2020(S09) Lecture:week 3: Difference between revisions

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==Follow-up homework==
=='''Homework''' for next week's studio session==
In this assignment you will address a challenge from NASA's website, namely, "if you could toss a bottle out into space, what message would you seal into it for anyone -- or any thing -- to open some day far away from our solar system?" This challenge was addressed more than 25 years ago when NASA's two Voyager spacecraft launched. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 carried "Golden Records" with messages to inform other beings about earth.
In this assignment you will address the characteristics of "good design." For instance, Joel Schindall from the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program offers these as elements of '''good product design''':
*First, visit the [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/voyager_record/index.cfm NASA site] that presents some contents of the Voyager Golden Records. Evaluate what was included. What was perfect? What was silly? What isn't relevant anymore? What seems misguided? What might be open to misinterpretation? Be sure to offer your favorite element on the record and your least favorite and say why. 
*You know it when you see it
*Second, make your own Golden Record. You should consider what content you would include in a message for our intergalactic friends.  
*Minimalist -- meets requirements in an efficient manner
This assignment has two parts but you should '''spend no more than one hour completing''' both.<br>
*Wow factor -- leaps out at you
If you have the time and interest you might want to look at the [http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/01/2316208 antique hardware] being maintained for the sole purpose of communicating with the Voyager space crafts. Does this make you rethink any aspects of your clock for the long now?<br>
*Robust -- failure-resistant
Your assignment should be posted before the next lecture to the lecture response log that's
*"Anticipatory" -- easily modified to overcome unanticipated problems (this is subtle but important)
[https://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/20/sp08/20.020/homework/ here.]
*Adaptable
*Expandable
*Flexible
*Combines functions to increase efficiency -- mounting bracket doubles as heat sink, etc.<br>
By contrast, Blade Kotelly offers these elements of '''good software design:'''
*Visually Clean
*Communicates clearly and quickly
*Anthropomorphic
*Useful in some way (intended or in intended)
*Provides clear feedback
*Keeps users oriented as to their current state
*Maintains locus of control with user
*Emotionally compelling
*Provides simple controls for input
*Aligns to societal mores<br>
Now it's your turn. Please make 2 lists. The first list should be 5-10 characteristics of good design in biology as we find it in the natural world. The second list should be 5-10 characteristics of
 
 
 
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<center>'''Why are we doing this??'''</center>
Thinking at a high level about "good design" elements will help with your decisions about project ideas.  
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Revision as of 05:39, 3 January 2009

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Week 3 Studio

Part 1: The Sorting Hat

Based on the ideas from your letters, comic strips and storyboards the class will be organized into TEMPORARY camps. These camps are intended to cluster related projects and will include all the interesting corners and regions of the project areas you've defined so far. Each camp will also be assigned one or more senior biological engineering student(s) from 20.902 as the camp counselor(s). Once sorted, you, your camp-mates and your counselor(s) should review and catalog the ideas that got you there. In cataloging your ideas, you should include

  • a name for each project
  • a one sentence description of the problem or opportunity it will address
  • and any idea you're working on as a solution.

Prepare this catalog as a powerpoint presentation that you will show to the class. The last slide in your presentation should be a recap slide to review all the ideas presented. The last hour of the studio time will be dedicated to the presentation of these camp catalogs.

Part 2: Mapping the world of projects

Pull up a chair and listen as your classmates present their catalogs of ideas. As you listen , you should make note of those projects from each camp that are most interesting to you and why. Before tomorrow you will be asked list your top choice and your second choice for camps and your top three project ideas.

Homework for tomorrow's challenge session

First, reconsider the challenges and opportunities that were presented in today's studio.

