发泄一下，所以把文章都放上来

了解一下我的工作强度吧~

此乃第一篇

Subject:  Assignment I1 Project Briefing

Foreword: In order to form a better team to do the final project, everyone in our team should know how to do a project well and how to present a better final report, so everyone is required to read four previous project reports and judge them by his own criteria. After that, our team can act better in the upcoming projects and hand in a perfect project report. Our team chose four previous projects in East Quad Dorm in University of Michigan. And I formed my own criteria: whether it’s basic on the clients’ (the students’, the staffs’) needs, whether the cost was economical and whether it’s efficient.

Summary: What our team has chosen was the following four project reports: The Event Horizon and the Zen Engineering, which designed the store area in the halfway inn. The Eagle Engineering and the Open Source Team redesigned the lounge, snacking and stage area in the halfway inn. I carefully read the four projects and formed my own conclusion: the Team Zen Engineering best matched the clients’ needs and it has the comparable low price. The Event Horizon had a rather high price and it produced some unuseful thoughts. The Open Source team focused on the culture, but it made the inn in a mess and ignored some needs of the staffs. Eagle Engineering neglected the needs of the students and made the half way inn just like a cafeteria for businessman.

Details: These set of final projects looks to improve one of these convenience stores called the Halfway Inn. It is a place for the undergraduates to relax, having a talk and eating some snacks. At these stores, students can buy incidental products, snacks, and prepared foods. Several of the dormitories at U-M have a convenient store located inside of them. Some stores are doing well. Some are not. The convenience store this time is located in the East Quad Dormitory at U-M’s central campus; it consists of two main areas: the convenience store and the lounge. The convenience store could be divided into several parts, the kitchen, the storage area and the shop. The lounge for the team members to design was not very large, only about 110 square meters. It contained three parts: the dinning and snacking part, the relaxing part, the stage. I want to explain why I chose these criteria before I make the comparison: first, the design must meet the clients’ needs. Since the design should ascertain the utility and make enhancements, what the engineers should do is to make the best match to what the client need. As all the four project reports we chose was about the design in East Quad, I think what they should do was to satisfy the needs of the residents who will use the halfway inn, and they should also satisfy the needs of the staffs who will serve the students for they will use the equipments designed by the undergraduate engineers. Also the price must be taken into account. Since the four projects should made enhancements to the residents’ life, the cost will be paid by the University of Michigan, in order to save money for gave more enhancements in the future improvements, I think the best project should had the comparable lower price. I mostly appreciated Zen Engineering. They tried their best to match the needs of the clients in their process and showed their efficiency. By observing the process of their research, I found that they interviewed lots of clients like the director of food services, the head chef of east quadrangle, the supervisor of the halfway inn and the staffs. They have the largest number of interviews compared with the other three teams. By interviewing the staffs and supervisors, I think they can get the best idea of what their client want them to do in the project. Well, from the interviews, they noticed that the revenue of the store was not good, and they noticed some important problems facing the halfway inn. Some other teams only surveyed the residents, so some other teams may ignore the needs of the supervisors, the director and the staff in halfway inn. Also, the interviews were not enough, the clients also include the residents, and I found that they also picked up the data made by a nice survey about what the residents want the halfway to change in the future and which food the residents want to see in the future. Well, what they need to do was only to design the store and the kitchen, so they didn’t need the unwanted data such as what the residents like to do, like to eat in the halfway inn, it was not their business. From the data, I found the efficiency of the team Zen Engineering. Also, they took lots of pictures of the current halfway inn, which can give the people who didn’t get