Our rapid passage across the Mediterranean had not allowed him to put his
project into execution, and he could not help showing his disappointment.
One student wrote, "The connection between the (weekly) class exercises and the project was sometimes vague and unclear." Similarly, another wrote, "I was not always able to determine how each chapter applied to the project." A third noted that: "The link between the course assignments and project assignments was often obscure." These criticisms were summed up best by one student who wrote there is a "need to better incorporate the
project into the structure of the course." Students were asked to reflect on the most and least beneficial aspect of their participation in the project.
These methodologies vary in specifics, but they all include the concept of breaking down a
project into its component parts, evaluating the component relationships (precursors and successors), and assigning the appropriate resources, budget, and schedule to each component.
In 2003, advisors re-organized the BattleBots
Project into four phases: Analysis and Preliminary Design, Fabrication and Component Testing, Testing and Rehearsal, and Competition.
The principal investigator was responsible for organizing collaborative team planning and integrating aspects of the alignment
project into university methods course syllabi.