ENGR 100-600 | University of Michigan

Syllabus

ENGR 100: Introduction to Engineering Section 600: Underwater Vehicle Design

Syllabus Winter 2024

Course Overview

This course introduces students to practical marine-system engineering processes through the design, building, testing, and operation of simple underwater exploration vehicles. It should be of interest to those considering careers in ship and yacht design, as well as all who are fascinated by explorations of the undersea world through both manned and unmanned submersibles.

Students will design and build a remotely-operated underwater vehicle (ROV). You will be exposed to multiple disciplines in both engineering and the sciences including Marine, Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical, and Materials Engineering; Computer Science; Physical Oceanography; and Physics of Fluids. The course involves hands-on experiences covering nearly all aspects of a real mission including concept proposal, design, fabrication, test, operations, analysis, documentation, and presentation of results. There will be individual training on fundamental diagnostic instruments, sensors, and computer tools. Students will use multi-meters, soldering irons, load cells, endurance and survivability testing, data acquisition, and remotely controlled components. Additionally, students will gain experience with CAD, 3D printing, and video creation/editing.

This section of Engineering 100 emphasizes development of individual hands-on skills, oral and written communication, and effective teamwork. Students will learn and develop their technical communication skills through integrated laboratory assignments, individual and team reports, a video, and multiple oral presentations. Please note that this is an intensive course involving a laboratory with a discussion and lecture for a minimum of 6 contact hours per week.

To better prepare you for future internships and jobs, we will run this course as if you are an employee at a fictional company: Global Flotation Laboratories, Inc. (GFL). Please refer to the Global Flotation Laboratories, Inc. Employee Handbook for more information.

Staff

Here is contact information for all the course staff. If you have a question about course content or logistics that may be of interest to other students, please use the Piazza forum on Canvas (you can do so anonymously if you prefer). Otherwise, please do email us directly with any questions or concerns that you have about the course. We’re also very happy to set up one-on-one meetings.

Technical Laura K. Alford, PhD
Lecture
Office
Phone
Email
600
117 Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering Bldg. (NAME)
734 657 1202 (mobile, text is good!)
lslavice@umich.edu
Tech Comm Robin Fowler, PhD
Lecture
Discussion
Office
Phone
Email
600
602
5114 Engineering Research Building (ERB)
517 230 4856 (mobile, text is good!)
rootsr@umich.edu
Mariel Krupansky, PhD
Discussion
Office
Phone
Email
604 & 606
TBD
314 Gorguze Family Laboratory (GFL)
mkrup@umich.edu
IAs Sakthi Vijay
Lab
Email
601
sakthiv@umich.edu
Ian Rosenberg
Lab
Email
603
irosey@umich.edu
Lyn Tran
Lab
Email
605
lyntran@umich.edu
Molly Myllyoja
Swing IA
Email
Helps with labs, ROV showcase, workshops
mollymyl@umich.edu
Lab Manager Justin Roelofs jwroelof@umich.edu

Office Hours

Extensive office hours will be held throughout the semester. For an up-to-date listing of office hours, always refer to the course website.

We are also available by appointment (if our regular office hours don’t work with your schedule or you’d like to meet with us privately) – don’t hesitate to send us an email asking for an appointment!

Meeting Times and Locations

Here are the meeting times and locations for this course.

Meeting Day Time Location
Lecture:
Section 600 M W 12:00pm -- 1:30pm 1130 LBME
Lab:
Section 601 W 1:30pm -- 3:30pm 108 GFL
Section 603 TH 8:30am -- 10:30am 108 GFL
Section 605 TH 11:30am -- 1:30pm 108 GFL
Discussion:
Section 602 W 3:30pm -- 4:30pm 1010 DOW
Section 604 TH 10:30am -- 11:30am 2147 GGBL
Section 606 TH 1:30pm -- 2:30pm 1690 Beyster

Notes:

Course Objectives

Here are the objectives of this course:

Online Tools

We will be using a variety of online tools and platforms in ENGR 100-600. One of the most important skills good engineers have is the ability to find quality things (skills, items, tools, documentation, whatever is needed) and assemble them together to solve an engineering problem. We will model this skill by pulling together quality resources for you to use in ENGR 100-600. The course website will be your starting point for accessing these course resources.

We acknowledge that it is more than a bit absurd that we are using so many different online platforms for one course; we’re sorry about that. Each of these platforms does something specific that we need that the other platforms can’t do right now. We’re in the process of trying to re-envision different aspects of the course so that we can use fewer online platforms, but for now, this is what we got. Don’t forget – you can always just go to the course website and click on links!

