EGR 100 Fall 2007
Engineering for Everyone

Professor: Judith Cardell
email: jcardell@smith.edu
Office hours: Monday 10:30-11:30, Thursday 2-3, in EGR 105b
Class Time: TR 9:00-10:20, Friday 1:00-4:00
Room: EGR 201 (Green Building)
Tutors: Etta Grover-Silva, Stephanie Erickson, Taylor Buono
Tutor hours: Sunday 7-9pm, Etta and Stephanie in rooms 201 and 202
Monday 8-10pm, Etta, room 201
Tuesday 7-9pm, Stephanie, room 202

Course Overview

This course offers an introduction to engineering practice through participation in a semester long team-based design project. Students will develop a sound understanding of the engineering design process, including problem definition, background research, identification of design criteria, development of metrics and methods for evaluating alternative designs, prototype development, and proof of concept testing. Working in teams, students will present their ideas frequently through oral and written reports. Reading assignments, in-class discussions, and guest speakers will challenge students to critically analyze contemporary issues related to the interaction of technology and society.

Objectives

The overarching goal of this course is for you to develop your own sense of what it means to be an engineer. This goal is achieved through a set of course objectives, each aimed at a different aspect of engineering. Upon completion of this course each student will have:

An understanding of the design process from idea generation to demonstration.
Analytical skills in problem solving and gaining a basic knowledge of energy in all its forms.
Knowledge of the traditions and responsibilities of engineering practice and the role of the engineer in society.
The oral, written, mathematical, and graphical skills necessary to communicate engineering ideas to diverse audiences.
The ability to work effectively as a member of a team.
A sense of how engineering fits with her plans for the future.
An understanding of how to create a portfolio to showcase her engineering work throughout her years at Smith College.

Schedule (click to jump to bottom)

Grading

Grades in this course are designed to represent your achievement of the objectives listed above. The course components that will make up your grade are listed below, along with the primary objectives that each is meant to assess.

ASSIGNMENT	GRADE CONTRIBUTION	PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
Machine Shop Project	required	1, 7
Engineering Disciplines	2.5%	3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Engineering Narrative	2.5%	3, 4, 6, 7
Homework Assignments (A2, A3)	5%	2, 4, 6, 7
Prelabs & Labs	30%	1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
Written discussion questions and reflections	10%	3, 4, 6, 7
Design Project	30%	All
Portfolio & Exit Interview	10%	All
Class particpation	10%	All

Assignments

The Design Project

The first part of the semester will focus on preparing students to begin and complete a design of a sustainable house. The design project will be conducted in alone or in teams. Four deliverables will be required from each team:

Preliminary design (in the log book) November 1, 2007
Oral progress report November 13, 2007
Written progress report November 29, 2007
Final design project report December 13, 2007
Tiny-Town setup (weather permitting) December 14-21, 2007

The design project deliverables constitute 20% of your course grade, with all components produced by the design team. Partitioning these assignments exclusively to various members of the team runs counter to the goal of learning how to work effectively in groups and is not allowed. Having some team members develop expertise in one or more areas, and so lead these sections of the project, is the nature of teams and is encouraged (for example, some team members could lead the work in AutoCAD, or in editing documents). All team members need to be comfortable with all stages of the project. Giving every individual the same grade on a team assignment conflicts with the concept of individual accountability in a cooperative learning environment. For each group written assignment, individuals will have the opportunity to submit peer evaluations of her team members (including herself). The peer evaluation form can be found on the course webpage or Moodle. Individual grades will be determined from the team grade based on these peer evaluations. Each section of EGR 100 has six class hours (three on Tu-Th and three on Friday). During weeks for which all class time is not scheduled, the unscheduled time is intended to provide you with the opportunity to meet with your team members and make progress on your design project.

Design Log

A log book is a design notebook that allows you to record all of your ideas and sketches related to your designs in one place. It serves two main purposes. First, it allows you to communicate your ideas to others. Second, it provides a detailed record of your ideas, not only for your own reference, but also as a source of documentation should you ever apply for a patent, or if your patent is contested by another inventor. For the design log to be most useful to you, you must use it regularly. A good source is The Guild art supply store on Main Street in downtown Northampton. Also, the Art Department has its own supply store in Hillyer Hall (part of the Brown Fine Arts Center). Your design log will become an important part of your portfolio (see below).

Portfolio

Each student will create a portfolio to showcase her work throughout the semester. The portfolio can be of any format that is able to be stored electronically, and is intended to be a forum for creative self-expression in a format developed by the student or a format following portfolios from previous years. Ultimately, those students continuing with the engineering major will produce a portfolio showcasing her work in all courses, and demonstrating how her work achieves the objectives of the Picker Engineering Program. Students are encouraged (expected) to retain all work from all courses in order to be able to create her engineering portfolio. Detailed guidelines can be found on the course webpage or Moodle.

