Team Formation and Bid Proposals for ME 492-493 Projects

In lieu of a final exam in ME 491, students must submit a proposal for the project they expect to complete in ME 492 and ME 493. The requirements for the final proposal are described on the project proposal web page.

This web page describes the team formation process, and the option that student teams may submit bid proposals for ME 492-493 projects.

Team Formation for ME 492 and ME 493

Students will work in teams of 4 to 6 to complete a single project that spans ME 492 and ME 493. Refer to the Roadmap for ME 492 and ME 493 to get an idea of the structure of those classes.

Teams will be either self-formed or assigned with a three-step process.

  1. by November 9, motivated groups of students can organize themselves into teams and submit a bid proposal for one or two projects they want to have as their ME 492-493 project. Students not highly motivated for specific projects are not required to submit proposals.

    Teams must have at least four and no more than six members. Teams can submit bid proposals with fewer than four members. If a team submitting the bid proposal cannot form a team with at least 4 teammates, I will find additional students to add to the team.

    For bid proposals, do not list anyone who has not clearly indicated their willingness to be a team member if the proposal is accepted. Students can participate on up to two proposals involving different team memberships. If both proposals are accepted, students will be asked to choose which team they will join, and teams will be rebalanced, e.g. by adding members to bring team totals to a minimum of 4 members, as necessary.

  2. First, individuals will express their rank-ordered preference for projects. The data will be collected via an on-line survey tool and must be completed by November 16, one day after the last project presentations are made during class.

  3. Team composition will be finalized by the instructor (Recktenwald) by incorporating the bid proposals and the rank-order preferences for projects.

    If a project has a bid proposal from only one team, and that proposal is sufficient, I will assign that team to the project. If a project has multiple proposals, I will assign the team with the strongest proposal to that project. Projects assigned via bid proposals will be removed from the list of available projects for the remaining (unassigned) students in ME 491.

    For students who do not participate on teams that submit proposals, I will use their rank-ordered preferences to assign teams. There is no guarantee that individuals will get their top choices.

Specifications for Bid Proposals

Bid Proposals must be submitted by 9 November 2017 via D2L Drop box. Each team should submit only one proposal per project per team. No late bid proposals will be considered.

Make sure that your bid proposals includes the list of team members as specified on the project proposal page.

The bid proposal has the same content as the final project proposal, though project teams should expect to submit a revised draft of their bid proposal as their final proposal.