Important Tip!

Using these online tools and resources almost always requires you to be signed in using your U-M Google Account. Our best piece of advice for managing your personal accounts and your U-M account is to use one browser for U-M things (e.g. Chrome, Firefox) and a different browser (e.g. Safari, Edge) for your personal things. Doing this will save you much frustration!

Course Website

The course website is your starting point for everything in this course. The website shows everything going on in the course for the current week, contains a detailed schedule of topics, and has links to all other course resources.

A detailed schedule of topics – including assignment due dates and assessment dates – is available on the course website. Please check this before asking questions.

As you start to become more familiar with the resources, you might find that you want to organize them in different ways. Maybe you end up bookmarking the course google drive, or you leave a tab open for Piazza, or whatever you find works well for you.

PrairieLearn

PrairieLearn is the name of the platform that hosts the pre-lab and post-lab assignments. Grades from assignments on PrairieLearn will be synced to Canvas once a week.

Tandem

Tandem is a team support tool that we are collaborating on with the Center for Academic Innovation. Grades from Tandem in theory will be synced automatically with Canvas, but this semester is the first time we’ve enabled this linkage and we don’t yet know exactly how it works.

The University of Michigan College of Engineering wants to graduate students who are ready to navigate the collaborative work environment, which means both having the interpersonal skills to work effectively (even with difficult people and people whose styles differ from your own) and having the language to talk about collaboration in ways that your supervisors and interviewers will value. We believe that the teamwork experiences available in this course, coupled with opportunities to reflect on and receive feedback on your teamwork performance, will aid you in further developing those critical skills.

Canvas and Announcements

You can see a listing of course assignments and your grades on Canvas. We will sync grades to Canvas once a week.

Make sure you are set up to receive course announcements on Canvas, since we will post critical information there.

Assignments that are not completed on PrairieLearn or Tandem will be submitted via Canvas. See the section below for a heads up on submitting assignments via Canvas.

Comments When Submitting Homework to Canvas

When you submit assignments on Canvas (e.g. the Individual Design Proposal), Canvas will let you include a comment on your submission. We are not likely to notice comments when you submit your assignment, however. If you have something you need to discuss about a submission before it is due, please come to office hours so that we can address your concerns before the assignment is due.

Google Drive

We will place course material, such as lecture slides and communication resources, in our course google drive. There will be direct links to these materials on the course website, so you can just use those if you want to.

Piazza

We will be using Piazza to host a course forum and asynchronous Q&A. You are encouraged to read this regularly and post questions so that we can clarify things for the whole class. If you have a question, a bunch of other people are probably wondering the same thing!

Course staff will answer questions on Piazza throughout the day from roughly 10am-10pm. You may expect relatively prompt answers to your questions, but not immediate responses from the course staff, so please plan accordingly. At 10pm, the course staff stop answering questions on Piazza for the day; any questions that come in overnight will be answered the following day. Of course, students are encouraged to answer each others’ questions! This is not a curved class, so help each other out!

Updating Your Name and Pronouns in U-M Online Tools

If you did not update your preferred name and pronouns during orientation, or if those descriptions of you have changed since then, we would greatly appreciate it if you take a minute to make sure this information is up to date for us.

Updating/setting preferred name and pronoun in Wolverine Access

Go to Student Business. Then select Campus Personal Information. The option to change your preferred name will be under Names. Then go to the tab Gender Identity to set your pronoun. Your preferred name and pronoun will now show up on our course roster and in Canvas, helping us to learn who you are faster!

Updating/setting pronoun in Zoom

When you log into U-M’s Zoom, Zoom will display the preferred name that you have listed in Wolverine Access. However, it currently won’t bring over your pronoun. To update/set your pronoun in zoom, go to umich.zoom.us and log in with your U-M Google account. Then go to Profile on the left-hand sidebar, and click Edit next to your name (see example below). Adding your picture and your pronouns will help your instructors (including us!) learn who you are faster!

screenshot from zoom

Recording your name in Canvas

You can record yourself saying your name in Canvas using NameCoach so that we know how to correctly pronounce your name. Here are instructions on how to record your name in NameCoach. Hearing your voices will help us to learn who you are faster and will help us know how to pronounce your name better, and we appreciate your taking the time to set all this stuff up!

