Instructions and Format for Reports

Reports should be double-spaced, except as noted, on only one side of an 8 1/2 x 11 standard sheet. Generous use of drawings, photographs and sketches is encouraged. Photos should be neatly mounted. Large drawings should be folded to an 8 1/2 x 11 size.

Names of team members and “Stanford University” should not be mentioned in the body of the report.

Please bind the reports in a folder of your choice.

Format (will vary from project to project)

  1 Title page with project title, team name, team members with their contact information, and date of the report.
PLEASE NOTE: One of the reports should have only the project title and date on the title page.
  2 Separate page with a single-spaced abstract of the project, summarizing the objectives, approach taken and results of the project.
  3 Table of contents with page numbers  (separate page)
  4 Introduction, including background
  5 Project Objectives
  6 Design criteria
  7 Summary of approach taken to arrive at a design (analysis, testing, model building, etc.)
  8 Project result(s), with a discussion of factors pertinent to your design (aesthetics, manufacturing, cost, safety, reliability, etc.)
  9 Recommended work to further develop the approach
  10 Updated project timetable.
  11 Appendices, which typically include detailed calculations, testing notes, relevant vendor information, etc. that can be referenced in the main body of the report

Engineering drawings and sketches

We expect good quality engineering sketches and drawings. These should be drawn to scale, using CAD or manual drafting. The drawings should also contain notes referring to detailed elements. For the first report there’s no need to do formal drawings, but by the time of the first report, the projects should be to the point where scaled, detailed engineering sketches are necessary to proceed, evaluate alternatives, etc. Layouts to scale are particularly useful at this stage to see how everything fits together and functions.