a general idea about the halfway inn a general idea. In their rearrangements of the store part of the halfway inn, they satisfied the needs of the clients. They had an idea at first: they want to remove the office of the supervisor in order to create more room for the kitchen and the store, thus solving the problem of the inefficient use of the room in halfway inn. But before they wrote it into their project reports, they made the inquiry to the supervisor of the halfway inn and the director of food services. With the supervisor’s permission, they dared to put the idea into their projects. Also, the equipments they use in the redesign in the halfway inn showed their concern for the clients. For example, they use the racks which can be adjusted to the height the staffs want. This shelving system was more flexible than the current racks for they can be adjusted. In the calculations in Appendix F, the net change in rack space reached 32%, the change in cooled space reached 16.62%. They’ve provided a large space to store things, thus providing a larger variety of products. The residents in East Quad could have more products to choose, to buy. The small shop in halfway inn can earn more money, to improve their finical situation. The deli counter, a place to store the fresh food, was first put forward by the housing administrator, to attend the ‘housing initiative program’. The deli counter can provide the residents more fresh food, as to increase the health level of the undergraduates. The electric food ordering system was a high-tech system I’ve never seen before. This shortened the queue waiting outside the counter, thus saving time for the residents and reducing the work for the staffs. They were the only group which concerned the theft problem, although I believe the students would have a good character, the cases of theft may also happen, so they added two dummy cameras in the store. Maybe the total price would rise, but the case of buying food without paying will be reduced, which can save more than the price of the two dummy cameras which cost only $58.48. The price for there total design was relatively low, although they considered about the theft and added two dummy cameras in their system, the total cost was just not too much, only $21,095.35(contained the buffer). Although it was more expensive than Even Horizon, but the Team Even Horizon only designed the shop, they also designed the store area. So I believe the total cost of Even Horizon, if they designed the whole thing, will be higher than Zen Engineering. The lower price was not enough, in their redesign they used many new electrical appliances such as the order machine, the dummy cameras, and this was different from the other groups. They used the budget in a most efficient way. The Team Even Horizon also designed the area of the shop. Well, it used some trashy things and produced some terrible thoughts. For example, they wanted to reduce the number of refrigerators to reduce the overheating problem of the halfway inn. But in the pictures taken by Team Zen Engineering, I noticed that the refrigerators were given by the sponsors of the drink company, so reducing the refrigerators will only results in a higher cost of buying the refrigerators in a higher price. Also, the reduction of the refrigerators would lead fewer choices for the residents. Since it reduce the total amount of drinks and increased the percentage of healthy drinks, the residents who want to buy the soft drinks would have fewer choices, which was not fair for them. Also, the salad bar was trashy. Since the making of salad requires a very high level of fresh food, the preservation time for the fresh food and vegetable is not that long. And I doubt whether there will be lots of residents who will come to the salad bar and make a salad any time. If not too many students will come, the unused vegetables and foods will be thrown because of the strictly required preservation time. That will be a big waste. The total cost of the team was about $16,000. As a team only designed the shop area, I regarded it a relatively high price. The second part is the lounge area. One team is Open Source. Although I appreciate they tried to provide their solution of halfway inn without damaging its culture, I have to say that they did so much of it. They first did the inquiry of the history of the halfway inn in East Quad. In the history of the halfway inn, it used to have a cool and hip atmosphere, for the walls were covered with murals that were painted by previous students. This character made many cool students came to the Halfway Inn, but the renovation these years let the small inn lose its own culture. I am