Lab Structure

Each week, you will participate in a 2-hour lab section. Prior to lab, read the lab instructions linked on the course website so you are prepared for the pre-lab assignment and so that you have a good idea of what is going to be happening in lab that week. During lab, you will follow the procedures outlined in that week’s lab instructions. If any part of the procedure is unclear, ask your Instructional Assistant (IA) for clarification. The procedures are designed for a 2-hour lab period. If you are late, you risk the chance of not finishing the lab and being unable to complete the subsequent lab assignment. Extra lab time will not be available to students who arrive late.

A lab technician will be present during labs to facilitate equipment repair and conduct safety training. Report any equipment failure to the lab technician immediately, so it can be fixed as soon as possible. Don’t be embarrassed if you broke something! We would much rather be told about something breaking when it happens, rather than find out about it later.

Student Teams

During labs that are associated with the ROV project, you will work in your ROV groups of 4-5. These teams are assigned by the instructors. During labs that are not directly associated with the ROV project, you will work in pairs based on whomever you happen to be sitting with at the lab station. Feel free to work with a different person every time or keep the same lab partner.

Open Labs

During the ROV project, there will be open lab times available for student teams to come in and work on their ROVs. You will not be able to complete the ROV without spending some time in open lab, so plan accordingly. Open labs will be announced separately; look for an announcement on Canvas. Refer to the Open Lab Policy document when it is released for more information.

Assignments

We have organized all the assignments in this course into several different types so that we (and you!) can see how the course shapes up. In this section, we detail both the types of assignments you will complete and how to submit the different assignments.

Types of Assignments

There are several types of assignments that you will complete as part of this course:

These assignment types are described in more detail in the next sections.

Individual Assignments

These assignments allow us to assess your knowledge and skills separately from your work in your ROV groups. You are not allowed to collaborate with other students on these assignments but you are encouraged to come to office hours to get help and/or feedback before you submit your work.

Group Assignments

These assignments will be done with your ROV group. Significant collaboration will be required, and many of the assignments provide a basis for the subsequent assignment. Therefore, the more time your group puts into its earlier assignments, the better off you’ll be later on in the semester when things get busier! Again, you are encouraged to come to office hours often to get feedback before your group assignments are due.

Tandem

Tandem is linked on the course website. In a typical week, you will complete a brief Team Check (this takes about 30 seconds and is mobile-friendly) to gauge how your team is functioning. You will then receive a customized teamwork lesson and activity based on your team’s Team Check responses. See the Schedule of Topics on the course website for details on when Tandem items are due.

Pre-Labs

Prior to arriving for lab, you need to read the lab material for that week and complete the pre-lab questions on PrairieLearn. Answering the pre-lab questions will help you understand the background information presented with each lab. Previous students have said that the pre-lab is especially helpful. Pre-lab questions are graded automatically and you can resubmit answers if you make a mistake. Pre-lab assignments will open the day after the previous labs are over.

The pre-labs are not intended to take a significant amount of time, but they help get your brain ready for lab. You complete the pre-labs on your own, and make sure you remember to do them! They are points that are fully in your control.

Post-Labs

The post-lab assignments are a combination of experiment documentation, review questions, and practice problems. Post-lab assignments will open the day of the lab.

The post-labs will likely take you a little longer than the pre-labs, but they are not intended to be long assignments; these are not lab reports. You complete the post-labs on your own, and make sure you remember to do them! They are points that are fully in your control.

Course Engagement

Per the GFL, Inc. Employee Handbook, we assume all employees (students) will be present and engaged during the core work hours (lecture, discussion, lab meeting times). We understand, however, that sometimes you may be sick or you may have an unavoidable conflict. We expect you to handle these situations in a professional manner, including emailing your supervisors (instructors) before an absence.

Many class periods will include time to work with teammates toward course learning outcomes, and many of these in-class activities are worth points. If you are not here, you do not earn those points. However, if your absence was handled professionally, you will be given an opportunity to make up missed work.

Grading

A breakdown of the grading for this class is shown in the table below:

Item Percentage
ROV Project Group Assignments 50%
Individual Assignments 30%
Tandem 10%
Course Engagement 10%
Total 100%

Final letter grades will be assigned at the end of term and will be based on the points you have earned vs. the total points available in the class. We will grade on a “straight scale” as shown in the following table:

Point Range (x) Letter Grade
x ≥ 980 A+
980 > x ≥ 930 A
930 > x ≥ 900 A-
900 > x ≥ 880 B+
880 > x ≥ 830 B
830 > x ≥ 800 B-
800 > x ≥ 780 C+
780 > x ≥ 730 C
730 > x ≥ 700 C-
700 > x ≥ 680 D+
680 > x ≥ 630 D
630 > x ≥ 600 D-
600 > x E

Deadlines & Late Submissions

This course has many interrelated assignments, and the concepts and skills in the course build upon each other. However, we recognize that being able to submit assignments a day or two late can be helpful in supporting your own time management choices. We know that ENGR 100 is not your only time commitment this semester!

