Introduction to the DMT Project 2017-18

DMT Course Leader: Richard Silversides

Associate Course Leader: Jeff Barrie

1 Introduction
The Design Make and Test (DMT) Project is one of the most important modules in the Mechanical
Engineering degree course. It will also be the most significant piece of work that most of the students
will have been part of at this stage in their careers.

The aims of the module are to reinforce and integrate the knowledge, understanding and skills that
have been taught in the engineering science, design, manufacturing and management modules. Your
project must be systematically planned and managed from the outset, and will be assessed on this as
much as on its technological achievement.

The project is a realistic engineering project with rigorous time and budget constraints and you will gain
the most experience from it if you treat it as a professional activity.

The DMT Group Selection Referendum

In June 2017, the ME2 cohort was asked to vote for how they would prefer to select their groups for
DMT. The turnout was a very respectable 155 students who voted out of around 170 students invited;
the results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 - Results of the DMT Group Selection Referendum (2017)

Votes % votes % A+B
A 66 42.58 44
B 84 54.19 56
Unanswered 5 3.23 -

Therefore, in 2017-18, students will select a list of projects; students will be individually allocated to one
of those projects and all students allocated to that project will work as a group. This method of group
selection has a number of advantages over students selecting their own groups:

Almost all employment begins with new employees being thrown in amongst a group of
total strangers who have totally different backgrounds from each other and so this is a

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 realistic project environment. Imperial is a relatively benign environment to learn the skills
needed to fit in.
Teamworking and networking are important transferable skills that employers like to ask
about at interviews and this is an opportunity to gain valuable experience for your future
career; employers are more impressed if you have put yourself outside your comfort zone.
You will be able to select the projects you are actually interested in without needing to
compromise your choices due to the opinions of other members of your group.
Returning students are not disadvantaged by being left out of groups that are already
organised when the sessions starts;
Working with friends is no guarantee of an amicable working arrangement and when things
have gone wrong in the past students have been left with no social support outside the
project to vent your feelings.

Note that students who propose their own project may still propose their own group as well, as
discussed in section 6.3.

2 Key dates and attendance for DMT

There are a number of dates which are significant within the timeline of the DMT project, as shown in
Table 1. All coursework submissions are registered.

DRAFT: Dates are for 2016-17 session dates for 2017-18 will be made available as soon as they are
known:

Table 2 - Key Dates for DMT in 2016-17

Event Date Time

Autumn term begins Saturday, 1 October, 2016

DMT project list opens Tuesday, 4 October, 2016

DMT project selection closes Thursday, 13 October, 2016

DMT Quality Plan due Friday, 11 November, 2016 12:00

Autumn term ends Friday, 16 December, 2016

Spring term begins Saturday, 7 January, 2017

DMT project progress report due Monday, 13 February, 2017

Spring term ends Friday, 24 March, 2017

Summer term begins Saturday, 29 April, 2017

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 Event Date Time

Autumn term begins Saturday, 1 October, 2016

DMT report due Thursday, 8 June, 2017 12:00

DMT poster due Thursday, 8 June, 2017 17:00

Project seminars Monday, 12 June, 2017

DMT Exhibition Tuesday, 13 June 2017

DMT peer assessment opens Wednesday 14 June, 2017 17:00

DMT peer assessment closes Friday, 23 June, 2017 17:00

Summer term ends Friday, 30 June, 2017

CAUTION: You are required to attend College during term time. With permission from
their Personal Tutors, students sometimes leave early in the Summer Term after the DMT
project is completed. However, all ME3 students are required to attend their DMT Seminar
and the DMT Exhibition.

3 Assessment and Feedback

3.1 Marked Elements
Overall, the DMT project is worth 1000 of the 2400 points available during ME3 (about 40%). There are
various submissions that contribute to the overall mark for the DMT project, as shown in Table 3.

DRAFT: Marks breakdown is for 2016-17 session marks breakdown for 2017-18 may vary:

Table 3 Breakdown of DMT Marks in 2016-17

Marked Element Percentage

Quality Plan 7.5%
Progress Report 7.5%
Final Report 47.5%
Logbook 7.5%
Seminar 7.5%
Exhibition 7.5%
Conduct of Task 15%

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3.2 Self and Peer Assessment
In addition to the marked elements of the course, there will be two exercises using the WebPA peer
review and assessment tool. Note that staff do not contribute to these exercises.

1. The Self and Peer Review that will take place over the Christmas break. This is a formative
exercise where the results are not marked and will only be used by your Supervisor to inform
them of the dynamic of the group. By carrying this out that this stage, problems with group
dynamics can be addressed early on.
2. The Self and Peer Assessment is the last element of DMT and is carried out after the final DMT
Exhibition. The Self and Peer Assessment will be used to adjust your final mark depending on
the assessment of your contribution.

