The Cook Engineering Design Center

The Cook Engineering Design Center The Cook Engineering Design Center (CEDC) coordinates Thayer School's links to industry. Directed by

In the two-term engineering design sequence, ENGS 89/90, student teams are paired with industry partners to solve an engineering design challenge in the workplace. Each team works with its industry partner to develop a solution—a hardware prototype, a software program, or a manufacturing process. Over the 26 weeks between project definition and final deliverable, the student teams present their on

-going work to professional engineering review boards. Recent projects demonstrate the range of possibilities for student work.

Tips for Technical LiaisonsThe CEDC associate's technical liaison meets with the student team on a regular basis to answ...
06/28/2016

Tips for Technical Liaisons
The CEDC associate's technical liaison meets with the student team on a regular basis to answer questions and provide technical support. The best project results are often the ones where the student team and technical liaison have had close and on-going contact, the technical liaison is well versed in the engineering problem at hand and offers sound direction to the student team members.

The best technical liaison is someone who:

Is always up to date on the scope of the project and the expected deliverable
Agrees to project deliverables and scope with the student team members
Mentors the students and provides technical support throughout the project
Communicates with the student team once or twice a week to provide information, field questions, or provide advice
Reviews student proposals, reports, and other documents and provides good feedback in a timely fashion. Grading sheets will be provided in advance for those project sponsors who wish to have direct input on how their team is graded.
Attends the final student project presentation on campus at the end of winter term in mid March

ENGS 89/90 TimelineEarly September: ENGS 89 begins, proposals are pitched, problems and teams are matched, and projects ...
06/28/2016

ENGS 89/90 Timeline
Early September: ENGS 89 begins, proposals are pitched, problems and teams are matched, and projects begin.
Early October: CEDC associates are invoiced.
Mid October: Student teams report orally to a professional review board about their understanding of the problem, the current state of the art surrounding potential solutions, and the area in which they intend to focus their efforts. A written report is also provided at this time.
Late November: Each student team reports to the professional review board on its potential solution to the problem, their attempts to realize the solution, potential obstacles, alternative ideas in case a dead-end is reached, and anticipated timelines for completing the project. A written report is also provided at this time.
Early January: ENGS 90, the final segment of the course, begins.
Early February: Each student team reports to the professional review board about its progress to date, including the status of the proposed solution, and how challenges have been overcome.
Early March: Each student team presents its final report to the professional review board, recapping their work over the two terms and demonstrating the deliverable that solves the problem. A written report is also provided at this time.

Deliverables: Some projects provide significant results in the form of working prototypes or processes. Others projects ...
06/28/2016

Deliverables:
Some projects provide significant results in the form of working prototypes or processes. Others projects create results that have begun to address an industry problem but may require more work by another group of students or by engineering staff within the sponsor's company to complete the work.

Results vary depending on the nature of the project itself, the capabilities of the students, and the clarity of communications between the team and the technical liaison. While Thayer School cannot predict the quality of any particular project, it can guarantee that students will give their best efforts to their projects.

Deliverables may be one or more of the following:

Design analyses, reports, and feasibility studies
Prototype hardware, e.g., product prototypes
Engineering plans and drawings
Computer programs, manuals, and data
Manufacturing process plans
Demonstrations, videos, and presentations
Business plans and financial analyses

The ideal project involves the design of a product, process, or system with clearly defined deliverables. A good project...
06/28/2016

The ideal project involves the design of a product, process, or system with clearly defined deliverables. A good project:

Calls for technical analysis, financial justification, prototyping/simulation, testing, and project planning
Has a strong design component
Has well defined and measurable objectives that can be met in the 26 weeks of the design course sequence
Companies new to the CEDC process should read through some sample project proposals, all of which have been submitted to the CEDC and successfully solved by student teams.

Benefits to Sponsors:When a company sponsors an ENGS 89/90 project, they get a team of enthusiastic students who have st...
06/28/2016

Benefits to Sponsors:
When a company sponsors an ENGS 89/90 project, they get a team of enthusiastic students who have studied engineering topics beyond the core courses and who are motivated to solve problems by applying engineering principles. Over the course of the two ten-week terms and a seven-week interim period, this Thayer School team typically spends between 800 and 1,600 hours on its project, depending on project complexity and team size. The team consists of 3-6 students, at least one faculty advisor, and the course director; the team also has access to other faculty, support staff, and the many resources of Thayer School.

Your proposed project may be an opportunity for you to add resources to an existing engineering problem, a way for you to explore the next step of a current company project, or a way to assign resources to a task that has been postponed for lack of staffing. Your company may also use the opportunity to identify talent for recruiting purposes or initiate longer-term research collaborations with Thayer School faculty.

Any company, large or small, is encouraged to submit a clearly defined workplace problem to the CEDC. At the beginning o...
06/28/2016

Any company, large or small, is encouraged to submit a clearly defined workplace problem to the CEDC. At the beginning of the fall term, ENGS 89 students select the problems they would like to solve. The CEDC then assigns the students to teams and matches the teams with the company sponsors.

Once a problem is selected, the company that submitted it becomes a CEDC associate. A technical liaison from the company (who has practical experience in the relevant field of engineering) works directly with the students. The financial liaison works with the CEDC staff to support the team with financial support of the course.

During its first five years (1979-1984), more companies joined with an increase in industry-funded research. The Cook Ce...
06/28/2016

During its first five years (1979-1984), more companies joined with an increase in industry-funded research. The Cook Center Associates Program was established in 1983 as a mechanism to generate and maintain a continuing relationship between interested companies and Thayer School.

During Dean Elsa Garmire's tenure, the CEDC became a virtual center with a formalized fee structure for projects and process by which corporate partners were recruited.

In 2005, in collaboration with SMT Magazine, the CEDC began to offer Six Sigma workshops for corporate professionals and Dartmouth engineering students. The workshops cover topics such as statistics, the design of experiments, and design for manufacturability and continuous improvement plans, along with other topics developed with the help of industry and the Tuck School of Business.

The Cook Engineering Design Center was established in 1978 to create a bridge between industry and Thayer School. Severa...
06/28/2016

The Cook Engineering Design Center was established in 1978 to create a bridge between industry and Thayer School. Several companies signed on to provide financial support and bring in projects for graduate engineering students, who would work in close collaboration with industry representatives.

Former overseer John Brown Cook '29 was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the concept of the Center. After Cook's death in 1979, his widow, Marian Miner Cook, succeeded him as overseer and made a generous financial gift to support the design center. The Center, originally called INVENTE, was renamed the Cook Engineering Design Center (CEDC).

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