This course is a first subject in engineering design. A major element of the course is design of a robot to participate in a challenge that changes from year to year. This year, the theme is cleaning up the planet as inspired by the movie Wall-E.

From its beginnings in 1970, the 2.007 final project competition has grown into an Olympics of engineering. See this MIT News story for more background, a photo gallery, and videos about this course.

After taking this course students should be able to: generate, analyze, and refine the design of electro-mechanical devices making use of physics and mathematics; describe and list uses in mechanical systems of common machine elements including fasteners, joints, springs, bearings, gearing, clutches, couplings, belts, chains, and shafts; apply experimentation and data analytic principles relevant to mechanical design; and communicate a design and its analysis (written, oral, and graphical forms).

Special software is required to use some of the files in this course: .zip, .sldprt, .xls, .swj, .sldasm, .rpt, .xlo, .igs, .rm, .ord, and .dxf.

[Description and screenshot taken from MIT OCW page for this course. (c) MIT used under the terms of their CC-NC-SA license.]