It can be really fun and easy to throw out many ideas during the brainstorming process regardless of how practical they are. The topic of this class was the hard part: evaluating these ideas to determine the best design choice. Dr. Saterbak described two different design evaluation tools. She also stressed that the brainstorming and evaluation process is an iterative process. When evaluating solutions, new and potentially better ideas often come to mind.
The first evaluation tool is a morph chart. This chart organizes the brainstorming ideas into solutions for specific functions and attributes. The best combination of design solutions can be chosen from the possibilities. The second is a priority checkmark matrix that evaluates the solutions based on their ability to meet the design criteria and satisfy the constraints. The design criteria are rated based on a checkmark system; therefore, the solutions that meet highly rated design criteria receive the highest scores. Dr. Saterbak ended the lecture by stressing that these evaluation tools are only valuable and useful if supporting data dictates the evaluation numbers.
Apoorv and I worked with the OEDK roof after the lecture. We discussed the brainstorming memo and talked in more detail about how the sensors would connect to the control system. Some of this may require some programming skills, or the system can potentially be designed with on/off switches. More evaluation tools will be discussed on Thursday, and then the groups will turn in a memo using these evaluation matrices.