Tutorial: Idea sketching primer. Friday, September 7, 4-5:00 PM. Room 32-144.

This one hour, optional tutorial by Andy Hamilton, a designer at Boston Device Development, Inc. 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 14, 4-5:00 PM. Room 1-150. (slides)

Practicing designer Jeremy VanHill of Cambridge Consultants will give a short presentation with tips on things to think about when observing and trying to learn from potential users or customers. 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 17, 7-9 PM
Session II: Thursday September 27, 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 16. Please contact the course instructor. If you have a laptop please bring it to the workshop.

Credit card training for financial officers (required!).
Thursday, September 20, 4:00-5:00 PM, room 3-434.

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: Building a Portfolio. (tutorial slides, .pdf) Thursday, September 20, 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.

Tutorial: Solidworks bootstrap. (automoblox tutorial slides, .pdf)
Thursday, September 27, 5-6 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.

RFP training for financial officers.
Friday, September 28, 4:00-5:00 PM, room 3-434.

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: finding information for your product with the course librarian
October 1, 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.

Tutorial: an introduction to micro-controllers.
Monday, October 1, 7-8:30 PM. Room 3-370.

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.

Workshop; SI team communication training.
October 1, 7-8:30 PM, room 12-134.

Offered by the communications instructors, this workshop should be attended by at least one system integrator (or candidate) from each section. Other students interested in team communication strategies are also welcome. Pizza dinner will be provided.

System integrators help keep a team working productively even when milestones approach, opinions diverge, and goals change or expand. Their most powerful tool is effective team communication, especially in meetings and email. Although most people give significant consideration to the content of our communication, we don't often stop to think much about the ways in which we communicate. In this session, system integrators will be presented with a few straightforward principles for planning and running a meeting, engaging team members, and delegating tasks and monitoring their completion. Participants will also have an opportunity to reflect on their experience as SI's to date.

Workshop: Not every startup is an app: What you need to know to start a hardware company
Monday, October 22, 7 PM, room 3-370

Jeremy Conrad ('06) is a founder of Lemnos Labs, a startup incubator that invests in hardware (cars, satellites, robots, consumer electronics, etc.) companies. He will discuss the major differences between hardware and software startups and how to tackle them. The talk will also cover what changes have occurred that make it easier than ever to start a hardware company, and profile some current exciting hardware startups.

Tutorial: Misumi discount program introduction
Friday, October 26, 4 PM, room 5-233

Jocob Oji from Musimi, a mechanical components vendor, will provide an overview of their product line and website, and provide a discount code that your 2.009 team may use for a 30% discount on Misumi purchases. Team financial officers, or a team-members that can stand in, should attend.

Tutorial: Top-down design in Solidworks (.pdf)
Friday, October 26, 5 PM, room 35-125

Harness the power of top-down design in Solidworks. This tutorial, by mentor David Schoon, 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.

Tutorial: Product costing. Part 1 of 2 (.pdf)
Monday November 5, 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. At least two people from each team should attend.

Industrial design consultation.
Thursday November 8, evening in the Pappalardo lab

As a founding partner at Essential, Richard Watson is a leading advisor to companies on product innovation and an authority in the field of design strategy. Richard 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 (or newer design versions) materials may be appropriate. Also, think ahead about aspects of your product form or user scenarios that you are struggling with. Richard 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.
Friday, November 9, 3:30 - 4:30 PM, Pappalardo lab.

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: Finding presentation images.
Friday, November 30, 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 naming.
Monday, December 3 at 7 PM, Pappalardo lab conference room (north 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. Beth has requested you review the slides before the tutorial.

Tutorial: Product costing. Part 2 of 2
Monday, December 3, 7 PM in the Pappalardo lab (south end).

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.

Tutorial: Photoshop and Illustrator
Thursday, December 6, 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.