This is a design-build-test-communicate course with a heavy emphasis on team-based,
project-based, collaborative learning. That mouthful is a fancy way of saying: you will gain
a
lot of introductory-level engineering experience by building something interesting with a
group
of people!
Project
In our section, you will work in a team of five to design, build, test, and communicate
about a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), sometimes called a submersible, for underwater
exploration. The ROV has a set of tasks that it will need to do, but otherwise this is a
“free design” project with minimal constraints on size, shape, and function. Your team
will
be provided with raw building materials, four thrusters, a blank control box, toggle
switches and buttons, and a payload consisting of a battery, a video camera (to “see
what
the ROV sees” and help complete the set of tasks), and a tether to a float. The float
connects wirelessly to a control box that you will design and build. You will have an
opportunity to test your ROV in the towing tank at the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory
(MHL)
in West Hall. An ROV competition is held on a weekend near the end of the semester at
the
MHL. At the competition, your team will present its ROV design to our industry sponsor
and
then conduct final ROV testing in the MHL’s towing tank. A written progress report and a
final report are also deliverables for this project.
Lecture, Discussion, and Lab
This section has a lecture component, a discussion component, and a lab component. The
lectures are a time when content is provided and/or practiced; they are highly
group/team-oriented and taught in a “studio” style where you sit with your team or other
small group. Discussions are a time when we provide and practice content that is more
suitable to a smaller class size. Labs are when you will gain the hands-on build and
test
experience with your team. Throughout the course, collaboration is highly encouraged and
required. To emphasize the importance of collaboration in Engr 100-600, course
engagement
points are assigned to many activities in lecture, discussion, and lab. If you miss a
lot of
class, you will not earn these points, and it will be difficult to do well in the
course.
Your team will use a dedicated lab to construct and test your ROV during regular lab
times
and open lab times provided by the Instructional Assistants (IAs) for the class. Peer
mentors -- students who have previously taken this course -- are assigned to each team
to
provide design guidance and offer support.
Course Content and Workload
The goal of Engr 100-600 is to provide an opportunity for you to gain experience in a
wide
range of engineering skills. Before you get super excited that you are going to become
an
expert hydrodynamicist after a single introductory engineering course, we want to remind
you
that this is an intro course. And it’s an intro course that is focused on communication
and
hands-on learning in a general engineering sense. We don’t have the time to go deep into
any
technical content. However, we will touch on the following engineering topics within the
context of the ROV project: team communication and collaboration, 3D modeling and
printing,
pressure, buoyancy, stability, technical documentation (presentations and reports),
basic
electric circuits, systems design, probability, statistics, risk, and ethics.
Fair warning: Past students generally report that the workload for Engr 100-600 is higher
than other sections of Engr 100 but that the extra work is worth it. More than one of
our
past students has said that they owe a summer internship after their first year in
college
to the experience they could list after taking Engr 100-600.
Should you take this course?
This course will likely be of greatest interest to those students looking to major in
naval
architecture & marine engineering, but any student who is interested in a rewarding,
hands-on introduction to engineering at U-M is very welcome. We’ve worked hard to create
a
multi-disciplinary project that will appeal to a wide range of students, so hopefully
everyone will find something interesting to do!
If you are hoping to register for this section in the fall term but find that it is
already
full, please email the First-Year Programs Coordinator, Krista Quinn, at
engin-fyp-at-umich.edu to request your name be added to a list for winter term.