Then select your 3 favorite project ideas as well as your first and second choice for a camp assignment to your counselors. Next week, you'll be assigned a team and, as a team, you'll get started on 3 ideas in your area of interest.
Finally, upload your choices to your "Personal Design Portfolio" in the the homework dropbox., calling your assignment: FirstInitial_LastName_PDP_5.doc, for example: P_Abdul_PDP_5.doc

Week 3 Thursday

Challenge: The Clock of the Long Now

Humans have had a stable climate for about 10,000 years, let's hope for another 10,000 at least. Assuming no catastrophic events, what would you like to build now that could still be working 10,000 years from now? How could you build such a long-lasting artifact? Wisely anticipating future needs is part of it. For example carpenters in the 14th century built marvelous wooden cathedrals. At the same time, the builders knew that the beams of the structures would eventually need replacing. So, they planted trees, preparing hundreds of years ahead by providing for the future raw materials needs. What else might need to be pre-positioned to perpetuate an artifact through time?

Ruins of the Roman Forum

Instructions: Find your "camp-mates" from yesterday and work together to design a clock according to the Danny Hill's specifications. Danny called for "a clock that ticks once a year, the century hand advances once every one hundred years, and the cuckoo comes out on the millennium. I want the cuckoo to come out every millennium for the next 10,000 years." Several design considerations will be important to discuss as you think about how to build a clock that will behave as expected until the year 12,008. You will have 45 minutes to address these aspects of your clock's design and documentation:

  1. longevity: how will you keep the clock working, presuming you'll have all and only the technology and materials that are available today?
  2. maintenance: how will your children's children's children keep this clock working? You can assume they'll be as smart but no smarter than you.
  3. user's guide: how will future generations understand this clock without stopping or disassembling it?
  4. improvements: how will you improve your clock over time? It should be possible to improve the clock over time?
  5. prototyping: how will you build and test your clock?

Begin by reviewing the rules for brainstorming (see Part 3 here) then either build consensus around one idea or take a vote for the top 3 and then the top choice. Once the general idea for your clock is set, get to work on each of the design elements listed above. After 45 minutes, each table will report back to the group. You may want to organize your ideas or sketch your plan on the whiteboards.

Why are we doing this??

Designing in the absence of complete knowledge is the norm, not the exception. Once our "clocks for the long now" have been described, we'll work as a class to add more ideas, questions and thoughts about good designs despite incomplete understanding. We can also collect the problem solving techniques that worked well and those that didn't.

  • from 2008: "I learned from this that technology can provide a wonderful varieties of possibilities, but also that nature has created a pretty elegant machine in living organisms. The best engineering solutions may be those that alter the natural system the least or at least recombine functional pieces of nature."
  • from 2008: "This activity was a lot of fun for me, although I must admit, I was intimidated by it at first. When we actually got together to design the clock, ideas were flying everywhere. At first, we all seemed to be thinking the same, which was nice to start off with."

Homework for next week's studio session

In this assignment you will address the characteristics of "good design." For instance, Joel Schindall from the Gordon Engineering Leadership Program offers these as elements of good product design:

  • You know it when you see it
  • Minimalist -- meets requirements in an efficient manner
  • Wow factor -- leaps out at you
  • Robust -- failure-resistant
  • "Anticipatory" -- easily modified to overcome unanticipated problems (this is subtle but important)
  • Adaptable
  • Expandable
  • Flexible
  • Combines functions to increase efficiency -- mounting bracket doubles as heat sink, etc.

By contrast, Blade Kotelly offers these elements of good software design:

  • Visually Clean
  • Communicates clearly and quickly
  • Anthropomorphic
  • Useful in some way (intended or in intended)
  • Provides clear feedback
  • Keeps users oriented as to their current state
  • Maintains locus of control with user
  • Emotionally compelling
  • Provides simple controls for input
  • Aligns to societal mores

Now it's your turn. Please make 2 lists. The first list should be 5-10 characteristics of good design in biology as we find it in the natural world. The second list should be 5-10 characteristics of


Why are we doing this??

Thinking at a high level about "good design" elements will help with your decisions about project ideas.

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