MAE 5340 - Innovative Product Design via Digital Manufacturing

Fall. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Permission of department required. Enrollment limited to: M.E. seniors and other MEng./graduate students. Co-meets with MAE 4340/MAE 4341.

R. Shepherd, S. Simoncini.

Combined lecture and laboratory course on the new product development cycle: iterative design based on ethnographic fieldwork, team brainstorming, prototyping, testing, consumer feedback, and the limitations set by mass manufacturing of the final product. This course will instruct students on methods to identify product concepts based on machine designs with commercial potential. Design teams will perform market analysis and explore the IP space around their own ideas and rapidly iterate them into a final prototype via digital manufacturing (e.g., 3D CAD files manifested via robotic printing or machining); advanced instruction on these tools will be given to build prototypes, and quantitative marketing will be used as feedback from them. Early stage prototypes will progress into more sophisticated designs as the class progresses. Scale-up (cost, pricing, tooling) considerations for mass manufacturing of these products will be taken into account, as well as quantitative analysis of their machine designs for their expected utility.

Graduate students will be required to expand and/or focus on some aspects of the process/products.

Outcome 1: Understand the logic of the product development cycle in the context of a startup company and an established firm and communicate effectively in teams.

Outcome 2: Describe the limitations of early stage prototypes and the importance of stages development into more realistic prototypes.

Outcome 3: Identify product platforms for mechanical design with commercial potential.

Outcome 4: Appreciation of Intellectual Property in terms of design and utility.

Outcome 5: Be familiar with basic tools of design and manufacturing, such as CAD and digital manufacturing tools.