DSGN 129 - Design as a Generic Tool

Professor M Neil James - Web page http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/si   Email: mjames@plymouth.ac.uk

Lectures take place in the Babbage Lecture Theatre 005 on Tuesdays between 11.00 - 13.00.

Mentor for the assignments and group operation for all students is Dr M Singh (School of Engineering - Reynolds Building, Email: msingh@plymouth.ac.uk).

Please Note:  Attendance at lectures is very important and attendance at the presentations and 'marking' sessions is a requirement and failure to attend will result in lost marks.

Module Outline - the programme of lectures, below, is provisional and may well be changed. Students should check this page regularly.

The Multi-Facetted Nature of Design

Week 9 - commencing Monday 25th September 2006    Introduction to module - Definitions of engineering and design and their linkages - The design continuum - Aesthetics to actualisation

         Professor M N James

Week 10 - commencing Monday 2nd October 2006    Information skills: use of the library, multimedia and web resources PowerPoint presentation linked here

        Ms Jayne Moss                                           

Introduction to second assignment - team project - allocation of students to groups. 2

Week 14 - commencing Monday 30th October 2006 Fostering innovation - Failure as a design criterion

         Professor M N James

Briefing on electronic peer assessment scheme for the Team Project (using SPARK software) - do not miss this  

Week 15 - commencing Monday 6th November 2006     Fostering innovation - An introduction to the concepts of TRIZ   Paper linked here

          Dr P Filmore                                                         

Week 16 - commencing Monday 13th November 2006   What constitutes sustainability? Impact, ethics and interaction with mankind

         Professor M N James

Week 17 - commencing Monday 20th November 2006      Management of design - the industrial perspective

         Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Design - Professor G Skates (ex - Honeywell Control Systems)

Week 18 - commencing Monday 27th November 2006 Class presentation session for team project

           Dr Miggy Singh / Dr David Grieve

                                  All students must attend both presentation lectures, irrespective of which week their own team presents:

                                 Failure to attend both lectures without  a valid excuse will lead to a 10% loss of individual students marks for the presentation

Week 19 - commencing Monday 4th December 2006      Class presentation session for team project, continued

            Dr Miggy Singh / Dr David Grieve

Ethics and Sustainability - The Human Dimension to Design

Week 20 - commencing Monday 11th December 2006   What constitutes sustainability?  Impact, ethics and interaction with mankind

               Professor M N James

Hand-in Team Project on Thursday 14th December 2006 before 14:00

Module lecturers MUST be emailed to give valid reasons for missing a lecture (e.g. illness etc) in ADVANCE of the lecture taking place.

This module is assessed totally through coursework and there is no examination. 

Peer review of you work is an important part of the working life of professionals in all areas of work as it helps to maintain and improve standards and best practice is shared. For these reasons you are involved in the assessment of the work of your fellow students in this module. Details about this will be discussed with you in week 10 - it is vital that you attend this session.

Coursework for this module will comprise two elements:

1) an essay about your understanding of design and how this has developed during the course of lectures. (This will carry 30% of the module marks) and

2) a team project comprising a multimedia PowerPoint presentation given in class and a written report giving full details of group operation and dynamics, as well as full technical information on the chosen project.  In addition, EACH team member MUST complete an anonymous on-line assessment of the performance of the other team members by the deadline for the project submission. This will carry 70% of the module marks split 40 of the 70 for the report and 30 of the 70 for the presentation).

This project has a prime purpose of encouraging and facilitating multi-disciplinary group interaction, which is a critical part of the engineering design process.  A substantial part of the report must be devoted to discussion and analysis of how well the group functioned.  This should include consideration of how the group dealt with communication issues (e.g. about meeting times), its internal functional organisation (chair, secretary, delegation of responsibilities etc), any obstacles/problems encountered within the group and how these were resolved, and a summary of learning outcomes from the group experience.  20% of the project report marks are allocated to this section of the report.

Full details of this project, as well as relevant background material, will be provided in the lectures.  It will deal with identifying the ethical, social and technical issues involved in engineering fields such as power generation, transport and defence.  You will be required to identify the potential benefits and dangers to society, and the changes to quality of life brought about by increasing access to, and usability of, modern technology.  Part of the assignment will focus on the necessity, desirability and type of controls needed to improve the balance between quality of life and damage to health and the environment; this explicitly requires consideration of sustainability of resources and their usage.

Groups will be assigned during a lecture in October and your group can be checked from the module space on the student portal.  Groups will be allocated specific folders on the student portal (readable only by members of that particular group) and will be required to present their findings to the class during the lectures on 28^th November and 5^th December.  A single comprehensive group report must then be submitted from each group by the deadline below.  This report MUST comprise a separate document (i.e. it is insufficient to merely include copies of the presentation viewgraphs) and should expand upon the rationale behind the position taken by the group.  It needs to include a comprehensive outline of the contents, and use of substantial reference material (books, web-based resources, journals) which must be properly referenced and identified to avoid accusations of plagiarism.  The report should address, amongst other issues:

1.    Technical challenges and potential solutions

2.    Societal, legal and ethical problems and constraints

3.    Professional engineering behaviour, standards and codes

4.    Current areas of research in the field

5.    The scope for innovative engineering and design advances

You will be allocated a topic from the list below, or one of a similar type:

i)   New Orleans should not be rebuilt in its present location as it is not viable in the medium or long term.

ii)   Too large a proportion of the UK research effort is put into defence to the detriment of the UK as a whole.

iii)   The UK should expand the use of nuclear power to generate electricity.

iv)   Modern roll on - roll off ferries are not as safe as the Titanic and should be made much safer.

v)   Legislation relating to end of life disposal of products is bad for manufacturing industries.

vi)   Engineering progress in the UK is stifled by an excess of regulation.

vii)   National speed limits impede improvements in car design.

viii)   Manned space exploration is good for the engineering industry sector.

ix)   There is no proven health hazard from mobile communications masts and there should not be any restrictions on where they are located.

It is important to manage your time as a team effectively by dividing the work equitably amongst the group members and scheduling regular team meetings. Use of the Student Portal will assist greatly with this communication and allows easy file transfer between members.

A single report will be submitted, but the individual contributions of the group members will be determined via the group project  peer assessment process described on the hyperlinked page.  The name of the group member responsible for each page of the project report MUST be identified at the bottom of every page.  Failure to do this will result in loss of marks.  It is important that you establish the group as early as possible, and identify and resolve any obstacles to effective group functioning.  Resolution of some obstacles, e.g. non-performance or group members remaining incommunicado may require intervention from the module leader or other lecturers.  Please note that plagiarism of other peoples work can usually be readily detected and will lead to loss of marks.  Part of the learning process involves synthesising other peoples ideas, and merging concepts from different reference material, but not in straightforward copying!

Note: Team Project reports are to be handed in to the administrative staff on the ground floor of the Smeaton Building Room 006 before 14:00 on Thursday 14th December 2006.

Return by Monday 15th January 2007