ECE Curriculum Enhancements: Senior Design Experiences

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ECE Curriculum EnhancementsSenior Design
Experiences

• Professor David G. Meyer
• School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Outline

• Design Context
• Senior Design Options
• Sample Projects
• Self-Evaluation
• Panel Discussion

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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.
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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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Current ECE Senior Design Options

• ECE 402 ECE Design Projects
• EPCS 402 Senior Participation in EPICS
• ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Project

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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 successby contributing technically
• Cause team successby leading and following
• Get somewhere with something real

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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.

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ECE 402 Sample Project
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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.

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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

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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

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EPCS 402 Sample Project
Sensor network for Imagination Station Museum
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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.

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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

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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
Demo Video
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
Demo Video
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
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Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...
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DSDP Outcomes and Assessment

1. 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
2. An understanding of the engineering design
   process individual lab notebook
3. An ability to function on a multidisciplinary
   team project specific success criteria
   (functionality)
4. An awareness of professional and ethical
   responsibility professional component report
5. An ability to communicate effectively, in both
   oral and written form formal design review,
   final written report, and final presentation

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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
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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

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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