Product Design Project

Southern University of Science and Technology

OVERVIEW. This is a team project in which your team will design a solution to a problem of your
choice using the design methods and engineering expression skills (freehand sketching, CAD) you’ve
hopefully acquired during this class. Besides giving you a chance to apply your CAD skills, this project
will introduce you to the product design process. It will also provide an opportunity to hone your
presentation skills with a focus on graphic communication of engineering design.

You can find your own group before the end of week 6, or you will be randomly assigned to different
groups. You can check blackboard to find what team you have been assigned to in week 7.

The project phases along with respective grade weightings are:

1. Problem Definition (15%), which includes individual brainstorming (5%), 3-idea poster (5%) and
problem definition report (5%).
2. Proposed Concept (15%), which includes first submission of concept design report (10%) and
the refined concept design report (5%)
3. Final Solution (40%)
4. Comprehensive Presentation and Overall Performance (30%)

INSTRUCTIONS. Complete the phases detailed below and submit the deliverables in the blackboard
by their respective due dates. The phases are part of a typical product design process.

SCORING. This group project is the basis for a significant portion of your final course grade as defined
in your syllabus. Scoring for each phase is defined above and all deliverables must be substantially
complete to receive any credit for this project.
The scoring for each deliverable will be based on the following criteria:
Content: Did you do what was instructed?
Formatting: Did you do it how you were instructed?
Apparent Effort: Does it look like you tried hard?
Professionalism: Includes punctuality, preparedness, participation, respect for others, etc.

To encourage participation from each team member, 5% bonus score will be awarded to the team that
show remarkable effort, and after the entire project has been completed, you will be asked to assess
the contributions of each team member (including yourself) and the results will be used to modify
overall project scores. The form “Product Design Project Peer Assessments.docx” will be used for
this purpose and it details how the results will be used.

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Phase 1: Problem Definition
During the problem definition phase, you will be selecting your project and defining the requirements
(no SolidWorks modeling yet).
The primary goal of your project is to design an assembly of components and to utilize SolidWorks or
any CAD software of your choice for the design. You can choose any project you want subject to the
following requirements:
1. The project must contain at least one part (of moderate or above complexity) per team member.
2. There must be an overall assembly containing the parts designed by each team member.

Phase 1-1 Individual Brainstorming

Review the project instruction and projects from past years
(https://space.bilibili.com/507409196 or http://me102.mee.sustech.edu.cn/#/gallery/project) before you
start. Spend some time thinking about topics that you are passionate about. Once you have some ideas,
you can simple ‘doodle’ sketches or annotations in your notebook. You should come up with a
minimum of 20 ideas. In this case quantity really does matter, so having many more is much better.
Once you have reached your limit, pick your top 5 using an idea selection method of your choice. All
top 5 ideas that you choose should be ones that you would be happy pursuing over the rest of the term
with your team. Also be sure to do some preliminary research to help you support your ideas in the
team discussion.
Prepare a simple annotated sketch to explain each of the 5 ideas and the situation that motives each
idea. Each annotated idea sketch must be on a separate sheet of A4 paper. On each sheet include: the
idea’s name, the situation/observation that leads to the idea, your vision about it (if the team chooses
this topic, what do you expect to achieve by the end of the semester).

Phase 1-2 Three-Idea Poster

Your team will prepare 3 electric posters illustrating your team’s three best ideas for the team project.
Your team will prepare electric posters illustrating your team’s top choices. The idea number can vary
from 2 to 4, depending on your preference. Each idea will be presented in a single poster. Each idea
poster should include a simple sketch and key talking points, such as team passion, team vision,
and technical feasibility assessment. Please also list the references you have collected so far at the
bottom of the poster. With a glance, a viewer should ‘get the idea’. Remember that clean simple
posters work well. Since the ideas are quite unformed by this time, using gestural sketch-like
representations is more appropriate than realistic models. You can either use the poster template
provided or design your own template.
Phase 1-3 Problem definition report

