Introduction¶

The first part of the project for the course will introduce you to reverse engineering. It is important for an engineer to develop the ability to observe existing products or systems and determine how they function and why they were designed they way they were. Most, if not all, new ideas are generated after observing and experiencing existing engineering solutions [1].

During this project you will:

• identify engineered products and systems
• explain both verbally and written how an existing product or system functions
• identify materials and manufacturing processes
• identify engineering design reasoning and decisions
• peer review presentations and reports
• draft written technical documents about existing designs

This is a lead up to the second part of the project in the course. The second part is focused on designing a bicycle rack for a Unitrans bus. In this project you will reverse engineer various existing bicycle racks.

[1]	"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." -- Isaac Newton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants

Instructions¶

The primary task is to maintain a notebook with design information about the design aspects that you research. You should purchase a notebook with blank line-less pages so that you can take notes and generate sketches of the products and systems you observe and discover. Carry the notebook with you regularly and using an engineer's "eye" keep a log in the notebook concerning your observations. You'll ultimately need to detail the research you collect in a formal written report. The report draft will be peer reviewed by your teammates and then graded by the instructors. Your design notebook must be submitted with the final written report.

What to Research¶

Many transit systems (bus, rail, etc) allow passengers to bring their bicycles aboard. For example, Yolobus has front mounted bicycle racks, Amtrak's Capitol Corridor has bike hooks, Sacramento's light rail has bike hooks, the BART has designated spaces but no racks, etc. In the second half of the course your team will be designing a front mounted bicycle rack for a Unitrans bus. Your job for the first half of the course is to learn as much as you possibly can about existing bicycle rack technology to help inform your future design. You should investigate all types of bicycle racks: those for automobiles, buses, trains, and even stationary racks.

Timeline¶

Friday September 23

The project will be introduced in class during the discussion section with a kickoff group sketching activity to get everyone started.

Friday Septmeber 30

Each student will bring their notebook to class with at least 30 different bicycle rack designs or design aspects. Keep in mind that each item can be an aspect of a full bicycle rack design. Number your designs. The instructors will take a grade for your notebook in class.

Friday October 7

Select 4 of the design aspects that you would like to detail further. For each of these, generate approximately two pages of sketches, notes, preliminary calculations, free body diagrams, schematics, diagrams, etc that explain more detail about the design aspects. Your goal is to determine why and how the designer choose this particular design and to explain the design choices and reasoning in your own words. Focus on the mechanical engineering aspects and be sure to talk about strength, geometry, materials, loads, wear, etc. We will check for the four detailed designs in class. Number your designs.

During class on Friday you will present your top two design aspects to your group in a "lighting explanation", i.e. 2 minutes per design with 2 minutes group feedback per design. These are informal and all you should need is your voice and your sketchbook. I highly recommend practicing your 2 minute pitch before class.

Friday October 14

During the previous week you should choose your top design to detail in your report. First drafts will be due at the beginning of class. To "turn in" the draft you need to share your Google Document with both instructors and your group members. The draft must be shared before the beginning of class on Friday. We will give an introduction to peer review process during class and do peer review in class.

Monday October 17

Each team member should peer review each other team member's report before class. Each team member must provide at least two positive and two negative comments on each teammates' paper and any additional comments must come in positive/negative pairs. Make sure to use the insert comment functionality and/or the "suggestions" editing mode so that the author of the paper can choose whether to accept your advice or not. See the shared Google Doc for more tips.

Friday October 21

After you've turned in your draft you should work to refine your report based off of you peer's feedback. The final report is due by beginning of class this day.

Design Notebook¶

To execute this project you should purchase and use a design notebook. A bookstore or an art supply store will have several types of bound books of 8.5 x 11 inch blank white paper. It is best not to have lines or grids because they constrain your thinking so get blank pages. [2]

In your notebook, you will make notes and sketches that help you document and design changes for a particular system. Consider the notebook as your own personal space, in which you work and think. Use any combination of words and pictures to help you flesh out ideas. Try to use a mix of quantity and quality, sometimes go for sheer numbers of ideas and other times try to draw a nice sketch or do a calculation. If you do work on computer or take photographs paste these into you notebook. Try to carry your notebook with you all the time, you never know when an idea or thought will reveal itself.