Homework Assignments

A series of diverse assignments will build your skills in quantitative analysis, creative design, and communications. Assignments range from short homework problems and labs to presentations, technical memos, and reports. Grades for all assignments will be based on the following, with all categories approximately equal in weight:

Thoughtfulness and accuracy of your technical analysis;
Originality and depth of your insights and conclusions;
Organization, grammar, and neatness of your writing and/or presentation.

For group work, grades will be based on your team's performance and your contribution to the team (accessed using team surveys, interviews, and level of participation). Assignments are due on the dates listed on the course schedule. These assignments are to be completed individually by each student, though discussing the material and general approach to the problems is encouraged.

All assignments are to be completed on time; late assignments will be penalized at the rate of one point per minute.
All written assignments are to be neatly typed and stapled with your name and a title.

Pre-lab and Laboratory assignments

There are 6 labs during the semester. Some labs will have a small pre-lab, and that pre-lab assignment must be completed before the lab is started. Each student will be expected to have either the TA or professor initial the pre-lab work, confirming that it is completed, before the laboratory assignment is begun. These will be graded simply with a " if completed. If they are not completed the student will not be allowed to do the lab.
Each lab must be completed for the student to pass the course - a zero for a lab will result in failing the course.
Each laboratory is to be written up following the guidelines on this course webpage and handed in on the Friday following the day the lab was performed.

Hammer-Screwdriver Project

In the machine shop, you will use raw materials (steel and plastic) to create a hammer-screwdriver tool of stunning quality; in doing so, you will learn to use major power tools including the lathe, mill, drill press, grinder. Unlike the other projects in EGR 100, the hammer-screwdriver project is not open-ended or particularly creative. None the less, it will teach you valuable skills that will allow you to undertake your own projects in the future. The hammer-screwdriver project is completed in four stages under the guidance of the college machinist, Greg Young. While the hammer-screwdriver project is not graded, you must complete it by the end of the semester in order to pass EGR 100. You should complete at least one of the four sages of the project each month and be aware that the shop in not always open at the very end of the semester.

Discussion Questions & Written Reflections

For the days we have in-class discussions, students will be required to produce one of the following (which will be simply be checked off if completed and recieve a '0' otherwise):

thoughtful responses to one or more questions provided on this webpage (1/2 to 1 page),
a written reflection (approximate 1/2 to 1 page) that consists of a thoughtful discussion of your own views on the topic at hand.
questions of her own to bring up during the class discussion.

These answers or questions must be typed and handed in at the end of class (completed before class, but retained for use during the class discussion). One of the above will be required for each of the following class topics

Energy and climate
Architecture and landscape
Sustainability and Silent Spring
Nuclear energy, Three Mile Island etc.
Citicorp, 59 Story Crisis
Technology and Society (The Two Cultures, etc.)
Electric power systems
Urban planning

Engineering Narrative

Each student will be required to write a narrative which reflects her views on the nature of engineering (see detailed guidelines on the course webpage or Moodle). One version of the narrative is due on Tuesday, September 11, and a second version is due during Final Exam Week as part of the course portfolio.

Exit Interview

The interview is your opportunity to present your portfolio to the instructor and discuss the progress you made during the semester. While the interview is meant to be casual (the instructor may even have food), it is important that you think carefully ahead of time about what you want to say. The purpose of the interview and portfolio is to balance the team-based evaluations, allowing you to demonstrate your achievements and progress as an individual.

Class Participation

In class, the preparedness and participation of each student has a direct impact on the learning of her peers. Consequently, each student is expected to attend all classes, ask questions and actively participate in classroom discussions to enhance the learning of all students.

The Smith Honor Code

The faculty in engineering take the Smith College Honor Code very seriously, and we expect you to do the same. In EGR 100, you are expected to work with your classmates on a number of group assignments, including laboratories and the design project. Other components of the course are meant to be completed individually. These include the narrative, homework assignments, midterm assessment and reflections on the readings. Any copying or paraphrasing of text, figures, etc. from other sources, other groups or reports from previous years will constitute a violation of the Honor Code.

