PLTW California (Project Lead the Way) | Challenge General Rules

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The Engineering Design Challenge, IED - 2012 (Download Full PDF)

Overview

Teams will be composed of two to three students, all of whom have completed, or are currently enrolled in, a PLTW IED class. Teams will be given a design brief in the morning and will have the entire day to work together and create an original design that meets the design specifications given. At various times during the day, the teams will be required to submit sketches, assembly drawings, parts drawings and an exploded view with Parts List for judging. At the end of the day, they will give a short presentation of their design to a panel of engineers.

Materials and Software to be Used

Teams will be supplied with isometric graph paper, rectilinear graph paper, plain paper, pencils, and colored pencils that will be used to create their sketches.

Each team will have access to two computers loaded with Inventor 2012. If a team has been working with a previous version of Inventor, they need to notify the competition organizer prior to the competition so they can configure the GUI on Inventor 2012 to look like the version they use. The computers will be connected to a B&W laser printer loaded with "A" size paper. Each team must bring one laptop computer loaded with Word and PowerPoint. Teams may have a template for their slides loaded on the laptop but they are warned that the template they choose in advance may not be optimum for the presentation material they are required to give. Inventor should not be loaded on this computer but, if it is, it must not be used. Any team caught using Inventor on the laptop will be disqualified. The computers will all have a special "A" size drawing template that must be used for all drawings created at the competition.

Check-In and Preparation Period

When teams check in, they will be assigned a letter from "A" to "Z" that will become their team ID for the day. Their drawings may be judged by a teacher on a competing team so we want to keep the team name anonymous until the end. The judges who evaluate the presentations at the end will be impartial engineers or teachers since it is not possible to keep the teams anonymous when they give their presentation. One Head Judge will be present at the competition to help keep things on schedule and to rule on any protests or questions from the teams.

Each participant will be given a thumb drive containing the instructions, the design brief and an empty folder where they must put the presentation they turn in at the end of the day. They may also want to save duplicates of their drawings on these thumb drives so they can take them home or use them as backups. All teams will be expected to boot up their computers and check for functionality including the ability to access the Internet, print drawings, save files, and access all required drawing templates. They should also organize their work area and prepare for the competition during the registration and breakfast time period. If anyone has a computer problem, it must be reported during this period so it can be addressed.

Design Brief

After the registration, breakfast, and preparation period, all teams will be given a design brief and will be allowed 30 minutes to begin brainstorming their solution. At the end of the 30 minute period, all teams will be allowed to ask one question of the judges to clarify what they are expected to do. These questions will be asked in public and all teams will hear the answers. The design brief used in 2008 is included as a separate document and can be used as an example of what might be given to the team.

The actual design brief will be different.

Coaching

Your team is expected to work independently without help or advice from any teacher, parent or coach. However, during the lunch break the team will be allowed to discuss their design and their design strategy with their instructor, their coach or any other instructors or coaches present at the competition. However, all of these discussions must be done verbally without using pencil, paper or any other drawings. Any team or coach that creates or brings any drawings or sketches to lunch will be immediately disqualified. The purpose of this coaching is to help the team with the design process and strategy, not with the design itself.

Deliverables, Judging and Scoring

Initial Design Sketches (15 points)-

Neatness: 0-3 points

Clarity: 0-12 points
You may use any style of drawing that you think best shows your design. The sketches submitted for judging must be drawn freehand using only the materials supplied. They will primarily be judged on how clearly the design can be understood by looking at the sketches submitted. Neatness will not be a major judging criterion and erasures will not hurt your score. However, sloppy drawings are usually hard to understand and, if so, will result in a lower score. Detailed dimensions are not needed but the size, shape, location and identification of all major parts should be clear from the sketch. It is expected that you will also want to create sketches of the various parts before you begin drawing them on the computer but these sketches will not be submitted for judging.
Parts Drawings (15 points) –

Complete drawing set submitted: 0-4 points

All required and appropriate views shown: 0-4 points

Dimensioning standards followed: 0-7 points
Individual drawings must be supplied for each part. The part should be shown using orthographic projections along with an isometric view of the solid part shown for clarity. Parts drawings must be clearly dimensioned using correct dimensioning conventions. Spline shapes should be marked with a comment and do not need to be further dimensioned.
Assembly Drawing (5 points)

Assembly drawing submitted with all parts correctly constrained: 0-5 points
– An assembly drawing of the finished design must be created but need not be dimensioned or turned into a .idw drawing. All parts must be correctly constrained.
Meets Quantitative Design constraints (5 points)

Meets Quantitative Design Constraints 0-5 points www.pltwca.org 4
– All numerical constraints given in the design brief must be met.
Exploded View and Parts List (15 points)

All parts shown: 0-5 points

Parts list: 0-5 points

Balloons and Exploded View presented correctly: 0-5 points
– A correctly formatted exploded view of the assembly must be created and must include balloons to identify each part. A parts list must be included on this drawing.
Design Concept (20 points)

Originality: 0-5 points

Meets Qualitative Design Constraints: 0-5 points

Manufacturability: 0-5 points

Marketability 0-5 points
– The judges will evaluate the design based on their opinion of its creativity, originality and marketability. The design must also satisfy all of the design constraints given in the design brief. A novel design will receive a higher score than a conventional design but only if the judges believe that it could be successfully manufactured and sold.
Final Presentation (25 points)

