Micah Zeitz DSGN 384-1,2 Reflection on Professional Competencies Outline Draft 2 Fall 2013 - Winter 2014 1.

Introduction Design 384 is a two quarter long class where teams work to create a solution to the project assigned to them. During these two quarters they are expected to go through the complete design process including researching the problem, generating concepts, building and testing mockups, building a final prototype, and delivering it to the client. Teams are expected to develop a design that fits their clients needs and budget, while class expectations are an secondary additional driving factorfactor in the design. Our team was assigned Coach Jim Tierney as our client. Coach Tierney is the head coach of the Northwestern Womens Swim Team. He has requested that we create a swim resistance system that better fits the needs of his team than the swim resistance training systems he currently has available. Swim resistance training is similar to weight training for runners, but instead of wanting to pull the athlete down, swim resistance training is meant to resist the forward motion of the swimmer with a constant force. Sprinters are the most common users of the resistance systems, as they need to build strength for quick bursts of speed over one or two lengths of the pool. Northwestern Womens Swimming has three types of resistance training systems available to use: parachutes, elastic bands, and the Power Tower. Parachutes and elastic bands are both very inexpensive options, but they have limited adjustability and can interfere with the stroke of a swimmer. The Power Tower is highly adjustable, works for the length of the pool, and doesnt interfere with the stroke of the swimmers;, however, it is expensive, bulky, and has on occasion fallen over and into the pool. Coach Tierney expressed an interest last year in a product that would have all of the benefits of the power tower, with none of the drawbacks. A prior Design 384 team was assigned this original product project and but at the end of two quarters was unable tohad not produced come up with a working prototype ready to test with swimmers. Our team was assigned the continuation of the project, with the instruction that we did not have to continue the previous teams design, instead we could come up with a new design if we could justify our reasoning. Through the course of this class our team has worked closely with our client to identify specific design requirements and constraints, we have developed multiple innovativee designs, and have driven towards the goal of presenting Coach Tierney with a working prototype that can be tested with his swim team by early into the second quarter. As a team we have learned how much the design process requires both iterative design, and clean slate design. 2. Contextual design a. Design selection

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Brainstorming design alternatives - Used knowledge from multiple fields including physics, fluid dynamics, mechanical dynamics, etc to come up with a wide array of design alternatives ii. Alternative comparison - Evaluated features, benefits, and drawbacks of each design idea, compared design directions to identify trade-offs of different choices iii. Tools - CAD, equations of motion, spring equations, prototyping, conceptual sketching, etc. Component design i. Eddy current braking - Came up with the idea to use eddy currents braking, created preliminary eddy current design, planned parts to purchase System design i. Gearing - Constant force springs will individually produce more force than the total force required for the system, I have designed a gearing that will gear down the force while increasing the useable length of the system, I have also worked on pulley alternatives to the gear system ii. Constant Force Spring Adjustment - The design calls for adjustable force from 0 to 20 lbs, to allow for this I have come up with a design for a transfer bar and pin out system to select the number of springs to be active at a time iii. Eddy Currents Braking Adjustment - Eddy Currents are proportional to area of interaction with the B field and with velocity, the design calls for adjustment at any velocity, which requires adjustment of the area of interaction. I have designed a sliding brake disc to vary the overlap of the magnets and conductor. Modeling elastic systems - Constant force spring gearing and equations Modeling magnetic systems - Eddy current forces and equations Global/economic/environmental - Design for mass production vs one-off design, including the tradeoffs for choosing one other the other i. Mass production - Goals: Cheap, easy to assemble, limits of processes ii. One-off - Goals: Design for a specific need

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2. Communication a. Presentations i. Graphical - Not too many words on the slides, using graphics to show something to the audience instead of words, clean slide design ii. Oral - Developing my presentation skills, looking at the slides less and the audience more, fewer ums, better annunciation b. Writing - Clearly and effectively presenting the topic and our design, fully explaining any uncommon terms, concise paragraphs c. Feedback i. Brainstorms - Creating concepts for other groups to use, providing specific component ideas ii. Go Publics - Asking questions that help the teams consider new directions, etc.

iii. Advice - providing my knowledge and experience in rapid prototyping, manufacturing, and design for manufacturing as an asset for other teams 3. Teamwork & collaboration Goal Setting During the two quarters of DSGN 384 teams are expected to design and build a high fidelity prototype of a product that address a specific need or solves a specific problem. The final prototype needs to be a looks like, works like level product. To accomplish this feat in two quarters, or approximately 20 weeks, requires careful planning and goal setting. However, since the design requirements are likely to change, the plan for the 20 weeks must be adaptable. Due to the natural break between the two quarters, the plan for the 20 week project was split into a plan for each of the two quarters, complete with goals and a Gantt chart for each quarter. We initially set our goals for the end of each quarter based on the assumption that we would be able to narrow down design concepts, choose one, and build a functioning prototype with it. Based on this initial assumption we set a goal for the end of quarter one of having a working prototype ready to test at the Northwestern pool. This goal would allow us to begin quarter two with an extensive testing regime. If we were unable to have a working pool-ready prototype by the end of the quarter, we would only be able to perform limited testing during the second quarter before we had to begin finalizing the design of our prototype and planning for manufacturing. Quarter two was initially designated for testing and high fidelity prototyping, with a goal for the end of the quarter of having a functioning completed product ready for long term testing. Near the end of the first quarter of DSGN 384 we changed design directions from an eddy current braking system to a constant force spring braking system. As a result of this late stage design change we had to reevaluate our end of quarter goals to allow for more time to complete the first generation prototype. However, due to the requirements of the class we did not change our goal for the end of quarter two. We instead modified our weekly plan through the use of our Gantt chart to account for the reduced timeframe. 3. a. Setting goals i. End of quarter 1 goal - Working prototype that we can test at the pool ii. End of quarter 2 goal - Functioning completed product iii. Team goal - Innovate, explore new technologies 1. New design - Our team wants to come up with an original design, and only continue previous quarters design work if it is truly the best option, not just if it is the easy option 2. Innovation - Bringing technologies from outside the typical product selection into our design process, such as exploring eddy current braking 3. Focus on prototype - co-development of new ideas along with prototyping current ideas to allow for a constant push forward
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b. Monitoring progress i. Gantt Chart - Plan what we want to have completed by specific dates c. Providing effective feedback i. Evaluating eachotherseach others ideas ii. Suggesting improvements in presentation skills and general class/group work 4. Life-long learning a. Practices and strategies for the future i. Formal design process - Research, Interview, Ideate, Mock-up, Review, Prototype, Review, Finalize b. Demonstrate an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility

