Me221 will be offered this Fall (2006)

This is a "manufacturing survey course" that deals with all aspects of the manufacturing processes relevant to today's production of consumer electronics or electro-mechanical devices. It also aims to provide a balanced view for the "Management of Technology". The course guides students through a product development cycle, and emphasizes modern Internet-based commercial activities between designers, rapid prototyping services and full-scale manufacturers.
In this course we will cover product concept, consumer “ethnography”, marketing, product design, modeling, rapid prototyping and ending in the final project “Tradeshow”. The class features guest speakers
An especially valuable way of dealing with this material has been a semester-long class project. This places significant emphasis on group interactions. Students will design and prototype a new consumer electronic product based on the Mica Mote (and TinyOS) used in previous Tradeshows.
Finding a useful (and commercially viable) application for Motes, creating a functional package/enclosure, and giving a demonstration of its use, are key to the course. Development of a `marketing plan' and a `ramp-up to manufacturing' scenario is a vital part of the course.
Examples of class/group projects can be seen at:
Me221_tradeshows
PREREQUISITES: Undergraduate Manufacturing Course: Basic familiarity with metal processing operations such as machining and plastic injection molding; some knowledge of IC manufacturing; some exposure to CAD: familiarity with C and Visual Basic very helpful.