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The Graduate Design Program is focused on educating MS and PhD students through hands-on design learning and industry-sponsored projects. The cornerstone of this program is a sequence of courses that begins in the fall semester and culminates four semesters later in May shown below. Coursework in this area is made possible by Design Center Colorado (DCC).
Graduate Design Courses
Design for Manufacturability (DFM) provides an overview of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) techniques, used to minimize product cost through design and process improvements. DFM is open to all mechanical engineering students. Students will work on two major projects during the semester:
- The first will be a reverse engineering project where students will choose an existing product and determine how it was produced and investigate why certain manufacturing processes were selected based on different DFMA metrics.
- The second project will be to apply DFMA techniques to a novel product. If DFM is taken as part of the Graduate Design Track, students will use this second project to further develop their design concepts from APD. At the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of how products are made and the economics involved in the manufacturing processes.
Advanced Product Design (APD) is offered in the fall semester. APD introduces the processes and methods for designing products including need-finding and need-specification, ideation and idea selection, design thinking/user-centered design, human factors, sketching, pretotyping, user feedback, prototyping, intellectual property and product launch. Teams of three to four students will design and build a novel product throughout the semester. We encourage Advanced Product Design students to carry their product concepts forward to MCEN 5045: Design for Manufacturability in the spring semester to take the next step toward a real product launch.
Advanced Product Design is a pre-requisite for Graduate Design (MCEN 5065, MCEN 5075), a two-semester design experience centered around an industry-sponsored project that includes: problem definition and specifications, determining design requirements, user feedback, alternative design concepts, engineering analysis, concept prototypes, and CAD drawings.
Note: Enrollment is by application only through the ME department. Please apply through the Intent to Enroll request form.
Graduate Design is taught by multiple design faculty. This two-course sequence is offered in the fall and spring semesters following Advanced Product Design (MCEN 5055) and Design for Manufacturability (MCEN 5045). Graduate Design consists of teams of three to four students working on a design project. The end result of this project is fully tested functional hardware with accompanying documentiation. In many cases, the project hardware will be representative of the final manufactured product.
The projects will come from various sources, such as industry, non-profit organizations, student concept for an entrepreneurship product, technology transfer, corporate grants and more. Past sponsors have included ConMed, Covidien, Terumo BCT, Medtronic, Agilent, Sandia National Labs, Oracle, NIST, Department of Surgery, Department of Neurosurgery and Los Alamos National Lab. Examples of past projects are intellectual property (IP) sensitive. In fact, several patent applications have been filed by industry partners with students as named inventors on these applications and several products have gone into full-scale production.
While the course focuses on team design projects, formal class time discussions will center on design heuristics, project management, design trends, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), entrepreneurship and oral presentation skills.
Optimal Design of Mechanical Components is a technical elective that applies linear and nonlinear optimization methods to the design of mechanical components and systems. This course also examines unconstrained and constrained optimization as well as the formulation of objective functions, including cost, weight, response time and deflection. Students apply knowledge to gears, springs, cams and linkages.
Graduate students who participate in design courses typically pursue the MS Professional Design Option or MS Thesis Design Focus Area.
Graduate Design Curriculum
Fall Semester Enrollment (First Semester)
- MCEN 5055 Advanced Product Design
- Three additional courses
Spring Semester Enrollment (Second Semester)
- MCEN 5045 Design for Manufacturability
- Three additional courses
Fall Semester Enrollment (Third Semester)
- MCEN 5065 Graduate Design I
- Two additional courses
Spring Semester Enrollment (Fourth Semester)
- MCEN 5075 Graduate Design II
- Two additional courses
The mechanical engineering undergraduate degree at CU Boulder includes a variety of design classes, starting with a freshman CAD class and ending with MCEN 4045/4085: Senior Design. Students have several opportunities to implement the design process and strengthen their theoretical and hands-on engineering knowledge, increasing their competitive edge after graduation. Many of these courses are supported by Design Center Colorado (DCC).
Undergraduate Design Courses
First-Year Engineering Projects is an interdisciplinary, hands-on design/build/test course for engineering students who are within their first year in the program. Through this course, students put engineering theory into practice early by working in teams to design, build and test new products and inventions.
Computer-Aided Design and Fabrication introduces engineering design graphics. Students learn a contemporary computer-aided design (CAD) software application and relevant engineering graphics concepts, such as orthographic projection, sections, engineering drawing practices, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing and an introduction to manufacturing methods. This course entails a final design project using rapid prototyping.
Component Design teaches students to apply mechanics and materials science to the detailed design of various machine elements including shafts, bearings, gears, brakes, springs and fasteners. This course emphasizes the application of mechanical components in engineering practice and open-ended design problems and includes hands-on final design projects.
Senior Design is a two-semester capstone design experience. This team-based course aims to emulate engineering projects that students will encounter as entry-level engineers. Each student project is either externally sponsored by industry, government or another organization or an entrepreneurial project. Students experience the design process first-hand, gaining experience in problem definition, determining design requirements, alternative design concepts, engineering analysis, proof-of-concept prototypes, CAD drawings, refinement of a prototype, design optimization, fabrication, testing and evaluation. Senior Design also places a strong emphasis on professionalism with several occasions to acquire critical written and verbal communication skills. Students have the unique opportunity to work with a group of five to six peer students and receive mentorship from a mechanical engineering faculty advisor and an industry mentor from the sponsoring company, government agency, or non-profit organization. This course is required for all undergraduate mechanical engineering students.
Mechatronics and Robotics is a technical elective that focuses on design and construction of microprocessor-controlled electromechanical systems. Lectures review critical circuit topics, introduce microprocessor architecture and programming, and discuss sensor and actuator component selection, robotic systems and design strategies for complex, multi-system devices. Lab work reinforces lectures and allows hands-on experience with robotic design. Students must design and build an autonomous robotic device.
Optimal Design of Mechanical Components is a technical elective that applies linear and nonlinear optimization methods to the design of mechanical components and systems. This course also examines unconstrained and constrained optimization as well as the formulation of objective functions, including cost, weight, response time and deflection. Students apply knowledge to gears, springs, cams and linkages.
Design for Community is a technical elective that functions as a full-featured engineering design consultancy, simultaneously providing students the experience they need to succeed and helping clients move their product or idea forward.
Contact Design Center Colorado
2445 Kittredge Loop Dr.
Boulder, CO 80309
Email: designcenter@colorado.edu
Phone: 303-492-3959