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 4341.

R. Shepherd, S. Simoncini.

This hands-on/project-based course instructs students on methods to identify product concepts for machine designs with commercial potential. It combines lectures and field/lab activities on the new product development cycle: iterative design based on ethnographic fieldwork, team brainstorming, prototyping, testing/consumer feedback, and limitations set by mass manufacturing. Students –coming from diverse backgrounds and industry experience, and some currently working in different companies -will be teamed together to develop the new products. They will be given a common design challenge, and after observing and engaging with real users, they will identify specific needs; then based on those needs each team will end up with a different problem definition and a different product. Industry advisers from real world companies will provide constant feedback throughout the semester.

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

Outcome 1: Students will be able to experience the major impact of a human-centered design approach.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to understand the logic of the product development cycle in the context of both a startup company and an established firm.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to appreciate the limitations of early-stage prototypes and the importance of staged development into more realistic prototypes.

Outcome 4: Students will be able to identify product platforms for mechanical design with commercial potential.

Outcome 5: Students will be able to appreciate Intellectual Property in terms of design and utility.

Outcome 6: The student will be able to acquire familiarity with basic tools of design and manufacturing, such as CAD and digital manufacturing tools.