For your consideration: In thinking about a project you proposed or one you consider joining, be sure to review the overall criteria for defining the scope of the project, as follows.
Overall Goal: The overall goal of your class project is to deliver a reliable, team built analysis and detailed design of a RESS project. The RESS project should focus on a combination of Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Sustainability Management and Policy, Bioenergy, or at least cover a number of these applications.
Project Scale: The class project will consist of a semester-long effort of a team of graduating from RESS students, carrying out the following phases of effort: project definition, preliminary design, technology selection and detailed design, and presentation followed by evaluation. Deliverables from the project will include a project design prospectus for the client, accompanied by appendices of technical calculations and supporting documents (evidence), and an oral presentation overview of project findings. Project efforts will include regular project team meetings, interactions with stakeholders, and consultation with your instructor.
Project Objectives: The objectives of the class project are to:
- demonstrate students’ ability to conceive and develop a RESS project concept at a professional and rigorous level of detail,
- demonstrate students’ ability to clearly and professionally communicate the results of their analysis, and
- synthesize the subjects learned in the RESS Master’s curriculum, resulting in a single, cohesive expression of the student’s understanding of Renewable Energy and Sustainability Systems.
Measures of Success: The class project will be considered successful to the degree that it answers the following questions:
- How well was the project defined, and did the project fit to its intended scope?
- How effectively did the project team interact with stakeholders and incorporate feedback?
- How technically accurate were the analyses and designs of the project?
- How insightfully did the project team analyze and reflect upon the project as they developed their design and selected their technology?
- How well did the project team work together and/or address challenges within the group structure?
- How well was the project communicated in the oral and written design reports?
These measures of success will be reflected in the final grade assigned to the student using the grading scale listed on the course syllabus.
The above is a statement of scope for your class project. Similarly, you will need to work with your project team to develop a project definition for your proposed RESS project, that follows a similar format to the list above. Note that we don’t include this as an explicit assignment that you must turn in at this point. However, we do expect that your project plan/scope will be included in your final project. Also, your project advisor may request that you submit it for review.
A Few Notes...
Do not “pre-select” your technology in the project definition. Leave room for comparing competing technologies and approaches. Also, try to come up with measures of success that are quantifiable whenever possible. Even in the case of difficult “nonphysical” parameters, you can often come up with a quantifiable metric if you are creative.