Course Outline

DESN1000 Bionic Hand

Engineering Design and Innovation

Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering

Faculty of Engineering

Term 1 2024

1
1 Staff

Position Name Email Consultation times Contact Details

and locations

Project Michael Stevens [Link]@ TBC, Café Biblio Contact via

Coordinator [Link] (outside library). Microsoft Teams
or Email

Mentor TBA

2 Course information
Units of credit: 6
Pre-requisite(s) or required knowledge: None

2.1 Teaching times and locations

Note that lecture locations and activities change week to week.

2.1.1 Week 1
Day Time Activity Format Room
2-4 pm Common Lecture Face to Face Clancy
Monday
4-5 pm Poster Session TBA TBA
2-3 pm Common Lecture Face to Face Clancy

Thursday 3-5 pm Impromptu Face to face Check

Design Moodle/Teams
for room
allocations

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2.1.2 Week 2 onwards
2-3 pm Common Lecture (Weeks 2-3 Face to face
only) Check
Monday Moodle/Teams
3-4 pm Project Lecture (Weeks 2-4 Face to
for room
only) face/Hybrid
allocations
4-5 pm Mentor Session Face to face
2-3 pm Technical Tutorials (Teams 1-6)
3-4 pm Technical Tutorials (Teams 7-
Thursday 12) Face to Face Matthews 232
4-5 pm Technical Tutorials (Teams 12-
18)

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2.2 Course summary

Figure 1: Prosthetic legs for athletes. [Link]

Have you ever thought about what life would be like without your hands? How would you
pour a glass of water? How would you play a musical instrument? How would you dress
yourself each day? You would rely so much on people around you, severely hampering your
independence. Simple tasks become heart-wrenchingly impossible, lowering your quality of
life.
The good news is that thanks to biomedical engineers, prosthetic hands exist, and have an
incredibly positive impact on an amputee’s independence. As a biomedical engineer, you
have an opportunity to use technology to dramatically improve the quality of life of an
amputee, helping them re-engage with their environment (see example in Figure 1).
However, the field of prosthetics has exploded in recent times, resulting in overly complex
and expensive designs that aren’t very useful for clients and in most cases too expensive for
most people (Spiers et al., 2021; Young, 2022). When designing prosthetics for clients with a
specific need, we must use engineering design principles to ensure the solution matches
their need.

2.3 Course aims

In this course, you will be applying reliable engineering design methods to design and build
a prosthetic to help someone perform an everyday activity of living (example in Figure 2).
You will learn how to quickly generate “out-of-the box” ideas that address a client’s specific
need. You and your team will learn fundamentals of electrical and mechanical engineering
design, and at the end of term you will showcase your design to the biomedical engineering
school. By the end of this course, you will have the skills to work in a team to solve any
biomedical engineering design problem you may face.

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 Figure 2: Prosthetic arm for older woman.
[Link]

2.4 Course learning outcomes (CLO)

At the successful completion of this course you (the student) should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the process of engineering design and the use of
design methods.
2. Understand the dynamics of collaborative teams and how to work effectively within a
team to accomplish tasks within given deadlines.
3. Understand the basic elements of project management and be able to plan and
schedule work activities in accordance with standard practice.
4. Become familiar with the tangible elements of mechanical and/or electrical design.

5. Be able to convey your thoughts and ideas effectively using both written and oral
communication tools.

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2.5 Relationship between course and program learning outcomes
and assessments

Course LO Statement Program Learning

Learning Outcome (PLO)
Outcome
(CLO)

CLO 1 Demonstrate an understanding of the process of 5

engineering design and the use of design methods.

CLO 2 Understand the dynamics of collaborative teams and 11,13,15,16

how to work effectively within a team to accomplish
tasks within given deadlines.

CLO 3 Understand the basic elements of project management 14,15

and be able to plan and schedule work activities in
accordance with standard practice.

CLO 4 Become familiar with the tangible elements of 5,9

mechanical and/or electrical design.

CLO 5 Be able to convey your thoughts and ideas effectively 12

using both written and oral communication tools.

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3 Strategies and approaches to learning
For most students, this will be your first experience of a university course. University
teaching will be very different compared to what you may have experienced in high school.
As a university student, you will take significantly more responsibility for your own learning.
This section will describe the different strategies used in this course for learning.

