DA3304 Rapid Prototyping for the Warfighter

The proliferation of new, inexpensive, easy-to-use technologies has dramatically lowered the barrier to technology exploration. This new frontier allows the user an unprecedented ability to design new solutions to wicked problems and to quickly iterate over new and exciting alternatives. Rapid prototyping leverages low-cost, low-resolution models of potential solutions to drive the processes of design and innovation. This course introduces a prototyping methodology for this exploration, requires hands-on active engagement with rapid prototyping, investigates other labs on and off campus that are engaged in prototyping efforts, and explores how this alternative approach might impact students’ future military engagements.

Lecture Hours

3

Lab Hours

2

Course Learning Outcomes

Course Objectives: 

• Tie conceptual ideas regarding innovation to hands-on experiences with prototyping and design. This approach will include productive struggles with prototyping and design.
• Consider the extent to which technology exploration has become accessible to those without technical backgrounds.
• Examine the DoD and private partner innovation ecosystem
• Explore emerging technological capabilities and envision how these capabilities might be used within the DoD
• Consider how the technologies and approaches we use in this course might be used by our adversaries.