University of Maryland, Department of Mechanical Engineering
[Description] | [Outline]
Our world churns out new high-tech products at an astounding rate. But how are ideas turned into products, and what are the design and societal considerations that determine the success of those products? The technology consuming public often has little or no view into the global ramifications of the products they are using or the technologies embedded within them. Technology providers are very good at grasping the consuming publics whims and providing products that appear to fulfill what consumers desire. But be careful what you ask for, it may not be what you really wanted, and there are always unintended consequences of technology that find their way back to impacting us all.
Technologically focused products ranging from cell phones to airplanes will be studied in this course. Technology will be viewed from the standpoints of: ergonomics, social and environmental responsibility, practicality, cost, reliability, and other factors that contribute to the success, market acceptance, and lifecycle ramifications of a product. Specifically, we will study products and technology via reverse engineering (product archeology). We will address the real the costs (both manufacturing and lifecycle) of technology-focused products and address technology risk and reliability. We will explore how technologies and approaches meant to address public concerns over the safety and environment may, in some cases, be paradoxes that represent shifting problems to other places or times. Other topics that will be discussed include: aging system problems, technology obsolescence, counterfeit technology, failure of groups to retain technology, and information modeling. The goal of this course is not to advocate for or rail against particular technologies or products, but to learn to ask important questions and think deeper than the claims made by product marketing.January 28, 2008 Course Introduction
January 30, 2008 Innovation
February 4, 2008 Innovation and Economic Progress (Myra Torres)
February 6, 2008 Innovation and Economic Progress (Myra Torres)
February 11, 2008 Incentives, Slide Rule Letter Exercise
February 13, 2008 NO CLASS (class cancelled)
February 18, 2008 Product Definition
February 20, 2008 Product Definition, Requirements and Specs, Information Modeling
February 25, 2008 Information Modeling
February 27, 2008 Abstraction Levels
March 3, 2008 Design Introduction
March 5, 2008 Bioinspired Design (Ed Magrab)
March 10, 2008 Design Introduction, students present bad design homework
March 12, 2008 Variety and Simplicity, Project discussion (watch Connections video)
March 17, 2008 NO CLASS (spring break)
March 19, 2008 NO CLASS (spring break)
March 24, 2008 - Variety and Simplicity
March 26, 2008 Decisions and Optimization (Shapour Azarm)
March 31, 2008 Things Cost Money Manufacturing Cost
April 2, 2008 Things Cost Money Manufacturing Cost, Things Cost Money Life Cycle Cost
April 7, 2008 Things Cost Money Life Cycle Cost
April 9, 2008 Sustainment, Reliability
April 14, 2008 Reliability, Paper Clip Bending Results
April 16, 2008 Reliability, Spares and Availability
April 21, 2008 Obsolescence
April 23, 2008 Counterfeit (Michael Pecht)
April 28, 2008 Product Liability (Vince Brannigan)
April 30, 2008 Larry Lessig Video, Warranty
May 5, 2008 Life Cycle Assessment
May 7, 2008 Life Cycle Assessment
May 12, 2008 Prioritization of Solutions, Course Evaluation
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Peter Sandborn University of Maryland Last Updated: December 21, 2008 |
Emails:
sandborn@umd.edu Home Page: http://www.glue.umd.edu/~sandborn |