3.1 Communication
Microsoft Teams will be used as the communication platform between students and teaching
staff, as well as within your team. Teams is an online collaboration platform that is commonly
used in industry. Using this platform effectively will streamline your team’s work and provide
you with skills that you can apply in nearly any workplace. In Week 2, you will be walked
through how to effectively use Teams. Common lectures may also be delivered through
Teams.
You will need to log in with your zID@[Link] and zPass to access Teams.

3.2 What do I do if I have COVID-19 and can’t come to campus?

There is a high likelihood that during this term, you may have to self-isolate due to
contracting COVID-19. This is something that will affect staff and students alike! The
important thing is COMMUNICATION.
UNSW provides up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 here. If you are ill, you can
apply for UNSW Special Consideration. If your application for special consideration is
successful, you will receive an extension for your assessment task(s).

3.3 Learning management

Moodle is an online learning environment that will be used for uploading assignments,
completing Team Evaluations, and receiving assignment feedback.

3.4 Teamwork
You will complete most of your assessment as a team of 5-6 people total. In week 1, you will
complete an online survey which will ascertain your prior engineering experience. Teams will
then be allocated to ensure this experience is shared evenly across all teams.

3.5 Learning and teaching activities

This project utilises several teaching strategies: Lectures, Tutorials, Mentor Sessions, and
Team Meetings. This course will operate in a blended learning mode. Some of the
learning activities will be conducted online, others conducted face to face.

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3.5.1 Lectures
There are three different types of lectures given this term: Engineering Design Lectures,
Project Lectures and Technical Lectures. The lectures will provide the rationale for the
design process followed in the course and some basic engineering principles to act as a
starting point for addressing the Project’s design brief.
Engineering Design lectures will be given in a livestream online format on Mondays 2-3pm
for weeks 2-4, as well as Thursday Week 1.
Project Lectures will be presented in a hybrid format on Mondays 3-4pm for weeks 2 to 3.
Technical lectures will be pre-recorded videos, with approximately 45-60 minutes of
content per week. These must be watched before the tutorial each week and can be found
on Moodle.

[Link] Making the most of lectures

The design problems in this course are open-ended with multiple solutions, so it is up to your
team to use the design principles taught in this course to identify multiple solutions to the
problems. Lectures are designed to give you the skills to problem-solve, and you will apply
these skills in the tutorial sessions. This means that you should not expect to find one
“answer” to the problem. The lecturers and mentors will not tell you how to solve the
problem.

3.5.2 Technical Tutorials

There will be one face to face 50-minute tutorial per week, which will be held on Thursdays.
This tutorial will provide your team with hands-on activities to reinforce the content from the
Technical Lecture. Please ensure you have watched the Technical Lecture prior to attending
your tutorial. The room location for the Tutorial Session will be announced on Monday Week
2.
The learning activities in this tutorial will reinforce the content taught in the Technical Lecture
video using practical activities. The skills learnt in these sessions include things like practical
electronics and mechanics, engineering technical writing and project planning. These skills
will be directly applicable to your projects.

3.5.3 Mentor Sessions

Each week you will join a session with your allocated Project Mentor. Teams will be
allocated to 1 session per week, held on Monday at 4pm.
These sessions will be designed to reinforce your skills in the areas of engineering design,
project planning and teamwork. Each session will involve 20 minutes of activities to
strengthen your skills in engineering design, project planning and teamwork, with 30 minutes
left for any project specific discussions with the mentor team.

3.5.4 Team Meeting

Outside of the prescribed learning activities, it is expected that your team meet once per
week. This meeting can be virtual or face to face. In this meeting, you will work through your
previous action items, brainstorm ideas, share results and set tasks for the next meeting.
HINT: You should schedule a meeting on Thursday afternoons. Everyone’s timetable will be
blocked out Thursdays 2-5pm, however you are only required to attend one of the technical

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tutorials during this time. This leaves a 2-hour window for your team to have a regular
meeting.

3.6 Expectations
It is important to identify what students can expect from teaching staff, as well as identify the
expectations that teaching staff have of students.

3.6.1 What students can expect from the teaching staff:

• Technical content in electrical, mechanical, and biomedical engineering
o Practical tips for getting things to work.
• Smooth organisation of the course
• Quick and clear communication (via Teams)
• Quick turnaround of assignment marking (10 working days)
• Support and troubleshooting of your device.
o Last minute troubleshooting is not guaranteed.
• Patience, respect, and fairness.

3.6.2 What students should not expect from teaching staff

• THE ANSWER
• Step by step “how to do the task”

3.6.3 What teaching staff expect from students

• Respect
o To all teaching staff.
o To your classmates.
o Online and in person.
• Some independent learning and problem solving.
• Completion of assignments on time.
• Participation in lecture activities.

