Project #2
You are an engineer at a startup company that focuses on designing and
producing next generation athletic equipment. The CEO of the company just asked you
to develop an engineering model (i.e., equations and relevant forces) and provide initial
ideas for creating a new product. The new product, as envisaged by the CEO, will be a
material that attaches (e.g., straps) to running shoes, hiking shoes, or street shoes to
allow a user to traverse muddy trails without damaging the trail, and without
accumulating mud on the bottom of the user’s shoes, or on the bottom of the new
attachment. The CEO suggests that you work with the following colleagues to develop
ideas and a model for guiding additional development efforts:
Format of your technical report:
This report will be an internal document, so the target audience will be the CEO
and all of your colleagues within the startup. Your tasks are to (i) create a model (or
models) that define(s) the engineering and materials properties that are needed to
realize the concept, and (ii) propose one or more ideas for the achieving the goal. Focus
on chemical composition and physical form of the material as you describe your idea.
Your Team’s report should be organized and easy to read, and should:
1. Identify the specific problem to be solved and the facts of math, science, and
engineering that are needed to solve the problem.
2. Develop an approach to solve the problem, including establishing the assumptions
and models that need to be used.
3. Accurately apply math, science, and engineering in solving the problem.
4. Evaluate the validity and appropriateness of your models and your ideas.
5. Reflect on your approaches and ideas relative to existing approaches, if any, for
solving the problem (or related problems).
Note: you are not being tasked with creating an actual prototype. Rather, your job is to
identify the forces, physical phenomena, and relevant equations that will guide the
selection, shape, and distribution of materials for prototypes. Likewise, you should
propose one or more ideas for prototypes that are based on your models.
Format of your report to human resources:
Human resources (HR) in your startup company would like to use this project to
gather information about collaboration within the company. Thus, HR is requesting a
second type of report, but this time from each individual, rather than a team report. This
second report should:
1. Describe how the team worked collaboratively to establish the goals, objectives, and
tasks.
2. Describe how the team established roles and responsibilities for one another.
Likewise, describe and evaluate the contributions of each team member.
3. Describe how each individual in your team contributed to a positive team dynamic.
4. Identify any challenges that your team needed to overcome during this project.
Describe how your team responded to these challenges.
CEO and HR Review Date (i.e., Deadline)
A printed technical report from the team is due at 1:30 pm on February 27.
Individual printed reports for HR are due at 1:30 pm on February 27.
