KD5080 - Electrical Product Development

Module material is delivered by lectures, with guest lectures being included in the delivery, to add specific expertise where appropriate.
Weekly workshops offer you the opportunity to provide a weekly review to staff supervising and to discuss plans for future development and review timescales.

You will form into groups of four or five students, and each group will develop an electrical/electronic engineering product. You will take on a particular role within your group, for example, team leader, circuit designer, enclosure developer etc., thus simulating the activity of a small industrial company.

You will therefore be required to learn to work as part of a team, ensuring completion of timely individual deliverables for the greater good of the group. Discussions at the weekly workshops are recorded, and kept by the students to provide current feedback and suggestions for future work.
Group meetings outside of the scheduled workshops will be required to tackle directed and independent project development aspects including timely progress and completion of deliverables.

Each group will submit a Group Project Development report (100%) containing all aspects of research, design, development, analysis, and conclusion to develop report writing skills. Self and peer assessment will be incorporated into the marking of the final report to enable you to have an input to the mark obtained for your own performance and also other group members.

Module content is delivered by lecture with additional support and appropriate links via the e-LP
The weekly workshops provide an essential forum for discussion of project progress with staff, allowing staff to provide advice, and to enable the groups to receive documented up to date feedback

You will be directed to Library facilities, specifically skills + . Researching articles and publications by the use of NORA will be demonstrated in lectures as will the use of Endnote, to assist in the development of reference sections and the citation of references in reports.

You will use industry standard software tools, such as ORCAD, to simulate developed circuits and required hardware development tools, such as oscilloscopes and meters, to practically test developed circuits in the laboratory.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. Investigate an engineering design problem taking into account constraints including environmental, social and legal issues (UK-Spec 3rd Ed. SM1m, ET2m, ET3m, ET4m)
2. Identify and manage cost drivers and understand the commercial and economic context of engineering design (UK-Spec 3rd Ed. D2m, D4m)

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
3. Apply key engineering principles to solve engineering problems using appropriate theory, methods, practical implementation and IT tools (UK-Spec 3rd Ed. D4m, EA1m, EA2m, EA3m, EA4m, EP4m, D5m, D6m)

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
4. Work effectively as a team to manage the engineering design process and evaluate outcomes. (UK-Spec 3rd Ed. ET6m, D1m, EP9m, EP11m)
5. Convey information by written report and oral presentation (UK-Spec 3rd Ed. D6m)

The module is assessed by a single assignment composed of work from the groups of students. This assignment has a number of sub components which contribute to the group and individual assessments of the group members.
A presentation is also made to conclude the group project.

All LOs will be assessed through this assessment.

Formative assessment is made though out the scheduled lab time where each group has 1-2-1 discussions with the tutor about the work completed and next steps.

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As part of a group of six students you will develop an electrical/electronic product to a given specification. You will be exposed to the design cycle of an electrical/electronic product incorporating market evaluation, detailed specification development, electronic circuit design, use of simulation tools, PCB development, enclosure development, end of life considerations, as well as aspects of project management. Each member of the group will be allocated specific tasks to enable the product to be completed within the required timeframe. A free running group PowerPoint presentation with audio will be produced during semester 1 as a product justification/plan (20%)and a complete group design review at the end of semester 2 (80%). You will also have an input to the marking of the final design review through peer and self assessment.