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4 Course schedule and structure
This course consists of 6 hours of class contact hours per week. This is broken down into
1. 3 hours lectures
o These lectures will be a mix of online streaming or pre-recorded lectures.
2. 1 x 1-hour mentor session.
3. 1 x 1-hour technical tutorial
o This will be a 1-hour period of study every Thursday (beginning Week 2 at
3pm). Rooms will be allocated based on team number.
4. 1 team meeting
o This will be up to you and your team to schedule.
In the second half of term, the lecture content will be reduced, to give your team more time
to build your design.

Table 1 and Table 2 show the Monday and Thursday Schedule for this course, respectively.

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Table 1: Monday Schedule

Monday Class
Date Time Activity Location

2-4pm Common lecture: Clancy / Echo360

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1
Feb
4-5pm Common activity: Poster session TBA
Common lecture: Problem defintion and concept
2-3pm Clancy / Echo360
generation
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2 3-4pm Project Lecture TBC
Feb
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F
Common lecture:
2-3pm Clancy / Echo360
EDP recap, concept evaluation and testing/verification
26
3 3-4pm Project Lecture TBC
Feb
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F

2-4pm Project Lecture TBC

04
4
Mar
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F

2-4pm Project build time F2F

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5
Mar
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F

Revision week / Wellbeing day

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6 Lecture recording: Oral presentations - Tacey-Lee Downey
Mar
Lecture recording: Report writing - Shaun Lehman

2-4pm Project build time F2F

25
7
Mar
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F

01
8 Public holiday (Easter Monday)
Apr

2-4
Project build time F2F
08 pm
9
Apr
4-5pm Project mentor session F2F

2-4
Project build time
pm
15
10 F2F
Apr
4-5pm Project mentor session

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Table 2: Thursday Schedule

Thursday Class
Date Time Activity Location

2-3 pm Common lecture: Teamwork and project management Clancy / Echo 360
1 15 Feb
3-5 pm Common activity: Impromptu design day Various

2 22 Feb 2-5pm Technical Tutorial - Introduction to Bionic Hands Matthews 232

3 29 Feb 2-5pm Technical Tutorial - Mechanics Matthews 232

4 7 Mar 2-5pm Technical Tutorial - Electronics Matthews 232

5 14 Mar 2-5pm Technical Tutorial - Project Planning Matthews 232

6 21 Mar Revision week / Wellbeing day

7 28 Mar 2-5pm Technical Tutorial - Design Feedback Matthews 232

8 4 Apr 2-5pm Project build time F2F

9 11 Apr 2-5pm Project build time F2F

10 18 Apr 2-5pm Final Competition F2F

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 5 Assessment

5.1 Assessment tasks

The assessment scheme (Table 3) in this course reflects the intention to assess your
progress in the attainment of the Course Learning Outcomes during the term. Specific
details of each assessment task will be made available on Moodle at least 4 weeks prior to
the due date. Pay attention to the due dates for each assignment, as late penalties apply.

Table 3: Table of assessments

Team/
Learning
Assessment Length Weight Individual Week Due Submission
outcomes
Assessment
Engineering Engineering Online
Design Project Design Video 20% Team 1,2 4 video
(20%) Process submission
100 to Weekly
150 (first Onenote
Journal words 15% Individual 1, 4, 5 assessment (via
per Monday Teams)
week Week 3)
Design and Design 20-25
build (60%) 10% Team 5 7 Moodle
Proposal pages
Design
N/A 15% Team 1,4,5 10 In person
Performance.
15-20
Final Report. 20% Team 5 11 Moodle
pages
1 quiz
per 20%
Technical Pre-class week (5%
Individual 4 3,4,5,7 Moodle
Stream (20%) Quizzes. (4 per
quizzes quiz)
total)

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5.1.1 EDP (20%)
This assessment phase measures how well you understand the engineering design process.

[Link] EDP – Engineering Design Process Presentations (20%)

For this assessment, you and your team must create a 10-minute video which summarises
your team’s problem statement and concept generation phases. This will be due on Friday
Week 4 and be worth 20% of your final grade for this course.

5.1.2 Design and Build (60%)

The design project forms the bulk of the assessment for this course. Success in this
assessment component requires application of the Engineering Design principles taught in
the Monday lectures and reinforced in the EDP Assessment. This assessment is broken
down into 4 components. This project will be completed in a team, formation of which will
happen in Week 1 via an online survey. The Project Description will be made available on
Moodle in Week 1.