4 Taught Sessions
There are various taught sessions as part of the DMT course. The list of sessions from 2016-17 are listed
in Table 4. DRAFT dates for 2017-18 will be made available as soon as they are known.

Table 4 - List of taught sessions for DMT 2016-17

Session Date Time Location

Introduction to DMT 5th October, 2016 11:00 CAGB220

Safety 13th October, 2016 14:00 CAGB342

Quality Planning 18th October, 2016 15:00 CAGB220

Teamworking Skills Sessions Various 15:00 CAGB220

Purchasing and Manufacturing 14th November, 2016 13:00 SKEM164

Preparing the Progress Report Discussion 16th January, 2017 13:00 CAGB220

Preparing the Final Report Discussion 22nd May, 2017 12:00 CAGB220

5 DMT Project Groups

A DMT Group will simply be all students allocated to a particular project. Groups will be 4 or 5 students
depending on the popularity of projects.

The Department is aware that this is a big change and this, combined with feedback from Sole, means
that progress of projects will be monitored more closely during the 2017-18 session; this will include

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additional monitoring of progress by supervisors and timely formative peer assessment, to promote the
smooth running of projects.

However, students who propose their own projects will still be able to select their own group to work
with if they so desire (see section 6.3). If selecting a project and being allocated to a group is like
working for a large company, then proposing your own project and selecting your own team is
equivalent to setting up a small Start-up Company.

6 DMT Project List

6.1 The open project list
The list of projects is proposed by the teaching staff and is usually related to their specialisat ion. Over
the Summer Holidays, students should consider what sort of projects they would like to work on so that
they have an idea of what sort of projects to look for when you return.

The List of DMT projects is published in week 1 of the Autumn Term. You will be asked to select six
projects from the list and indicate your preferences on the Project Selection Form by the Project
Selection Deadline. Students seeking clarification on details of a project will be able to discuss this with
the supervisor, but the mechanism for this has not been finalised at this time it may be based around
special office hours or by asking questions on Forums.

The Course Leader will try to allocate students to a project from their six selections in priority order.
Certain projects are very popular and it is not always possible to allocate everyone to their preferred
choices. Announcements will be made during the selection period to ensure that students are aware of
which projects are likely to be oversubscribed. It is intended that the selection form will allow students
to adjust their selections in response to this information it is understood that students will wish to
keep their top selections but it is a good idea to have at least one selection that is not massively
oversubscribed.

Note that project Supervisors cannot promise to accept a particular student onto a project from the
Open Project List allocations are made by the Course Leader only!

A DMT Group for a project from the Open Project List will consist of all the students allocated to that
project.

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6.2 Team DMT projects
Several DMT projects run as Team Projects, under an additional layer of supervision. These projects can
demand more of the students than others but they can offer more in return; Imperial Racing Green
should be considered by any student interested in automotive or motorsport careers. The team includes
the Formula Student Team, the Shell Eco Marathon Team and the Zephir electric motorbike group.

Organisation of Imperial Racing Green (IRG) projects begins with an open meeting held during the first
two weeks of session (Date TBA). The projects on offer are presented and a question-and-answer
session follows.

The Team DMT projects are posted and selected using the same procedure as other Open Projects, and
each student can select a mixture of projects from the team based and open project lists.

The teams carry out interviews of potential students at some time during the DMT selection period
(Date TBA). The teams recommendations and preferences will be forwarded to the DMT Course Leader
and these will be taken into account during the allocation process.

6.3 Proposing your own project

Students who have a project idea that they would like to pursue may propose their own project.
Students who do so may gather their own group of students to work with or, if they prefer, they may
add the project to the Open Project List to allow other, interested students to express their own interest
in working on that project. In either event, the proposer(s) will automatically be allocated to their
project.

To propose a project, the proposer will need to write a project brief and find a supervisor willing to
supervise the project. In the first instance, it is the responsibility of the proposer to find a supervisor as
it is assumed that they have enough interest in the subject to know who to approach. In the event that
a willing supervisor cannot be found, then the Course Leader may be contacted for advice, but expect to
be quizzed on who has already been asked.

The project brief is a short (~500 words) summary of the project including

Project Background (What is the need/motivation behind the project?);

Aims (what you plan to achieve);
Objectives (how you plan to achieve it).
An indication of how much space the project might need this is extremely important as the
Department has limited space for very large projects.

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A potential supervisor will help the proposer(s) to mould the initial brief into a viable DMT project. The
final brief is submitted to the Course Leader along with the student(s) and Supervisors names.

CAUTION: Each potential supervisor has a limited capacity to supervise projects. Once a project
has been published on the Open Project List, a supervisor will have to assume that it will be
allocated and is less likely to accept proposals from students. Therefore, you must approach
potential supervisors before the Open Project list is published, at the start of Autumn Term, if
you wish to convince them to invest their time in your project. Some might say the earlier the
better!

6.4 Project Registration Form

Once projects are allocated, all groups must meet and fill in a DMT Project Registration form to seal the
contract with your Supervisor. This form is submitted to the UG Office.

