Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Labs: 1 session / week, 3 hours / session

Grading

Your grade in 2.007 will be determined based on your performance in lab activities, exams, and homework as described in the table below:

The lab section grade is closely related to the design of your robot and its documentation in your lab notebook and via oral reports you make in the lab. The homework and exams are closely related to the lecture sessions.

"Lecture" Sessions

There are two 1.5 hour "lecture" sessions each week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-12:30. The word "lecture" is in quotes because we do not intend for these sessions to be dominated by what you normally think of as lecturing. These "lecture" sessions are different from the lab times since we will all be together in the same room at the same time. The "lecture" sessions will be used to introduce new material, to amplify with examples, to do interactive exercises, and to provide feedback on homework assignments and exams. We expect you to be present at these sessions and to participate thoughtfully, but we will not take roll call or enforce attendance.

"Lab" Sessions

You will be assigned to one 3 hour "lab" session each week. The word "lab" is in quotes because the session is a mix of fabrication, electronics, programming, experimentation, peer group meetings, and oral reports. These "lab" sessions vary to some degree from section-to section, but mostly follow a pattern described in a set of documents describing the deliverables and expectations for each week.

Course Objectives

In engineering design, it is helpful to give careful considerations to objectives and to the form in which they are expressed. To the extent possible, the learning objectives of this subject were developed following the guidelines articulated by Richard Felder¹ including use of action verbs and inclusion of objectives in levels 4-6 of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives (Table 1).

Table 1. Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

After taking this subject (2.007 - Design and Manufacturing I) students should be able to:

• Generate, analyze, and refine the design of electro-mechanical devices making use of physics and mathematics
• For common machine elements including fasteners, joints, springs, bearings, gearing, clutches, couplings, belts, chains, and shafts
  • Describe the function of the element
  • List common uses in mechanical systems and give examples
  • Analyze its performance and failure modes
  • Describe how they are manufactured and the implications of the alternatives
  • Select an element for a specific use based on information such as that typically available in a manufacturer's catalog
• Apply experimentation and data analytic principles relevant to mechanical design
  • Consider the effects of geometric variation on a design
  • Analyze data from performance evaluations of a mechanical system
  • Present data in appropriate graphical formats
  • Plan an experimental investigation to refine a system
• Communicate a design and its analysis (written, oral, and graphical forms)
  • Read and interpret mechanical drawings of systems with moderate complexity
  • Create correct mechanical drawings of simple elements and systems
  • Create useful parametric solid models of simple elements and systems
  • Make effective presentations in a design review format
  • Respond effectively in real time to technical questioning by experts

Notes on Submission of Work

The manner in which you present your work can be just as important (and in some cases more so) than the work itself. Be sure to clearly explain your designs, the methods used, and the underlying assumptions. Such practices make it possible for us to fairly assess your work and happen also to be good practices for documenting work in industry.

Late Policy

It is expected that completed assignments will be submitted on the due date and time noted on the assignment. The usual policy for late assignments is that a letter grade is lost per day late. If no arrangement is made ahead of time, that is going to be adhered to strictly. The teaching staff is well aware of the multiple time demands on students. In the case of unusual circumstances or unavoidable conflicts, please contact Prof. Dan Frey (for homework) or your section instructor (for lab work) to discuss the details and explore alternatives before the assignment is actually late.

Time Commitment and Expectations

The units on an MIT subject correspond to the time that an adequately prepared student is expected to spend in a normal week. This is divided into three numbers associated with the subject (X-Y-Z) with X being class time, Y being laboratory time, and Z being work outside of class. The numbers associated with 2.007 are (3-4-5) making this a 12-unit subject. Thus, the overall weekly time commitment is expected to be about 12 hours. This includes 3 hours per week scheduled in class and 4 hours per week in lab sessions (three scheduled hours and one hour "self-paced"). The 5 hours per week of out-of-class time will roughly be split between reading ahead for lecture, homework assignments, studying for exams, and (most importantly) working on your design project.

This course will not be graded on a curve. In principle, everyone in the course can earn an A, but that is not usually what happens. Those who do only ordinary design work without accomplishing exceptional things should not expect to earn an A even if they do all the things assigned to them.

All homeworks, exams, and other in-lab assignments will be graded on a letter basis (with +/-) according to the MIT definition of grades:

A - Exceptionally good performance, demonstrating a superior understanding of the subject matter, a foundation of extensive knowledge, and a skillful use of concepts and/or materials.

B - Good performance, demonstrating capacity to use the appropriate concepts, a good understanding of the subject matter, and an ability to handle the problems and materials encountered in the subject.

C - Adequate performance, demonstrating an adequate understanding of the subject matter, an ability to handle relatively simple problems, and adequate preparation for moving on to more advanced work in the field.

D - Minimally acceptable performance, demonstrating at least partial familiarity with the subject matter and some capacity to deal with relatively simple problems, but also demonstrating deficiencies serious enough to make it inadvisable to proceed further in the field without additional work.

F - Unsatisfactory performance.

Plusses and minuses will be used in conjunction with the letters in grading all work. The final grade will include plusses and minuses.

Academic Honesty²

The fundamental principle of academic integrity is that one must fairly represent the source of the intellectual content of the work one submits for credit. Students are trusted to adhere to this principle and its meaning in the context of this subject as subsequently explained. Official Institute policy regarding academic honesty can be found in the current Bulletin under "Academic Procedures and Institute Regulations".

What is the policy on examinations? The examinations in this subject are to represent individual work. You may not receive any help from other students or any other individuals.

What about home assignments? Can we work together? We encourage students to work together in this subject to understand the homework assignments and to learn in general. There is much to be gained in sharing the learning process. However, the final submission should represent your own expression of the final response to the assignment and not a copy of someone else's expression thereof, whether directly from a person or as recorded on paper (e.g. a book) or electronically (e.g. on a Web site). Furthermore, you must fairly represent the authorship of the intellectual content of the work you submit for credit by acknowledging the contribution of sources (e.g., books, Web sites) you consult in the process of completing assignments. In addition, at the end of each assignment on which you collaborated with other students, you must cite the students and the interaction. The purpose of this is to acknowledge their contribution to your work. Some examples follow:

1. You discuss concepts, approaches and methods which could be applied to a home assignment before starting your write-up. This process is encouraged. You are not required to make a written acknowledgment of this type of interaction.
2. After working an assignment independently, you compare responses with another student which confirms your results and response. You should acknowledge that the other student's write-up was used to check your own. No credit will be lost if the response is correct, the acknowledgment is made, and no direct copying of the other response is involved.
3. After working an assignment independently, you compare responses with another student which alerts you to an error in your own work which you then correct. You should state at the end of your submission that you corrected your error on the basis of checking responses with the other student. No credit will be lost if the response is correct, the acknowledgment is made, and no direct copying of the other response is involved.
4. You and another student work through an assignment together exchanging ideas as the effort progresses. You both should state at the end of your individual submissions that you worked jointly. No credit will be lost if the responses are correct, the acknowledgment is made, and the assignment write-up is independent.
5. You copy all or part of an assignment write-up from a reference such as a textbook or past solution (this is in contrast to referring to such a reference and developing the solution yourself). You must cite the reference. Partial credit will be given, since there is some educational value in reading and understanding the solution.
6. You copy verbatim all or part of a write-up from another student. You must cite the person by name. Very little partial credit will be given.
7. Verbatim copying of any material which you submit for credit without reference to the source is considered to be academically dishonest.

¹ http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Columns/Objectives.html
² This academic honesty policy is adapted from the policy used in 16.010-040 Unified Engineering