[Link] Design Journal (15%)

A good engineer always keeps a notebook at hand so that any information gathered in the
field can be immediately written down or sketched and so not forgotten. “Notebooks” in this
course refers to a digital notebook, in this case a private section in a shared Microsoft
OneNote file. You must update this Design Journal weekly with your thoughts, designs,
meeting notes and minutes and reflections.
Each week, you will be prompted to make an entry. The entry will require you to complete
prompts under three different headings: Design Process, Reflection and Teamwork. You will
be expected to complete these prompts as a minimum.
To gain a grade of a high distinction design journal, you must go above and beyond the
prompts each week. Adding in detailed notes of your individual and team progress each
week, beyond what’s suggested from the prompts, will result in an excellent design journal.
The key to success for this assignment is to complete this every week. Jot down your team’s
progress each week document your team meetings, and answer the reflective prompts
provided each week. The design journals will be assessed EVERY WEEK after the mentor
session from week 3.
The entries you’ve placed in this journal up until Monday 5:30 pm of the assessed week will
be counted for that assessment. For example, for the first assessment in Week 3, all entries
made up until 5:30 pm 26th February 2023 will be assessed.s
This task determines 15% of the course grade.

[Link] Design Proposal (10%)

This assessment is effectively a first draft of the final report due at the end of term. Your
mentors will provide feedback on this assessment, resulting in a better final report.
Your draft will also include a short project plan. The plan will include a work breakdown
structure, budget, and timeline for construction of your team’s device. You will learn project
management techniques in the technical lectures that you must apply to complete this
assessment.

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The total length of the report shall be no more than 25 pages. This task is worth 10% of your
final grade.
Individual contributions will be determined using a special Team Evaluation tool to record the
contribution of your team members, and individual marks will be scaled +/- 25% depending
on contribution.

[Link] Design Performance (15%)

Your final assembled design will be tested against the specifications outlined in the project
description (provided on Moodle in Week 1). This will be held on Thursday of Week 10 and
is worth 15% of your final grade.

[Link] Final Report (20%)

You will prepare a final report about the design and testing results. The report will be in the
form of a professional summary that reflects what was achieved, why it worked out the way it
did, and how the results could have been better. Discussion should include proposed
materials and construction methods used, issues encountered during the Project and
lessons learned. The total length of the report will be no more than 20 pages. This task
determines 20% of the course grade and is due in Week 11.
Individual contributions will be determined using the Team Evaluation tool in Moodle, and
individual marks will be scaled +/- 25% depending on contribution.

5.1.3 Technical Stream (20%)

This component of the assessment evaluates the technical skills of the individuals in the
team.

[Link] Pre-class quizzes (20%)

Before the Tutorial each week, students will be required to complete a short online quiz.
There will be 4 quizzes in total, and must be completed before 2pm each Thursday. This
quiz will reinforce the knowledge learned from the online lecture videos. This task (all 4
quizzes) determines 20% of your course grade.
Further information
UNSW grading system: [Link]
UNSW assessment policy: [Link]

5.2 Assessment criteria and standards

The rubrics for each assessment item will be made available on Moodle for your perusal at
least 4 weeks before the assessment due date.

5.3 Submission of assessment tasks

Assessments will be either:
- Conducted in person or online (Design Performance)
- Submitted via Moodle (EDP Presentation, Design Proposal, Final Report, Pre-class
quizzes)

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 - Submitted via Onenote (Design Journal)
Refer to Table 3 for more information on where to submit assessment items.

5.4 Feedback on assessment

Feedback on assignments will be provided no more than 10 working days after submission
of the assessment.

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6 Academic integrity, referencing and plagiarism
Referencing is a way of acknowledging the sources of information that you use to research
your assignments. You need to provide a reference whenever you draw on someone else's
words, ideas or research. Not referencing other people's work can constitute plagiarism.
Further information about referencing styles can be located at
[Link]
Academic integrity is fundamental to success at university. Academic integrity can be
defined as a commitment to six fundamental values in academic pursuits: honesty, trust,
fairness, respect, responsibility and courage (“International Center for Academic Integrity
[ICAI],” n.d.). At UNSW, this means that your work must be your own, and others’ ideas
should be appropriately acknowledged. If you don’t follow these rules, plagiarism may be
detected in your work.
Further information about academic integrity and plagiarism can be located at:
• The Current Students site [Link] and
• The ELISE training site [Link]
The Conduct and Integrity Unit provides further resources to assist you to understand your
conduct obligations as a student: [Link]