Budgeting Your Time

A challenging aspect of EGR 100 is the number and variety of deliverables, ranging from reading questions to labs and the design project. It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with the syllabus and schedule at the beginning of the semester so that you can anticipate these deadlines. You will find that you need to budget your time carefully throughout the semester. Office hours and communicating with professors After you have looked through the syllabus and schedule, email is a good way to get answers to questions regarding course logistics and clarification of course requirements. Questions related to conceptual understanding and course content can best be addressed in office hours. To use this time most effectively, we strongly recommend that you arrive with specific questions. If you have gone over the material ahead of time, we can usually clear up your areas of confusion during office hours. Please note that we will not use office hours to repeat material from a class you may have missed.

Machine Shop

Use of the machine shop will be in accordance with the rules set forth by Mr. Greg Young, Director of the Clark Science Center Machine Shop. For safety reasons, a maximum of 10 students are allowed in the shop at any one time. Shop use will be by sign-up each week on a sheet on the door of the shop. Each group will have a maximum number of hours allowed (to be specified by Mr. Young), and no single group will be allowed to dominate any given shop period if it prevents another group from accessing the shop facilities. Materials acquisition will be the responsibility of each team, and is NOT the responsibility of the shop staff. Possible sources of materials and supplies include Foster Farrar, Northampton Lumber, Smith Glass, Northampton Plumbing, Zimmerman Electrical Supply, Home Depot, and numerous sources available via the internet. The shop staff are able to provide scrap materials when available and should be consulted regarding materials use and acquisition. Safety glasses (available in the shop) are to be worn at all times when in the machine shop. It is also the responsibility of each user to assist in cleaning the shop after each session in which she has participated.

EGR 100 Class and Assignment Schedule, Fall 2007

Date	Topic	Reading	Lab	HW DUE
Sep 6	Introduction to course Intro Slides
Sep 7	Machine Shop		Machine Shop Orientation; Introduction to the Hammer-Screwdriver project

Sep 11	Engineering Disciplines in-class panel discussion; Critical Analysis slides			Narrative; Engineering Disciplines
Sep 13	Energy: units, mass, force, energy, work, power; Introduction to Lab 1 Energy I Slides	- Energy for the 21st Century - The Party's Over I
Sep 14	Car Push		Lab 1: Car Push - Lab Report Guidelines

Sep 18	Energy: potential, kinetic, thermal, Conservation of energy, Systems; Energy II Slides	- The Party's Over II
Sep 20	Electronics: Voltage, current, resistance, LEDs, chips, breadboards; Programming: variables, loops and I/O; Introduction to Lab 2 Electrical Circuits I slides Handy Terms and Units	- What's a Microcontroller (WAM): LEDs; - How Stuff Works LEDs		A2: Heat Capacity Memo; Memo writing guidelines
Sep 21	Introduction to circuit breadboard	- Battery Datasheet	Lab 2: LED Flash Lab 2 slides	Lab 1: Car Push Worksheet and Lab write-up - Lab Report Guidelines

Sep 25	Energy: Steady-state behavior, measuring R-value; Electric power for heat input - Class Slides - Ed Mazria talk	- Buildings I
Sep 27	Electronics: Capacitors, thermocouple; Programming: Using the hypertermial, Matlab; Introduction to Lab 3: Using the temperature sensor - Class Slides	- Temperature sensor datasheet; - PC Print and Clock Tutorial; - HT_Print.spin; - FullDuplex.spin; - AutoCAD Tutorial	Matlab Hints and Tutorials: Matlab Basics Matlab's own tutorial Utah tutorial MIT-Strang Linear Algebra Matlab Hints MIT-Signals Matlab Tutorial Smith CS370 tutorial Matlab Tutorial Matlab_Example.m
Sep 28	Build and Characterize a Box House		Lab 3a: Box House	Lab 2: LED Flash

Oct 2	Climate: Energy balance, radiation, greenhouse gasses (GHG); - Class Slides	- Climate text chapters 1, 2, 3 (Ch 3 for Thursday) - Climate Confusion - EPA Climate Change homepage		HW 3: Electrical Energy
Oct 4	Climate:Feedback, paleoclimate; 60 Minutes "Global Warning" video; - Class Slides	- Climate chapter 4 (also read Ch 3) - Climate & GeoEngineering - IPCC - New Math
Oct 5	Insulation, windows, wind...		Lab 3b: Modify the Box House; Measure New R-value	Lab 3a memo

Oct 9	Fall Break
Oct 11	Introduction to Lab 5: Designing a Solar House; Electronics: MOSFETs, fans and servos; Energy: Solar zenith angle, flux; - Class Slides	WAM - Servos; Fan and MOSFET datasheet;
Oct 12	Solar House - Class Slides - Lab3_TempK.spin sample - Servo.spin sample - Lab4_TempK_Fan.spin sample - Lab4_TempServo.spin sample	AutoCAD tutorial (linked above)	Lab 4a: Solar House	Lab 3 Lab Report

