Rodger Williams University HOME Project - May 2011 |
Here is the team from RWU Capstone Engineerng team in which seniors synthesize diverse knowledge to research, analyze, prototype and test a concept with real applications. They learned about total engineering design – the technical, logistic, and financial aspects, as well as cooperation and negotiation. Leaders from both URI and RWU stepped up to divide the work and coordinate tasks among the members of the teams. |
| I was the sponsor and mentor – I provided a notional design plus the System Requirements Document (SRD). Incidentally, my original allocation of tasks turned out to be completely the opposite of what the university students decided. Basically, URI took the structural system and RWU took the power and water systems. |
| Here is the RWU team holding their ‘Certificates of Exemplary Engineering’ and a $50 Best Buy gift certificate for completing the course. The RWU consisted of mechanical engineering majors, a computer science major, an electrical engineering major, and civil / structural majors. They took the notional design concept and in one academic year turned it into a valid and viable ‘proof of concept’ that you could combine the basic necessities of human life and comfort into a self-sustaining structure – way beyond what most people think as ‘emergency shelter’. |
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| Jason Siwek, Lauren Norman, Heather Moulton, and Henry Trimbach |
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| Dr. Linda Riley introducing the RWU HOME Team at the 2011 RWU Academic Showcase. They took 1st place. |
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The RWU HOME Team entered the 2011 American Society of Engineering Education (Northeast Section) conference and walked away with 1st place undergraduate poster and 3rd place session paper against some tough competition like Yale School of Engineering and Olin College of Engineering. |
