Engineering Question

Instructions: Engineering is rarely about invention; it is usually about optimization. The majority of your professional time will be spent shaving seconds off a cycle or percentages off a fatality rate. However, one kind of defining moment of your career will come when you have the opportunity and courage to reimagine something entirely.

You, individually, will assume the role of Lead Product Architect for the “Skunkworks” division. Your mandate is to take the interface you are assigned and radically reimagine it. Use the form factor or core mechanism of your item to solve a completely different problem for a completely different user in a completely different way. The result must be a “Blue Ocean” product: something this is undeniably the same kind of interface as you are assigned, but which is also undeniably something new: patentable, original, and so something that currently yields zero results in a Google search.

An additional restriction: your redesigned interface cannot be “interface + LLM”. That is to say that if your interface was a slide touch surface, you cannot propose a slide touch surface that runs an LLM/AI. Some interfaces (voice recognition) now generally use an LLM rather than traditional machine learning, and that is fine. You simply cannot choose “My interface but now it types/talks/generates images because I put an LLM in it”. Reach out to the teaching team if you are unsure.

Section 1: The Conceptual Pivot

You must fundamentally alter the Context, the User, or the Core Function to such a degree that the device is unrecognizable from its original purpose, while still being the kind of device.

The Elevator Pitch: Provide one single sentence describing the redesigned item in less than 20 words.
What: A technical description. What are the physical inputs and outputs? How does the mechanism work now?
Who: A description of the population that it faces. Because this is a human engineering class, that myst be a group of humans. Be specific (e.g., “Parkinsons patients with limited fine motor control” rather than just “People who are sick”) and tell us about your population. What do they need and want?
Where: A description of the context that it is designed for (e.g., Is it now used underwater? In high-radiation zones? In a kindergarten? All of the above?).
When: A description of when the device is used. Is it continuous monitoring? Once per day? In response to an event or action? In case of emergency? In self defense?
Why: A description of why the device is needed in the world. What is the specific value proposition that justifies this redesigns existence?
How: Describe the main uses of your interface.

You need to get far enough away from your interface the new interface is not Google-able by your teaching team. A brain-computer interface cannot just be a brain-computer interface for smell, nor a brain-computer interface for emergency responders, but a BCI translate a rescue dogs olfactory cortex spikes into synthesized speech to alert handlers to different scent-based discoveries during disaster recovery operations would fit the bill. Which is to say, have some fun. 🙂

Section 2: Visual Documentation

Engineering requires visual communication. Provide a schematic of your new interface solution.

Visual Schematic: A basic diagram. This may be hand-sketched or generated via AI (with appropriate attribution). It must clearly label the Interface points (where the human touches) and the Feedback points (where the interface signals the human).

Section 3: Heuristic Defense

As an expert Architect, justify your design decisions. Your company will not be happy for you to simply make something “cool”; it must work for the population, and defensibly needed.

- Feedback loop: How does the interface + human loop work? How is it unique?
- Underlying Principles: Describe the human engineering principles used when conceptualizing the interface. Explicitly reference concepts such as Affordance, Error Constraints, Signal-to-Noise Ratio, or Biomechanics. Explain how your redesign specifically accommodates the limitations of your new “Who” (User) in your new “Where” (Context).

Section 4: Base Interface

Very briefly provide a description of the class of interface you redesigned. What is it? What is it traditionally used for?

Section 5: Google Search

A screenshot of a google search for your elevator pitch sentence, without quotes.

Appendix A: Generative AI Statement and Transcript

A Generative AI Statement describing how you used generative AI, and approximating your labor vs the machine’s labor. Also a full transcript of all interactions with that system.

Submit your response as a single PDF document. Length is no more than 1500 words: ‘concise, but enough to answer the questions very well’.

Section 2 is exempt from this limit, but should be exactly one page, and can contain non-excessive ‘figure text’ which explains the images. Appendix A is excluded from this limit, but must be separate.

Use of Generative AI: Generative AI may be used on this assignment. The ideas and arguments should reflect your own, and you’re responsible for full understanding of all content. Provide a brief statement of how you used Generative AI technologies, and their contribution of the work you produce.

Please note that your work, anonymized, will be provided to other students in this class relative to a future assignment.

Requirements: Read the instructions

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