happy to see that this team put their emphasis on the atmosphere and the cultural. But the picture for the design shocked me: too much murals! Maybe the idea why they want the murals was because it gave the undergraduates the chance to express themselves, paint themselves, made the active atmosphere in the relaxing area, but the murals made the inn in a mess. The chalkboard paint will let the residents there write their own opinion. But the chalkboard, if written too much things, may make us think of the picture of the disorderly menu in the report of team Vitatic. The fashionable rope lights, the concert oriented lighting, which will make more effect of the concert. But this was to dazzle for a place in the dorm. The stage, which will be the center of the inn, may just like a place for rock band! The stage, if designed too active, will attract more noisy bands to come, maybe some students may appreciate them, but remember: the halfway inn was just in the dormitory. The noise should be prohibited. In the previous halfway inn, the stage was out of fashion, only a piano and some ordinary lights, they made big changes, I admitted that the previous halfway inn was a bit dull, but the design by Open Source was just too active. The design of the relaxing area should follow the culture of halfway inn, but the wall shouldn’t be in a mess, and the design shouldn’t be too active for the halfway inn was just a place in dorm. In the materials they use, a simple big screen television, it can’t produce a good effect. They used many expensive lights to produce the effect of a beautiful and active stage. Well, the lights were too expensive from my aspect of view. Also, they destroyed the toilet in the halfway inn without permission. Although it can produce more space for the seats and the residents don’t need the toilet here, it ignored the needs for the staffs. Where can the staffs piss if there was no restroom? So the Team Open Source made the lounge area too active and ignored some of the clients’ needs. Then it comes to eagle engineering. The eagle engineering failed to meet the undergraduates’ needs, and they didn’t give the most efficient way. Compared with the Open Source, they provided the residents with fewer seats; also, the cost of the redesign is relatively high. They used the more expensive desks and chairs, which cost lots of money. In details, they wanted to provide a pool table in the center of the half way inn, which used a lot of space. Well, they put the pool table in the lounge without a believable survey, only by their own thoughts. Without the residents’ assent, I don’t think there will be lots of undergraduates to play the billiards. So in this way, they failed to meet the clients’ needs. As I mentioned before, although the wall shouldn’t be in a mess, the design of the relaxing area should follow the historical culture. As we all known, the half way inn used to be an active place for hip students, but the picture of the eagle engineering’s design only made us feel too dull. The design should meet the needs of the active students who want to play and to relax, not for the businessman to talk about their business! In details, they use tiles, which will be more slipper than the linoleum, although it was easy to be cleaned, but it will make people feel cold, they will lose the feeling of returning home. Well, I don’t necessary mean that the redesign should be active as the design of the Open Source. But, to meet the needs of the majority, and from the Open Source survey (which I believe was more usable), there are more residents want some active things, also in the history, the halfway inn used to be an active place, which made a special campus cultural, what the team designed should meet the cultural. And it shouldn’t ignore the residents’ need. So, in conclusion, the first two team which designed the shop area should mostly meet the needs most of the staffs and the supervisors’ needs, and the rest two team which designed the lounge area should mostly meet the undergraduates’ needs. In my aspect of view, Team Even Horizon failed to do the project in a most effective way, they introduced some unuseful machines like salad bar which cost some avoidable money. And Zen engineering best matched the staffs’ needs for it has interviewed lots of supervisors and concerned some unique problems like theft, deli food, using the least cheap money. Team Open Source although concerned the cultural problem, they ignored the fact that the halfway inn was in the dormitory building and their design may bring lots of noise. Team Eagle engineering was the worst for it ignored all the clients’ needs, and it cost the largest amount of budget.

