20.020 | Spring 2009 | Undergraduate

Introduction to Biological Engineering Design

Projects

This page describes the work required for the team projects - a development notebook and three team presentations - along with the contributions of the 20.902 student mentors.

See the Project Documentation section below for the results produced by each team.

Project Development Notebook

This assignment has three parts, to be submitted at various points during the term:

  • Team Facebook page
  • Team contract
  • Project log
    • A sample of a superb project log from prior year (PDF - 1.1MB) (Courtesy of Charlotte Yang, Angela Chang, Alex Rodriguez, and anonymous MIT student JE. Used with permission.)

Team Presentations

Each team will give three presentations during the course of their work.

Team Mentoring by 20.902 Students

Each 20.020 freshman team will be mentored by one or more 20.902 students. As part of their grade for the term, the 20.902 students are required to submit the following documents

  • Progress reports: summaries of the 20.020 team’s work
  • Mentoring journals: summaries of the 20.020 team’s dynamics

These are due on the day of their team’s 3 Ideas, Tech Spec and Final presentations.

Team Progress Reports

Each report should be a one to two page summary of your freshman team’s work and a summary of your contributions to accomplishing the project. Each report is due on the day of your team’s presentation.

  • 3 Ideas progress report
  • Tech Spec progress report
  • Thee Final Briefing progress reports, including suggested grades for the contribution of each team member to the content of the final project.

A sample progress report, modfied from the Spring 2008 class (PDF). (Courtesy of anonymous MIT student. Used with permission.)

Team Mentoring Journal

Each report should be a one to two page summary of your freshman team’s dynamics and a summary of your contributions to the workings of the team. Each report is due on the day of your team’s presentation.

  • 3 Ideas progress report
  • Tech Spec progress report
  • Thee Final Briefing progress reports, including suggested grades for the contribution of each team member to the content of the final project.

A sample progress report, modfied from the Spring 2008 class (PDF). (Courtesy of anonymous MIT student. Used with permission.)

Project Documentation

The following selected project files are presented courtesy of the students and used with permssion.

TEAM PROJECT DEVELOPMENT NOTEBOOK MILESTONE
PRESENTATIONS 		FINAL DOCUMENTS

**Boost the Body
**(Hepatitis C treatment)

Students: Samira Daswani, Leanna Morinishi, Jenny Zhou

Mentor: anonymous MIT student

 Contract (PDF)

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF)

 Final presentation (PDF)

ENERGYneering
(algae biofuel)

Students: Ragheb El Khaja, Abi Jain, and two anonymous MIT students

Mentor: Julie Norville

  

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF)

  

Meat!
(in vitro food)

Students: Ryan Alexander, Janice O’Brien, and anonymous MIT student

Mentor: anonymous MIT student

  

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF)

  

**oncoCURES
**(early metastasis detection)

Students: Two anonymous MIT students

Mentor: anonymous MIT student

Contract (PDF)

Log (PDF)

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF ‑ 2.8MB)

Final presentation (PDF)

Report (PDF)

Sleep-away
(alertness aid)

Students: three anonymous MIT students

Mentor: anonymous MIT student

  

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF ‑ 1.9MB)

Final presentation (PDF - 1.4MB)

Report (PDF)

Technical slides (PDF ‑ 1.2MB)

**Trash to Treasure
**(accelerated composting)

Students: two anonymous MIT students

Mentor: Julie Norville

 Contract (PDF)

3 Ideas (PDF)

Tech Spec (PDF)

  

Project process: 3 Ideas presentation

At this early stage in your team’s work you should continue to seriously consider several possible paths. These ideas will have been collected from the first few assignments you completed individually. Now is the time to shine a spotlight on some of the ideas that seemed most engaging and interesting.

Purpose of 3 Ideas Presentation

  1. To detail three ideas in your area of interest using 4 common criteria
  2. To gather feedback on the ideas from your instructors and classmates
  3. To gain some experience working as a team to define the ideas and to critically consider their strengths and weaknesses
  4. To gain some experience presenting your ideas to the class

Expectations

Each presentation can be no more than 15 minutes!!!!! You will have ~5’ for questions and answers after that 15 minutes is up.

