THE PRODUCT DESIGN COURSE REPORT FORMAT

GE5100

Technical Design Report

The Product Design Course Report Format

Final Report

Team
Member 1, Member 2
Member 3, Member 4

September 4, 2024

College of Engineering, Northeastern University

Boston, MA 02115
 Table of Contents
1 Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................................3
2 Copyright...............................................................................................................................................3
3 Text Heading #1.....................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Text Heading #2.............................................................................................................................4
3.1.1 Text Heading #3.....................................................................................................................4
4 Footnotes................................................................................................................................................4
5 Equations................................................................................................................................................4
6 Figures/Photos.......................................................................................................................................5
7 Tables.....................................................................................................................................................6
8 Useful Tools in Word.............................................................................................................................6
9 Intellectual Property...............................................................................................................................7
9.1 Description of Problem..................................................................................................................7
9.2 Proof of Concept............................................................................................................................7
9.3 Progress to Date.............................................................................................................................7
9.4 Individual Contributions................................................................................................................7
9.5 Future Work...................................................................................................................................7
10 References..........................................................................................................................................7
10.1 Text Citation..................................................................................................................................7
10.2 List of References..........................................................................................................................8
10.3 Sample References.........................................................................................................................9
11 Appendix A: Suggested Starter Outline for Mechanical Engineering Projects...............................10
12 Appendix B: Suggested Starter Outline for Industrial Engineering Projects..................................11
 List of Figures
Figure 1: SEM image of a particulate composite...........................................................................................6

List of Tables
Table 1 Predicted Student Grade Distribution...............................................................................................7
1 Text Heading #1
The body of your report is written in 11 pt Times Roman font, single line spacing.

The primary text heading (Heading 1) should be 14 pt Arial, bold, upper and lower case letters, flush left
with the left margin. If the heading should run to more than one line, the run-over text will also be flush
left. The spacing to the next heading should be 12 pt. The headings are used to organize the body of the
report and to guide the reader.

1.1 Text Heading #2

The secondary text heading (Heading 2) should be 12 pt Times Roman, italics, with upper and lower case
letters. This heading is indented. If the heading should run to more than one line, the run-over text will
be flush left. There should be no extra space from the heading to the text that directly follows it. The
spacing to the next heading should be 12 pt.

1.1.1 Text Heading #3

The third level of text heading (Heading 3) should be 12pt Times Roman, underlined, upper and lower
case letters, indented further than the previous heading level. If the heading should run to more than one
line, the run-over text will be flush left. The spacing to the next heading should be 12 pt.

2 Footnotes
Footnotes should be numbered consecutively using superscript numbers. They should be positioned flush
left at the bottom of the column/page in which the first reference appears. The text of the footnote should
be 8 pt Times Roman, with 10 pt line spacing, the length not to exceed the dimensions of the specific
column size (for 8 ½ x 11 – 3 9/16 inch; for 7 x 10 – 5 ¾ inch). The footnote should be preceded by a ½
inch thin rule or line. There should be one (1) line space between the line and the text of the footnote
itself. The easiest way to do this is to use the Insert: Reference: Footnote function. Footnotes are useful
for defining acronyms and comments that would otherwise break up the flow of ideas. They are not for
references.

3 Equations
Equations (formulae) should follow the general text specifications; however, they should be set apart
from the body of the text and centered in the column. For example, equation 1 below shows a familiar
equation properly formatted:

E=mc 2 (1)

In this equation E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum. Use two line spaces to
separate equations from text. Equations should be numbered consecutively, using Arabic numerals
enclosed in parentheses and positioned to the right along the final baseline of the equation. Do not include
any ellipses (dots) from the equation to the equation number or any punctuation at the end of the equation
itself. Use Equation Editor, rather than using carets (^) and underscores (_) to make a more readable
equation.

4 Figures/Photos
All figures – photographs, graphs and/or line drawings – should be numbered consecutively and
captioned. The caption, a title or description of the figure, should be 10 pt. Times Roman, bold and
centered below the figure. It should be styled in either title case (upper and lower case letters) or sentence
case (first word capitalized, balance lower case letters). All callouts within the figures should be no
smaller than 7 pt. Using the Insert: Reference: Caption tool will make this easier.

Good quality photographs, figures, graphs and line drawings should be positioned within the body of your
report (as close to the first text reference as possible). An example is shown in Figure 1 below. If figures
are placed within the text of the paper, it is preferable to position them at the top of the page. If positioned
within the text, there should be a minimum of two (2) line spaces between the figure caption and the text.