For this phase, you will meet with teammates to make decision for the final topic for the whole
team. For this phase, you need to submit a problem definition report that includes a simple
sketch, one paragraph statement that describes the elements you plan to present (your vision in
detail) for the final video and poster expression, and one paragraph design specification that lists
the problems or tech issues your need to overcome. Please also list the references you have
collected for this topic in the end.
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Phase 2: Concept Design

The following steps will be helpful for completing the concept generation phase.
1. Individually, all members come up with 3 concept ideas to achieve the vision you proposed in the
problem definition report. Do so by talking with other people you know about the project. What would
they want in a product like this? What would they not want, or be annoyed with? Do they have design
ideas? Also look at existing similar products and websites of similar products.

2. Next, meet as a team and discuss all concept ideas. Let everyone present their ideas and then
brainstorm as a team. The team might choose to go with one of the really good ideas presented, merge
some of the good aspects of several ideas, or might generate new ideas.

3. Finally, your team must choose a single concept idea to go with. Making rough hand-sketches may
be helpful. Vote as a group on which design to go with, if it is not unanimous.

For phase 2, turn in the following:

1. A title page containing:
a. Project title/name
b. Team number and team members
2. A brief paragraph that refers to a concept sketch to describe how your design will work
3. A tentative list of all the parts (e.g. housing, guide, mounting plate, etc.) with quantities in your
design including any hardware (screws, bearings, motors, sensors, etc.) This is commonly called a Bill
of Materials (BOM). Include the material that you anticipate using for each part.
4. A list of who will model each part and the overall assembly.
a. Each member must be responsible for a minimum of one custom component (e.g. being
responsible for a purchased screw is not sufficient).
5. A sketch of the concept idea (can be CAD or hand drawn and 3D or 2D). Ideally, this will be
imbedded in your document but it can be a separate file (pdf, jpg, etc.).
6. References

Then all teams will have consulting meeting with the course instructor. Feedback will be provided
during the meeting. The group will need to submit a refined concept report.

Phase 3: Detailed Design

Meet as a team and divide the individual parts of your design between members. There must be at least
one part for each member to do.
For their assigned parts, each member is to:
1. Finalize the design and small details of their part(s)
2. Model their part(s) in SOLIDWORKS

After individual parts are modeled, meet as a team and put your parts together in an assembly. An
interference check in SOLIDWORKS will be helpful at this point for identifying issues. Make any
modifications necessary and update the respective drawings. You can use the 3D model and assembly
to express your visons. Rendering, exploded assembly and motion study are useful graphic elements
for your comprehensive expression.
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Phase 4: Design Comprehensive Presentation

Make a presentation using combined 3-minute video, a poster and possible sketch up model.

For the 3-minute video, you want to do these things:

1. Briefly explain the context of the project: what are the needs, what’s the problem and what were
your main design requirements.
2. Present your solution using 3D models, animations, etc. to do so. The audience should completely
understand how your solution works. If applicable, discuss how your design is used (set-up, usage,
takedown/storage). DO NOT just talk about each individual part. Instead focus on how your design
functions, its features/advantages/disadvantages, etc.
3. Convince your audience, with evidence, that your solution will meet the needs of the problem. You
should discuss how your design addresses EACH of the design requirements/constraints/challenges.
For the poster, it should include a fully assembly model and key talking points, such as team vision,
problem or tech issues you have solved, reflection on alignment between the team vision you
proposed initially (check your problem definition report) and your current achievement. Your
reflection can be organized to include the answers for the following questions?
i. Does your current achievement meet the customer needs (your team’s passion, team vision)
you proposed in the definition report?
ii. If the answer is yes, please share your findings to make sure the project go well as expected. If
the answer is no, please explain why (possible reasons: time management, not enough effective
resources to refer to, team collaboration, tech constrains such as familiarity of the CAD model,
video editing skills, application limits of SolidWorks in motion study etc.).
iii. Image you would redo this project, what would you do to improve the outcome?
iv. List all the references (websites, papers, patents etc.) (You can use another page to list
references)
Final submission: All 3D model files, assembly files, 3-minute video and poster. Please zip all files
and send it through Blackboard.