7 Blackboard
7.1 General information
All course documentation will be made available on Blackboard

DMT instruction documents

Submission links
Deadlines
Course announcements
Lecture slides
Panopto Recordings (where recorded)
Mark sheets
Sample projects

Sample DMT posters will be displayed around college during the 2017-18 session

7.2 Forums
In an effort to make communication with the Course Leader open and accessible to all, the preferred
method of communication is via the Forums on the DMT Blackboard site. By posting questions and
responses on the relevant Forum, information sent to one student is made available to all. If you send
an email to the course leader about a topic that would be of interest to the whole DMT cohort, you will

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be asked to post a thread on the forum before you receive an answer. This is similar to the way that
ME2 Design and Manufacture is handled and should be familiar to incoming ME3 students.

8 Safety
The Safety Lecture will be provided early in the Autumn Term by the Departmental Safety Officer Julia
Easton (j.easton@imperial.ac.uk). All students are required to attend this lecture as it covers the
various safety related issues that everyone needs to be aware of as they embark on a much more
flexible period of project work than previously experienced. This may involve working in labs and
workshops where groups will be expected to prepare risk assessments for any element of their projects
that involve risk.

For any hazardous substance used in projects, a COSHH (Control Of Substances Hazardous or Harmful to
Health) form must be completed. Suppliers of materials are obliged to provide a data sheet which
explains any handling or contact hazards, and defines any necessary precautions.

Related information
Download Risk Assessment forms
Download COSHH form

9 Log Book
Each member of the group will be required to submit an individual log book along with the final report.
The log book is a chronological record of the development of the project and hence, the physical book
must be some form of hard bound, physical notebook that cannot have been retrospectively rearranged
to change the order of the content.

Attention: The log book must provide a true and accurate, historic account of your project;
hence, loose leaf binders, electronic notebooks, etc. will not be accepted.

Although now being supplanted by mobile devices, log books are still routinely maintained in industry.
Their primary uses for a collaborative project are:

1. To provide an auditable record of the development of a project.

2. To provide a contemporaneous record of meetings and other real -time events,

complementing the shared library of electronic documents

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 3. To record and develop individual thoughts, analyses, sketches etc..

Every group members log book must be submitted for marking along with the final report and is
marked by the Independent Marker who will have no prior experience of the group . The mark sheet
used by the Independent Marker is available on the DMT Blackboard site and gives guidance on what
the marker will be looking for.

Marks are awarded for how effectively each log book was maintained (but not for neatness: a log book
does not have to be tidy or beautiful, just legible and useful).

As part of the DMT process, the log book is used by the department to:

1. Illustrate the history of the development of the project, including dead-ends and design

decisions that lead to the final product but that are not included in the final report.
2. Provide a full analysis of all critical parts showing that you have considered the operating

stresses of the product and that it is fit for purpose.

3. Inform the markers as to your personal contribution to the project; be aware that all reports

are independently marked by someone who has no prior experience of your project.

Important: In order to maintain an audit trail through your log book, you should ensure
your Supervisor takes a look at your log book, signs and dates it at least once per month.

10 Budget
Each DMT project is allocated 1000, irrespective of the number of students in the group. This amount
is paid to the Academic Supervisors budget account. Some Supervisors might supplement the total
from their research funds, but this should be declared in the Quality Plan.

There are special arrangements for team projects (Imperial Racing Green etc.). For these the
Department pays the amount to a central budget, managed by the team.

When costing parts and materials from external suppliers, remember that VAT is payable.

Important: Where possible, items must be ordered through the Imperial College Purchasing
System which is part of ICIS ( Imperial College Information System). Where a supplier is not available on
ICIS, you will be responsible for purchasing the item and claiming the expenses. Such purchases must be

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approved by your supervisor and you will have three months from the date of purchase to claim for
reimbursement.

11 Intellectual property
Project work may generate or may use ideas or products which are patentable. On registering as
a student at Imperial, you agreed to the Colleges Intellectual Property (IP) policy: this limits how far you
can protect intellectual property, but also limits your responsibility for maintaining that of others.
If your project is supported with or without funding by an external collaborator, your work on it
may require information which the collaborator does not wish to divulge publicly. If so, your supervisor
will arrange for a standard College contractual agreement to be set up and will make you fully aware at
the outset of any potential limitations on your work: for example, a DMT project poster may require
your project sponsors prior approval of its content, and this could take several weeks.
The agreement may just relate to confidentiality (a non-disclosure agreement, NDA) but it may be
significantly broader.
Warning: Never sign any such agreement, or any similar agreement that could potentially
make you personally liable. As part of your initial registration at College, you agreed to be
bound by the terms of student IP policy; the College therefore signs agreements on your behalf.
You may be asked to acknowledge the terms of an agreement, but liability still rests with the
College.

Related information
Imperial College intellectual property policy

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