COURSE POLICY

This course represents the "capstone" of your undergraduate experience. It can prove to be very rewarding if you think of it as a PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE and conduct yourself as if you had accepted a position in an engineering firm and your firm was now pursuing a new product development project. Your success and your team's success are closely linked in this course as is the case in the "real world". We hope that you benefit in many ways from this experience and we wish you the best in your new "job". All questions related to these policies, grading, deliverables and any course requirements should be directed to Dr. Batill.

A. JOB DESCRIPTION (i.e. course requirements) - The new employees will be divided into design/build teams each containing six engineers. Each design team will be responsible for the development of an autonomous retrieval vehicle (RV) design. Each team member will contribute to the team effort as well as develop areas of individual specialization. Each team will fabricate a prototype to demonstrate the feasibility of their design. This will be a full scale prototype which will be used to demonstrate basic operational performance. Many of the subsystems for the prototype will be purchased (provided) from subcontractors. This project provides you with the opportunity to apply much of the knowledge gained and skills developed throughout your academic career. It is a very challenging project and in order to accomplish the project in the limited time available, there is a very rigid schedule and various critical milestones. There are a number of deliverable items due from individuals and from the design teams. Each "employee" should make every effort to satisfy all of these requirements in a timely manner as this is the best way to insure success in both the course and the project. This "job" will require approximately 12 hours a week total commitment on your part so please try to plan your semester’s activities accordingly. There is no "right answer" in this project. Each team will bring their own skills and energy to bear on the problem at hand. Individually and as a team, your results will depend upon your abilities as mechanical engineers and the effort you expend.

B. DESIGN TEAMS: Each team will select a Team Leader who will assume the responsibility for overall coordination, resource management and scheduling of the team’s efforts. Teams will also select a Chief Engineer, responsible for the technical coordination of all the systems which make-up the design and a Director of Manufacturing who will coordinate the fabrication of the prototype vehicle. It is the responsibility of the entire team to insure an equitable distribution of work within the team. Each major technical area will most likely have a single "lead" engineer but teams should be organized so that individuals are in multiple discipline-specialist groups and can provide a check on technical data and decisions. Establishing a good team "dynamic" will be one of the most critical requirements in this course.

C. SALARY (i.e. grading): Your salary will be determined based on your performance and that of your team. The following credit will be given to each required item.

An individual's credit for team deliverables are determined using information from the team peer reviews. Deadlines have been established for each of the deliverable items and must be strictly complied with. Failure to submit any of the required items will result in dismissal from your position (i.e. an F in the course.)

D. VACATION POLICY (i.e. attendance) This firm is particularly generous in that it provides a very liberal vacation policy for new employees. You will be permitted one and one half weeks of paid vacation, i.e. unexcused absence from any of the required "meetings". (i.e. three meeting/lab periods). The entire class will meet each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon for the meeting/design lab sessions. Your entire team must be present for the entire lab and therefore you cannot have another course, job, sleep, etc. scheduled during this period. Anyone violating this vacation policy will be terminated. (asked to withdraw from the course or receive a failing grade). It is therefore important that you schedule any interviews, plant trips, weddings, parties or extended vacations with this policy in mind. One is also reminded that the design project teams will assemble promptly at 2:00p.m. in Rm. B-19 of Fitzpatrick Hall and tardiness is not an acceptable professional practice.

E. COMPUTER POLICY: You are encouraged to use the wide range of campus computer facilities available to you. You are responsible for developing and maintaining all of your own software and archiving your own information and data. Please respect software copyrights. There will also be a course folder on AFS and the course WWW site. Each team will develop their own WWW site for their project and these team sites will be linked to the main course page. Email will be used to provide notices to all class members or to answer questions. Each engineer should regularly check their email. Limited PC’s will be available in B-19 for microprocessor programming and their use should be coordinated with other teams. You are encouraged to use the Fitzpatrick cluster during the lab period if necessary

F. DESIGN ROOM POLICY: The Mechanical Systems Design Laboratory, B-19, Fitzpatrick Hall will be available for your use whenever Fitzpatrick Hall is open. Each team will be allocated a "work-cell" which includes storage equipment, meeting area and fabrication space. The Lab also contains a general meeting area and all of the fabrication equipment to be used in this project. This Lab has been developed at considerable cost and it is the responsibility of every member of this class to make sure that the facilities and equipment in this lab are used for this course only and used in a safe and reasonable fashion. You will have access to the Lab whenever the lower level of Fitzpatrick Hall is open. The room is equipped with a combination lock, please don’t provide the combination to this room to students who are not in this course. Additional policies for the use of the Lab will be provided during the course.

G.SPENDING, COST ACCOUNTING and EQUIPMENT ACCOUNTABILITY: Each team will be allocated $150 for construction of their prototype vehicle. Use of these funds for construction of the prototype will require approval by the management upon successful evaluation of the team design at the Critical Design Review (CDR). Details for reimbursement of funds expended by the students will be provided. Original itemized receipts (not credit card receipts) must be submitted for any purchases. The team can establish their own "petty cash fund" for use in copying, view graphs and miscellaneous materials but this is limited to no more than $20 per person and all expenses incurred must be included in the detailed cost report submitted as part of the Final Proposal. Each team will be issued a number of pieces of development equipment including:

All of the issued equipment must be removed from the product, packaged as provided and returned in the same condition as issued for the team to receive the $150 reimbursement. Any lost or damaged items will be deducted from your reimbursement.

H. PROTOTYPE CONSTRUCTION A drill press, mini-lathe, vertical mill, scroll saw, shear and brake and sander are available for your use. Other 2-D and 3-D CAD/CAM facilities may also be available but permission to use these facilities must be granted by management and individual team members must be "trained" in their operation and receive explicit authorization for their use. Safety glasses MUST be worn whenever operating any of this equipment. You must also clean up the work area after using any of this equipment. There is also the possibility of some assistance from our shop personnel but this must also be done through your instructors. Unauthorized use of any of the equipment or facilities or violation of these safety regulations is the surest route to dismissal from this new job. Your safety is the primary consideration.