ME 491 — Design Process, Fall 2017

ME 491 – ME 492 – ME 493 is the Capstone course sequence for BSME majors. In ME 491 we introduce a structured design process and apply it to projects that students complete in teams. At the end of ME 491, students organize themselves into teams that will complete a major project during ME 492 and ME 493 in the Winter and Spring terms of 2018.

You are reading this page on the public web site for the class. There is also a D2L page for private and secure transactions such as submitting homework and viewing grades.

More information

Course Logistics

ME 491 meets on Tuesdays, 10:00 to 11:50 AM in Shattuck Hall 212
(Note the room change. Earlier in the summer, the course was scheduled in Hoffman Hall 109.)

G. Recktenwald's office hours for Fall 2017 are

Textbook

The required textbook for the course is Fundamentals of Product Development by Christopher A. Mattson and Carl D. Sorenson. This book was developed specifically to support Capstone courses in engineering, especially Mechanical Engineering. It also has a modest price of $45 new, much less than most engineering textbooks.

You can use the 3rd edition (2015), 4th edition (2016) or 5th edition (2017) of the book. Later editions are better since the authors revise the book every year. I believe that the bookstore has the 4th edition. The 5th edition was released in mid August 2017 and is available from Amazon.

Policy for Access to Capstone Labs

Refer to this web page for the policy on access to Capstone labs and usage of tools and fabrication equipment in those labs.

Sponsoring Projects

Capstone uses experiential learning to help students develop skills and knowledge necessary for the practice of engineering. A main part of this experience is a six-month project that occurs during ME 492 (Winter Term) and ME 493 (Spring Term). We seek project sponsors who provide a good problem for students to solve for the major design project in ME 492-493.

Detailed descriptions of projects from the previous academic year are on this web page.

We ask sponsors to provide funding and in-kind resources to enable the student team to develop physical prototypes to explore and verify their design ideas. Sponsor get the substantial benefit of a team of engineering students working to solve their problem. The sponsor gets the complete design specification and (almost always) a working prototype of the design solution.

If you are interested in sponsoring a project, please contact the instructor, Gerry Recktenwald. For more information, please consult the What is Capstone? web page.

Sign-up For MELT Workshops

The Mechanical Engineering Lab Team (MELT) is a student group interested in learning about and promoting manufacturing within the BSME program. See the MELT info page for a brief summary and links to the MELT web site.

To support rapid-prototyping in ME 491, the MELT will be offering extra training workshops on laser cutting and 3D printing only for ME 491 students. Use these links