ECE492 SENIOR ADVANCED DESIGN PROJECT

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ECE-492SENIOR ADVANCED DESIGN PROJECT

• Course Coordinator (CC) Dr. Pachowicz
• Faculty Supervisor (FC) (a full-time faculty
  at ECE Dept.)
• Associate Chair (AC) Dr. Sutton
• Course materials on the web
• Pamphlet
• Schedule
• Sample Progress Report Table
• Meeting presentations
• Resources
• Textbook
• Design for Electrical and Computer Engineers by
  R.M. Ford and Ch.S. Coulston
• Ppt presentations include material from the
  textbook

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Motivation

• This is a competitive effort watch out !!!
• Remember, during the final presentation, your
  project will be compared against the other
  projects
• Your project will be evaluated by many people
• Teaming experience you can experiment with
• Resume and job factor
• Satisfaction
• After two semesters you will be very fascinated
  about your project (my baby factor)
• So hook up early do not waste time

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Scheduled Meetings

• Class meetings and workshops
• See Schedule and Due Dates sheet
• Meeting your FS
• Coordinate with your FS
• Proposal Presentation
• Formal presentation in front of your FS and at
  least one more faculty
• Team meetings
• Meet at least once a week as the entire team !!!
  this is not only a recommendation but a formal
  requirement

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ECE-492 Activities and Milestones
ACTIVITY TIME MILESTONE
Week 1 ? Class meeting 1 Week 2 ? Class
meeting 2 Week 3 ? Class meeting 3 Week 4
? Project selection deadline Week 5 Week 6 ?
Class meeting 4 Activity Report Week 7 Week
8 Week 9 ? Proposal and Oral
Presentation Week 10 ? Class meeting 5 Week
11 Week 12 ? Progress Report Week 13 Week 14
? Design Document

• Project selection
• Research

• Research
• Proposal preparation

• Detail design
• Testing parts
• Early prototyping

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Deliverables

• Activity Report (6th week)
• Format (report in narrative form)
• Minimum 3-4 pages
• Cover Page
• Problem statement for a selected project
• Brief requirements analysis
• Design considerations
• Research done, people contacted, etc.
• Proposal (9th week)
• Prototyping Progress Report (12th week)
• Final Design Document (14th week)

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Coaching Materials on the Course Page

• Coaching materials are in form of meeting
  presentation slides
• To serve as a guidance/advice for your team
• To avoid mistakes made by previous teams
• To provide essential information so you can
  benefit. Topics include
• Engineering design
• Teams and Teaming
• Project selection
• Requirements specification and analysis
• Concept generation
• System design
• Presentations
• Project management
• Testing
• Study textbook seriously

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Selected Deficiencies to Overcome

• Lack of early motivation (late start-up)
• Problems with presentation skills
• Some student do not listen / difficult to handle
  within a team
• Delayed delivery of documents
• Lack of understanding of some design principles
  e.g.
• Simulation
• Requirements analysis
• Engineering design process
• Testing plan
• Lack of engineering imagination and planning

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Grading

• This is only an estimate guidance your FS may
  apply his/her own priorities
• Components
• Proposal (overall quality) (20 points max)
• Proposal presentation (overall quality) (20
  points max)
• Functional design, Requirements analysis, and
  System architecture (based on Design Document)
  (20 points max)
• Detail design at circuit/algorithm level (based
  on Design Document) (20 points max)
• Experimentation plan Task decomposition,
  description and scheduling for the ECE-493
  semester (based on Design Document) (20 points
  max)

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Engineering Design

• En-gi-neer (from American College Dictionary)
• One versed in the design, construction, and use
  of machines
• One who employs the innovative and methodical
  application of scientific knowledge and
  technology to produce a device, system, or
  process, which is intended to satisfy human needs
• You have studied a great deal of math, science,
  and fundamental technology, but probably have had
  limited exposure to creative and innovative
  design
• Innovative design vs. methodical design --- as a
  successful engineer you need to balance
  effectively between these two
• In general, without experience, you lack an
  innovation in your design. So, you need to be
  involved in a number of innovative design
  projects to gain some experience
• Design a new megatrend !!!

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Design Process

• Design processes
• Embody the steps required to take an idea from
  concept to realization of the final system
• Problem solving methodologies that aim to develop
  a system that best meets the customers need
• Consider a hypothetical example You are hungry
  and need to eat
• Constraints time, money, food, your tastes,
  nutritional values, your cooking knowledge and
  skills
• You brainstorm and come up with alternatives
  dinner at home go to a restaurant buy something
  almost ready
• Select one and decompose into a set of tasks,
  assign timetable, budget, tests, milestones
• Now consider building a machine/device/gadget

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Elements of the Design Process

• Problem Identification (or Identification of a
  need)
• What are the needs of my customer?
• You need to understand them very well
• Research phase
• Understand the application domain, technology in
  that domain, existing solutions. You learn,
  learn, and learn.
• Requirements Specification
• Articulate what the system must do for it to be
  successful and be accepted by the customer
• Requirements and mission statement that guide the
  entire project, when properly developed, provide
  flexibility for creativity and innovation in
  developing solutions

