syllabus

Engineering 489C-68: Innovative Product Design

Summer Quarter 2002 / 9:30-12:15 and 2-5 MTWRF / NH 122

This pilot multidisciplinary course is aimed to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in information technologies (IT). Intrigued by the worlds most renowned product design firm, IDEO, the course will adopt a team approach in problem understanding and solving. The IDEO design and prototype development philosophy is presented in the course text. This is an intensive 3 credit hour course spanning a 3 week period. From day one, students will be given a real-world IT related problem to solve. Students will be organized into a hot team which consists of individual students from diverse disciplines. The hot team concept is to synergize ideas and the different perspectives from which the students may see problems and solutions. An interdisciplinary team of professors will act as mentors, facilitators and subject-matter experts from whom students can seek advice. The course focuses on a team-oriented problem-solving paradigm from which students have to conduct their activities throughout their innovative product design and prototype development. They will learn how to effectively use the following team concepts/strategies to solve the problem:

            Effective teamwork                                             Research and understanding
            Brainstorming                                                   Time, resource and project management
            Conflict-resolution                                            Prototyping
            Refinement

This course is a hands-on experience. At the end of the class, students are expected to present their design solution and prototype. Successful projects may continue and seek additional support for product development and commercialization.

INSTRUCTORS:

     Dr. Box Leangsuksun         (318) 257-3291          box@coes.latech.edu                  NH 237         http://www.latech.edu/~box
       Dr. Melvin Corley              (318) 257-2859          mcorley@coes.latech.edu            BH 249         http://www.latech.edu/~mcorley
     Dr. David Hall                    (318) 257-4127         dehall@coes.latech.edu                BH 255         http://www.latech.edu/~dehall

COURSE MATERIALS:

The Art of Innovation: lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s leading design firm, Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman, Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-49984-1
The Deep Dive (ABC Nightline): the DVD, narrated by Ted Koppel, Jack Smith, 1999
Real-life observations

GRADING:

        Daily Presentations                	10%
	Written Assignments/Early Prototypes 	10%
        Peer Evaluations	           	30%
        Faculty Evaluation 			10%
        Final Report                           7.5%
        Final Presentation                     7.5%
        Final Prototype                         25%
        

GRADING SCALE:

        A       90 - 100%       (highest degree of excellence)
        B       80 - 89%        (superior)
        C       70 - 79%        (average)
        D       60 - 69%        (minimum quality of work to receive course credit)
        F       < 60%           (failure)

Note: The lower limit in each grade range may be lowered slightly such that the division between letter grades occur at any large gaps in the grade spectrum. This adjustment will be determined only after the final averages are computed and may or may not alter the grade scale.

DAILY PRESENTATIONS:

Each student will give a short presentation every day covering one or two topics from the textbook.
The entire textbook will be covered during the first two weeks of the course, and no presentations will be given during the third week.
Presentations will be graded using this gradesheet.
Use the template (the same background and font) given in this PowerPoint presentation.
An outline of the book is given here.

COURSE RESOURCES AND PURCHASES:

A list of resources available for the course are given here.
Additional resources can be purchased locally, but remember that you must keep your receipt.
Purchases less than $50 are classified as petty cash (you can be reimbursed in cash within a couple of days).
Purchases between $50 and $500 should be approved by one of the faculty members. Reimbursement will be by check and will take a week or more.
Purchases over $500 must go out for bids. Given the short duration of this course and the time required for the bidding process, the prototype that you develop should probably not have any components that cost more than $500.
If you have questions about purchases, please see Martha Stevens in BH 208 ( 257-2938) or Sherry Jones in BH 212 (257-3364).
Take your receipts to Martha Stevens to apply for reimbursement.

PROTOTYPES:

The course will involve three stages of prototype development.
FIRST STAGE: Each student in the class will develop a prototype individually which will be submitted on Monday, July 15.
SECOND STAGE: The entire class will develop a second prototype which will be submitted on Friday, July 19.
THIRD STAGE: The entire class will develop a final prototype which will be submitted on Friday, July 26.
A technician will be available to assist in the development of the second and third prototypes.
Students are not encouraged to use power tools, as the technician will be available to assist in fabrication. The student assumes all responsibility associated with any injury that might occur as a result of building the prototypes required for this course.
The technician, Kaylin Richardson, can be contacted at 513-2662 or kaylinr@msn.com.

PEER EVALUATION:

Peer evaluations will be performed on the final day of the class.
These evaluations will be confidential and will be used in computing an individuals participation score (30% of course credit).
Click here for the evaluation form.

COURSE EVALUATION:

Each student will complete a course evaluation on the last day of the course.
The course evaluation can be found at this link.

FINAL REPORT AND PRESENTATION:

Details about the final report and presentation are given here.

ATTENDANCE:

Regular and punctual class attendance is expected, as outlined in the University catalog.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:

A description of the problem as given in class is given here.