Transcript Senior Design Options in ECE: Opportunities for Input and Involvement Elvin Bernard Andrew Christianson Jaclyn Kollar Dave Meyer Bill Oakes Aaron Replogle Barrett Robinson Irene So School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Purdue.

Senior Design Options in ECE:
Opportunities for Input and
Involvement
Elvin Bernard
Andrew Christianson
Jaclyn Kollar
Dave Meyer
Bill Oakes
Aaron Replogle
Barrett Robinson
Irene So
School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana
February 26, 2007
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.
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:
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.
2. an understanding of the engineering design process.
3. an ability to function on an interdisciplinary team.
4. an awareness of professional and ethical responsibility.
5. 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.
ECE Senior Design Advisory Committee
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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
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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
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Main Features:
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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.
ECE 402 – Project – Fall 1999
ECE 402 – Project – Spring 2003
ECE 402 – Project – Spring 2007
ECE 402 – Student Perspective
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Irene So, Fall 2006
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Elvin Bernard, Fall 2006
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Andrew Christianson, Fall 2004, Eaton Award
EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS
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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
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Main Features:
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Service-Learning Model
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Experience the entire design cycle
Multi-semester projects
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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:
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Real projects for real people
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
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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
Student perspective
– Jaclyn Kollar
 Co-team leader for the Imagination Station Team
– Local children’s science
– Distributed sensor network
EPCS 402 – Example: Jaclyn Kollar
Sensor Network Project for the
Imagination Station Museum
EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS
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Ways to partner with EPICS:
– Advise teams
 Weekly advisors for local corporate partners
– Design reviews
 11th week of each semester – 4 teams per day
– Workshops or lectures
 Technical and professional development topics during
the semester
– Sponsor a team
 EPICS does not charge the community for their work
– Financial support for program
 Multidisciplinary support, dissemination, high school
initiative
– Awards for excellence
ECE 477 – Digital Systems Design Project
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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
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Main Features:
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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
ECE 477 – Sample Project
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The Wirelessly Integrated Menu System (WIMS)
Aaron Replogle, ECE 477 Student Fall 2006
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The WIMS is a portable device designed to input restaurant
patrons’ food and beverage orders from a customizable
menu and output them to the kitchen
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Card reader input allows user identification
WiPort module allows transmission of data across wireless
network to display an order queue in the kitchen
Touch screen LCD provides a simple method of navigating
menus and accepting orders
Microcontroller unites the above peripherals, controls program
flow, and interprets user survey data to create customized
menus
[DEMONSTRATION VIDEO]
ECE 477 – Student Perspective
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The major hurdle for design teams is finances
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Major design-specific costs
Parts
Development tools / kits
Suggestion for further industrial involvement:
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Possibility of design review and critiquing by engineers
currently in industry
 Teams could provide project overview, schematic, and
PCB layout for critiquing
 Toward the end of the semester, one or two teams could
be recognized as having an “industry ready” project,
while helpful comments could be provided to all teams
Self-Evaluation
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Strengths
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Good diversity of design experiences afforded by
current options available to students
Research/publications on outcome assessment
Areas for Improvement
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Development of a common senior design course
evaluation instrument
More consistency in outcome assessment among
the various senior design options
More consistency in project deliverables and their
evaluation
Panel Discussion
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Opportunities for input
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How well are the various ECE senior design options
preparing students for the future?
What are (other) potential areas for improvement?
Opportunities for involvement
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Crafting ideas for senior design projects
Participating in the formal evaluation process
Supporting parts acquisition and PCB fabrication