You can earn up to full credit on all assignments if you submit the assignment prior to its posted deadline. However, you can still earn the majority of most assignments’ points as long as you submit it before the assignment’s late submission deadline.

How Late Submissions Work

The majority of assignments are eligible for a 1-2 day grace period for late submissions. Here are some important things to know regarding late submissions:

Assignment Submission

Please note the following guidelines about submitting your assignments:

Grade Return Policy

Our goal is to return all graded assignments to you within one week. However, sometimes things happen and we might get behind a little bit (we are busy, too!). You will be notified by Canvas when grades are posted. Do not email us or post to Piazza asking when grades will be out unless it has been 3 weeks since the assignment was due.

Regrade Policy

While we work hard to grade accurately, we sometimes make mistakes. If you believe we graded an assignment of yours incorrectly, you may send the instructors a formal email request, no later than one week after the graded work is originally returned to you, to regrade an assignment. We will then regrade your entire assignment, which can cause your grade to go up, but it can also go down.

Rules and Policies

This course is inherently more involved than other courses that do not have a laboratory aspect. We hope that you will find the extra work worth the effort, however. The following sections outline the basic rules and policies of the course.

General

Email

We do not answer technical questions via email. In order to save everyone time, we want all students to have the benefit of seeing each question and its answer, so please use Piazza. Also, please search Piazza before posting to avoid questions that have already been answered.

It is important that you do NOT post your own homework solutions, drawings, slides, etc., publicly on Piazza. If you have a question about something that is specific to your own work, use a private post (visible only to instructors).

Do not send us emails asking “Can I get partial credit on this assignment even though the due date has passed?” or “I’m only X% away from an A-, is there anything I can do?”. We do not adjust grades based on requests from individual students, and it is inappropriate to ask.

Lab Rules

Engineering 100 Honor Code and Plagiarism Policies

The College of Engineering Honor Code is a statement of ethical standards by which the faculty and students of the College of Engineering conduct themselves. You are bound by the provisions of the Honor Code: ignorance of the Honor Code is no excuse to violate it. Each Engineering 100 student is expected to read the Honor Code. For details regarding the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering Honor Code, please consult the Honor Code booklet you were given at Orientation. For additional information, you may consult the College of Engineering Honor Council home page http://www.engin.umich.edu/students/honorcode/index.html.

Plagiarism Policies

ENGR 100 Generative AI Policy

ChatGPT and similar Generative AI (“GenAI”) technologies are rapidly becoming part of our professional lives. Learning how to use GenAI tools is important for all of us. But, in the case of writing and communication, you must first learn how to perform these tasks yourself and develop your own writing practice, voice, and expertise. As a first-year writing course, ENGR-100 helps you build the foundational writing and communication skillset you need to advance your engineering career, including clearly explaining technical content, effectively persuading readers, communicating with stakeholders, and more. Using Gen AI at this stage in your academic writing development is not conducive to learning, and can in fact inhibit your ability to develop this important foundational skillset. Honing this skillset is essential before incorporating ChatGPT and similar GenAI technologies in your academic and professional careers.

Thus, the use of GenAI tools to produce written content in ENGR-100 is not allowed. This includes composing drafts, constructing sentences, creating paragraphs, revising for style, etc. Using GenAI for these tasks in ENGR-100 violates the Engineering Honor Code, and can be reported to the Honor Council for investigation as academic misconduct.

GenAI is an advanced writing tool, and will be incorporated into your writing curriculum in upper-level courses.

Participation in Teamwork

Each student must do their share of teamwork. Each student must take part in all aspects of a team project: research; data gathering; data analysis; design; and organizing and delivering oral presentations and drafting and revising written text.

Throughout the term, we will assess the health of your team via Tandem. Therefore, it is crucial that you accurately answer the Tandem questions so that we may intervene if necessary. We can’t help if we don’t know that something is wrong!

At the end of the ROV project, each team will perform a final team evaluation in which each student evaluates the performance of their teammates. The scores will be used to adjust individual team members grades on the group projects if one or more teammates performed unsatisfactorily.

Handling Data with Integrity

You may not falsify or misrepresent methods, data, results, or conclusions, regardless of their source.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

TWe are committed to making sure you can be successful in this class. Official requests for accommodations should go through the official office, the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located at G664 Haven Hall. Through them, you can get a verified individual services accommodation (VISA) form.

