Students are busy working on their engineering capstone design projects, and I’d like to update you on what has been happening inSEED (Senior Experience in Engineering Design). This year, we have 96 students from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and engineering management working in teams on 24 independent design projects, sponsored mostly by organizations outside UVM.
They are working on a wide variety of projects, including:
testing/calibration machines
a chocolate truffle packing machine
an automatic ice breaker
semiconductor device design and testing
a knee rehabilitation device
a cargo bike accessory
a coconut engraving machine
a sensor trade show demonstration
improved snowblower controls
aerospace sensor packaging and electronics
a precise distance sensor
small cargo containers
a renewable energy sensor
a hands-free jogging stroller
a snowpack monitor
a weeding robot
an application-specific head-mounted camera
a tiny wildlife temperature monitor
It is so much fun for me to help them learn about engineering design, teamwork, project management, and manufacturing while solving real problems.
They started in August by meeting all the project sponsors, and by the second week of classes I assigned them to teams based on their interests and skills. They immediately started the engineering design process by meeting with their project sponsors to learn about the project’s goals, constraints, and stakeholders. They learned about project management techniques, and started planning their work to achieve short-term goals in the 3-week cycles called Sprints that we utilize. In each of the fall semester Sprints, they learned about a new topic such as prior art review, hazard assessment, or engineering specifications, then applied those topics to their project. They also designed and built a prototype every Sprint, to iterate, test, and learn quickly from hands-on experience. At the end of the semester, they gave a design presentation, showed a demonstration, and wrote a preliminary design report.
The fall semester was all about exploration, and now we are in the second semester, which is all about implementation. I’ve seen a lot of progress recently as the students are building, assembling, and testing components of their project. This semester students are learning about and creating verification plans to prove their project meets their specifications, risk analysis using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, finalizing their specifications, and performing the verifications once their project is complete. By April, they will prepare a final report, presentation, demonstration, and technical documentation.
On April 24th, the SEED teams will showcase their projects to the public at our annual Design Night. This event, which is from 5-7pm at the UVM Davis Center, is a high-energy way to end the year, and students are always very proud to show off their work. You are invited and encouraged to attend to see their work and get ideas for future projects.
SEED will probably have about 20% more students next year, so please start thinking about what project ideas you might have, or people you know who might want to sponsor a project. I will arrange projects over the summer, and would be glad to discuss your ideas or answer questions at any time.
Warm regards,
Keith Epstein (he/him) Engineering Capstone Lecturer and SEED Program Director University of Vermont (802) 777-0158
