Design, Make and Test Project

Module aims

This module will be one of the most important in your degree course. Firstly, it aims to reinforce and integrate the knowledge, understanding and skills that you have acquired in engineering science, design, manufacturing and management modules. Secondly - and just as importantly - it sets you to work in a realistic engineering project environment, with rigorous time and budget constraints. When you begin to apply for a job, employers will take your engineering knowledge and analytical skills for granted. It's your team-working and organisational skills which they will need to be convinced of and will set out to test in 'assessment centres'. As part of this module, therefore, Assessment Centre Skills Workshops are offered to raise your awareness of the broader, transferable skills it can help you acquire.

ECTS = 20

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module students should be able to: 

1. Derive and explore the relationship between customer requirements and engineering attributes

2. Design machine systems and select elements to meet specified objectives

3. Analyse a given design formally, against specified requirements, and refine it appropriately

4. Prepare appropriate formal Quality Plan, Budget, Health & Safety and Test plans for a small engineering project

5. Realise the manufacture of their design using appropriate engineering drawings and appropriate resources

6. Exercise the key skills needed for team working on a realistic Design, Make and Test project

7. Record and evaluate progress and decisions in a clear and accurate manner using a logbook

Module syllabus

Students work in groups of four (occassionally five) throughout the year on a major design, make and test activity. This is based on a project brief approved by the Department, or is an agreed subtask of a Team Project (e.g. Imperial Racing Green). The group is required to develop the brief as a Product Specification, in collaboration with the Supervisor acting as client. The group must also keep full records of the subsequent design, manufacture and test activities in compliance with industrial standards, including the use of logbooks, design review, formal reports and  both poster and oral presentations. The project culminates in the high profile DMT Exhibition. Throughout the project, each student is required to work to processes detailed in a Quality Plan that their group must write and maintain.

Teaching methods

The project is undertaken by a small group to provide direct experience of team dynamics and work sharing. Projects must involve extra-mural contracting to gain experience of engineering in a real-world setting. Some direct manufacture by the students themselves using Faculty facilities is allowed. Tuition and guidance for each particular project is delivered by an individual members of the teaching staff who acts as Supervisor and client; where a project spans specialities, a  Co-Supervisor may also be appointed. The expected effort for this group work is 500 hours per student throughtout the session. The spread of this work will depend on individual student workload, an example might be 16 hours per week in Autumn and Spring terms, along with an additional 150 hours full time in Summer Term, following exams. 

Assessments

Module leaders

Dr Richard Silversides