Event Management Project (2023)
"Heart-to-Heart"
~ A Conceptual Engineering Challenge for First Year Bioengineering Students
Contents and Sections:
01 Project Scenario and Objectives - introduction to the project
02 Engineering Challenge - details on the challenge itself
03 Project Plan - materials showcasing the full timeline of the project
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Objective:
To develop a conceptual engineering challenge for first year bioengineering students.
Role in team:
Concept, Logistics, Visuals
This project involved:
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Designing a competition involving Bioengineering for first year students.
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Planning every aspect of a project within a specified time frame and budget.
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Creating material for advertising and communicating the project.
Skills Developed:
Project Management Techniques
Teamwork
Project Definition and Planning
Communication
Advertising
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Project Scenario and Objectives
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For this group assignment, we were working as a project consultant team tasked with organising an optional engineering "challenge" for first year Bioengineering students. Though conceptual, we had to develop and plan as if the event were actually taking place, which included staying within a time frame and budget. The design of the challenge itself was entirely up to us, so long as it was appropriate for the target audience.
Important aspects of the project we considered:
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Designing an engaging and accessible challenge
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Setting clear criteria for competitors
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Working around the knowledge first year bioengineers have
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Providing an incentive for students to participate
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Accounting for busy timetables when choosing durations and deadlines
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Health and safety regulations for practical aspects of the challenge
Project duration:
27th February - 19th May
Number of participants:
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Open entry for students in groups of 2-5.
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5 groups selected as finalists.
Form of challenge:
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Students are given a design objective and must submit their plans before a deadline.
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5 submissions are selected and provided the resources to build their designs before a final event.
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A day-long event takes places where each prototype is judged and a winner is chosen.
Budget:
£30,000
Goal of challenge:
Encourage students to develop communication and teamwork as well as creative and practical skills.
We then used the established considerations and constraints to design the challenge.
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Engineering Challenge
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While brainstorming ideas, we agreed the challenge should incorporate modelling a biological process.
The heart was later chosen to be the model contestants would be producing because the tissue is studied by year 1 bioengineers and therefore this process is familiar to them. It also ties into their other modules such as 'Engineering with Living Systems' and 'Modelling, Analysis and Control'.
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After researching this idea, we decided to base the challenge on designs we found for modelling a pumping heart. The objective of the challenge would be constructing a prototype heart system able to transport fluid from one container to another using materials provided.
Demonstration of a working prototype.
For the challenge, students would have to recreate aspects of a pumping heart shown in this model (movement of fluid, contraction of heart muscle, valves preventing backflow).
In teams, students would propose and submit their designs for a pumping heart model, choosing from a list materials that would then be provided to finalists. Five submissions would be selected and given the chance to bring their ideas to life in a day-long event. The event would involve guest speakers from the British Heart Foundation and end in a competition to determine the best model.
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Project Plan
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We began by breaking down the different components of the project by Event Planning, Risk Management, Budgeting and Event Management.
Breakdown
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Timeline
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Gantt Chart
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A-o-N Diagram
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