Each Project Idea Must Have

  • A name
  • A one sentence description of the problem or opportunity being addressed

For Each Project Idea, your Team Must Explicitly Describe

  1. Importance: how large a problem or opportunity are you focusing on?
  2. Impact: how big is the “delta” if your project is fully successful?
  3. Competition: what other technologies can be used/have been used to address this area?
  4. Knowns and unknowns: what can you say for sure now and what don’t you know/can’t you know?

The format for your 3 ideas presentation is for your team to decide. You can use ppt, large posters, Legos or interpretive dance. You can have one person speak or each person.

Evaluation

You will get questions and immediate feedback on your three ideas from your classmates during the “3 ideas presentation.” You will also get some more detailed comments from the instructors and your team’s mentor. This presentation is worth 15% of your final grade for the class and you will be assigned one score for your team.

The day of your final briefing you will present your work to the class and will turn in the following technical documentation for your project.

Technical Documentation

These technical documents must include:

  1. A narrative that is ~1-2 pages long that includes at least one paragraph for each of the following:
    • the problem, challenge, or opportunity your project has addressed
    • the existing or developing alternative technologies that address this problem, challenge or opportunity
    • a system description
    • a description of the impact your solution will have if implemented
    • a safety/security analysis
    • a plan of work for the first 6 months for 6 people working full time on this project
  2. A Device-level system diagram
  3. A Timing Diagram
  4. A Parts list (table)
  5. A paragraph description of your spotlighted Part and where to find it in the Registry of Standard Biological Parts 
  6. The DNA sequence for your key new part or device
  7. A test/debug plan for that part and for your system or key intermediate device

These technical documents are worth 20% of your team’s final grade and must be turned in at the time of your final presentation. You should also turn in your project design notebook if you have not been keeping an online version.

Presentation

You will have 20 minutes to present your project and there will be time for 10 minutes of questions. You are expected to follow all the best practices you’ve learned for oral presentation planning and delivery.

This oral presentation is worth 10% of your team’s final grade.

Tech Spec Review

By this time in your project’s development you should have a clear idea of what you’d like to accomplish as well as a growing sense of how you’ll do it. The technical specifications should detail in concrete terms what you will need and how you will implement your idea. The requirements for this presentation are detailed below but there are two important things to keep in mind as you develop the material for this review.

  1. This is not a “final presentation.” It is intended to update the class and instructors about a work in progress
  2. This review may lead you to re-think some aspects of your initial idea. Maybe some competing technology is now more competitive than you first thought. Maybe the impact is smaller. These changes to your vision is not only ok; they are to be expected and should be considered part of your work

Purpose of the Tech Spec Review

  1. To share with the group the concrete plans you’ve made to implement your idea
  2. To gather feedback on the plans from your instructors and classmates
  3. To gain some experience working as a team to define the ideas and to critically consider their strengths and weaknesses
  4. To gain some experience presenting your ideas to the class

Expectations

Be sure to briefly re-introduce everyone. You can start with your team/project name(s) and the project idea (i.e. what you’ll be addressing and, very roughly speaking, how). Then you can spend the bulk of your time getting down to the brass tacks.

Each project idea must have

  • A description of your system’s design in terms of devices
  • A description of your system’s design in terms of parts
  • A timing diagram to show anticipated system operation
  • A plan for testing and debugging your first generation system
  • A description of the impact you envision for your system
  • A description of any concerns raised and open issues within your team
  • A “GO/NO GO” decision

The format for this technical specification is likely to be powerpoint but other platforms for describing the work may also be approved. Each person in your group should plan to speak for some of the time.

Evaluation

You will get questions and immediate feedback on your presentation from your classmates. You will also get some more detailed comments from the instructors and your team’s mentor. This presentation is worth 15% of your final grade for the class and you will be assigned one score for your team.

Course Info

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As Taught In
Spring 2009
Level
Undergraduate
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Tutorial Videos
Lecture Notes
Projects with Examples
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