What makes a successful project

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What makes a successful project

• Make your project ambitious enough
• But make it do-able
• Involve a range of activities to exercise a team
• Specify something that you can prototype
• Have more than one design approach
• Involve some interesting non-technical issues
• Ethical
• Economic
• Environmental
• Try to use experiments and trials
• and set them up correctly

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Scoring Rubric for Senior Design Projects
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Examples of Senior Design Projects (Summer 2006)

• 1.5T Four-Element Phased Array MR Coil (Hashim
  Baradah, Ali Alibeji)
• Developed from summer job at Medrad
• Creating a More Efficient (Manufacturing) Process
  (David Schaffner)
• Applied to family-owned manufacturing company
• Nitrogen Doping of n-Type 4H SiC (Corey Schaffer)
• Developed from independent research projects in
  Physics Department
• Control System for Small Autonomous Aerial
  Vehicles (Jeremy Romeiko, Kim-Wai Lam)
• From Robotics Club activity
• RFID Workstation Design (Kyle Pentz, Paul Powell,
  Eric Shields)
• Associated with Prof. Mickles RFID research
• Hardware Prototype to Demonstrate Products with
  RFID Tags (Michael Wolff, Feng Gao)
• Associated with Prof. Mickles RFID research

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Whats a Proposal For?
It establishes your credentials for a project and
determines whether you will get it. It usually
establishes the scope of work for a project. It
definitely determines how much money you get. It
is a team planning document.
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Written Proposal
Executive Summary (1 page maximum) A. Specific
Aims (1 page maximum) B. Background (2
pages) C. Preliminary Work / Design
Possibilities (3-4 pages) D. Design Approach to
be used (1 page) E. Milestones and Schedule
(1/2 page) F. Cost Estimate (1/2
page) G. Expected Problems and how dealt with (1
page) H. References
Total length should be no greater than 10
single-spaced pages, including figures but
excluding the Executive Summary and a title page
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Questions that should be answered by Background
Significance of project What is new or
different? Why is it important? How does it fit
in with things that have already been done? This
section should review the state-of-the-art and/or
relevant scientific/industrial literature. Potent
ial design approaches Why should our group be
doing it?
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What has already been done?
Products commercially available (State-of-the-A
rt) Research Literature Scientific
journals1 Professional meetings
(Proceedings)1 Technical society
magazines2 Industry magazines3 Web
sources3 1 Material has been independently
reviewed 2 Material often has been lightly
reviewed 3 Material often not reviewed anything
goes!
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IEEE Sources
Spectrum, Potentials and Proceedings of the
IEEE IEEE Specialized Publications Total of
126 titles in technical areas ranging from
computer engineering and biomedical technology to
electric power and wireless technology Magazin
es Technical papers Conference
Proceedings Books Available through IEEE
Xplore in the library or go to
http//ieee.org/web/publications/home/index.html
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IEEE Spectrum, August 2004
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IEEE Spectrum, August 2004
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IEEE Technical Society Magazines
Aerospace Electronics Systems Annals of the
History of Computing Antennas Propagation
Magazine Circuits Devices Magazine Circuits and
Systems Magazine Communications Communications
Surveys and Tutorials Computer Computer Graphics
Applications Control Systems Magazine Design
Test of Computers Distributed Systems
Online Electrical Insulation Magazine Engineering
in Medicine Biology Engineering Management
Review Industry Applications Magazine
Instrumentation Measurement Magazine Intelligent
Systems Internet Computing IT Professional
Micro Microwave Magazine MultiMedia Network Perva
sive Computing Power and Energy Magazine Robotics
Automation Magazine Security and Privacy
Magazine Signal Processing Magazine Software Techn
ology Society Magazine Wireless Communications
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Comments on Literature Citations

• Take the approach that the reader is your
  adversary.
• You are trying to convince your reader that you
  are right, and your reader is likely to be
  looking for evidence that you are wrong. By
  citing publications in the scientific and
  engineering literature, you are providing
  authoritative outside evidence that what you say
  is correct . . .
• and you are protecting yourself from someone
  elses error as well as charges of plagerism.
• Web citations are becoming increasingly
  acceptable but are still suspect (review issues).
  Be sure to include date you accessed a website.
• Personal experience is important, but it is
  generally not acceptable as documentation. If you
  must use personal experience, give details on how
  your conclusions from the experience were formed.
  
• Examples of statements that cause problems
• Developing this type of algorithm for use on
  this processor is something that has not been
  done before.
• A statement like this cannot stand by itself. It
  must be supported. You can support it by
  reviewing what has been developed for the
  processor and noting that none of the
  applications involve the algorithm of interest.
• This approach has . . . already . . . been
  published in several papers . . .
• To support a statement like this, you need to
  list (cite) at least two papers.
• Based on our research, the best approach is to .
  . .
• Not enough. You need to describe the research
  with enough detail to allow the reader to draw
  the same conclusion you did.

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Use of Literature Citations

• The output of a rotary LVAD, however, is
  sensitive to afterload, i.e, to the hydraulic
  load it must pump against 1. In addition, due
  to the fact that, at least until now, there are
  no reliable pressure sensors available to detect
  preload conditions, adaptation to venous return
  changes is still a missing factor in many of the
  control approaches reported in the literature 2,
  3.
• 1 Boston, J.R. Antaki, J.F. Simaan,
  M.A.,Hierarchical control of heart-assist
  devices, IEEE Robotics Automation Magazine,
  vol. 10, 1, pp. 54 - 64, March 2003.
• 2 Maslen, Eric H. et al.,Feedback Control
  Applications in Artificial Heart, IEEE Control
  Systems, vol. 10, 1, pp. 26 - 34, December 1998.
• 3 Giridharan, G., Skliar, M.,Physiological
  Control of Blood Pumps Without Implantable
  Sensors, Proc. of American Control Conference,
  Denver, CO, June 2003, pp. 471 - 476.
• From A. Ferreira, M. A. Simaan, J. R. Boston, and
  J. F. Antaki, Frequency and time-frequency based
  indices for suction detection in rotary blood
  pumps, Proc. Intl Conference on Acoustics,
  Speech, and Signal Processing, pp. II-1064 -
  II-1067, Toulouse, France, May 16, 2006.
• See Engineering Citation Formatting Guidelines on
  web site.