That said, we recognize that sometimes our course structure or policies might not work well for all students (whether or not you have a disability). We are very happy to make any reasonable arrangements that will help ensure your success! Please come talk to any of us to brainstorm solutions if you are facing a specific challenge.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The University of Michigan is committed to student learning and the development of the whole student in a diverse and multicultural campus community. We seek to engender a diverse community that is accessible, safe, and inclusive. We value a community that appreciates and learns from our similarities and differences. We pledge our commitment to support the success of all community members. If you experience anything, directly or indirectly, that goes against this commitment, please talk to your instructor, IA, peer mentor… anyone that you feel comfortable talking to. We want to know! We try hard not to knowingly do or say something that will cause harm or stress to you. Many of us are constantly going to workshops and reading papers about how to have the most inclusive classroom that we can have. But we are human and sometimes we mess up! If we do, we sincerely hope you will come talk to one of us so that we can see things from your point of view, and we can learn how to improve our class for the next semester.

Teamwork Conflict

A good portion of this class is about learning to succeed on a team. We devote class time to helping you build the empathy and interpersonal skills needed to successfully navigate a team and complete a project, and we expect you to use these skills to handle the inevitable challenges of working on a team. However, sometimes there are circumstances that are beyond your control, such as a severe personality clash between two teammates or an unexpected tragedy outside of class that affects a teammate’s ability to properly contribute to the team. If this happens, please tell your instructors as soon as you start to see indicators of a major issue. There are many things we can do to help, but only if we know about it early on!

Digital Etiquette

We will actually make use of technology in this class in very intentional ways. We see ourselves as “coaches” helping you to create a really cool vessel and the presentations and reports that showcase your great design. On some days, we’ll ask you to complete activities on your laptop or other devices to allow you to collaborate with others. If you don’t have access to a device you can bring to class, please speak with the course instructors as soon as possible.

Resources

There are a lot of resources here at U-M to help you succeed. Here, we list resources for our specific course as well as university-wide resources for more general support.

For Our Course

All assignments (the preparatory assignments, homework, and reports) will be made available electronically through the course website. Because we address a very specific topic and you have very diverse interests, there are no required texts. The course website has many documents listed that will provide you with the technical information that you need for this course. Additional resources may be placed in the course Google Drive folder, linked to on the course website. You must be logged in with your U-M google account to access these resources.

The following sections outline some reference texts which you may find helpful as you progress through the design-build-test-communicate sequence.

Supplementary Texts

Reference Material

Advanced Reference Material

For Student Support and Physical/Mental Health

U-M is an enormous place. This sometimes means that it’s tough to figure out where you can go to get help. This is a list of some places that make a good starting point if you’re needing help for physical or mental health. Please reach out to your instructors as well! We are always happy to talk and get you started with one of these places if that’s what you decide you’d like to do.

 

UHS uhs.umich.edu

When you get sick, don’t come to class! Email your instructors that you’ll be out, then go to UHS and see a doctor. When you’re ready to return to class, tell your instructors and we’ll get you caught back up.

 

MESA mesa.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning race and ethnicity; MESA engages the campus community and transforms the student experience to build inclusive spaces and equitable opportunities for all.

 

SPECTRUM CENTER spectrumcenter.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning sex and gender identity.

 

DISABILITY SERVICES (SSD) ssd.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning access and support.

 

COUNSELING SERVICES (CAPS) caps.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning the need for counseling/psychological services.

 

STUDENT LEGAL SERVICE studentlegalservices.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning the need for legal services/advice.

 

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY (DPSS) dpss.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning a crime, or civil rights complaints.

 

CENTER FOR CAMPUS INVOLVEMENT campusinvolvement.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning on engagement of the Ann Arbor community and university community.

 

GINSBERG CENTER ginsberg.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning community service learning and civic engagement.

 

SEXUAL ASSAULT PREVENTION AND AWARENESS CENTER sapac.umich.edu

Supports matters concerning assault and survivor support services.

 

The following is a list of resources put together by the office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education (ADUE). There is some duplication with the above listed resources, but we didn’t want to lose anything by trying to combine it with the list above. We will update this list of resources throughout the semester if we get an updated list sent to us.

Funding:

Mental Health Support:

Academic Support:

Technical Support:

International Students:

Student Organizations & Leadership:

Career Resources:

Students with concerns that do not fall in any of the above categories should contact the Office of Student Affairs (coe-studentaffairs@umich.edu).

General Observations and Advice

We have taught ENGR 100 for a long time now. Here are some tips that will help you be less frustrated!