Presentation (Speaking) Skills: 0-6 points

Quality of Slides: 0-5 points

Content: 0-7 points

Clarity: 0-4 points

Neat Professional Appearance 0-3 points
– You will be given up to five minutes to show your design to the judges using a PowerPoint presentation. This presentation must include at least 4 slides and no more than 8 slides including the title slide. At least two of your team members must participate in this presentation. You will be judged on the content of the presentation, the clarity of the explanation, your presentation (speaking) skills, your ability to convince the judges of the designs merits, and the quality of the PowerPoint slides. Students are expected to dress in appropriate "business casual" attire. For boys, this would include a polo or dress shirt and slacks. Blue jeans, tank tops, and t-shirts would are not appropriate. Animation of the design using driven constraints and/or animation of the exploded view to show how the pieces fit together are desirable but are not required. You will be rudely cut off at five minutes (NO EXCEPTIONS). The judges may ask questions at the end of your presentation but they are not expected to do so in most cases.

Schedule
7:30 – 8:15 Registration, Preparation Period and Continental Breakfast.
Teams will be assigned to their work stations and should begin running the software and checking functionality. Teams need to report any problems with their computers or software and get everything working by the end of this period.

8:15 - 8:30 Procedural Briefing and Distribution of the Design Brief.
The teams will be briefed as to what to expect during the day and will be notified if there have been any changes made to the rules or schedule that was previously distributed. All teams are expected to be familiar with the rules and schedule prior to their arrival. Please emphasize what actions will result in disqualification and how serious the point penalty is for turning the work in after the deadlines.

8:30 – 9:00 Initial Brainstorming
. Teams should review the design brief during this period and begin brainstorming their solution. They may write one question (but are NOT required to do so) to be submitted to the judges at the end of this period. This question should be typed in Microsoft WORD and printed on the printer to avoid problems with handwriting.

9:00 – ~9:15.
The judges will respond to all appropriate questions. Judges may choose to combine answers to similar questions and may refuse to answer questions that are answered in the design brief or should be known based on material presented in the IED class. Teams may continue to work during this period if they choose but they must do so quietly without creating a disturbance of any kind. Any team that creates a disturbance will be required to stop working until all the questions are answered.

9:15 – 11:15
Brainstorming, Design Sketch Creation, and Initial Model Entry into Inventor. Teams may continue as far into the design process as they wish but all Design Sketches must be turned in for judging by 11 AM. Teams will be assigned a confidential identification code when they turn in their sketches. This number must be put on the sketches and on all other material turned in for judging during the rest of the day. The judges will not know which teams have been assigned which ID code until after they have scored the work. One point will be deducted from the score for the sketches (up to the maximum possible score of 15 points) for each minute that they are turned in after 11:00 AM. Teams need to bring their own watches and must keep track of their own time to ensure they turn the drawings in on time.

11:15 – 11:45
Continued Model Entry and Development of the Final Presentation.

11:45 – 12:30
Lunch and Coaching. Teams will break for lunch and will be allowed to discuss their strategies and problems with their coach. Absolutely no written materials of any kind, including thumbnail sketches, may be used during this period. The coaches can answer team questions, help with strategy and provide recommendations as to how to proceed with the effort in any way they choose so long as no drawings or written materials of any kind are used.

12:30 – 2:15
Continued Model Entry and Presentation Preparation. All required drawings (parts drawings, assembly drawing, exploded view, and bill-of-materials) must be submitted at the end of this period. Any drawing turned in after 2:00 PM will have one point deducted for each minute they are late, up to the
maximum that can be earned for that drawing type. Note that it will be nearly impossible to win this competition if any drawings are turned in late.

2:15 – 3:15
Completion of the Design Presentation. All work must stop at 3:00 PM and teams will gather to give their presentations. The PowerPoint presentation must be turned in at 3:00 PM on one of the flash drives provided to the teams. Create a folder on the flash drive named "Final Presentation XX" where XX is your assigned team ID. Put all files needed for your presentation in this folder. Don’t forget to include any .avi files or other files you may need for you explosion or animation. One point will be deducted for each minute that the presentations are turned in late.

3:15 – 3:30
Break Time. During this break, the PowerPoint presentations will be loaded onto the presentation computer by the judges. The same computer will be used by all the teams to give their presentations. This computer will have the latest version of Microsoft Office installed and will have a remote presentation mouse attached for use by the presenters.

3:30 - ~4:45 Design Presentations.
All teams will be allowed 5 minutes for their presentation. The judges will warn the teams at 4 minutes into the presentation and the presentation will be cut off at precisely 5 minutes whether or not the presentation is complete.

4:45 – 5:00 Break while Judges Collect and Tabulate Scores

5:00 – 5:15 Presentation of Awards

We expect to provide a separate room where team coaches can socialize during the day. We will need and will be seeking teacher volunteers to help with the administration of the competition. Short classes on best practices, changes to the IED curriculum and recent versions of Inventor may be given to the coaches during the day. We also encourage the coaches to bring any projects or suggestions they would like to share with other IED teachers attending. Parents are welcome to attend and can sit in with the teachers/coaches, but they should be warned that they will be unable to participate in any significant way. They will only be able to observe from a distance and will be unable to talk to their children during the competition.

However, parents are strongly encouraged to attend the final presentations that begin at 3:30.