Final Project

Due Dates:

• Proposal due Wednesday, April 4, 2022
• Individual Meetings due by Thursday, May 5, 2022
• Presentations due Thursday, May 12, 2022
• Documentation + Tutorial due Monday, May 16, 2022 by 9 pm EST in #final-project-submission Slack channel

Brief

The goal of your final project is to show me that you have a grasp of the materials, concepts, skills, and knowledge that we learned over the semester.

Other than that, there is no prompt or rule set for the project – it is open. You can do an in depth study of a process or material, create an object, etc. In addition to the project, you must create a tutorial for all or a subset of your project. This can take any form you like – video, zine, Instructable, book, essay, photo essay, etc. See below for more details. You may combine it with other classes, but you MUST clear it with me first.

There are no circuit requirements as not all projects might have them. HOWEVER, if you do complete a project with a functioning circuit, please follow these guidelines:

• Contain it on a textile, with the exception of your microcontroller if you have one. You should NOT use a breadboard in the final product. 
• Please restrict your use of wires and alligator clips to only those that you absolutely need. If you come to class with a physical computing project and many wires, I will lower your grade. I am assessing you on the material knowledge you have gained over the semester and how you implement it.

Design Decisions

You should make intentional design choices for your final. Consider the following:

• Materials. Rough fabric will generate a different feeling than something smooth. Consider the texture, color, and other properties.
• Conductive materials. Your choice of threads, fabrics, snaps, etc to craft your circuit will impact the functionality and asthetics. 
• Aesthetics. The visual design of the circuit traces and components is an opportunity to reinforce or communicate your emotion. The size and form are likewise variables at your disposal. Please consider the visual treatment of your LED as well!
• Interaction + Experience. How are people interacting with the circuit? Touching, pulling, bending, stroking, pushing, punching, wrapping, etc. What is the output? Slow fading LED? Fast blinking LED? Delayed reaction? What experience do you want them to have? How are you designing for this?

Deliverables

Initial Proposal due Wednesday 4/27

You must submit your final project proposal by WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27. It should include: 

• a brief description explaining the concept and implementation
• a material list
• circuit diagram if applicable
• at least one prototype
• a brief description of how you plan to create your tutorial 

You can write it with images and diagrams, create a video recording, draft a slideshow, etc. Please use whichever communication modality you feel most comfy with.

Individual Meetings due by 5/5

I will meet with each of you individually for 10 minutes in class on 4/28 or during the week of 5/2 by appointment. I will send a spreadsheet out on 4/29 for students who I did not meet with in class.

Final Share out due Thursday 5/12

Our final class will follow a similar structure to midterms. Everyone is required to 

• Share a 2-3 minute rapid demo. Slides not necessary. If you require a specific environment, please let me know ahead of time.
  • SIGN UP HERE
  • Links
    • Minghui
    • Rachel
• Participate in a small group share out and debugging.

Documentation + Tutorial due Monday 5/16 by 9 pm EST

I will not accept late submissions without prior permission. I will not accept late submissions without prior permission. I will not accept late submissions without prior permission 🙂

1) BLOG POST

Create a short post with the following criteria and post it to the #final-project-submission slack channel

• The link to documentation of your tutorial.
• A short description fo the project and its goals/main concept.
• Any other documentation links.
• A short reflection on your process. What were your wins, challenges? What did you learn? Where would you take it next?

2) TUTORIAL

The tutorial can take any form – get creative. The goal is to create useful documentation that someone else could use for inspiration or to recreate your project (either as a whole or in part). If your project is complex, you may only do a tutorial for one part of it (e.g. how you built a heating circuit with a particular design) or you may work on explaining one difficult or tricky concept (e.g. voltage dividers). Here are the components you must include:

• Title
• Description. What does it do? Who is it made for? Why did you make it? What motivated it? etc.
• Circuit diagrams. This doesn’t have to be a schematic – it can be a drawing – but it does need to be clear.
• Process diagrams/images of how to make it
• Materials and tools list
• Images/video (include link if tutorial is a physical object) of final outcome

Rubric

I will evaluate your final across the criteria listed below:

	Approaching	Meeting	Exceeeding
Process	Student created one or no low or high fidelity prototypes. Project was not appropriately scoped to fit within time frame of due dates.	Student created 2 or more prototypes (paper, schematics, breadboard circuit, material tests, etc) and appropriately scoped project to fit within time frame of due dates.	Student created 3 or more low or high fidelity prototypes and appropriately scoped project to fit within time frame.
Design Choices	Student does not have clear rationale for design decisions related to at least 2 of the following materials, aesthetics, and interaction.	Student presents clear reasoning for their design decisions related to materials, aesthetics, and interaction.	Student has developed or adapted a system to generate and evaluate their design choices  related to materials, aesthetics, and interaction.
Conductive Materials	Student has not deeply considered their choice of conductive materials.	Student has researched and selected the appropriate conductive materials for traces, connectors, and sensors based on electrical and material properties.	Student has made multiple tests to evaluate efficacy of conductive materials for traces, connectors, and sensors.
Documentation	Documentation does not communicate idea, process, and functionality.	Documentation clearly communicates idea, process, and functionality.	Documentation clearly and effectively communicates idea, process, and functionality.