Oct 16	Recap course to date; Programming: memory (EEPROM) - Memory.spin object - Read_ROM.spin sample - Write_TempK_ROM.spin sample - Class Slides	Tutorial on Computer Memory
Oct 18	Energy: Alternatives to Oil	Alternatives to Oil
Oct 19	Continue with Solar House - Class Slides		Lab 4b: Solar House continued	Lab 4a memo

Oct 23	Innovation: IDEO video & the design process; Mini in-class design - Class Slides
Oct 25	Solar House Presentations			Presentation slides
Oct 26	Concrete - Class Slides		Lab 5: Thermal mass castings	Lab 4 final memo

Oct 30	Discussion: Sustainability and Silent Spring - Class Slides	1) Silent Spring excerpts 2) Silent Spring 25 years later: Nature's Protector and Provocateur 3) Sustainability reading		- Guidelines for reflections and discussion questions; - Silent Spring and Sustainability questions
Nov 1	Design Project Introduction; Summary of projects so far; Portfolios assigned - Class Slides	- Design project description; - Calculations worksheet 1 - Calculations worksheet 2 - Sample Calculations - Portfolio instructions - AutoCAD Tutorial
Nov 2	Guest Speaker on Architecture Discussion: Engineering curriculum - Class Slides	- Buildings Ch 8 - Buildings Ch 9-10	Discussion on Buildings readings; Weighing the thermal masses; Prof. Maker 3:00 - 4:00, Lecture on Architecture	Lab 5: Castings - Memo due

Nov 6	Energy: Solar cells (PV), Wiring solar cells, Using LCDs, Electrical budgets; Online energy accounting; - Class Slides	- PV Fundamentals; - PV Technology; - California web-link - DOE Energy Star worksheet
Nov 8	Practice calculations and time for questions; New Devices for House Project - LCDs, Light Sensors, PVs - Class Slides - Suntrack_Example.m - Suntrack_Calc.m - LCD Circuit - House_Cntl.spin - Circuit Examples (slides)
Nov 9	Math Assessment		Team working session Math Assessment 3:00 - 4:00	Memo 1: with preliminary design, Gantt chart and calculations worksheet (all work shown)

Nov 13	Discussion: Technology, Engineers and Society: Science, Humanities, Gender and Politics; - Memo Feedback; Solar Update	- The Two Cultures pp 1-51 (book purchased); - Schiebinger - van der Vink		- Technology and Society discussion questions
Nov 15	In-class Critique: Oral Progress Report (at tables)
Nov 16	Working Session		Team working session	Design Project Memo 2 with updated calculations worksheet

Nov 20	Discussion: Food production and biofuels	- Omnivore's Dilemma - Running On Grass: Fields of Fuel - Ethanol in Brazil - Ethanol Economics - Critique of Ethanol		Discussion questions/reflection - of your own devising
Nov 22	Thanksgiving
Nov 23	Thanksgiving

Nov 27	Energy: The Electric Power System - Class Slides	- HowStuffWorks Electric Power
Nov 29	Discussion/Debate: Supplying Electricity in the Era of Climate Change: Nuclear energy, coal, wind, conservation, and other solutions for limiting carbon emissions	- Energy Information Administration, US Dept. of Energy Other possible URLs and readings to skim: - DOE Energy Sources - DOE Energy Efficiency - DOE Homepage - Solving the Climate Problem With Current Technologies, Science Magazine - The Power to Reduce CO2 Emissions, EPRI - Electricity Technology in a Carbon Constrained Future, EPRI - State of the Carbon Cycle, Exec Summary, NOAA - State of the Carbon Cycle, Full Report, NOAA		- The Electric Power & Climate Change reflection
Nov 30	Working Session		Team working session	Design Project Memo 3

Dec 4	Discussion: Ethics, CitiCorp and the 59 Story Crisis	The 59 Story Crisis		- The 59 Story Crisis questions
Dec 6	Working Session		Working session with design team
Dec 7	Working Session		Working session with design team	Design Project Memo 4

Dec 11	Discussion: Urban Planning & Transportation	- Asphalt Nation - Carbon Footprint, UC Berkeley; - Carbon Footprint, Union of Concerned Scientists		Discussion questions/reflection of your own reactions, only if you didn't turn anything in for Citicorp/Ethics
Dec 13	Discussion: Course wrap-up			Design Project Report, Completed model, Poster
Dec 14-21	Setup TinyTown by Campus Center		Present Project and TinyTown to Passers-by	Portfolio and Exit Interview (self-scheduled)