ECE 4951 – Design Workshop

1. ECE 4951 – Design Workshop Course Deliverables

2. Senior Design Handbook • www.d.umn.edu/ece/students/index.html

3. Technical Writing • Write to a Specific Audience • Make an Outline for the entire paper • The First Page is Priceless! Write it last. Summarize.

4. Technical Writing • Use plain English. Limit the length of phrases. • Use strong Verbs (show confidence) • Weak: It is hoped that the design demonstrates robustness. • Strong: The design demonstrates robustness. • Test the document with the intended audience • (proof read by you and at least one other person)

5. Technical Writing • Format to emphasize important information (bold, bullets, color, etc) • Invest time in the quality of your illustrations and the way you describe them • Avoid common grammar and punctuation errors: • Do a word search for every instance of your common mistakes • My pet peeves: to, too ; your, you’re their, there, they’re

6. Technical Writing • Professional Documents are written in the third person: • Good: “The experiment was performed to satisfaction.” • Poor: “We performed the experiment satisfactorily.”

7. Deadlines: • 1st draft of paper: April 11 • 1st draft of presentation: April 18 • Abstract and Presentation Announcement due in ECE office the week of April 16 • Demonstration fully operational: April 20 • Presentation: Week of April 30

8. For Next Week: • Team 1: • Panel View Progress • Plan for Testing of Algorithm • BOM • Team 2: • Sketch of Mechanical Layout • Electrical Schematic • BOM • Team 3: • Drawings • BOM