includes meeting
with instructor, actively listening, posing questions to the guest speakers and
the course instructor, engaging in class discussions, verbalizing thoughts and
analyses, and submitting Weekly Individual
Reports.
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