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ECE Curriculum Enhancements: Senior Design Experiences. Professor David G. Meyer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Outline. Design Context Senior Design Options Sample Projects Self-Evaluation Panel Discussion. Definition – Senior Design Course.
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ECE Curriculum Enhancements:Senior Design Experiences Professor David G. Meyer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Outline • Design Context • Senior Design Options • Sample Projects • Self-Evaluation • Panel Discussion
Definition – Senior Design Course A Senior Design Course must provide students with a major multi-disciplinary design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work. The design project must be team-based and must incorporate engineering design standards and realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political. The experience must also reinforce the students’ understanding of ethical and professional responsibility and their ability to communicate effectively.
Definition – Major Design Experience A major design experience is one that involves at least three (3) credit hours of coursework with 100% engineering design content and involves most of the following elements of the design process: • the establishment of objectives and criteria • synthesis • analysis • construction • testing • evaluation
Senior Design Learning Outcomes • A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements will have demonstrated: • an ability to apply knowledge obtained in earlier coursework and to obtain new knowledge necessary to design and test a system, component, or process to meet desired needs. • an understanding of the engineering design process. • an ability to function on an interdisciplinary team. • an awareness of professional and ethical responsibility. • effective communication skills, both oral and written. • Successful demonstration of all five learning outcomes is required to receive a passing grade.
Senior Design Reports • Summary of the project, including customer, purpose, specifications, and a summary of the approach. • Description of how the project built upon the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier ECE coursework (include course numbers). • Description of what new technical knowledge and skills were acquired in doing the project. • Description of how the engineering design process was incorporated, with reference to: establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing, and evaluation. • Summary of how realistic design constraints (economic, environmental, ethical, health and safety, social, political, sustainability, and manufacturability) were incorporated. • Description of the multidisciplinary nature of the project. • Description of the project deliverables.
ECE Senior Design Advisory Committee • Review ECE senior design course certification requests • Review ECE senior design semester reports • Make recommendations to ECE Curriculum Committee regarding reviews
Current ECE Senior Design Options • ECE 402 ECE Design Projects • EPCS 402 Senior Participation in EPICS • ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Project
ECE 402 – EE Design Projects Each student shall: • Develop ownership in a sub-system (or two) • Design, build, and test to meet specifications • Interface with the team system • Cause team success—by contributing technically • Cause team success—by leading and following • Get somewhere with something real
ECE 402 – EE Design Projects • Main Features: • One semester design / build / test / demonstrate • Teams of four (ECE and some CmpE students) • Concepts: block and flow diagrams, schematics, printed circuit board design, programming, packaging, RF and Optical signal transmission, imaging, actuators, motors, sensors, physics, and chemistry. (Not all at once) • Design considerations: reliability, safety factors, cost, etc. • Individual laboratory notebooks • Two Design Reviews, Two Individual Oral Progress Reports, One Demo • Opportunities for teams to do special projects as feasible.
EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS • Description: Uses service-learning to teach design within vertically integrated and multidisciplinary teams that design, develop, deploy and support projects that meet the needs of their local community partners. • Objective: To provide long-term, authentic design experiences that exposes students to the entire design process from problem identification to support and retirement/disposal within a community/human context. • Senior Design: Senior design students are distributed on EPICS teams with appropriate project potential and fulfill additional requirements to verify outcomes.
EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS • Main Features: • Service-Learning Model • Real projects for real people • Experience the entire design cycle • Multi-semester projects • Senior design is a two semester experience for 3 credits with individual documentation and presentation requirements • Large (~15 students) and diverse teams with 3-5 active projects • Professional development: • Leadership; Project management; Personnel and placement; Customer relations; Budgets; Technical reviews and Delivery • Extensive communication requirements • Ethics and social context • Entrepreneurship and innovation • Formative and summative assessments of teams and individuals
EPCS 401/2 –Sample Projects • EPICS Projects are done in four broad community areas • Human Services • Information management, improved services • Access and Abilities • Technology for adults and children with disabilities • Environmental • Remediation designs, community education • Education and outreach • Designs for schools, local museums and zoos
EPCS 402 – Sample Project Sensor network for Imagination Station Museum
ECE 477 – Digital Systems Design Project • Description:A structured approach to the development and integration of embedded microcontroller hardware and software that provides senior-level students with significant design experience applying microcontrollers to a wide range of embedded systems. • Objective: To provide practical experience developing integrated hardware and software for an embedded microcontroller system in an environment that models one which students will most likely encounter in industry.
ECE 477 – Digital Systems Design Project • Main Features: • One semester design / fabricate / test / demonstrate • Students pick own project (subject to constraints) and define own project-specific success criteria • Work in teams of four (mixture of ECE and CmpE students) • Design components include: packaging design, schematic design, printed circuit board design, and software design • Professional components include: design constraint analysis, reliability and safety analysis, patent liability analysis, and ethical and environmental impact analysis • Individual (on-line) laboratory notebooks • Extensive reporting/presentation requirements • Technical communication skills development activities • Quantitative assessment of all five course outcomes
Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects... Demo Video
Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects... Demo Video
DSDP Outcomes and Assessment • An ability to apply knowledge obtained in earlier coursework and to obtain new knowledge necessary to design and test a system, component, or process to meet desired needs – design component report • An understanding of the engineering design process – individual lab notebook • An ability to function on a multidisciplinary team – project specific success criteria (functionality) • An awareness of professional and ethical responsibility – professional component report • An ability to communicate effectively, in both oral and written form – formal design review, final written report, and final presentation
Outcome Tracking Results forDigital Systems Design Project 2 Tablet PCs per team TCSP sessions initiated HTML notebooks initiated 1 Tablet PC per team Outcome 1 – design component report Outcome 2 – individual lab notebook Outcome 3 – project specific success criteria Outcome 4 – professional component report Outcome 5 – technical communication skills
Self-Evaluation • Strengths • Good diversity of design experiences afforded by current options available to students • Research/publications on outcome assessment • Areas for Improvement • Ability to handle the projected enrollment increases in ECE 402 and ECE 477 • More consistency in outcome assessment among the various senior design options • More consistency in project deliverables and their evaluation
Opportunities for Input/Involvement • Opportunities for input • How well are the various ECE senior design options preparing students for the future? • What are (other) potential areas for improvement? • Opportunities for involvement • Crafting ideas for senior design projects • Participating in the formal evaluation process • Supporting parts acquisition and PCB fabrication