Be sure to use any relevant engineering knowledge you have gained in previous courses and this course to enhance your design understanding.

[2]	You may use an electronic notebook (e.g. tablet) if you can easily include sketches and share the resulting documents to be graded by your instructors. The final output to be turned in with the report should be a PDF.

Things to address¶

In your notebook and final report you likely want to address questions such as these. You are not required to cover all of these questions nor should these limit you.

• What does it look like (use sketches and/or photographs)?
• How big is it? (You could use formal dimensioning or scale relative to some familiar object.)
• What is the working principle?
• What power sources are used by the device?
• Where are the moving parts and how do they operate? Sketches of the device in multiple configurations can help.
• What materials are used for the various parts?
• What functions do any notches or changes in cross-section fulfill?
• How does the device interface with the user?
• What human need does the device fulfill?
• What is the expected design lifetime of this product (time or number of cycles)?
• What happens when the item no longer functions? Can the item be recycled, reused?
• How reliable is the product? What are the consequences of failure?
• How is the device used?
• What is expected of the device by the user?
• What sorts of loads are put on the device?
• In what ways would you expect the device to fail?
• Where are the highest stresses?
• What types of analysis might be used to analyze various parts of the device?
• Why are different materials used for various parts of the design?
• How is the device assembled?
• How are the parts manufactured?

Report¶

The goal of the report is to explain one of the designs or design aspects you studied by giving the reader a technically detailed idea of how it functions and why it was designed the way it was.

The main content items we are looking for are:

• That the explanation should be communicated through written and graphical means.
• You should identify the "need" that the design was meant to address.
• You should comment on whether the need is or isn't addressed well, in your engineering opinion and explain why you think so.
• You should detail the engineering specifications that the product claims to meet and whether or not these are likely true.
• What are the design's weaknesses and strengths, and why?
• That you address one or more of the "things to address" above. If you choose one it should be thoroughly detailed and less so if you choose more.
• You can close with suggestions for improvements to the design if you have any.

You will be graded on:

• Accuracy and correctness of your design explanation
• Utilization of engineering principles in the explanation
• Clarity of your ideas
• Depth of investigation into the design
• Use of effective textual and graphical communication
• Formatting (minor)

The report for this project must be created using Google Docs. It must include these pages:

Peer Review¶

You will be responsible for peer reviewing you teammates' work. Each team member will draft their report using Google Docs. Once the draft is complete you will need to share the document with your teammates and the two instructors. You are then responsible for reading and critiquing your team members' reports with the goal of helping them improve the work. You must provide two positive and two negative pieces of feedback via the "Insert > Comment" or "Suggesting" feature in Google Docs. This feedback cannot be the same as other teammates. Do not edit their paper directly! This allows the author to decided which comments they want to include or dismiss. If you want to add more feedback it must come in pairs: positive and negative.

Things to think about:

• Is the writing clear? Do you understand what your teammate is trying to describe and express?
• Are the images/graphics/sketches clear and explanatory?
• Is the document succinct and to the point?
• Are the sentences coherent, well-constructed, varied?
• What could be added (or subtracted) to give you a better picture and understanding of the design?

Tips:

• Stay away from overly general comments, be specific. For example, "I just didn't get it!" is not useful but "This sentence is unclear, if you do X and Y it may become clearer." is.
• Keep it impersonal and be polite. Statements like "this is a stupid idea" will not be tolerated and cause your project grade to be lowered.

Grading¶

The grade for Part 1 of the Project will be broken down as follows:

30 Designs	10%
4 Detailed Designs	10%
Report Draft	10%
Draft Peer Review	10%
Final Report	60%