Content

Part 1 - The design process begins with understanding a need, developing a problem definition, and producing a list of design specifications. We needed to identify a "need" or "want" that can be satisifed. Failure to do so could result in failure of the entire design process. The successs of our product depends whether or not we can satisfy our costumers with our product. To do so we looked at asnwering the questions below:

• What do our customers want?

• Where do they want it?

• When do they want it?

• What price are they willing to pay?

We also wanted to consider

• How large is the market we are entering?

• Is anyone else in this market?

• Is the market realistic?

• What are the financial risks?

• Can we make a profit?

Part 2 - After answering all these questions, we then needed to define the problem.

Part 3 - Another essential step was to create and demand and want wishlist. In this wishlist we needed to adress the following categories:

• Performance

• Geometry

• Materials

• Energy

• Time

• Cost

• Manufacture

• Standards

• Safety

• Transport

• Ergonomics

• Environment

Part 4 - Clarify the Problem

1. Start with what you know. Write down what we know about the problem and utalize a brainstorming session to generate the most information.

2. Decide what information is missing.

3. Gather information on the problem (Research). You might collect several types of information. It will generally fall into one of the following categories:

• Facts (15% of the people do not use the bridge at all)

• Inference (a significant percentage of drivers bypass the bridge)

• Speculation (many trucks use the bridge)

• Opinion (I think a new bridge will be too expensive)

All of our reports, wishlists, and presentations regarding STEP 1 can be seen below in Evidence of Work.

Evidence of Work

Reflection

This was a super unique project and allowed us students to develop a lot of new, useful skills, on how to approach a consumer market. Something I did will throughout this project was contribute both physically and verbally. Like all projects in this class, there is an immense amount of small steps that lead up to creating one larger project. I made sure to contribute my fair share of the work so my team could work quickly and efficiently. I also did a great job on communication. Because of an injury, I had to miss a week of school, but communicated with my team what I could still do and tried to help as much as possible before leaving the classroom for the week. Communication is key and I believe my team has created strong communication between each other, which allows us to work functionally, in a happier environment.

Something I would like to do better in the future is be more creative. For example in the slideshow presentation, maybe try to add more self drawn blueprints or images to give the audience more of a visual appeal. Creativity is an essential aspect of engineering and I would love to incorporate it more throughout the course and the projects we complete.