Introduction
UAE Federal Government is managing an aid program for the Engineering education in third world countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Laos. As part of this aid program, Government is inviting submissions for proposal to setup required for Engineering labs in 15 major universities of third world countries. This report is the proposal for a new Engineering Lab. It will discuss, the scope, procedure, and the risks involved in carrying out this project plan and how this plan will help students’ learning and teaching of a Bachelor Degree studies in particular engineering specialization, i.e. Electrical Engineering in Third World Country University.
This project will target 2 Senior Government Officials, 2 CEOs of Private Companies, and 2 Academic Professors who are in the investment committee or stakeholders. This proposal is for the electrical engineering lab design for the ABC University in Pakistan. Currently, there are 5 students enrolled in the bachelor program of Electrical Engineering. However, this number is expected to increase by 40 till the admission is closed.
Project Rationale
This project will help the University management, students, teachers and stakeholders in different ways that are as follows;
- Improve the level of education of Electric Engineering studies.
- It will be easier for the teachers to demonstrate any topic by means of an Engineering equipment provided in the lab.
- This Engineering lab will also increase the rank of University worldwide. In Pakistan, Higher Education Commission is the authority that ranks the level of Universities countrywide. It ranks Engineering Universities on basis of number of labs and the availability of tools, equipment, electronic devices, and machines in lab required for the Electrical Engineering studies. The design of this lab will satisfy the requirements of higher education commission and will increase ranking of the university.
Scope
The total budget of the project is $6,000,000 that will be paid in two installments of $3,000,000 each. One cheque will be paid in the start of the project and the other one will be paid by the end of the 5th month. The total time given for this project to be completed is 10 months. Upon completion of this Electrical Engineering Lab Project, there will be a complete lab with all necessary tools and devices required by the students and teachers. The lab will cover 2000 sq. feet area in which there will be separate corners for students with separate necessary electrical devices kit. Lab will have the space and corners for more than 40 students.
SMART Objectives
Stakeholders seek if the developed project objectives are SMART, i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic and time related. This project has done in depth research on the education standard in Pakistan and the requirements for the Electrical Engineering Studies that helped in preparing SMART goals and objectives.
- Help students clarifying their engineering concepts
- Help teachers demonstrating engineering topics
- Improve ranking of the university
- Project will be completed in 10 months
Milestones
This project is required to complete within 10 months. It will start on the 1st January, 2015 and complete on 31st October, 2015. It is therefore important to complete the following milestones within this timeframe;
- Complete the theoretical design of the Lab
- Approval of funding, design, and plan
- Build and assemble the design of lab
- Final testing of the electrical devices and other functions
Technical Requirements
It is important to consider other requirements of the University’s Engineering Lab:
- First, it must be safe for students and teachers
- Proper internal and external wiring
- There must be an arrangement of alternative power supply for the lab in case of failure
- Computer machines should switch to uninterruptible power supply when primary source of electricity goes down.
Engineering Lab Design Issues
There are various issues that needs to be considered while planning the design of the project which are as follows;
- There must be more than 40 tables and space for students in the lab
- There is power crisis in Pakistan, therefore enough cost needs to be reserved for the backup power supplies
- Air conditioners are also required in the lab so that to keep the computer systems at the required temperature
- Some of the electronic devices and software programs cannot easily be purchased locally and online orders will be placed for them. Therefore, orders should be placed enough time earlier to the project deadline.
Project Priority Matrix
The priority matrix shows that time and cost are constrained. Since, project must be completed within 10 months duration and limited budget is provided, i.e. $6,000,000. However, performance of the project will be accepted if 80% of the deliverables are complete and working properly.
Work Breakdown Structure
Work breakdown structure is the technique of distributing project work, deliverables, budget, and time into small and manageable modules. In project of building Electrical Engineering Lab, bigger activities, i.e. information collection, procurement, building, and testing will be broken down in to smaller modules. Each activity will be allocated appropriate time and budget so that the complete project can be managed and completed as planned.
There are various benefits of breaking down the work structure in to smaller modules. First, it becomes manageable to handle complete project. Second, workers are easily able to understand his/her responsibilities towards the project and what is actually required. Third, managers are easily able to adjust the time and process through work breakdown structure and identify, how much time can allotted to each module. Moreover, any problems or risks may also be identified.
There are different methods and tools used to breakdown the work structure. Managers can use low technology tools like white board, note cards and so on. However, these low technology tools do not provide efficient designs; therefore, it is recommended to make use of latest software tools like mind mapping software packages, MS Project, and Gantt charts.
In case of Electrical Engineering Lab, there are four main divisions of activities, including information collection, procurement, building lab, and testing. These activities are further divided into sub activities. Information collection includes sub activities, research sources, analyze options, and theoretical design. Procurement stage includes, collection of available material and ordering. Build Lab design includes, electrical wiring, wood work, and placement of computer systems and engineering tools and equipment. Testing phase includes checking of the entire lab functions, electrical wiring and equipment.
Project Schedule
Different tasks of the project are listed down along with their variable name.
- Group workers of the project collect information about the room in University for electrical engineering lab and decide upon its required material and design.
- Group members propose different ideas regarding the project design
- Approval of one appropriate design and draw it theoretically
- Purchase material for the construction of engineering lab from Pakistan and order online for those that is not available in Pakistan
- Delivery of the required material through online mediums
- Installation of electrical wiring and other work in lab
- Wood work in the lab
- Order of Electrical Engineering equipment, tools and machines used in experiments.
- Delivery and arrangement of machines and other equipment in the lab.
- Testing electrical wiring and other functions of the lab
The possible paths found are as follows;
A – D – E – F – I – J = 147
A – D – E – G – I – J = 127
A – D – E – F – G – I – J = 167
A – B – D – E – F – I – J = 177
A – B – D – E – G – I – J = 157
A – B – D – E – F – G – I – J = 197
A – B – C – D – E – F – I – J = 197
A – B – C – D – E – G – I – J = 177
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – I – J = 217
A – H – I – J = 72
After summing up the duration of all activity paths, it was found that the longest path is
A – B – C – D – E – F – G – I – J = 217
And thus, it is the critical path.
Slack with zero also shows the activities of the same critical path as found through other method earlier.
Arrow on Project Diagram
Gantt Chart
Key Personnel
Resource Management
The resource management plan of the project will document the following information;
- Information related to the services, equipment, devices, and other machinery. The value of these resources is estimated through cost estimates of the project.
- Materials required for building the lab structure will be recorded separately from the electrical engineering equipment, devices, and computer machines.
Responsibility Matrix
S – Support
C – Consultant
R – Responsible
Hours Worked
Cost Management
