Technical Design Report, Poster and Oral Presentation Brief

MKDS11/COM201S - Semester 1, 2014

It is expected that engineers are able to assess problems and design workable
engineering solutions to problems. These could include: the design and
manufacture of a machine or part of a machine, or the modification of an existing
machine or part thereof.
TASK 1 Written report 20%
In pairs, find an engineering problem in your immediate surroundings that you
can design an engineering solution to. In order to complete this task you will have
to do the following:
1. Find a partner.
2. Do an assessment of engineering problems (must be related to a machine
or mechanism that you can design or modify to serve a particular, useful
purpose to the community) that you find in your community, any other
community, household, etc.
3. Make a list of all the possible engineering problems and show this to your
lecturer in order to make a decision on your best option.
4. Do research on the option that you have decided upon and begin your
design of the solution.
5. Write a technical design report (in accordance with the required format) in
which you present your solution (design).
6. Your report should contain a computer generated drawing of your design
and any other relevant illustrations (e.g. photographs, drawings). Place
only what is relevant in the text and additional photographs in the
appendices section). In your report you need to present the context of the
problem and discuss your solution in detail, including: the actual design,
materials selected, manufacturing processes, cost, maintenance, etc.
7. Write a letter of transmittal to be attached on the front of the report.
8. It would be to your advantage to build a model of your design.
Draft due date:
Final submission date:
TASK 2 Poster -15%
Based on your report, design an A1 sized poster. The poster should present the
problem and solution in such a way that someone who looks at it will get the
overall idea, without you physically being there to explain. The poster should be
interesting, informative, clear, accurate (content should be relevant, well
researched, sufficiently detailed and logical), professional in appearance (good
use of white space, use of colour, suitable font sizes and clear, good quality
illustrations) and well written (Language should be clear, easy to read and follow,
no grammatical or spelling errors).
Draft due date: (on A3)
Due date:
TASK 3 Oral Presentation 20%
Based on your report, plan and prepare a 10 minute PowerPoint presentation.
This presentation should not be a reading of your report. Instead, you should
take relevant information from your report and present it in a clear, informative
and interesting manner to your audience. Remember, there is a difference
between written work and oral presentations. Your language and level of content
should be appropriate to that of your audience.
If you have built a model of your design, this would be a good time to
demonstrate how it works.
Presentation date: