Simulating the various phases of the design process, AME 470: Mechanical Engineering Senior Design provides students with hands-on experience in the product development process, illustrates the interaction between competing technical and non-technical issues -- including the roles of compromise, constraint, and merit -- and helps students develop an understanding of the planning, coordination, and communication required in a team effort. Students exercise their technical expertise, as well as their imagination, in order to develop an electromechanical system -- one artifact designed, fabricated, and demonstrated by students.

Tips from Students who Successfully Completed the Course

• Build a strong group dynamic from the start; this will improve communication and ideas will come across and be better received.

• Make your team deadlines fairly and stick to them.

• Simplify the problem as much as possible.

• Be a team player.

• Time management is the key; do not procrastinate.

• Remain open to new ideas and listen to what other people are trying to say.

• This class is a lot of work, but it doesn't have to be stressful. Have fun.

• Don't make numbers up just to meet the deadlines; they will come back to haunt you.

• Don't assume black always goes to black and red to red.

• Talk to your peers and professors. You can learn much more from a simple conversation that you can from reading a 400-page textbook.