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Individual Deliverable - Technical Memo

The purpose of this task to enable you to understand and bring you up-to-date on the technical material relevant to your project. Obviously the students on your team are not experts in the field with years of experience, but you collectively need to understand how similar problems have been solved. This will provide a solid technical foundation that is critical for project success. You will research on the topic assigned to you, prepare this Technical memo document, and submit. You are recommended to read your teammate's memos for general understanding.

  • The template to prepare the technical memo is here: Templates and Forms
  • Get the template and rename it to 'Technical Memo-Topic-RCSID.docx'
  • Format: 4 pages max, Arial, 12pt, single-spaced, left-justified.
    • References DO NOT count in the 4 page limit
  • After completion upload to the team's Repository in the Background Information folder.
  • Grading rubric for the technical memo is available on the Tasks and Due Dates page.

The topic of your memo DOES NOT represent your assignment for the entire semester, only for this first individual deliverable.

Topics

Teams are responsible for identifying topics for their members' Technical Memos.

Process

Following Day 3, Teams are responsible for posting proposed topics in the EDN.
  • Create a thread called "Memo Topics" in the Background Info forum.
  • Post complete list of topics, if developed, or:
  • Team members reply to thread with suggested topics.
  • Team should discuss and identify research topics for each individual relevant to the project. Recommended to avoid duplication of topics unless topic is broad enough to require multiple perspectives or research.
  • PE's/CE's may offer feedback on memo topics in the thread.

Examples of Potential Memo Topics

Memo topics loosely fall into 2 categories

  • Research - Identify relevant existing technologies, products, processes, systems, and/or patents. Document the information sources, such as a citation and URL, as a reply to your original topic message on the EDN.
  • Testing - Repeat/conduct testing or installation as described by the previous Capstone team.

Research topics

For these examples, XYZ represents a specific aspect of your project.
  1. Laser Tracking systems for XYZ
  2. Camera Based Tracking Approaches
  3. Vibration Table Approaches to Test XYZ
  4. Distance Sensors for Measuring XYZ
  5. <Software Package> Functions for Comparing Images
  6. Using Python to Drive CAD Simulations
  7. FEA Methods to Analyze XYZ
  8. Interfacing to and using the XYZ Sensor
  9. Algorithms for analyzing XYZ
  10. Human Interface Approaches for XYZ
  11. Key Material Properties of XYZ
  12. CFD Approaches for Understanding XYZ

Testing topics

  1. Open final CAD assembly
    1. Identify any mislinked components/sub-assemblies
    2. Verify completeness of Bill of Materials, identify missing constraints
    3. Discuss improvements or changes to be made
  2. Open final electrical schematics
    1. Identify any missing components or labels
    2. Verify completeness
    3. Review datasheets for proper usage of any 'specialty components'
    4. Simulate circuit performance
    5. Discuss improvements or changes to be made
  3. Conduct final system testing done by previous team
    1. Document issues encountered and suggestions to address these
    2. Update/improve existing documentation as necessary
    3. Suggest testing modifications needed
  4. Describe past team's final results
    1. Summarize recommendations from final documentation - success, specific further work needed, total failure - why?
  5. Software
    1. Install and execute software functionality
    2. Benchmark with respect to Use Cases and User Stories
    3. Identify issues and recommend changes & improvements

Instructions to prepare the Technical Memo

Carefully read and follow the instructions in the template for completing different sections of the memo. Below are some additional tips and recommendations.

Section 4. Recommendations

Your recommendations should help the team move forward with the design and implementation of the project. Suggestions for things to include and clarify:
  • How and why are your findings relevant to your project?
  • How can the team productively use this information to progress in the project?
  • What are the next steps proposed relative to this concept/topic?
  • What did you learn about the existing system/software which was not documented elsewhere?
  • What challenges did you experience using system or running tests, and what suggestions or improvements do you have to previous work?

Section 5. References

Use IEEE style of referencing. IEEE Citation and Referencing Info

Generative AI

If generative AI is used in preparing this memo, the specific tool and prompts must be cited. Remember that each student is responsible for the content that they submit – do not blindly trust AI without reviewing its output. If you check the sources used by the AI tool, include the information sources in References.

Design Lab Generative AI policy.

Some useful tools provided by Microsoft Word for documentation are:

Tips

Submission

Memo (as a MS Word file) should be committed to the Repository - /working/Background Information