Tutorials and Events
Tutorial: Idea sketching tutorial. Friday, September 9, 4-5:00 PM. Room 3-270. This one hour, optional tutorial with David Wallace is intended to help you practice the type of sketching that will be needed over the weekend for your individual brainstorming task. Sketching materials will be provided for those who attend.
Tutorial: observing users. Friday, September 16, 4-5:00 PM. Room 1-150. Dan Braunstein, designer from Continuum and MIT lecturer, will give a short presentation with tips on things to think about when observing and trying to learn from potential users or customers. He will be happy to answer questions and give suggestions. This is very useful in the early part of any product development process, and is particularly relevant for the observation exercise over the weekend.
Hands-on Workshop: designing with sourced components. (overview, .pdf)
Session I:
Monday September 19, 7-9 PM
Session II: Monday September 26, 7-9 PM
By Eric Sugalski (product designer), help in the Pappalardo lab. Design using existing parts is an art that allows one to quickly and efficiently build working models and assess design concepts. Designing using sourced parts is a key to success in the sketch model and mockup phases of 2.009.
In session 1 you will: learn about the efficiencies gained by using sourced components; be introduced to popular component supply houses; design a simple product using ONLY sourced components.
In session 2 you will: assembly your design using sourced components, and test it.
This workshop requires pre-registration by midnight Sunday, September 18. Please contact the course instructor. If you have a laptop please bring it to the workshop.
Product idea sketching: Wednesday, September 21, 1-2:00 PM. Room 3-370.
Higly-skilled industrial designer David Kmetz will be giving a tutorial on product idea sketching. He will provide an overview of rapid sketching techniques and demonstrate simple 3D drawing technique and variations. He will show examples from very simple to more complex and how to build contrast, impact and visual verve with basic techniques and also discuss sketch formatting.
Tutorial: Building a Portfolio. (tutorial slides, .pdf) Thursday, September 22, 7:15–8:00 PM. Room 3-370.
A portfolio is essential for anyone pursuing design work beyond 2.009. This 45 minute seminar will give you the basics about developing your portfolio — a visual representation of your design and engineering work that complements the words in your resume. We'll talk about why you should start thinking about it now and what you can do to start documentation habits, especially in the midst of your 2.009 work.
Credit card training for financial officers (required!).
September 23, 4:00-5:00 PM, room 5-314.
Financial officers hold their team's credit cards. MIT will not issue any of the 2.009 team cards until all financial officers complete the MIT training program. Thus financial officer attendance is mandatory. If there are conflicts, please contact the course instructor.
Tutorial: finding information for your product with the course
librarians
September 29, 7:00-8:30 PM, room 14N-132 (Digital
Instruction Resource Center)
Information officers must attend, dinner will be provided (pizza). The sketch model presentation requires technical benchmarking, market, and customer information for the ideas that your section is pursuing. Several librarians will be on hand for one-on-one consultation. Be prepared with descriptions of your teams concepts, what information you have already found, and what you are finding difficult to locate. There should be a representative from each section, so if an information officer cannot attend an appropriate substitute should be arranged.
Seminar: 2.009 start to finish in the real world.
September 29, 7-8 PM, room 5-314.
This product development example presented by engineering designer Robin Miller of Pratt and Whitney spans the scope of the 2.009 experience—market need, sales and marketing, budget, research, innovation, design, test, manufacturing, and implementation.
RFP training for financial officers.
September 30, 4:00-5:00 PM, room 5-314.
Financial officers manage the cash reimbursement process for their team members. This training session explains the process and thus financial officer attendance is mandatory. If there are conflicts, please contact the course instructor.
Tutorial: Top-down design in Solidworks
Friday, September 30, 4-5:30 PM, room 35-125.
Harness the power of top-down design in Solidworks. This tutorial, by Eric Sugalski, will teach the CAD methods used in industry to create robust multi-user assemblies, dynamic mechanism layouts, and complex industrial designs. There are workstations in the room (ME cluster computers), or you can bring Solidworks on your laptop.
Workshop; SI team communication training.
A three part program on October 3, 13, and 24, 7-8:30 PM, room 12-134.
Required for system integrators and open to all class members, offered by the communications instructors.
If a system integrator cannot attend an appropriate substitute should be arranged. Dinner will be provided (pizza).