 此乃第二篇~

Subject: Project Briefing Assignment

Foreword: To prepare the upcoming final project for our team, everyone in our team is required to seek four previous reports and compare them by one’s own criteria, thus to learn what is a better way to do a project and to write a final project report. So every team can have a better preparation and a better way to do the final project. Our team chose four projects, two were about the dormitory in SJTU, and two were about the dormitory in UM. I read the four project reports carefully based on my own criteria: the efficiency, the total cost, and mainly judge the reports by university culture and the welcome degree by students.

Summary: What our team chose are the following four projects: The Open Source and Eagle Engineering team, which presents a halfway inn in East Quad Dormitory in University of Michigan. The Artek and Type-E team, which want to arrange the unused dorms in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. I read the four projects and find my conclusion: the Open Source is the best in the four projects. For it has done the most completely survey and thought much about the student culture in Michigan University, the other three projects are not so good as the first one for the Eagle Engineering neglected the needs of the students and made the half way inn just like a cafeteria for businessman. The Type-E did no survey, and wants to arrange lots of things which are in no use in the dorm and the Artek are composed by the Michigan students, only know little about the situation in SJTU, what they provide can’t met the needs of the students in SJTU.

Details: The all four projects are the projects in our dorm buildings, so what they did must be agreed by the students who will use the public area. And since the culture in China and America is different, every project should meet their local students need. And since they are all public projects, the cost must be regarded. Open Source Team wants to rearrange the halfway inn in East Quad dorm, which is a place for the undergraduates to relax, having a talk and eating some snacks. The halfway inn for the team members to design was not very large, only about 110 square meters. It contained three parts: the dinning and snacking part, the lounge part, the stage. First, they succeed in meeting the students’ needs, and made it efficiently. They focus on the students’ needs. To do the project, they first do a questionnaire in details, such as the features the students in East Quad dorm want to have, and what they will do in the lounge and snacking area. Unlike the Team Eagle Engineering, the questionnaire focused on the features, not the food: this made the project more efficient. Using the questionnaire, they redesigned the half way inn, which will probable be more welcome by the students. For example, they had a thought that the stage should be in a less important location of the bar, but the result of the questionnaire opposed their thought, they still put large emphasis on the stage at last. The football table, which is mostly wanted among the undergraduates, was concerned in this project. In their final report, they put a football table in the halfway inn, which I believe many students will play with it. The big television, the soft sofa, which was also wanted by the students, was put in the renovation of this halfway inn by East Quad. To make it more efficiently, they omitted the room for the toilet, since it was close to the dormitory, the existence of a toilet was not that important. The destroyed the toilet, thus to made more space for the seats and the stages. Also, the using of the bar table is a kind of efficiency. It provided the halfway inn with more seats and avoided using too much space. Secondly, they provide the active and comfortable atmosphere for the student to stay and enjoy their staying. They said “Atmosphere is the general shell of the Half Inn”. I agree with that. To attract the students, the food is not enough; the rearrangement is not enough, what they should do was also to provide a suitable atmosphere for the students to relax, to stay, to let them enjoy their wonderful time in the halfway inn. They did the inquiry of the history of the halfway inn in East Quad. It used to have a cool and hip atmosphere, for the walls were covered with murals that were painted by previous students. This character made many cool students came to the Halfway Inn, but the renovation these years let the small inn lose its own culture. I am happy to see that this team put their emphasis on the atmosphere and the cultural. They tried to provide their solution of halfway inn without damaging its culture. They put large parts in their articles talking about the atmosphere, such as the lights, seats and many other small parts. In the materials they use, the linoleum can show the appearance of hardwood. It made the sense of home. The fashionable rope lights, the concert oriented lighting, which will make more effect of the concert. The stage, which will be the center of the inn, will be a great stage for the intense US students, who want to express themselves! They can even have a small show here after the renovation of Open Source since there were more seats. In the previous halfway inn, the stage was out of fashion, only a piano and some ordinary lights, they made big changes. And what they also did is to paint some murals and some fashionable pictures on the wall. We can see in the back wall of stage, some murals will be painted by the residents of East Quad. And the chalkboard paint will let the residents there write their own opinion. It gave the undergraduates the chance to express themselves, made the active atmosphere in the bar, dinning and stage area. But in the lounge section, the relaxing atmosphere was produced by the new soft sofa. The recent sofa is a bit old, so they change a new one. The two big sofas and several small sofas produced the relaxing atmosphere. Since the atmosphere there would be better, there will be more students who want to buy food, drinks, coffee and stay there, the halfway inn will gain its lost popularity and be in the center of the fashion! Then, their cost is relatively low. The total cost is about $24,883, cheaper than the eagle engineering, which also did the same project, but cost $34,700. The total cost of Open Source is much fewer than what they expected