Prof. Issam Mudawar School of Mechanical Engineering


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Invention and Prototyping

In Fall 1998, Prof. Issam Mudawar initiated ‘Invention and Prototyping’ as the primary requirements for the School of Mechanical Engineering capstone course Engineering Design (ME463). Previously, this course relied entirely on oral and written reports as the only performance requirements. Mudawar’s new format continued the basic course philosophy of guided practice in integrating engineering sciences toward solving practical engineering design problems, but instated invention and prototyping as the new course deliverables, and failure in either was deemed an unacceptable outcome. The semester-long projects are now conducted by teams of five students using the following format:

2 weeks
  • Problem definition
  • Patent, commercial product searches
  • Team dynamics
3 weeks
  • Conceptual design
  • Special topic presentations
3 weeks
  • Component analysis
  • Detailed design using CAD
  • Selection design
4 weeks
  • Hardware acquisition
  • Machining
  • Instrumentation
  • Assembly
  • Testing
2 weeks
  • Performance analysis
  • Cost analysis
1 week
  • Final deliverables (prototype, poster, oral report, written report)

Some past projects