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Strategies for the Future Designing a competitive product requires special considerations not required when designing for a new product category. As discussed previously, multiple products exist in the swim resistance training category designed to address the same problem we are designing our product to solve. The competition is also quite diverse, ranging from the very simple elastic bands to the much more complex Power Tower. In order to design a product that can compete in this space we must consider a large number of factors that will influence our design, starting with the scope of our solution to the problem. An initial choice of a large project scope, competing with products such as the Power Tower, will yield a very different set of design criteria than a small project scope meant to compete against products such as the elastic band systems. In order to make this initial design decision that will not only affect choices we make throughout the design process, but also will greatly affect the final outcome, we must use a variety of strategies and planning methods to effectively evaluate different design directions and to progress through the rest of the design process. To evaluate the competition for the swim resistance training system and to determine the scope of the project we first observed one of our client, Coach Tierneys swim practices, to view the different swim resistances systems they currently use so we can understand what the actual benefits and drawbacks of each system are. While the benefits of each system can be found by reviewing the product information online, we found that the real world comparison is not only more accurate, but can reveal important differences between the products that will impact our design decisions. For example, not even mentioned on the Power Tower website, is the tendency of the product to tip over into the pool. This led us to design a product that cannot tip over into the pool. Following the evaluation of the different products on the market, and in use by the Northwestern Swim Team, we needed to evaluate our design concepts, similarly to how we evaluated the existing alternative products. However, we didnt have examples of the concepts to evaluate and compare, which necessitated a series of mockups and prototypes that would allow us to perform the required testing. One of our designs that we prototyped was a swim resistance system that used eddy currents to apply a braking force to the swimmer. We didnt have any similar examples available that we could evaluate so we built a low fidelity mockup of a basic eddy current braking disk. Through testing of this braking disk and additional analysis of our design concepts we were able to conclude that we would not continue to pursue this design direction. Without this mockup we would have had to rely on inadequate information and continued to pursue the eddy current braking concept. very simple

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Ethical Responsibilities of an Engineer Engineering Design typically falls under one of two categories: designing for yourself or designing for a client. While designing for yourself is primarily limited by your personal morals and ethics, designing for a client requires an understanding and respecting your ethical and professional responsibilities to your client. These responsibilities are typically determined by contractual obligations and mutual agreements. However, as an engineer you have a greater responsibility to design for your clients interests and needs beyond just what is stated any contract or agreement. This is especially important in the case of a contractless assignment, such as for DSGN 384. Our client, Coach Jim Tierney of the Northwestern Womens Swim Program has not entered into a contract with our team. In order to design for our clients needs, without them being expressed in a contract, we had to identify ways our project would be beneficial to him and his team, and ways it would be damaging to him and his team. Despite not having a contract with Coach Tierney, we have been assigned by him to create a swim resistance training system. Swim resistance training is meant to give sprinters an edge during competitions, our product is therefore a tool that Coach Tierney is able to use to give his swimmers an advantage in competitions. Other teams have access to the same swim resistance systems Coach Tierney currently has access too. This means that our system might give the coach an additional advantage over other colleges swim programs. There is a difference between a cost advantage and a capability advantage, such that if our system merely provides a cheaper alternative to the current comparably useful solutions then the only advantage Coach Tierney might gain is that of cost. He might be able to afford more equipment under his current budget than without our system. However, our system might also provide a more material and measurable advantage over current systems by providing integrated assistance and resistance training, something most college teams do not have ready access too. In this case equipping the competition with our product might give them a material and measurable advantage over or equal to the advantage our product gives Coach Tierney. Therefore, in order to best serve the interests of Coach Tierney and the Northwestern Swim Program we must conclude what the distinct advantage is to our product. Coach Tierney will then need to be made aware of our products unique advantage so he can make an informed decision about whether he would like us to keep the product only to Northwestern or open up its use to other college teams. Before we presented him with this information he communicated with us that he does not have a preference on whether we keep the product to only Northwestern or not; however this opinion was based on a lack of information about the capabilities of our product. It would be unprofessional of us to take this prior decision as permission to sell our product to other teams as it would violate our responsibilities to our client. This all comes from the mantra that as an engineer we work for our client, in the best interest of our client, and must be actively identifying possible conflicts of interest so that we can bring those to the attention of our client.
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Comment [BS4]: Since you will already have addressed this, this paragraph could use a better topic sentence. Focus on the ethical issue that you will develop in this paragraph and the next. Because you ended the previous paragraph with the idea of your obligation to design something beneficial to the team and not damaging, you might pick up that theme in the topic sentence of this paragraph.

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