Senior Design Options in ECE: Opportunities for Input and

Involvement

Elvin BernardAndrew Christianson Jaclyn KollarDave MeyerBill OakesAaron ReplogleBarrett RobinsonIrene So February 26, 2007

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Purdue University

West Lafayette, Indiana

Outline

Design ContextSenior Design OptionsSample ProjectsSelf-EvaluationPanel Discussion

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

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

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

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.

ECE 402 – Project – Fall 1999

ECE 402 – Project – Spring 2003

ECE 402 – Project – Spring 2007

ECE 402 – Student Perspective

Irene So, Fall 2006

Elvin Bernard, Fall 2006

Andrew Christianson, Fall 2004, Eaton Award

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.

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

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 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

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

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

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

ECE 477 – Sample Project

The Wirelessly Integrated Menu System (WIMS)Aaron Replogle, ECE 477 Student Fall 2006

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

– 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

The major hurdle for design teams is finances– Major design-specific costs– Parts– Development tools / kits

Suggestion for further industrial involvement:– 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

Strengths– Good diversity of design experiences afforded by

current options available to students– Research/publications on outcome assessment

Areas for Improvement– 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

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