Spring 2009 J. Reising

EE/CS 495 SYLLABUS

Spring 2009 J. Reising

Office: KC 247

Phone: 488-2358FAX: 488-2780email:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

As the first phase of the Engineering Design Project, the course focuses on planning the project and formulating the preliminary design. Selection of an appropriate topic is finalized, requirements of the project are listed, constraints are identified, specifications for the project as a whole are developed, and the preliminary design is completed. Research to determine applicable standards is conducted and the results included in the proposal.

A formal written design proposal as well as an oral presentation of it is required of students completing the course successfully. Acceptance of the proposal is a necessary condition for initiation of Phase II of the project. In developing the preliminary design, some evidence must be supplied to support the choice of concepts.

As a senior capstone seminar, the course also focuses on the relationship of engineering as a discipline to the humanities and social sciences, particularly on ethics on the job and in the profession.

During the course of the semester, students will have several opportunities to practice oral communication skills.

TEXT: Senior Design Project Phase I EE 495, McGraw-Hill 2003

OBJECTIVES:

Students are introduced to the preparation of an engineering proposal as the first step in an engineering project. Both the written and oral presentations serve to introduce students to common real life engineering practice. The following course in the Design Project sequence completes the introduction. The planning, implementation, and communication of a system design are discussed in detail. The role of writing in planning, documenting, and communicating the design details is emphasized.

REQUIREMENTS:

In order to complete the course successfully each student must:

1. Submit a satisfactory written proposal.

2. Present an oral description of the design proposal to the EE 495 class.

3. Submit an industrial co-sponsor agreement with the University of Evansville listing the responsibilities of the co-sponsor, the university, and the student during the senior design project work. All parties involved must sign the agreement. THIS REQUIREMENT APPLIES ONLY TO INDUSTRY-SPONSORED PROJECTS FOR WHICH THE INDUSTRIAL SPONSOR REQUESTS SUCH AN AGREEMENT.

4. Review the videotape of his or her oral presentation and the written critiques of the presentation by the audience.

5. Submit his or her own written summary of the presentation, and an evaluation of the videotaped talk and the audience’s critiques.

6. Complete the preliminary design for the project and validate it in some appropriate way.

7. Maintain an engineering notebook and submit it for inspection when due.

8. Complete other written and oral work and participate in group discussions and assignments.

NOTE: Any change in the project from the project selected in EE 494 will be allowed only if approved by the department faculty. Any request for a change in project must be submitted in writing, approximately one or two paragraphs giving a description of the proposed new project and the reason such change is being requested.
GRADING:

The final course grade will be determined as the average of the grade given by the course coordinator and the grade given by the project advisor, weighted equally. Attendance is required. In determining the grade from the course coordinator, the written work other than the proposal and notebook will be counted as approximately 25% of the grade, the oral presentation as 25%, the final written proposal and the preliminary design as 40%, and attendance and class participation as 10% of the grade. The project advisor in the manner he or she chooses will determine the project faculty advisor's grade.

The attendance at individual conferences, as well as the student’s promptness in submitting work according to the schedule outlined below, will be factors considered in determining the final grade from the course coordinator. In particular, failure to meet the required schedule for submitting drafts, scheduling conferences, making the oral presentations, and submitting the final copy of the written proposal will be sufficient cause for lowering the grade the student would receive if the same work were completed on time.

All draft copies of the proposal must be typed and submitted in duplicate (one copy for the course coordinator and one copy for the project faculty advisor).

Final copies of the proposal should be submitted in folders with fasteners that pass through holes punched in the paper, so the pages do not fall out. Use folders that allow your name and the document identification to be read without having to open the cover, or place a label with the same information on the outside of the front cover.

ALL FINAL WRITTEN PROPOSALS MUST BE SUBMITTED IN TRIPLICATE. ONE COPY IS FOR THE COURSE COORDINATOR; ONE COPY IS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL SPONSOR; AND ONE COPY IS FOR THE FACULTY PROJECT ADVISOR.

SCHEDULE:A tentative schedule for course sessions appears below.

NOTE:You should be aware of the university honor code.

All work you submit is expected to be your own.

Last day to withdraw with a “W” is Friday, March 27, 2009.