to use (about $45,000). In using the materials, they use the linoleum, which is similar to the hardwood, but cheaper than hardwood, and in my impression, they are easier to be cleaned. Although they used many expensive lights to produce the effect of a beautiful and active stage, the lights are moveable and can still be in other use. Compared with the team eagle engineering, they used the cheaper seats and tables, so although they provided more seats and tables, the total price was not much expensive than the cost showed in Eagle Engineering’s report. They use the simple big screen television, although not the flat the television, but it can produce the similar effect. So the total cost (contained the buffer) is not so expensive. If it contains the labor cost, the total is about $30,233 to $32,233, still far cheaper than the next team. The eagle engineering also did the project of the halfway in East Quad Dorm. But by my criteria, they failed to meet the undergraduates’ needs, and they didn’t prove the most efficient way. They only made the inquiry to the supervisor of the halfway inn. In the questionnaire, I noticed that they have some questions about the food the undergraduates want. That’s not necessary for what the team should do is only to design the area where the students can have some food, enjoy the music. Not to make the inquiry about the food the residents want to have. And the percentage of the interviewers from East Quad is fewer than Open Source, which may fail to meet the residents who will use the halfway inn. Compared with the Open Source, they provided the residents less seats; also, the cost of the redesign is relatively high. In details, they wanted to provide a pool table in the center of the half way inn, which used a lot of space. Well, they put the pool table without a believable survey, only by their own thoughts. Without the residents’ assent, I don’t think there will be lots of undergraduates to play the billiards. Also, billiards is far less active than the table football, which will be not so popular with the active students in East Quad and the pool table was more expensive than a football table. As we known, the half way inn used to be an active place for hip students, but the picture of the eagle engineering’s design made us feel dull. What the teams were required to design was to design a relaxing and playing area for the active graduates, not the successful businessman! Compared with Open Source, the stage was not very fashion and active; no cool people want to show their bands on a stage without stage lights and active surroundings! They use tiles, which will be more slipper than the linoleum, although it was easy to be cleaned, but it will make people feel cold, they will lose the feeling of returning home. The white wall made people uneasy, as we all known, there will be always some pictures and murals, the white wall will make the student who wants to share their feelings uncomfortable. Well, I don’t necessary mean that the redesign should meet the active students’ need. But, to meet the needs of the majority, and from the Open Source survey (which I believe was more usable), there are more residents want some active things, also in the history, the halfway inn used to be an active place, which made a special cultural, what we design should meet the cultural. So I preferred the report from Open Source. The other two reports were about the dormitory in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. But one was done by the UM students, the other was done by SJTU students. The team Artek was composed by five students in Michigan, but what they wanted to do was to do a project of designing the empty rooms in N25. Being a student in the SJTU-UM joint institute, I am happy to see the communication between the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, but I doubt that whether they will meet the needs of the students in Jiao Tong. Well, my conclusion is that they failed to meet the needs of the residents in SJTU although it has a lower cost. Why? Mainly because the information it collected was not accurate enough. To get the information of N25, they asked three of the students in our joint institute. Well, since all the three students are men, and in one class, the information would be not accurate to contain all the residents in N25. As there are students in other classes, and there are some girls in N25. Different class and different sex may have different requirements of the empty rooms, but the team failed to meet the people who have other needs. They made a survey, but the survey was for the students in UM. Well, as we all known, the cultural difference is very important in doing a project in a different background. But I don’t know why the team members of Artek only did the survey of the UM students, who will never use the room they design. So the conclusion of the survey was not suitable and the redesign may not be necessarily helpful to residents in N25. By my criteria, they failed to meet the needs. The team Type-E is composed by SJTU students, and they wanted to design their rooms in their own dorm building. Well, they did no survey! All the things they presented are all the things they wanted. So, some designs are in no use. They even wanted to design a karaoke room in the dormitory. Didn’t they consider the noise which will affect others? In the study room, they paired every seat with a litterbin, it is a big waste. Since students in Jiao Tong University always use bicycles to go to the lecture building and there are many exercise rooms in our campus, maybe no resident will use the bicycle exercise machine in the room. And the wireless internet connection is also useless for we have the access to the internet in our dorms. I consider this project as the most expensive one (the members didn’t give us the total price after buying all the materials) and the most useless one! In conclusion, the Open Source Team met the residents’ needs and is the most efficient project for it used the most critical questions, moved the useless designs away and persevere the cultural of the halfway inn. The eagle engineering didn’t match what the residents most wanted and it was a bit more expensive. The Artek ignored the cultural difference and it was a big mistake. The Type-E was the worst for they even didn’t do a survey of the needs, and they waste a lot!