DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN CONTEST

Grading and Extra Credit

Grading will be pass/no pass, and the best design teams will receive extra credit!  Participation in the design contest is also a part of your class participation grade.

First Place  Extra credit of 4% on final course grade.  Extreme bragging rights.

Second Place  Extra credit of 2% on final course grade.  Bragging rights.

Background information

Many adventuresome people have embraced a new sport that involves jumping from buildings, cliffs, bridges and other low structures.  This sport, called "base jumping," has unfortunately resulted in the deaths of many people.  You have been contact by Henry Smelters, who is the president of a small firm that manufactures parachutes and related devices.  Mr. Smelters, an accomplished engineer, is very concerned about these deaths.  Since engineers have an ethical obligation to protect the health and safety of the public, Mr. Smelters is considering new parachute designs that will increase the safety of base jumping. 

You have been contacted by Mr. Smelters about a possible engineering intern position.  Since Mr. Smelters needs engineers with superb skills (human life is involved), he has decided to conduct a design contest to identify good engineers. 

Problem Statement

Design a parachute-like device that transports a payload vertically downward through a distance of 23 feet in exactly 2.0 seconds.  The payload will be ten United States dimes and ten United States quarters..  

The device should be highly appealing and should be fabricated of commonly-available, low-cost materials.  

Objects will be released from rest and must free fall without any user control or interference.  Buoyancy devices are prohibited.

What Teams Will Do

1. Design a parachute

2. Use experimental data to determine the coefficient of drag

3. Compete in the contest (view the contest site)

4. Write a report (see format) that documents the project ---

Schedule

Wednesday, April 25:  Hand in one page with the names of your team members, your team name, and the answers to the following two questions.  Examine the contest web site and answer the following two questions: (1) What is the payload the parachute will carry? and (2)  What is a gore? (hint - see "parachute fabrication link")

Monday, April 30:  Hand in a first iteration parachute.  This does not need to be your final design.  I will return your parachute to you on Wednesday, May 2. 

Monday, May 7:  Meet at class time to finalize plans for contest.

Wednesday, May 9:  Design contest - probably at 6:30 to 7:00 pm in the Commons

Friday, May11:  Report due - I will plan to return the reports at the and announce contest 1st and 2nd place at the final exam.

How Projects will be Evaluated

Criteria 1:  Good engineering performance (25 pts)

Design performance will be evaluated using the metric P:

P = 100 - D - A

where S is score.  The drop time error D is one point for each 1/100 second error (if drop time is within 0.1 s of the specified value, D = 0).

The accuracy error A will be determined by measuring the location where the payload comes to rest, and comparing this with the location if the device fell perfectly straight down.  For each inch of inaccuracy, A will be increased by 3 points.

Criteria 2: Cost effective engineering (25 points)

Cost effective engineering will be evaluated by considering several factors: materials cost, ease of fabrication, simplicity, engineering time (i.e. total amount of time spent on the design project).

Criteria 3: Project Documentation (25 points)

This criteria will be evaluated by examining the final report.

Criteria 4: Quality Determination of C_D (25 points)