*Review the "IEEE Guidelines for Professional Employment”. First discuss your reaction to each of the sections, then give specific examples the section on Professional Development might be followed in practice.

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Rating form for oral presentations in this class
2. Judges scorecard for final presentations in EE 497

3. A PROPOSAL OUTLINE

4. Guidelines for evaluating student writing

5. Proposal grading rubric

6. IEEE format for citations

EE 495 Presentation Score Sheet

Presenter(s):______

Date:______

SENIOR PROJECT SCORECARD

Industrial Judges

PROJECT NAME______

TEAM MEMBERS______

Rate each item on a scale of 0-10 (10 is best) for the oral presentation of the project. Note aspects of special merit

1.Demonstrated ability to formulate problems and identify creative solutions

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA (not applicable)

2.Demonstrated ability to complete an "open-ended" design from specifications

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

3.Demonstrated ability to design an experiment

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

4.Demonstrated ability to take measurements

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

5.Effectiveness of audio/visual presentation

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

6.Quality of oral presentation

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

7.Rationale for design choice

(Consideration of alternative designs, technical risks, economic and schedule factors, other sponsor constraints.)

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

8.Project execution quality

(Planning, teamwork, workmanship, on-schedule?)

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

9.Real value to industrial sponsor of the work done

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

10.Results vs. Objectives

(Comparison of project results with project goals for performance, cost, etc.)

(None) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (Excellent)NA

UNIVERSITY OF EVANSVILLE

SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT SERIES

A PROPOSAL OUTLINE

Your project proposal should be concerned with giving clear, explicit answers to questions that a prospective client has in mind when he considers the possibility of negotiating a contract with you and your firm.

• What is your understanding of the problem?
• What solutions or approaches to solutions do you offer?
• How do you intend to go about implementing your solution(s)?
• What is your planned activity schedule?
• What will you deliver at the end of the project?
• Why do you think you are qualified to do this job?
• What will it cost?

Although the exact form your proposal will take depends upon your personal preferences and the nature of the request for bid (they vary in explicitness, scope, etc.), the following illustrative outline will be handy in most cases. You can vary things to meet the requirements of the particular situation, but be sure you end up with a comprehensive package that is attractive, logical, and interesting. Your proposal should be a minimum of twenty double-spaced pages in length.

a.Title: A glance at the cover or title page should tell the reader what this stack of paper has to do with. A procurement officer may be dealing with several projects at one time; your proposal could be judged in the wrong contest.

b.Table of Contents: Give the page number of each main section of the proposal, including List of Figures, Lists of Tables, Appendices, etc.

c.Introduction (or Summary): Give a brief abstract of your proposal – what you perceive as the need, what you intend to do about it, and why. The reader should not have to plow through six pages of detail to find out where you stand on the big picture. Your clarity in this section can calibrate the reader for what is to come.

d.Technical Approach: This section serves to show that you understand the problem and have a solution (or a program for finding one). It also sets the stage for a clear understanding of your subsequent work statement. Included in this section are two major technical discussions:

1)Problem Definition (or Background) – Summarize the pertinent information for understanding the problem as you see it. Do not simply play back the information the client gave you, but select from it, interpret it, and add to it as necessary for a clear understanding of your position. Depending on the complexity of the problem, you may want to add a separate section on “technical discussion”. End this section with a list of Client Requirements.

2)Proposed Solution (or Approach to the Problem) – Present your solution or approach to solution in conceptual terms; define the major tasks, their interrelationships, and the operations under them. This segment spells out what you think needs to be done; however, you are not at this stage committing to do it all. Be sure to consider any economic, environmental, health and safety, social, and political factors. Determine any applicable standards and list them, along with the other constraints (suchas economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability) on the final design. End this section with a list of Specificationsand a detailed description of your Concept Design (or High-Level Design). Validate your specifications by showing that if the design meets the specifications, it will satisfy all the client’s requirements. Verify that your concept design will meet your specifications. You must also give a detailedtest plan for verifying that the implementation of your concept design meets all the specifications.

e.Statement of Work (or Proposed Program): This section is a commitment. It defines in detail exactly what you are going to do, when you will do it, and what you will deliver. These details often are transferred directly to contract form. Be truthful and realistic, or you will rue the day. Differentiate between what will be done and what might be done “providing...” Make your contingencies explicit. There are two major subsets to the work statement:

1)Task Definition – The conceptual terms of section d 2) are translated into explicit operational terms, i.e., what activities you will actually engage in. You should include statements indicating the level of effort that will be involved and what your priorities will be. If jobs are interrelated, show how they are organized with respect to one another. (Flow charts or Gantt charts are good communication aids.)

