A6 Comments

Grader Comments on The Assignment

At this point it seems like most have gotten the hang of this class and are performing very well. I would like to point out that an explanation of what a chart or graph or program output represents and means and how it was obtained is of equal or greater importance than the actual graphic. Anyone can throw a bunch of garbage numbers and parameters into a program and obtain a beautiful graphic. I want to know that you put some thought into it and genuinely tried to figure it out and in the process actually learned something.

 

Grader Comments on Your Suggestions for Improvements

John Braley made these comments to me, but I thought you’d find them instructive.

Reading through these suggestions, it seems many students are just uncomfortable not having a clear problem with all of the constraints clearly laid out for them. They want to know how big the building sizes are; they want to have each member’s contribution mandatory (inconceivable, I know), they want to know just how to use excel and eQuest. Instead you make them approximate and guess and research and use intuition and judgment. I think many are still not realizing this class is not about the final answers and numbers on their webpages, it’s about the experience, because it is far more important that an engineer can use his or her brain to find creative solutions, not simply follow directions and crank numbers. In senior design and even much more in the real world, very little will be spelled out, they need to be comfortable making decisions about how to get work done.

Also, as always, there is a suggestion to provide more time. At this point, I just find that humorous.

URBN Building - Penn State Site

Johan Kvist passed this on to me for everyone’s use.  Be sure to cite whatever material you use from it and do not use the words without quotation marks.

Here an ongoing study on the URBN center done by a Penn State student that will be useful for everyone doing A7.

http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/thesis/portfolios/2013/gxy903/index.html

Last Week of Classes - Senior Design

The last assignment requires you to attend two senior design presentations.  Note that the assignment is due during that same week so that there is a definite advantage to attending your sessions earlier in the week.

 

When and Where are the Presentations

Here’s a google calendar showing the presentation schedule http://goo.gl/VFdH0

· Change to the “Week” view to see the times graphically

· To see the details for each presentation, including the location, student names and the advisor click on the calendar entry.

· Note that the room for the presentations changes between morning and afternoon and on different days. Check the location carefully. The general info is below.

o The garden level is down at the lowest level in One Drexel Plaza, across from LeBow engineering building.

· The presentations are 9-12 and 1-5 Tuesday through Friday (12/4-12/7). If your calendar shows other times your google account probably doesn’t have EST set as the time zone

· Dr. Brehm, the senior design coordinator, advises me that he is going to be very strict about access to the rooms:

o No standing in the room.

o The door will be closed at locked at the beginning of presentations – no late arrivals

Room Locations

When	Building	Floor	Room	Capacity
Tues AM	One Drexel Plaza	Garden level	15	38
Tues PM	One Drexel Plaza	Garden level	13	45
11/30 AM; Wed All	Alumni Engineering	2	275	30
Thus AM	One Drexel Plaza	Garden level	20	42
Thus PM	Randel	3	327	124
Fri AM	Curtis	3	340	139
Fri PM	Curtis	2	231	81

 

Note:  There is still a lab the week before (week-10).  I’m just giving you advance notice.

Teamwork Assessment Grading

Question

It was my understanding that the teamwork assessments were to make adjustments to the grades of each group member and not an assignment in themselves. Is this not the case? It sates in the assignment description that first, to "State whether or not there were teamwork problems for this assignment" and then "If there are teamwork problems then state the following..." The teamwork assessment itself also states that "This will be used to adjust grades if necessary."  I did not provide a more in-depth description because I believed our team worked well together and fairly and did not need grade adjustments. If I had felt that a grade adjustment was necessary I of course would have wrote more to make my point.

 

Response

The question is appropriate.  If there are no teamwork problems then all that is required is a statement to that effect in order to receive full credit.  Only if there are teamwork problems do we need documentation.  The intent of the BbLearn grading rubric was to evaluate submissions when there was a problem.  Full credit was intended if there was no problem, but was not state explicitly in the rubric or in my instructions to Mr. Braley, the grader.  I apologize for the confusion.

I’m asking Mr. Braley to revise the grading for those who were penalized when the teamwork was equal on past assignments.

Here’s the full language that describes the teamwork submission for A5 – the other assignments are similar:

Submit an evaluation of your team's performance on this project - an opportunity to address any problems. Do so by submitting to the VistaBB assignment an evaluation including:

• Your team number (from the team page)
• State whether or not there were teamwork problems for this assignment
• If there are teamwork problems then state the following
  • A comment on each team member, starting with yourself including whether their performance was "average" or a little or a lot more or less than the average.
  • Any other comment about the problem that you believe should affect the grade.

Jim Mitchell

A5–Number of Systems

Question:

My group members and myself are confused over the terminology of the first part of the assignment. It states that we are to thoroughly research 3 primary systems and 2 secondary systems, however, we are given a Primary system via the team page (VAV system). Are we to research 3 basic primary systems like those discussed in class? Or are we to research 3 primary VAV systems (ie: VAV Reheat, VAV Induction)? The wording on the assignment page doesn't clearly state what to do here. Can you please clarify what you want on this section of the assignment?

Response:

As I tried to make clear in class in response to this same question.  I’ve modified the requirements.  You are to analyze:

• One Major system – I assigned one to each group
• Additional Minor systems so that each group member has one (e.g. three-member group has:  1 major + 2 minor)

If you choose you may treat one variant on a major system as a minor system, provided you give a full discussion of how it compares and differs to the major system, including specifying it’s components.