Presentations
Winter Quarter Studio Meetings
Each team will be assigned a teaching assistant. During the studio sections, each team will meet with the teaching assistant for 15 minutes to discuss the weekly progress and/or the current studio activity. Every other week, you will additionally meet with the primary instructor for an additional 15 minutes. You must prepare an agenda for these meetings and have it available during the meeting. Your in-class grade will be affected if you don't have an agenda or if you don't show up to these meetings, i.e. don't waste the instructors' time.
Preliminary Critical Design Review
Critical Design Reviews will be held on Thursday and Friday February 25th and 26th, 2016.
Your team will be scheduled for a 30 minute critical design review during the eighth week of the winter quarter. The first 15 minutes will be for your presentation. This will be followed by 10 minutes for the review questions and discussion. The primary purpose of this review is for your team to justify your concept selection and design decisions through technical details and analysis. We are not concerned with the path to the final design (i.e., initial concepts, etc.) but what the final concept is and why you feel confident it will work. The intent of critical design reviews is to insure that the proper methods are being used in analyses and that the design is valid and valuable, i.e. it meets specifications, it can be manufactured, etc. Both your teaching assistant and the primary instructor will be present along with other potential reviewers. The presentation should be geared toward and "engineering management" audience.
Suggestions of what to include:
- A technical description of the need you are trying to solve.
- The primary specs and metrics your solution must meet.
- A detailed technical description of your selected concept and solution.
- Justification for your concept solution in terms of meeting the engineering specifications.
- Theoretical or experimental proof that your selected concept and preliminary design is very likely to succeed.
- Any relevant technical preliminary design details.
- A schedule and financial plan to execute your design.
You will need to submit your presentation materials as a PDF to Smartsite by midnight Saturday, February 27th.
Preliminary Design Presentation
During the last studio section your team will present their work and preliminary design to the entire class, the instructors, and any project sponsors that can attend. Groups will present their design concepts and will justify their final selected concept.
The presentations will be 5 minutes comprised of an overview of the project and selected design concept. There will 3 minutes for questions and changing groups. This presentation will be good practice for a high level presentation in industry (for example, to high level executives). All students are required to attend this session.
Spring Quarter Studio Meetings
Each team will meet with the instructor and their teaching assistant for 20 minutes to discuss the weekly progress. You must prepare an agenda for these meetings and have it available during the meeting. Your in-class grade will be affected if you don't have an agenda or if you don't show up to these meetings, i.e. don't waste the instructors' time.
Engineering Design Showcase Poster Presentation
Your team will be required to present your work at the Engineering Design Showcase at the ARC Pavilion on Thursday June 2nd from 2-4 pm. You need to register for the showcase by midnight April 29th. Each team will develop a poster that showcases and explains your project which must be submitted to both Smartsite and to Alin Wakefield for printing by 12 PM Wednesday May 18th. You are also welcome and encouraged to bring any prototype that you have constructed or videos and other media that will explain your project. Any special accommodations for your prototype (size, power, etc) or presentation must be coordinated with Alin Wakefield with the initial contact happening by May 13th. At least one member of the team must be present at the poster at all times from 2-4 pm and all team members must attend the event. Your team's poster will be visited by one or more industry judges who will score your poster. These scores will be taken into account for your poster presentation grade.
Content Suggestions
Keep in mind that the posters should be designed for a more general audience. Most of the visitors to the showcase will either be students, faculty, staff, or representatives from industry. So the poster should be understandable by people that aren't necessarily mechanical engineers. Your poster should address:
- A description of your project.
- The main need or needs and how you've addressed them.
- Why your project is a great solution.
- Any innovative things you've come up with.
You can get ideas for posters by checking out the previous posters in the resources section of Smartsite or those that are hanging in Bainer Hall.
There are many websites offering tips on making posters. Here is a good one for scientific posters, but most of the advice is also applicable to your poster design:
http://hsp.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/ScientificPosters.pdf
Your poster should sell your ideas and yourselves. This is a great opportunity to show your engineering prowess to the world!
Software
Posters can be created with a variety of software packages, for example:
- Slide decks software (MS Powerpoint, LibreOffice Impress, Google Presentations, etc.)
- Publishing software (MS Publisher, Scribus, Adobe InDesign)
- Word processors (MS Word, LaTeX, etc.)
- Graphics (Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Photoshop, Gimp, etc.)
UCD Logos
If you'd like to use UCD logos in your poster you can find information about them at http://marketingtoolbox.ucdavis.edu/identity/logos/index.html.
Printing Instructions
This describes details about formatting and submitting a poster. All team members should read this message carefully and completely to ensure a timely and quality product.
- The Engineering Dean's Office will cover the cost of printing one landscape 48" W x 36" H full-color poster per team. No other dimensions or sizes will be allowed. Only 1 poster per team will be printed (no reprints).
- The poster file must be emailed to amwakefield@ucdavis.edu no later than noon (12:00 PM) on Wednesday, May 18th and submitted to Smartsite assignments at the same time. Alin will not accept nor print any file received after this deadline.
- Files must be submitted as a PDF (highest quality preferred).
- When designing your poster, please carefully check the page setup settings. You must ensure your poster is correctly sized at 48" W x 36" H.
- A PowerPoint poster template is available on our Smartsite under the Resources tab for optional use.
- The CoE cannot be responsible for verifying the accuracy of technical content, so you are strongly advised to have your instructor review your poster prior to submission.
- Once printed, the posters will be stored in 1050 Kemper Hall. Alin will arrange for setup and display of all posters in the Pavilion on June 2. Posters will be mounted to foam/poster board for stability and easier viewing.
Final Critical Design Review
Critical Design Reviews will be held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday June 6th, 7th, and 8th. Your team will be scheduled for a 30 minute critical design review during finals week of spring quarter. The first 5 minutes will be to setup for the presentation while the reviewers grade. Then the next 15 minutes will be for your presentation. This will be followed by 10 minutes for the review questions and discussion.
The primary purpose of this review is for your team to justify that your design solves your sponsors needs through technical details, analysis, and testing. We are not necessarily concerned with the path to the final design (i.e., initial concepts, etc.) but what the final design is and why you feel confident it solves the sponsor's needs. Additionally, the intent of critical design review is to insure that the proper methods are being used in analyses and that the design is valid and valuable, i.e. it meets specifications, it can be manufactured, etc. The content should mirror the main content of the final design report.
Your teaching assistant, the primary instructor, your sponsor, and other potential guests will be present. The presentation should be geared toward and "engineering management" audience.
You will need to submit your presentation materials as a PDF to Smartsite by midnight Wednesday, June 8th.