Whenever working on your major project you should use an individual log book to document your progress. This is preferably a bound paper document. In grading you log book, I will be looking for dates and times of work done, as well as evidence of quality work. This is your chance to show the good work you have done on the group project.  If you produce drawings, these should be included.

The individual project log is worth 15% of your final grade:

Evidence of work and attendance in Pracs: 5 marks

Legibility, traceability and organisation: 5 marks

Evidence of Technical content including concept sketches, detailed sketches, calculations etc: 5 marks

Due: end of week 13.

You will be graded on your engagement with the material and the wider engineering community. You are encouraged to make contributions in class,  and to share news, discoveries, triumphs, etc through the twitter #MQMechatronics, which is fed to the iLearn page, and/or on the class discussion page, and/or on the MQ Mechatronics Facebook page. As 4^th year mechatronics students I hope that you will provide some interesting content for the rest of the students in the major.

This will contribute 3% to your final grade and will be assessed after week 13.

In Week 1 you will form groups and choose a major project.  Your first assignment will be a project plan. This document must clearly show

• what each member will be responsible for
• Initial concept sketches and descriptions
• Back-up plans should initial plans fail
• Budget estimates
• Timeline of deliverables and milestones
• It must include a brief section detailing the contributions of team member to the document. This should include an overall percentage contribution from each team member that must add up to 100%. This will be used to differentiate grades within a group in accordance with the grading policy.

This group document is worth 5% of your final grade. If major changes are required, an updated project plan should be submitted.

Due: End of week 3.

There will be 2 or 3 short assignments that will review topics covered in lecture. These are worth a total of 10% of your final grade.

Due: TBD

You are to individually prepare a brief technical report on a topic of relevance to your major project. It should cover one topic in depth, ie it must go well beyond Wikipedia summaries. You may wish to report on, component choice, material choice or manufacturing/construction/design options. In some cases reporting on the operation of a system or element of the project may be sufficient. 

The report may include figures and images and should have a length of 800 to 1500 words. It must be submitted as a .doc or .docx file. The report will be graded by two of your peers and scaled appropriately to produce a class average of ~66% with ~10% Ds and HDs. It is worth 5% of your final grade.

Due: first class in week 4.

Due: first class in week 4.

You will receive your peer reviewed technical reports in Week 5. You will then act on the feedback that you receive and improve your report, paying particular attention to clarity and structure. This document will be submitted to iLearn for grading by the Lecturer. It is worth 7% of your final grade

Due: first class in week 9.

You will provide feedback and grading on three of your peers technical reports. You will be randomly assigned three technical reports. You will provide feedback and grading on the these reports. Your feedback must be provided using “track changes” in Microsoft word, and you must anonymise the comments.

Your feedback will be graded by the lecturer/tutor, and is worth 5% of your final grade.

These two documents should also be submitted to ilearn.

Due: first class in week 5.

Your major project will be graded for completion and quality. You must also submit a group project report. Individual scores will be based on self reported individual weightings.

This report should

• provide the reader with enough information to re-created your device.
• It should include drawings, and component data sheets.
• You may wish to include important calculations or justifications for decisions made.
• It should also include a set of instructions for using and or controlling the device.
• It must include a brief section detailing the roles and responsibilities of each team member for the project and the report. This should include an overall percentage contribution from each team member that must add up to 100% for both the project and report. This will be used to differentiate grades within a group as per the grading policy.
• It should not include a description of your journey, mental, physical, emotional or otherwise.

You must also submit (by email to me) a brief (~100 word) confidential reflection on your role in the project. At my discretion I may use this to adjust group weightings, so if you feel that a group decision disadvantaged you, this is the place to indicate that.

The project report is worth 15% of your final grade, and the project outcome is worth 15% of your final grade. Projects will normally be graded in the last hour of the last prac.

The final exam will cover topics dealt with in lectures. You are permitted one A4 sheet of hand-written notes. It will be a mix of hand calculations and conceptual questions. The exam duration will be 2 hours. To pass this unit you must achieve an average grade of 50% on the weighted assessment tasks and a grade of at least 40% on the final exam.