2.

Project Planning and Proposal Development: Case Study I

Dr. Kazuhiro Saitou Associate Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Michigan
2.1 Background 2.2 Information gathering 2.3 Project planning 2.4 Proposal development 2.5 Proposal submission 2.6 Concluding remarks

2.1 Background

Project life cycle

Information gathering
Program announcement Merit review criteria

Project planning
Idea, idea, idea Identifying what, why, how

Proposal development
Project summary Project description budget

Proposal submission

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Background

Structural analysis

Structural synthesis

Simulation of deformation under loads

Optimization of product geometry using structural analysis

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Background

Project scope

Method for synthesis of multi-component structural assembly considering:

Structural performances Manufacturing and assembly costs

Software implementation of the method

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Background

NSF CAREER Award

Faculty Early Career Development Program 5-year with $400K Emphasize integration of research and education Industry matching funds to encourage industry collaboration

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Background

Project summary

1999 competition (rules slightly vary) (4+1) year project with ~$420K NSF CAREER Award + contract with Toyota 1 MS and 3 PhD students in 4 years

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Outline

Background Information gathering Project planning Proposal development Proposal submission Concluding remarks

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2.2 Information gathering

Program announcement

Email news letters Emails from College Internet resources*

* sample materials in appendices 2.1 2.6

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Information gathering

Merit review criteria (used by review panels)

What is the intellectual merit?

How important within/outside of the field? PI(s) qualified? Original and creative? Well planned? Access to necessary resources?

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Information gathering

Merit review criteria (used by review panels)

What are the broader impacts?

Promotes teaching training, and learning? Enhance infrastructure of research and education? Disseminated broadly? Benefit to society?

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Outline

Background Information gathering Project planning Proposal development Proposal submission Concluding remarks

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Project planning

Idea, idea, idea!!

Problem must be new and important Approach must be innovative and effective Must meet merit review criteria

Intellectual merit? Broader impacts?

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Project planning

Idea, idea, idea!! :: My case

Structural products are made of numerous parts Product shape decomposed to part shapes Small parts need many joints that waken structure Large parts are strong but too costly to produce What is optimal decomposition?

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Project planning

Identify What-Why-How

What are you going to do? (Objective) Why it is important? (Motivation)

intellectual merit broader impacts Never done or not well done before Research questions Approach to research questions

How are you going to do? (Approach)

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Project planning

Identify What-Why-How :: My case

What are you going to do?

Synthesis of multi-component structural assembly via decomposition, considering

Structural performances Manufacturing and assembly costs

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Project planning

Identify What-Why-How :: My case

Why it is important?

Bad decomposition affects subsequent part design; cost of re-work is enormous Best practice not known for hybrids, fuel cells, and electric vehicles

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Project planning

Identify What-Why-How :: My case

How are you going to do?

1) transform the problem as graph decomposition 2) solve by using structural analysis and optimization

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Project planning

Literature review

Goal: Prove your research is indeed in blank area

your work

Utilize on-line resources Be careful -- faulty statements on the state-of-theart can kill the proposal
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Project planning

Literature review :: My case

Structural synthesis

Many papers on single-part structure Many papers on multi-part structure with given part boundary No papers on synthesis of part boundary considering structural performances Many papers on improving given part designs for easy manufacturing Many papers on improving given part designs for easy assembly No papers on synthesis of part boundary considering manufacturing and assembly costs
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Design for manufacturing and assembly

Project planning

Industry collaboration

Encouraged by CAREER via matching fund system (existed in 1999; not anymore) Industry endorsement letter can be in Appendix Works if practical case studies are desired IP issues among university, government, and company must be sorted out in advance. Who will own the rights to inventions?
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Project planning

Industry collaboration :: My case

Approached to Toyota after 1st attempt

Submitted in July 1998. Proposal turned down in March 1999. Submitted in July 1999. Proposal got through in March 2000. Endorsement letter for the 2nd submission

Contracted with Toyota right after 2nd attempt

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Outline

Background Information gathering Project planning Proposal development Proposal submission Concluding remarks

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2.4 Proposal development

Required contents (from GPG):

1. Cover sheet 2. Project summary (1 pg) 3. Table of contents 4. Project description (+ results form prior NSF support) (15 pgs) 5. References cited 6. Biographical sketches (2 page max) 7. Budget 8. Current and pending support 9. Facilities, equipment, and other resources 10. Special information and supplementary documentation 11. Appendices

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Proposal development

Project summary (1 page)

First thing reviewers read Self-contained summary of proposal Must include:

statement of objective method to be employed separate statements of (1) intellectual merit and (2) broader impacts

Proposals that do not separately address both merit review criteria will be returned without review.

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Proposal development

Project description (15 pages)

Typical format

Section 1: Objective and motivation (what + why & how) Section 2: Literature review (why) Section 3: Proposed approach (how) Section 4: Preliminary results (how) Section 5: Schedule and milestones (how)

An anonymous NSF Program Director said In page 1, tell me what, how, and why. In the rest of 14 pages, convince me that I can trust you.

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Proposal development

Project description (15 pages) :: My case

Objective

Synthesis of multi-component structural assembly Bad decomposition affects subsequent part design; cost of re-work is enormous Best practice not known for hybrids, fuel cells, and electric vehicles No papers on synthesis of part boundary considering structural performances No papers on synthesis of part boundary considering manufacturing and assembly costs
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Motivation

Literature review

Proposal development

Project description (15 pages) :: My case

Proposed approach

1) transform the problem as graph decomposition 2) solve by using structural analysis and optimization

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Proposal development

Final polish-up

Ask a senior colleague in somewhat distant area to review A anonymous multi-million $ NSF proposal winner said In the end, I asked a high school senior to read the proposals to make sure logic is perfectly clear

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Outline

Background Information gathering Project planning Proposal development Proposal submission Concluding remarks

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2.5 Proposal submission

Proposal submission in hard copy form is rare Electronic submission more common

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Outline

Background Information gathering Project planning Proposal development Proposal submission Concluding remarks

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2.6 Concluding remarks

A to Z for proposal development in a nutshell

Detailed guideline and clear review criteria Good proposal = excellent idea + what-why-how Plan well, then writing is a snap

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Concluding remarks

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