background, key elements, grading, logistics and schedule, results

Background
The assembly review is an important step on the way to success in your technical review.

The goal of the assembly milestone is to help your team develop a clear, detailed, and shared view of your overall product. The lack of a good assembly model very often leads to many errors and a high degree of stress as the technical review approaches. However, even while the team is working on the assembly model it is critical to continue exploring design options and performing physical tests for high risk aspects of the design.

The in-class review is intended to provide design feedback. Examples from prior years are on the right. You can also view assemblies from other years in the gallery (select a project and then the assembly tab). If you compare the assembly model to the technical review or final presentation gallery entry, you can see how dramatic changes may be based upon input from the assembly review.

Key elements
There are two primary deliverables for this review: an assembly model for your team's design (including a list of who-modeled-what), and a product contract document. See the submission logistics for specifics.

The product contract will be used as a baseline to evaluate the performance of your prototype during the technical review.

There are two deadlines. The date of the electronic submission of your materials, and the in-class presentations.

Grading
The review contributes to a portion of your shared team-wide grade and all course instructors will participate in the evaluation during an in-class review. Your assembly grade will be the average of the scores assigned by the reviewers.

The electronic assembly model will be evaluated based upon completeness and quality of design details. Each team member will need to model at least one part of the assembly!

The product contract will be evaluated based upon relevance and correctness of needs, attributes, and specifications.