Capstone Design Step 3

The premise of the entire second semester is to demonstrate our advanced understanding of the engineering and design process through our Capstone Project. We are being tasked with producing, and promoting, a product or service and to develop this idea through the eight steps of the design process. We have just complete the third step of the design process, evaluating alternative concepts.

Content

We has already determined the problem we wanted to resolve, homelessness in our town. However in order to properly identify the problem, specifics of the problem and who and how are people effected. We created a Demand and Wish list, conducted Intial Market Research, and have created Client Surveys.

Evaluation

In order to establish a set design, we created an evaluation doc. We considered cost efficiency, durability, ease of replication, and space, and created a document detailing all of these things.

Nicholas Goodin - Capstone Design Step 3: Evaluation of Alternative Concepts

MiZauni Reese - "4 to 6 pages" Initial Proposal UPDATE

Initial Proposal

Including time frames, budgeting, and developmental processes, this document details every single aspect of our project, in order to convey our goals and means of meeting it. This will be use for potential investors.

Life Cycle Assessment

Lastly, we conducted a life cycle assessment of our stucture to, again, ensure the stability of our product. No matter how we build, the materials and resources are the most important aspect.

MiZauni Reese - Life Cycle Assessment - Report and Infographic

Reflection

As we finally enter our Capstone project, I am truly beginning to feel like an engineer. All of our assignments have relevance to our project and my group and I are becoming more productive. We are now better able to work on our assignments productively and complete them timely because it feels essential to our understanding of engineering. The work is also now more enjoyable because it feels as though we are working to complete something rather than to just do work. We as a group are now motivated, rather than just one member, so now everyone contributes somewhat to the assignments.

As for the content itself, it gives me a feeling of gratitude to know that not only am I helping homeless people, but I am taking their thoughts and feelings into consideration. It is all too important to be empathetic to the homeless and although a home in general is better than no home, it is still essential to take into account their needs in order to promote self betterment. These people must not only feel welcome, but safe in our community in order for our potential rehabilitation and therapy services to provide any real benefit. The more research we do regarding how best to help homeless people, the more tangible our idea becomes and it is a feeling of great satisfaction to help those who do not necessarily have the means to help themselves. Our only concern now is funding because in reality this will most likely be about a $10,000 project to build one home.