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Library Research Plan

• The Bevier Library staff has created a set of
  on-line teaching modules that run in BlackBoard
  to help engineering students develop a range of
  skills related to information literacy.
• Each design student is required to complete the
  modules and the associated quizzes with scores of
  at least 80.
• Each design group is to complete a Library
  Research Plan by September 10, listing at least
  five non-web sources with a sentence or two on
  each to explain how they relate to the proposed
  project.

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• Library Research Plan
• Bevier Engineering Library
• Preparation for Senior Design Proposals
• Due September 10 (beginning of class)
• 1a. What is the area of your design project?
  Write 1 sentence broadly describing it.
• 1b. What specific aspects of this area or problem
  do you plan to explore/utilize in your design
  solution?
• 1c. Highlight the key terms in your responses
  above and add any additional terms you plan to
  use as initial search terms to begin your review
  of the state-of-the-art related to your project.
• What types of engineering literature are relevant
  to your project (and to your audience and the
  purpose of your project)?
• What research tools will you use to identify
  relevant information for your topic?
• Attach citations to 5 sources that you think will
  significantly contribute to your project
  proposal, including a sentence or two on how each
  is relevant.
• Names of team members
• _______________________________ __________________
  _____________
• _______________________________ __________________
  _____________

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Preliminary Work/Alternatives (3-4 pages)
Describe alternative design approaches Hardware
DSP chip/microcontroller Experience with
development environment Computer Peripherals
Language Arguments for selected
approach Technical capabilities Cost and
experience Development time
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Milestones (1 page)
Identify key tasks of project Which tasks can be
done independently and which depend on previous
work How much overlap is possible How many
people will work on each task Estimate time for
each task Progress report should address
milestones
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Acoustic Source Tracker

• Team Members
• David Corsello
• Matthew Ferencz
• Brian Venus

ECE 1896 Senior Design
Adviser Dr. Bob Boston
Data Acquisition Results Left and Right
channel signals Microphone array and
mount
Design Alternatives Implement Microcontroller
FPGA PC Algorithm Calculate the delay in
time domain Multiple microphones

• Objective
• To locate an acoustic source and
• indicate the position with a rotating
• laser

Applications Video conferencing, security,
targeting
Solutions Implement with Nios processor on
Altera Board Servo Motor to direct array and
laser towards source 16-Bit A-to-D Converters
for high resolution
Algorithm Simulation
Conclusion System integration complete Signal
Processing algorithm
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Acoustic Source tracker
acoustic
control
computer
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Example of Milestones
Acoustic Data Acquisition
Algorithm
Final Prototype
Algorithm Implementation
Software Design
Pointer Controller
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Schedule (1/2 page)
Tasks Can sequential tasks be completed in
time? Who is doing what? Parts Sources How
long will it take to get them? Time
frame Proposals due September 26 Four weeks
October 24 progress reports Six more weeks
(including Thanksgiving) Design Expo
(December 5) Need time for debugging and testing
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Cost Estimate (1/2 page)
A. Development costs What will it cost you to
design and build a prototype? Parts
needed Availability and sources Alternatives B.
Funding request C. Production costs What would
it cost to produce the product in market-sized
quantities for sale?
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Expected Problems (1 page)
Purpose of this section is to show you have
thought through the project and have some
expectations of how it will turn out
Identify bottlenecks in project Identify
technical hurdles What dont you know how to
do Devise alternatives in case problems cant be
solved in time Parts sourcing problems
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Oral Proposal Presentation
10 minutes About 1 slide per minute (less than
10) Be selective - you cant explain everything
Title slide should include team members, advisor,
and acknowledgement of any outside groups you are
working with. You are to give Angela a copy of
the title slide after your presentation.
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Comments on Proposals (and final reports)

• A proposal or report is a sales document you
  are trying to sell a project to someone (boss,
  customer, investor). You have to be convincing.
  Remember that you are trying to convince your
  reader that you are right, and your reader is
  likely to be looking for evidence that you are
  wrong.
• The Executive Summary is not an introduction. It
  needs to include technical detail about what is
  to be done and why it should be done. You will
  need some introduction for the summary to make
  sense, but use as little a possible. (This is
  part of the art of writing summaries.)
• Background should include a general introduction
  to the problem. This is where you cite references
  to the state-of-the-art and current research.
  Justify that what you are proposing is important
  and worthy of a senior design effort.
• Dont just say that you have done such-and-such.
  Give sufficient detail for the reader to be able
  to evaluate the reliability of your results and
  the validity of your conlusions directly.
  Remember, the reader is your adversary, looking
  for holes in your arguments.
• Reports should make the project look like it was
  planned and executed perfectly. Anything else is
  hard to understand. You can (should) discuss at
  the end what problems were encountered and
  whether they were solved.
• Learn to be your own editor. Be tough.
  Unnecessary words are usually confusing.
• Remember that behind every great novelist, there
  is a great editor who reduced the book length by
  two-thirds! (Okay, I made that up, but it is
  close.)
• 7) Use white space bullets and lists can make a
  page much easier to read.
• Be careful of how you use words. Avoid colloquial
  and picturesque language. It is likely to mean
  different things to different people.
• Minimize repetition, even when you are forced to
  use an organization that is inherently
  repetitive.