APSC 100 Flashcards
Mid-term Prep
Iron Ring
The iron ring acts a reminder for engineers in Canada of their responsibility and obligation to uphold the high standards of engineering, to act ethically, and to protect the public. It was established after the 1907 Collapse of the Quebec Bridge.
What hand is the iron ring worn on?
The little finger of an engineer’s writing hand so it touches the pages of each drawing, calculation, or document they sign.
Profession
A group of people who have a specialized knowledge of skills, have received special education or training, adhere to ethical standards, and apply their knowledge and skills to help others.
What is the profession of engineering regulated by in Canada?
Engineers Canada
True or False?
A person needs to be licensed in order to call themselves an engineer.
True
Design (general definition)
The process of imagining, creating, and producing things. This definition can get confusing because people refer to “design” as the process of creating something and to the object that is created.
Engineering Design
A process used to solve real-world, open-ended problems.
Real-world
Practical applications
Open-ended
Understand that design problems don’t have single, well-defined problems. To also know there are many possible solutions and many methods to arrive there.
What is the purpose of engineering?
To solve practical problems that are meaningful for people, society, or the planet.
True or False?
Engineering design is not a systematic and structured process.
False, it is.
What is the role of an engineer?
To understand and define the problem and to develop and implement the “best solution.”
Novice Approach to Design
Attempt to immediately find a solution to a problem and go about this process through trial and error. In the end, this process ends up being more expensive, time consuming, and takes more resources.
What are the stages of the design process?
0) Problem
1) Study & Clarify the Problem
2) Generate potential solutions
3) Identify the most promising solution
4) Develop & Test the solution
5) Implement the solution
Iteration: Review and revise the solution throughout the design process
Stage 1
Defining the problem, learning about the problem context, learning about the perspectives of stakeholders by understanding their needs and turning those needs into design specifications.
Stage 2
Identify as many possible solutions by focusing on quantity rather than quality because we want a broad range of ideas.
Stage 3
Applying the design specifications from stage 1 to screen out any ideas that don’t meet the target design specifications, then rank and score the remaining ones.
Stage 4
Analyze, refine, and develops the solution.
Stage 5
Final construction, communication, and delivery of the solution. Also consider operation, maintenance, recycling, etc.
Actual Costs
The total amount of money, effort, and resources we have spent up to a particular time as we complete the project.
Costs Committed
The sum of money, effort, and resources we have already spent and the amount we will need to spend in the future based on our decisions to date.
Where does the most spending occur in the design process?
Developing & implementing the solution
True or false?
It costs less to make a major change earlier in the project rather than later on?
True
True or false?
The decisions we make early in the project determine most of the spending that comes later in the project?
True
What does the costs committed curve represent?
The cost to address a major mistake made at a given point that goes undetected until late in the project.
What the difference in the costs committed and actual costs curve represent?
The difference represents the future costs we still have some ability to change.
Validation
Confirm that the target design specifications properly describe the stakeholder needs.
A mistake made in which stage of design process can be detrimental to the entire project?
Stage 1 if you do not clarify and understand the needs of the stakeholders properly. It is important to understand the limitations and constraints of a problem by engaging in discussion with the stakeholders.
Stakeholder
A person, group, or organization that can influence the project or be impacted by the project.
Salience
How important the stakeholders are
What are the dimensions of the stakeholder salience model?
1) Power
2) Urgency
3) Legitimacy
Power
A stakeholder’s ability to influence the project. For example, they could stop the project of they are not satisfied.
Legitimacy
A stakeholder’s moral or legal right to have a say in the project.
What is an example of a stakeholder with power?
The funding group/organization for a project like the City of Vancouver in the bike lanes project.
Based on the salience model what would make a stakeholder highly important.
If their needs/influence fit into two overlapping regions of the 3 dimensions of salience.
True or false?
Is stakeholder dynamic, meaning it can change overtime as the project progresses?
True
At the highest level what can key stakeholders do in terms of their influence in the design process?
They have decision-making input and can even collaborate on the project.
Needs
Wants and wishes of the stakeholder and things that could increase/decrease stakeholder satisfaction.
True or False?
Taking to stakeholders is enough to completely understand the project.
False, research on market trends, patents, etc and observing stakeholder behaviour is also important.
What are the different types of stakeholder needs?
1) Expressed needs
2) Threshold needs
3) Latent needs
True or false?
Needs can differ within a stakeholder groups and stakeholder needs can contradict each other.
True
Expressed needs
Needs the stakeholder clearly states during the consultation.
Latent needs
Needs that would please the stakeholder but they may not be aware of.
Threshold needs
Expected needs the stakeholder will not explicitly state but will be upset if they are not included.
Target design specifications
Combination of requirements and evaluation criteria
Requirements
Collection of minimal thresholds our design must achieve to be considered acceptable for stakeholders. These conditions and criteria are testable.
Evaluation criteria
The criteria used measure stakeholder satisfaction beyond the minimum of just meeting the requirements.
What is the difference between requirements and evaluation criteria?
Requirements are associated with establishing the limits of acceptability and evaluation criteria is used to determine if designs are satisfactory, good, or great.
What does a 0% satisfaction for evaluation criteria represent?
Minimally acceptable in which the associated requirements are just met.
What does a 100% satisfaction for evaluation criteria represent?
Full satisfaction
Where are the target design specifications derived from?
Stakeholder needs
Evaluation criteria curves can be ___or____, ________ or _________.
Linear or non-linear, continuous, discrete
Verification
To check if the solution corresponds with the target design specifications. “Did we solve the problem correctly?”
What is the earliest stage in which validation can occur?
Study and clarify the problem (stage 1)
What is the goal of stage 2?
Maximize the number and variety of our potential solutions.
Solution space
A collection of all of the conceptional solutions we have generated.
Fixation/ anchoring
Getting stuck on a particular idea
Aspects of Concept Generation in Stage 2
1) Focus on Quantity over Quality
2) Welcome unconventional ideas
3) Do not Evaluate Ideas Yet
True of False?
In C-Sketching it is okay to erase some of the elements of another team member’s sketch as long as the core idea remains the same.
True
Screening
Identify and remove any ideas that cannot meet the requirements
True or false?
Concepts that don’t pass screening should be discarded?
False, they should be set aside inside of discarded in case you need to come back to refer to them later in the design process
True of false?
All concepts that meet the requirements pass on to the ranking stage.
True
Ranking
A quick process in which we compared ideas based on how they can maximize stakeholder satisfaction and meet the evaluation criteria from the target design specifications.
Scoring
An involved and time consuming process in which ideas are quantitatively evaluated.
Weighted Design Matrix
Assessing the performance of against an evaluation criteria and then assigning a score from 0 to 100 or 0 to 10.
Elements of a WDM
-Weights allow more emphasis to be placed on more important criteria
-Determining the overall score involves taking the sum of the products of the weights and the raw scores
