Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 1 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

Team work is a required skill for the practice of engineering and is integral in successful completion of almost any Engineering project. This unit endeavours to teach issues in management, teamwork, communication, research, and design by giving teams of four students the opportunity to build a complete product. The most challenging aspects of this unit will come from requirements to work effectively in a group and the choices the team will need to make for product design informed by prototyping and research. This unit will ground material in dynamics and electrical circuit theory learnt in the prerequisite courses. It extends team engineering design skills obtained in the prerequisites through application to an actual product.

Aims

Mechatronics Group Project 1 addresses a wide range of goals for the learner from personal development to technical experience. While working in a team, you may be only lightly exposed to some technical skill areas, while deeply developing abilities in other technical areas. You will be responsible for your own learning - choosing areas of expertise and interest in conjunction with the team. The goals related to personal development, on the other hand, are the core learning goals for the course that will relate to every member of the team. During this course you will:
(li) Experience working in a small but diverse team.(/li)
(li) Practice informal team building skills.(/li)
(li) Resolve conflicts and negotiate solutions.(/li)
(li) Develop formal meeting skills.(/li)
(li) Write formal technical reports.(/li)
(li) Plan a complex Mechatronics project to a fixed timeline and budget.(/li)

Objectives

After successfully completing this course you will be able to:
1. Demonstrate productive contribution as a team player at formal and informal group meetings, practical sessions, and all aspects of project development and management.
2. Design, implement, and troubleshoot a mechatronic product as part of a team through each stage of a complete design cycle.
3. Write a formal design report detailing the technical aspects of your product and critically reflecting on your own contribution to the project and product.
4. Communicate, disseminate, and retrieve information through a variety of media including project management tools, reports, and information sources such as technical journals and the library.

Content

Lectures will cover classic algorithms, architectures, and theories for controlling and programming mechatronic platforms. Topics include: actuation, locomotion, sensing, sensor fusion, architectures, kinematics and dynamics, fault diagnosis and embedded system development. Content on project management, time management, team building, report writing, etc. also will be an integral part of the unit.

The first two weeks of lectures will comprise of a revision of project management and introduce some specific methods for enabling rapid prototyping and decision making. The lectures for the remaining first half of the semester will consist of bridging the gap between theory and practice, specifically focussing on the technical requirements for the product. Lectures will build on integrating knowledge from the full spectrum of Mechatronics engineering (such as dynamics and circuit theory) to construct a theoretically and practically sound product. Lectures in the second half of the semester will be reserved as a discussion forum for question and answers.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Mode of Teaching
Total hours per week: 5
Lectures: 2
Group Meetings: 1
Laboratory: 2

Team Projects require significant hands-on experience both with the implementation of your product but also working within a team. The unit introduces Project Management principles for team work, enabling agility in decision making and crisis mitigation. Furthermore, a series of interactive lectures provides an overview of the techniques available to the Mechatronics engineer for design and implementation. The unit focuses on the practical element of Mechatronics Engineering with an emphasis on lab work and group meetings.

1. Interactive lectures: Lectures are used to provide an introduction to technical material, and immediate application of the material within your product. Multiple technical solutions are normally applicable to your product and these are discussed in class. Lectures will relate the work to other well known Mechatronics projects providing relevance to ¿real-world¿ problems. Lectures will also include an introduction to project management and provide a process for group work which will be used throughout the unit.

2. Project Management Review Meetings: It is expected that your team will meet often throughout each week. However, a formal review meeting will be held fortnightly with your team and a tutor or lecturer. The aim of this meeting is to demonstrate your work from the previous fortnight and compare to goals you had set yourselves in the previous formal review. These meetings allow the tutor and/or lecturer to gauge your work and provide guidance on problems and where the team should focus for the following fortnight.

3. Laboratory: The team project requires the implementation of a product specified by a client. The project runs over the entire semester and culminates in a demonstration of the product at the end of the unit. Practical work in the laboratory will focus on particular problems that a number of teams may be having but will be flexible such that teams at different stages will be provided assistance. The product will require mechanical design and construction, electronics design, and embedded programming. Initial lab sessions will provide electronic and mechanical CAD tutorials during the first hour of the laboratory session. Software programming techniques will also be introduced during these labs. Labs later in the semester will be used to complete your product with expert tutor assistance.

Assessment

Assessment will be based on practical performance (60%), performance in team meetings (20%), and report performance (20%). Practical performance will be based on the performance of the product at the end of the unit. This mark is also weighted according to a peer assessment provided by your team. Your performance in team meetings is assessed for participation/presentation/demo at each meeting. A final report describing your product's design and those parts of the product for which you were responsible will be submitted at the end of semester. This report will be assessed on design rationale and quality of presentation.

Assessment name: Demonstration
Description: In a group of four, you will design a mechatronics product with a bias to completeness and performance in the final demonstration. Peer assessments provided by your team will weight the final mark.

A day at the end of semester will be set aside for each team to demonstrate their product to the lecturers and tutors.
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4
Weight: 60%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: End of Semester

Assessment name: Team Meetings
Description: Individual performance in four fortnightly team meetings will be assessed by the lecturer or tutor. You will be assessed for
participation/presentation/demo at each meeting.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3, 4
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: End of Semester

Assessment name: Portfolio
Description: Early in the semester, you will write a report on your initial product design. Feedback will be given for this report with the aim to guide you in scientific writing and also in your design decisions. It is expected that this feedback will be incorporated in the final report. This initial report will be signed off by the lecturer or tutors.

Using the feedback from the initial report, each student must submit a ten page (maximum) design report that describes the final design of those parts of the product for which they were responsible. The report should also include a reflection on the design process and team management practices used over the semester.

The two reports make up a portfolio for each individual which will be marked at the end of the semester.
Relates to objectives: 2, 3, 4
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Early & End Semester

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Computer software: MATLAB, C, Altium, Solid Works
Project: Small motor platform, electronic components, electronics workbench (power supply, oscilloscope, function generator).

Risk assessment statement

You will undertake lectures and tutorials in the traditional classrooms and lecture theatres. As such, there are no extraordinary workplace health and safety issues associated with these components of the unit.

You will be required to undertake practical sessions in the laboratory under the supervision of the lecturer and technical staff of the School. In any laboratory practicals you will be advised of requirements of safe and responsible behaviour and will be required to wear appropriate protective items (e.g. closed shoes).

You will undergo a health and safety induction before the commencement of the practical sessions and will be issued with a safety induction card. If you do not have a safety induction card you will be denied access to laboratories.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 22-Oct-2012