System Integrators keep a team working productively even when opinions diverge, schedules shrink, and goals expand. Their most powerful tool is effective team communication (usually in the form of meetings). Although most people give significant consideration to the content of our communication, we don't often stop to think much about the way in which we communicate. A few straightforward principles—for example, a basic understanding of what underlies effective influence, management, negotiation, and conflict resolution—can make all the difference when dealing with crises and overcoming obstacles.
The goals of this three-session training program are:
(1) to give students distinct experiences of how their collaborative process is limited by, for example, their judgments, preconceptions, mental locks, left-brain focus; and then
(2) to give them some simple, concrete tools for minimizing those limitations, e.g.
- meta communicating about their intentions
(“I don’t mean to sound sarcastic—I’m really confused…”) - developing mindfulness to help remain in the present
- using questions to check understanding or reveal blind spots
- practicing physiological tools to sustain confidence and calm when stressed.
Tutorial: an introduction to micro-controllers.
Monday, October 3, 7-8:30 PM. Room 3-270.
Sangbae Kim will hold a hands on tutorial that covers the basics of working with a micro-controller. You will setup a project on your computer, light LEDs and run a servo motor.
Tutorial: Solidworks bootstrap. Tuesday, October 18, 4-5 PM, room 35-125. If you are feeling rusty with Solidworks, or have never really have had the chance to work with it much, this tutorial will get you going. There are workstations in the room (ME cluster computers), or you can bring Solidworks on your laptop.
Tutorial: Solidworks insider tips.
Friday, October 28, 4 PM, room 35-125.
Ilan Moyer will share Solidworks user tips that will help you manage complex projects in Solidworks and ultimately save time.
Tutorial: Product costing. Part 1 of 2
Monday November 7, 7 PM, Pappalardo lab.
This tutorial by David Meeker introduces product manufacturing cost estimation software. To prepare, you need to review the introductory slides before the tutorial. He will help you get started with cost estimation for your team's product.
Industrial design consultation.
Thursday November 10, evening in the Pappalardo lab
Jeremy Vanhill, Senior industrial designer at Cambridge Consultants, will spend 1/2 hour with your team to help you refine the overall vision for the usability and form of your product. Please show up to the consulting session with a few printouts of your design. Your assembly review materials may be appropriate. Also, think ahead about aspects of your product form or user scenarios that you are struggling with. Jeremy will discuss your design and also sketch alternatives with you. Please take full advantage of this great opportunity.
Consulting schedule:
6:00 PM: Green
6:30 PM: Yellow
7:00 PM: Pink
7:30 PM: Blue
8:00 PM: Red
8:30 PM: Orange
9:00 PM: Purple
9:30 PM: Silver
Tutorial: User feedback and usability.
Monday, November 14, 3:30 - 4:30 PM, room 12-134.
This tutorial is designed for 2.009 teams by the communications instructors. The tutorial will discuss product usability, how to ask appropriate questions, how to ask questions that yield reliable information; how to interpret user input; who to ask, etc.
Please RSVP to 2009CR with the names of the team members and your team color.
Tutorial: Photoshop and Illustrator
Monday, November 28 at 7 PM, Pappalardo lab conference room (south end).
This tutorial by designer Sarah Kaiser will provide tips for using photoshop to design a poster to logo design, as well as preparing graphics from photos. She will also discuss preparing vector graphics for use with a vinyl or laser cutter.
Tutorial: Product namng.
Thursday, December 1 at 7 PM, Pappalardo lab conference room (south end).
Struggling to find the right name for your product? This tutorial by Beth Marcus, a successful entrepreneur, is intended to help you think strategically about naming your product. Please come to the tutorial with a clear sense of your product's core benefit, who it is for, and how you think you will market it.
Tutorial: Finding presentation images.
Friday, December 2, 3-4 PM in 14N-132.
Finding relevant and meaningful images for your final presentation can help tell your product’s story and establish the tone for your audience. Join Jolene de Verges, Images Librarian for the MIT Libraries, for this tutorial on finding free images and using and citing them appropriately. All students are welcome to this session, but students with a key role in slide design for the final presentation are especially encouraged to attend.
Tutorial: Product costing. Part 2 of 2
Monday, December 5, 7 PM in the Pappalardo lab south conference room.
This tutorial by David Meeker will help you with cost estimates for your final product prototype. To prepare, you need to review the introductory slides before the tutorial. Ideally you will have attended Product costing, part 1 and attend with a bill of materials for your product.
