Final Project

Due Dates

Project Post: 10pm Monday May 9th
Presentation: 8am-11am, Tuesday May 10th
Location: Hand and Machine Lab, Farris, room G390
I will bring coffee and bagels!

Description

The final project is intended to give you an opportunity to explore a topic of interest in more depth and is carried out over the last month of the semester. It should incorporate computational design and fabrication. You should design an object(s) by writing a program in the language and environment of your choice. You should then fabricate your object(s) using one or more of the techniques you have learned about in this class. The final project counts for 20% of your final grade. The final project proposal and final project update assignments will be incorporated into your final project grade. The project should include the following components:

1. Background Research: You should conduct background research to get an understanding of other work that has been done in the area. You should identify at least three different projects (done by three different people or teams) that relate to your project. You are welcome to identify more than three projects.
2. Computational Component: Your project should include a significant computational component. The design(s) for your final project should be generated by writing one or more programs. Note that 3D modeling is not computational design. You are welcome to blend computational design with other types of design (ie: 3D modeling or hand drawing).
3. Fabrication Component: Your project should include a significant fabrication component. Your design should be realized through some form of digital fabrication. You are welcome to blend digital fabrication and hand craft.

What to Hand In: Website Post
Create a post on this website that describes your project. You are welcome to reuse material you created for your final project proposal and update posts. Think of this post as a final paper. It should include the following elements, in order:

• Introduction: Provide a basic overview of your project. Describe in one to two paragraphs what your goal was and provide a short description of what you did. Include one beautiful photograph of your final project in this section.
• Background Research: Describe how your project relates to previous work. Discuss the related work you have found and explain how it relates to or inspired your project. Include links, and (if applicable) images of the related work. Related work should be in the form of an original source. It can be an academic paper or thorough documentation of a designer’s or artist’s work.
• Process: Describe in detail how you designed and fabricated your project. Describe your program(s) and how they work. Discuss any challenges you encountered during the process. Describe your fabrication process(es) and any challenges you encountered.
• Outcome: Provide beautiful and thorough documentation of your final outcome, including a description of the results and beautiful photographs. Follow the photo tutorial. Also make sure that your photographs are cropped nicely.
• Future Work: Provide a short discussion of how you would expand or iterate on your project if you had more time.
• Reflection: Reflect on what you learned working on this project and how you plan to use the artifacts you created.

What to Hand In: Presentation and Artifacts
Bring your final artifacts to our final meeting.

Create a short presentation about your project. Each individual project will have 6 minutes to present their work and 3 minutes to answer questions. Each team project will have 10 minutes to present and 3 minutes to answer questions. If you are presenting as a team, each team member should present for an equal amount of time. I will be timing your presentation so make sure that it isn’t too long. The presentation will not be able to cover all of the information you include in your blog post. Do not include related work in your presentation. Focus on your process and outcome. A good rule of thumb is that each slide in your presentation (except the title and thank you slides) will take at least a minute to talk about. Your presentation should include these basic elements:

• A title slide that includes the name of your project, your name, and your affiliation
• An introduction slide that provides a basic overview of your project.
• Slides that describe the process you went through. Include information about both the computational design and fabrication elements of your project. Include information about challenges you encountered.
• Slides that showcase your final outcome.
• (Optional) A future work and/or refection slide.
• A thank you slide that includes your name and affiliation.

Upload your slides to this website and include a link to them in your final project post. The link to your slides needs to be added to your post by the end of the day on Tuesday 5/10.