Figure 1: SEM image of a particulate composite

All photographs, figures, graphs and/or line drawings should be properly sized to fit the dimensions of the
text page. If necessary for clarity, a large or very detailed figure can be oriented in landscape fashion on
the next page following the text reference; however, proper captioning is still necessary. Do not wrap
text around figures! It makes the text and the figure hard to read.

5 Tables
All tables should be numbered consecutively and captioned. The caption, a title or description of the
table, should be 10 pt Times Roman, bold and centered above the table. It should be styled in either title
case (upper and lower case letters) or sentence case (first word capitalized, balance lower case letters).
The body of the table should be no smaller than 7 pt. The use of boldface and/or italics is encouraged to
make necessary distinctions within the table. Using the Insert: Reference: Caption tool will make this
easier. Table 1 below illustrates the proper captioning and positioning of a table.

Table 1 Predicted Student Grade Distribution

Term Number of students Number of A’s Number of F’s

Summer 2008 47 45 2
Fall 2008 47 47 0

Tables should be positioned within the body of your report (as close to the first text reference as possible)
or landscaped on the next page if they are very large. If the tables are placed within the text of the paper,
it is preferable to position them at the top of the page. If positioned within the text, there should be a
minimum of two (2) line spaces between the table end and the text.

All tables should be properly sized to fit the dimensions of the text page. Do not allow your tables to split
across two pages – place them on a separate page if necessary to avoid this. Extensive tables, raw data,
and supplementary information can be placed in an appendix; however the tables must still be labeled and
referred to in the text.

6 Useful Tools in Word

Keeping track of figure, table, and citation references in the text can be made much easier by using the
Reference: Caption: Cross Reference tool. This allows you to insert a reference such as “Figure 1” and by
using the Update Field Codes option (right click on the in text reference) to change this reference when
you add or delete figures. Thus if you add or remove figures during the process, by updating the cross
references, you will always have the correct figures referenced in the correct order.

Another thing to remember is to use the styles in Word. This template has a series of styles labeled
Heading 1, Heading 2, etc. that have been properly formatted and saved in the correct format. If you use
these predefined templates, as shown in this example document, the Table of Contents, Table of Figures,
etc. should be easily formatted.

In this document, details about fonts have been added using the Insert: Comment function. This function
can also be used to help keep track of editing changes by different group members. Keeping a central
copy that everyone can access and leave their own (initialed) changes on will prevent problems due to out
of date or conflicting versions of a document. Using the “Track Changes” tool is another way to do this.

7 Intellectual Property
This section allows for the documentation of patentable ideas developed by the design team. It should be
placed at the end of the report, before the Reference section. This section is required by the Department of
Technology Transfer. Note that all subsections are not required in all reports.
 7.1 Description of Problem

Describe the problem or need that your group is trying to solve or address during this Capstone project.
(This section needs to be filled out in the first report, and should not require significant updates)

7.2 Proof of Concept

Provide a detailed description of how your group’s designs and experiments will address the need or
solve the problem. (i.e. this is the concept or idea that you will prove throughout the course) (Please
update this section with each subsequent report)

7.3 Progress to Date

Describe in detail the progress the group has made on proving the concept up to this point. (Please update
this section with each subsequent report)

7.4 Individual Contributions

Describe in detail what each person (by name) in the group has contributed to the overall concept or idea
you are trying to prove and the role they have played thus far in proving the concept (i.e. reducing the
concept to practice by “making the thing.”) (Please update this section with each subsequent report)

7.5 Future Work

Describe any further steps that may be necessary to prove the concept and your plan for carrying out the
steps. (Please update this section with each subsequent report)

8 References
The following section discusses how to refer to outside sources of information in the text, as well as how
to properly format the reference information in the formal reference section.

8.1 Text Citation

Within the text, references should be cited using endnotes in brackets or as superscripts. This can be done
automatically by using the Insert: Reference: Footnote function and choosing Endnotes. The written text
will look like this:

It was shown by Prusa that the width of the plume decreases under these conditions [1]

Or

Several authors have noted the effect of temperature increase on the grain size of metals [1,3]
The reference should not be located in a footnote. All sources, including patents, must be referenced in
endnote form. Put the endnotes in the order you refer to them, not alphabetically.

8.2 List of References.

References to original sources for cited material should be listed together at the end of the paper;
footnotes should not be used for this purpose. References should be listed in the order they are referred to,
with numbers matching the in-text citations. Each reference should include the last name of each author
followed by his initials. Required information for common reference types is given below:

(1)Reference to journal articles, papers in conference proceedings or any other collection of works by
numerous authors should include:

• Year of publication;
• Full title of the cited article;
• Full name of the publication in which it appeared;
• Volume number (if any);
• Inclusive page numbers of the cited article;

(2)Reference to textbooks, monographs, theses and technical reports should include:

• Year of publication;
• Full title of the publication;
• Publisher;
• City of publication;
• Inclusive page numbers of the work being cited.