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7 Readings and resources

7.1 Journal Articles

Young BH. The Bionic-Hand Arms Race. IEEE Spectrum. [Link]
hand-design#toggle-gdpr. Published 2022. Accessed January 11, 2023.
Spiers AJ, Cochran J, Resnik L, Dollar AM. Quantifying Prosthetic and Intact Limb Use in
Upper Limb Amputees via Egocentric Video: An Unsupervised, At-Home Study. IEEE Trans
Med Robot Bionics. 2021;3(2):463-484. doi:10.1109/TMRB.2021.3072253

7.2 Textbooks
Dym, C.L. and Little, P. (2014). Engineering Design: A Project-Based Introduction,

7.3 Online resources

7.3.1 Microsoft Teams
Students will be communicating using the Microsoft Teams software. This software is
available free of charge for UNSW Staff and Students. This software integrates the Microsoft
Office 365 suite with messaging, video chat and OneNote software.

7.3.2 Moodle
As a part of the teaching component, Moodle will be used for Team evaluations and report
submissions. Assessment marks will also be made available via Moodle:
[Link]

7.3.3 Announcements
Announcements concerning course information will be given in the lectures and/or on Teams
and/or via email (which will be sent to your student email address).

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8 Course Evaluation and Development
Feedback on the course is gathered periodically using various means, including the UNSW
myExperience process, informal discussion in the final class for the course, and the School’s
Student/Staff meetings. Your feedback is taken seriously, and continual improvements are
made to the course based, in part, on such feedback. In this course, recent improvements
resulting from student feedback to be implemented this year include:
- Aligning the activities in the journal with the sections of the final report.
- Revising the journal to be simpler.
- Streamlining sections of the final report and removing the need to document
manufacture.
- Introducing and refining a design goal of simplicity and ease of use.
- Adding more practical content into the lectures.
- Closer alignment between learning activities, assessments and learning outcomes.

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9 Additional support for students
• The Current Students Gateway: [Link]
• Academic Skills and Support: [Link]
• Student Wellbeing, Health and Safety: [Link]
• Disability Support Services: [Link]
• UNSW IT Service Centre: [Link]

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10 Plagiarism
Beware! An assignment that includes plagiarised material will receive a 0% Fail, and
students who plagiarise may fail the course. Students who plagiarise will have their names
entered on the plagiarism register and will be liable to disciplinary action, including exclusion
from enrolment.
It is expected that all students must at all times submit their own work for assessment.
Submitting the work or ideas of someone else without clearly acknowledging the source of
borrowed material or ideas, is plagiarism.
All assessments which you hand in must have a Non Plagiarism Declaration Cover
Sheet. This is for both individual and group work. Attach it to your assignment before
submitting it to the Course Coordinator or at the School Office.
Plagiarism is the use of another person’s work or ideas as if they were your own. When it is
necessary or desirable to use other people’s material you should adequately acknowledge
whose words or ideas they are and where you found them (giving the complete reference
details, including page number(s)). The Learning Centre provides further information on
what constitutes Plagiarism at:
[Link]

10.1 Generative AI and Plagiarism

Generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT, DallE) are permitted to be used in this course. However,
as per the UNSW guidelines, any usage of this tool must be cited properly. Guidance will be
given by the teaching staff during lectures and tutorials as to how best to do this.
As per the UNSW guidelines on Generative AI and ChatGPT:
“While we work through these issues as a community, we want to remind you that while the
technology changes, our values around academic integrity do not. Your work must be your
own and where the use of AI tools like ChatGPT have been permitted by your course
convener, they must be properly credited, and your submissions must be substantially your
own work. In cases where the use of AI has been prohibited, please respect this and be
aware that where unauthorised use is detected, penalties will apply.”

11 References
“International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI],” n.d. The fundamental values of
academic integrity., 3rd ed, International Center for Academic Integrity.
Spiers, A.J., Cochran, J., Resnik, L., Dollar, A.M., 2021. Quantifying Prosthetic and Intact
Limb Use in Upper Limb Amputees via Egocentric Video: An Unsupervised, At-Home
Study. IEEE Trans Med Robot Bionics 3, 463–484.
[Link]
Young, B.H., 2022. The Bionic-Hand Arms Race [WWW Document]. IEEE Spectr. URL
[Link] (accessed 1.11.23).

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