The report must be submitted via the Turnitin submission link on Blackboard. This report is individual – all parts must be completed individually. Please be aware that there are grade hurdles associated with this task; see the course profile for more details.
Report Sections The final report should have the following sections. Start each section on a new page.
Title page: Identify your team number, your name and student number and the names of your other team members.
Team Design Overview (1 page maximum): Detail the overall methodology of the team and where you fit within the team. Identify which aspects of the project were undertaken by which team members.
Individual Contribution (1 page maximum – excluding figures): Describe your individual
contribution to the project in terms of design, fabrication and process. This should show insight into decision-making and be more than a simple retelling of your actions over the semester. Your results should be presented in a clear and succinct manner. These may include schematics, PCB artwork, appropriate firmware and software code snippets, and screenshots where appropriate. Figures and tables can be used within this part of the report and will NOT be counted as part of the page limit.
Sustainability Considerations (1 page maximum): Assuming that this project is to be
turned into a mass-produced commercial product, choose one or more aspects of the design relevant to your contribution to the project and describe the issues that should be considered with respect to the sustainability of the design. Relevant design aspects that could (but don’t have to be) chosen are: ● Energy efficiency (regardless of mains power from bench or battery) ● Component choice ● Fabrication approach 1 ● Software sustainability (maintainability of code, documentation, etc) ● Business sustainability ● Repairability ● Supply chain stability (ability to swap components from different manufacturers, etc)
For the chosen issue(s) you should address:
● What approach was taken in your project and what alternatives/changes could be considered? ● What are the pros and cons of these approaches with respect to sustainability? ● Consider different types of sustainability as appropriate. ● What is your recommendation as to the approach that should be taken?
Course Reflection (1 ½ pages maximum): The reflection is an opportunity for you to
consider the interpersonal dynamics of group work, and your experiences in the course and working as part of a team. You should also document particular challenges you may have faced. There is no correct answer for this part of the report (you won’t be penalised for admitting shortcomings in your approach), but it should be focussed on your own experience, learning and development through the semester. You should address the following points:
● What did you expect from the course and how was your experience different from your expectations? ● Describe what you’ve learned from a technical/design point of view. ● Choose three competencies from Engineers Australia’s 16 stage one competencies (including at least one from section 2 and at least one from section 3) and reflect on how your experiences in the course have helped your development of that competency. (Make sure you nominate each specific competency you are addressing.) ● Discuss what you have learned about how to work in a group by documenting what worked well within your group, what did not work well, and why. ● How might you organise teamwork differently to improve performance? ● If your group had conflicts or problems in working as a team, describe them and describe how such problems were resolved, or could be avoided in the future.
2 ● How useful was your team code of conduct/code of ethics. (e.g. Was your team code used? Should it have been? Was anything missing? How could it have been improved?) ● How do you think you could have learned better in this course with respect to your own behaviour? What changes could you make to your own behaviour or learning strategies to improve things? ● What changes would you suggest (both to the course and your approach to learning overall)? Note that some students have a tendency to use this dot point as the majority of their reflection - you should not do this, and instead refer to the previous points above and make sure you are addressing them all in a reasonably equitable fashion.
Further Information You may include figures/diagrams as appropriate. Figures must add value to the text, must be numbered and captioned, and must be explicitly referred to in the text. (Page counts above include figures, except for the individual contribution section.)
This report must conform to engineering report standards, including referencing and be written in clear and concise English. You are not required to produce a contents page or an executive summary for this report.
The course reflection may be in first-person but other parts should be in third person. However, you should avoid repeatedly referring to people or using pronouns, and instead just state the contributions. Just initially state who you are describing the contributions for (in third person, eg “Bob was responsible for the PCB” or “Alice was responsible for the GUI software”), and then state the contributions or works, ie “The PCB was soldered…”, “The GUI was installed…”, “It was decided that…”. You can also use “The team decided that…”.
Page format must be A4, single line spacing, all margins a minimum of 1.5 cm, and suitable font and size (e.g. Times New Roman, 12pt font).
Appendices may be included but will not be marked.
3 Marking Criteria (15 marks total) Pages exceeding the page counts specified will not be marked. Fractional marks can be awarded if the standard of the work falls below that expected for the satisfactory standard or is between the two standards below.
Section Satisfactory Standard (50%) Excellent Standard (100%)
Team Design Team’s allocation of work Team’s methodology and allocation of work is Overview between members is mostly clear and coherent, with no doubts as to the (2 marks) clearly described and there are approach taken and the roles of all team no or limited inconsistencies members. The described roles cover the with the descriptions by other complete scope of the project and there is no team members. inconsistency with the descriptions by other team members.
Individual Individual contribution is Individual contribution is clearly and
Contribution mostly clear and is significant accurately described with supporting (5 marks) to the team. There are some documentary evidence of your contribution. minor inaccuracies and/or the Your contribution to the project is clearly claimed contribution is not significant. Your key design decisions are completely supported with outlined concisely and justified appropriately. appropriate evidence and/or a There are no inconsistencies with descriptions key design decision is not by other team members. discussed or appropriately justified.
Sustainability An appropriate design aspect Your discussion demonstrates understanding
Considerations (or aspects) has been chosen of and insight into relevant sustainability (4 marks) and reasonable alternatives issues. An appropriate design aspect (or have been described with an aspects) has been chosen and reasonable appropriate recommendation. alternatives have been considered and described clearly - addressing all of the required points. Recommendations have been justified appropriately.
Course The reflection covers most or Reflection is comprehensive - it covers the
Reflection all of the points required and listed points in sufficient detail. It is insightful (4 marks) is supported by examples. and supported by good examples from your Conclusions/ experience. Your experiences are linked to recommendations are given. your learning and sensible recommendations/ conclusions are drawn.
Penalties (deducted from the overall mark)
Penalties (up to -5 marks) will apply for reports that do not conform to the structural, layout, grammatical and/or spelling standards of an engineering report. Late penalties will also apply as per the course profile. Examples of penalties include: ● -1 - several minor spelling/typographical errors (1 or 2 such errors will not be penalised) ● -1 - minor inconsistent layout error (e.g. heading missing, inconsistent font use, inconsistent indentation) ● -2 - single mangled sentence (e.g. clearly incomplete sentence) ● -3 - numerous spelling or grammar errors but the meaning of the report is still clear ● -5 - numerous spelling or grammar errors with some impacting on the understandability or meaning of the relevant sections of the report
