Design Synthesis

The Design Synthesis Exercise (DSE) students are required to make a design in the field of aircraft, spacecraft or wind turbines. In the design project the student is provided with an opportunity to obtain "design experience". This means that the student goes through the complete design process, from drawing up a set of detailed (mission) requirements, concept analysis and design, concept selection to the presentation of the final design, in a structured and iterative manner.

He/she will experience the difficulty of making well-motivated design choices, thereby taking into account (sometimes conflicting) demands, etcetera. He/she will also experience that design iterations are necessary to tune non-optimal design decisions to meet the specifications drawn up at the start of the exercise. Some examples of aerospace vehicles designed in the past include:

• High-altitude VTOL rescue

• Thin Haul Transport and Air Taxi

• Water Bomber UAVs

• Aircraft Maintenance Drone

• Returning to Saturn - Characterizing the Icy Moons and Rings

• Demonstrator for Airbreathing Electrostatic Propulsion, Earth Observation Satellite

• A Personal Air Mobility Vehicle as Maritime Pilot Shuttle

• A stratospheric balloon as operational and test platform for Earth observation.

• eVTOL emergency aircraft

• Develop of a secondary rotor wind turbine

• Low-cost system for stratospheric aerosol injection

• Adaptive Regional Airliner

The credits that can be gained by successfully completing the exercise are 15 EC.

Students who have suggestions for design topics can bring them forward to the responsible instructor. The idea must be within the topics of aircraft, spacecraft or wind turbine design and concern the design of a complete object. Parts of these objects, mission designs without hardware components or procedures are not considered suitable for the DSE. If the idea seems feasible, a suitable principal tutor will be sought. When a suitable principle tutor can indeed be found the text of the assignment can de written and put forward to the external quality control committee.

Together with this principal tutor the student can draft the assignment. The assignment will have to pass the regular quality control procedure. If successful, the assignment will be offered to all the participants of the DSE in either the Spring of the Fall DSE. The topic of the design is limited to aircraft, spacecraft or wind turbines. Participation of those that have helped with the set-up of the design assignment is limited to two students per design team.

Entry requirements:

Spring DSE (fourth period)

- First and second year fully completed

- Registered on time for the exercise

- Third year BSc-student or older

- Selection for the Spring DSE takes place on the basis of results up to and including the second examination period (January).

Fall DSE (second period)

- First year and second year fully completed

- Registered on time for the exercise

- Fourth year BSc- student or older

- Selection for the Fall DSE takes place on the basis of results up to and including the summer resit exam period (July).

The registration for the Spring DSE will open in week 2.5 and close by the end of week 3.1. The registration for the Fall DSE will open in week 4.5 and close by the end of week 1.1.

There will be only one message posted on Brightspace when registering in Osiris is possible. It is the responsibility of the student to watch this closely. Failing to register on time will automatically exclude a student from participating in the DSE for that period.

Please contact the academic counsellor in case of special mitigating personal circumstances.