Project Overview

Course Description
The goal of the Engineering Design Lab sequence (ENGR 101, ENGR 102, and ENGR 103) is to introduce incoming students to engineering through a combination of lecture discussion and laboratory exercises. In ENGR 103, student groups are tasked with formulating a design solution to an open-ended engineering problem of their choosing (subject to advisor approval). Students will be responsible for evaluating existing solutions, developing design constraints, and designing/implementing an engineering design solution.

Learning Objectives

1. Develop teamwork skills by working in small groups. 
2. Demonstrate conceptual design through hand drawings and model creation. 
3. Gain exposure to primary engineering disciplines by working on multidisciplinary teams and projects. 
4. Understand and implement the engineering design process. 
5. Demonstrate ability to communicate via written and oral technical communication assignments. 
6. Perform measurements and understand errors, units, significant figures, and reproducibility. 
7. Demonstrate the ability to run a term-long engineering design project in small groups through creation of a proposed tangible deliverable.

Project Goal

The primary goal of this project is to design and build a functional indoor stunt kite that can be sold on an industrial scale. The concepts of thermodynamics and usage of materials can be learned from this project. The major tasks in this project will involve finding light and strong materials to build the kite, and establishing the proper dimensions and design to ensure it can glide without stalling. We are hoping to build an affordable gliding kite that can be sold on the market.

We hope to produce a couple of prototypes of the kite to ensure that the design is perfect, and that the kite can glide optimally and efficiently. There will also be design studies. These will be included to show which type of design will give maximum efficiency again. Test lab results will include the glide distances and whether the kite had problems, such as stalling. 

At the end of the term we will present our findings and final indoor kite design to a panel of engineers and our peers in a formal setting.