2)Schedule – Set dates for your major program steps and check points. Uncertainties should appear as such, i.e., as labeled contingencies. Be realistic and even a bit conservative. Remember, you will be judged on when you deliver as well as on what you deliver.

f.Expected Results: If the contract is open-ended, that is, if the work statement does not commit you to deliver a specific product, include a section of expected results. For example, if the contract is “to explore possible models for …” you should help the client to understand what might come of it.

g.Capabilities: So far, you have delineated the problem and a good program for solving it, but now you have to convince the client that you can deliver the goods. This section must be custom-tailored for each proposal. Production-oriented engineers like to think that they can use canned, off-the-shelf wording for this job. It may be easier that way, but it violates some primary rules of good communication. There are three usual components to this section:

1)Program Experience – Show that you have done this type of work in the past, or that you have had experience with the component tasks. On big jobs, this is usually a section on Management.

2)Facilities – Describe the resources available for use on the project, including those the School, the University, and any off-campus facilities you might have arranged to use.

3)Personnel – Provide brief biographies of the people who will actually be associated with the project (part-time or full-time) in either a technical or a managerial role. Emphasize the experience relative to the project and start with the most important factor. Reviewers are looking for facts, but they are not interested in the fact that you might have been born in Indiana.

h.Costs: In the business world, all direct and indirect costs for the project work must be specified. Material and equipment costs and any exceptional personnel costs (subjects, special clerical workers, etc.) and processing costs (computer rental time, art work, etc.) should be itemized. If any manpower, materials, or facilities are to be supplied by the sponsor, the fact should be stated explicitly.

i.References: Provide a complete list of references cited in the proposal. Use the citation format given in INFORMATION FOR IEEE TRANSACTIONS, JOURNALS, AND LETTERS AUTHORS, IEEE, January, 2003. If an appendix includes citations, it can carry its own reference list. If you want all references in one place, shift this whole section to the end of the proposal.

j.Appendices: Use appendices for details (data, exhibits, etc.) that are too lengthy to include in the body of the report. Have it there for interested members of the technical staff, but do not expect the project manager to wade through it to get you message.

It may be of some interest to you to know that on large, competitive jobs, many procurement agencies demand that proposals be submitted in separate volumes, so that the technical proposal, the management proposal, and costs can be assessed independently. Government bids would also include a section on Security and another on Qualitative and Quantitative Personnel Requirements Information (QPRI).

Standards That May Be Used in Assessment of Student Writing

Content and Structure: Unity, Coherence, and Development

• Is there a clear thesis statement or central claim (research finding, position statement, central argument)?
• Does the piece effectivelyandinsightfully address the assignment?
• Do all elements of the paper work to develop the central idea?
• Does the piece make good use of relevant examples and details to support ideas?
• Does each paragraph have a clearly articulated point and advance the essay’s thesis (or for non-analytical writing, intensify the central focus)?
• Does the introduction announce the principal focus of the piece and use an appropriate tone and diction?
• Does the conclusion tie the piece together, ensuring that the reader has a clear idea of the paper’s central focus and, if appropriate, suggesting the implications or broader significance of the thesis?

Mechanics and Grammatical Conventions

• Does the piece demonstrate competence in grammar, punctuation, spelling, and standard idioms of written English, or do grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors prevent understanding of what the writer is trying to say?
• Does the paper demonstrate variety in sentence structure and range of vocabulary?
• Does the paper make appropriate use of quotations, citations, etc., where necessary to support the central claim?
• If present, do the quotations, footnotes, and non-narrative features (figures, equations, etc.) appear in appropriate, conventional format?

Intellectual engagement

• Does the piece demonstrate intellectual engagement?
• Rather than covering the topic in a superficial or oversimplified way, does the paper acknowledge the complexity of the material under analysis?

Integrity

• Has appropriate acknowledgment been given for the words and ideas of others?

Evaluating Writing