(3)Reference to patents should include:

• Date granted;
• Author;
• Full title of the patent;
• Patent number

(4)Reference to websites should include:

• Author (or Organization

• Title
• Web address
• Date last accessed

In all cases, titles of books, periodicals, and conference proceedings should be underlined or in italics. A
sample list of references in which these forms are illustrated can be seen in the following section.

8.3 Sample References

[1] Kwon, O.K., and Pietcher, R.H., 1981, “Prediction of the Incompressible Flow Over a Rearward-
Facing Step”, Technical Report HTL-26, CFD-4, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA.
[2] Lee, Y., Korpela, S.A., and Horne, R.N., 1982 “Structure of Multi-Cellular Natural Convection in a
Tall Vertical Annulus”, Proceedings, 7th International Heat Transfer Conference, U. Grigul et al., ed.,
Hemisphere Publishing Corp., Washington, D.C., Vol. 2, pp. 221-226.

[3] Sparrow, E.M., 1980, “Fluid-to-Fluid Conjugate Heat Transfer for a Vertical Pipe – Internal Forced
Convection and External Natural Convection”, ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 102, pp. 402-407.

[4] Tung, C.Y., 1982, “Evaporative Heat Transfer in the Contact Line of a Mixture”, Ph.D. Thesis,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.

[5] K. Kimura and A. Lipeles, "Fuzzy Controller Component," U. S. Patent 14,860,040, December 14,
1996.

[6] IEEE, “IEEE Standards Style Manual, http://standards.ieee.org/guides/style/2005Style.pdf, Last

Accessed May 21, 2006
9 Appendix A: Suggested Outline for Final Design Projects

The outline below is intended to give you a starting point for organizing your thoughts when it
comes to presenting your work in a clear, logical fashion. Note that the outline below is to help
guide you and there are some aspects of your design "story" that may be fit this report
flow, please feel free to rearrange this template/outline to tell your story. You do not need to
repeat the same information in multiple sections, reorganize the report to make a logical flow of
information that works for your project. Use the full explanation outlines from the Business Plan
and Base Case Design and Detailed Design Report assignments to complete this outline below.
Though what you include will be dependent on your project as some projects have multiple
phases or other considerations and some sections will not be applicable to every project. Please
feel free to contact me any time or schedule a meeting and we can discuss what works best for
your project. What I am looking for is design background and reasoning and informed your
design decisions in a logical and clear flow of information.

A. Letter of Transmittal
1. Abstract
2. Title Page
3. Table of Contents
a. List of Figures
b. List of Tables
4. Acknowledgments
5. Introduction
a. Problem Statement
b. Goals/Specifications
6. Background
a. Key theories/Technologies
b. Literature search
i. Patents
ii. Previously published work
iii. Existing products
7. Business Plan
a. Mission and DEI Statements
b. Market Evaluation
c. Marketing Plan
d. Competitor Analysis
e. Facility Design and Operational Strategy
f. Supply Chain and Operations
8. Initial Concepts/ Designs
a. Preliminary data gathering/ designs
b. Calculations/initial simulations/ theoretical modeling
c. Criteria for choosing final solution/ design
9. Final Solution
a. Overview
b. Proof of Concept
 c. Process Description
d. Experimental Analysis
e. Equipment Information Summary
f. Heat and Material Balances
i. Including flowrates of materials and reactants, concentrations, and
amounts of catalyst, as needed
ii. Reactions with rate of reaction and all by products
g. Main Unit Process Flow Diagram
i. Overall Process Flow Diagram with heat integration and stream flows &
compositions between all units in plant
10. Safety, Health, and Environmental Considerations
a. SDS Summary Sheet
b. HAZOP worksheet OR FMEA worksheet
11. Equipment Information Summary – with enough design information to cost equipment
12. Unit Control and Instrumentation Description
a. Overall P&ID
b. Pressure and temperatures limits for each piece of equipment
13. Analysis and Testing of your Proof of Concept
a. Engineering Calculations
b. Computer Simulation Outputs OR Prototype/Experimental design with proof of
concept data of your design
14. Project management
15. Economics
a. Capital & Operating Costs
b. Revenues
c. Income Statement
d. Initial Investment
e. DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis
f. Summary of operating costs
g. Utility requirements
h. Energy efficiency
16. Future Work
17. Summary/Conclusions
18. Intellectual Property
19. References
20. Appendix