Products design & systems engineering
MICRO-406
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General Information
Welcome to the 2025 edition of the MICRO-406 course!
- Introductory lecture: the course starts with an introductory lecture on September 9, 2025 from 2:15 to 4 PM (CE 1105).
- Lectures: on Thursdays from 4:15 to 6 PM in room CM 1104, and on Fridays from 9:15 to 11 AM in CO 2.
- Group project sessions:
- on Tuesdays from 2:15 to 4 PM in CE 1105 - The room is booked for you, this is a suggested schedule for at least one group meeting during the week. Work within your team in autonomy (the teaching team does not attend to these sessions).
- on Fridays from 1:15 to 5 PM in PO 01 - Participation of the full team is strongly recommended (we observed that the best groups are meeting with all members present to move on faster). Professors and TAs are present to discuss the projects with you and give some advice.
- Language: English for everything
- Milestones: several milestones will guide you during the semester. Apart from the midterm presentation, they are not graded, but you will receive some feedback on your work. We really encourage you to do your best for these milestones as they can then be easily translated into sections of your final report!
- Meeting minutes: starting from Week 4 (i.e. Friday of Week 3), you are asked to submit group meeting minutes. They are useful for your TA to keep an eye on your progress and discuss in a more efficient way the next Friday.
- From the Friday of Week n-1 to the Thursday of Week n: groups submit one minute per meeting they do using the link of Week n
- On Tuesday late afternoon / Wednesday morning of Week n: TAs give you some written feedback on the content of your minute(s) using Moodle
- On Friday morning of Week n: TAs read the (new) meeting minutes of that week before the Friday afternoon session
- Final grade building: midterm presentation 12.5%, final presentation 12.5%, prototype 25%, final report 50%
- Announcements (Forum)
- Procédure pour les commandes, paiments et remboursements (email Isabelle Schafer) (in french) (File)
Week 1 // 9-11-12 September / Introduction, Design Thinking, Brainstorming
- Project examples from last years:
- PetchIt (2018)
Show'n'air (2019)
Pill it (2022)
Week 2 // 16-18-19 September / Pitching Ideas (by Helena Kovacs and Tamara Milosevic), Marketing (by Katrin Siebenbürger)
- A lecture on "How to efficiently present an idea" by Helena Kovacs and Tamara Milosevic will be offered this week on Tuesday 16.09.2025 from 2:15 PM to 4:00 PM in room CE 1105!
- The slides of this year as well as slides from past years (that were given by other presenters) are provided as guidelines and suggestions to help you prepare your presentations.
- 2023 - Presenting Ideas (by Ingrid Le Duc) (File)
- 2024 - Impactful presentations (by Nihat Kotluk) (File)
- Lecture 4 - Impactful presentation skills (by Kovacs/Milosevic) (File)
- Lecture 5 - Marketing (part I) (File)
- Lecture 6 - Marketing (part II) (File)
Week 3 // 23-25-26 September / Topics Presentations, Project Planning
- Lecture 7.1 - Project management and planning (part I) (File)
- Lecture 7.2 - Project management and planning (part II) (File)
Week 4 // 30 September, 02-03 October / From Prototype to Product (by François Conti, Force Dimension), Systems Engineering I (by Gilles Feusier)
- Lecture 8 - From a Prototype to a Product (Force Dimensions) (File)
- Lecture 9 - Systems Engineering (part I) (File)
Week 5 // 07-09-10 October / Systems Engineering II & III
- Lecture 10 - Systems Engineering (part II) (File)
- Lecture 11 - Systems Engineering (part III) (File)
Week 6 // 14-16-17 October / Brush-Up on Mechanical design, Brush-Up on Electronics
21-23-24 October / Study Break (No Class)
Week 7 // 28-30-31 October / Midterm Presentations: Preliminary Design Reviews (PDR)
Week 8 // 04-06-07 November / SKIL & SPOT Tour (by Samuel Cotture), Intuitive Surgical (by Sylvain Gioux)
Week 9 // 11-13-14 November / Preparing a Design Review, Introduction to Supply Chain Dynamics (by Olivier Gallay)
- Lecture 15 - Preparing a Design Review (File)
- Lecture 16 - Introduction to Manufacturing Systems and Supply Chain Dynamics (by prof. Olivier Gallay, UNIL) (File)
Week 10 // 18-20-21 November / Critical Design Reviews (CDR)
- CDR will take place on Friday 21.11 for everyone (4 groups in the morning, 4 groups in the afternoon, and we all meet in PO 01 afterwards).
- No lecture on Thursday 20.11 to give you preparation time for the CDR.
- This program change will give you one extra week to take action items on the feedback you will receive during the CDR. Design choices freezing can still happen in one week as planned initially. This Milestone 4 is not graded and really done to help you with some constructive feedback. Just come with as many details as possible on the advancement of your project.
- The important lectures on IP will take place next week.