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Identification of Need
Concept Generation (System Feasibility Analysis)
Requirements Specification and Analysis
Research
Preliminary Design
Detail Design
Implementation
Testing
System Integration
Maintenance
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• Concept Generation
• Many possible solutions to the problem are
  developed
• Creativity and innovation is encouraged the most
• Selection of the target solution
• Design phase
• Two phases Preliminary Design followed by Detail
  Design
• Iterative process of developing a technical
  solution
• All major systems and subsystems are identified
  and described
• Implementation phase
• Prototyping and Construction
• Different elements of the system are constructed
  and tested
• System Integration
• All subsystems are brought together to produce a
  complete working system
• Its time consuming
• Closely tided to the Testing phase

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• Testing
• Very important for checking system functionality
  at different implementation and integration
  stages
• Frequently neglected and a cause for engineering
  disasters this also applies to the ECE-493
• Maintenance phase
• Maintained and upgraded to new functionalities
• Design problems are corrected

Cost to implement changes
Project lifetime
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Teams and Teaming

• Motivation
• Engineering projects are far too large to be
  carried out by a single person ? You must work on
  a team
• High-performance teams can outperform equal
  number of individuals working in isolation
• Employers desire it consistently listed as one
  of the top skills required of engineers!
• What is a team?
• A small group of people with complementary
  skills, who are committed to a common
  performance, performance goals, and approach for
  which they hold themselves mutually accountable,
  Katzenbach and Smith

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ECE-492/3 is a Group Project !!!

• Teams of 3-4 students to be formed at a time of
  topic selection
• Team members should complement their skills and
  knowledge
• All members required to switch into friendly
  pro-active mode not always easy due to a
  personality factor
• Respect each other by
• Doing your part without delays
• Being available
• Helping other members without being asked
• Keep contacting each other do not disappear for
  days
• Organize yourself
• Learn to overcome frustration

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• Plan ahead, as agroup
• Planning will help you to run a project faster
  and safer
• Do not stick to one solution/approach - consider
  alternatives (designs, implementations, etc.)
• Think what can go wrong and always have a Plan
  B
• Use engineering tools during design process
• Mathematical modeling
• Simulation, etc.
• Employ a system approach
• Requirements analysis
• Modular design
• Interface design
• Integration
• Experiment planning
• Testing and evaluation

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Characteristics of an Effective Team

• Select team members based upon skills
• Technical and functional skills
• Problem solving skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Identify and agree upon objectives
• You need to define what the team is going to
  achieve end goal
• This goal/objective must be aggressive, yet
  achievable to stay motivated through the course
• All team members must be committed to achieving
  the objectives
• Make it clear how the team will make decisions
• (See chapter 9)

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• Hold effective meetings
• Keep a formal part of a meeting as short as
  possible
• All members must keep notes
• Have an agenda (in writing) have a plan, list
  of issues to be discussed/resolved, ahead of
  meeting date
• Show prepared and on time
• Pay attention no person should monopolize the
  conversation and all points of view should be
  heard
• Agree upon a meeting time and place
• Summarize have one list of decisions made and a
  list of actions for the next week
• Determine team roles
• Members should settle into different roles, upon
  their skills
• Assign tasks and responsibilities
• Nothing creates problems more than when team
  members do not have clearly defined
  responsibilities and tasks
• PM keeps track of tasks and project progress

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• Spend a lot of time together
• Teams that spend a lot of time together are
  generally more successful
• It takes time to form a bond
• Respect each other
• Do not dominate others
• Listen actively
• Consider how you respond to others
• Constructively criticize ideas, not people stay
  positive
• Respect those not present
• Nothing creates divisions and factions in a team
  faster than personally criticizing members not
  present
• Communicate your ideas

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• Manage conflicts constructively
• Real teams do encounter conflicts, but they are
  adept at resolving them
• Do not escalate conflicts into personal conflicts
• Strategies for resolving conflicts
• Focus on performance and ideas, not on
  personality
• Listen to others and stay calm
• Identify concerns do not hide them
• Apply the teams process guidelines
• Develop a plan to resolve the conflicts
• Mediation

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Boeing Code of Cooperation/Conduct

• Every member responsible for teams progress and
  success
• Attend all meetings, be on time
• Come prepared
• Carry out assignments on schedule
• Listen to and show respect for the contributions
  of others be an active listener
• Constructively criticize ideas, not persons
• Resolve conflicts constructively
• Pay attention avoid disruptive behavior
• No disruptive side conversations
• Only one person speaks at a time
• Everyone participates no one dominates
• Be on point avoid long anecdotes and examples
• No rank in the room
• Respect those not present
• Ask questions when you do not understand
• Have fun

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For the Next Meeting

• Read textbook
• Look at a list of faculty suggested topics
• Research, research, research topics of potential
  interest you should have a grasp of what it
  will take to succeed at the end
• Talk to topic FS
• Next meeting is dedicated to the project
  selection process