ECE493 SENIOR ADVANCED DESIGN PROJECT

1
ECE-493SENIOR 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 ppt presentations
• Resources
• Textbook
• Design for Electrical and Computer Engineers by
  R.M. Ford and Ch.S. Coulston

2
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
• Most of the time, after two semesters you will be
  very fascinated about your project (my baby
  factor)
• Warning!
• If your project is delayed, you will have a
  difficulty to make up lost time. The quality will
  suffer.

3
Scheduled Meetings

• Class meetings and workshops
• See Schedule and Due Dates sheet
• Class meetings are mandatory
• Meeting your FS
• Coordinate with your FS
• Final Presentation
• 14th week of the semester a week before the
  last class
• A formal presentation/event
• Team meetings
• Meet at least once a week as the entire team !!!
  this is not only a recommendation but a formal
  requirement

4
ECE-492/3 is a Group Project !!!

• All members required to switch into a 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

5

• Plan ahead
• 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 and
  implementation process
• Mathematical modeling
• Simulation, etc.

6
Project Manager

• Choose a Project Manager very carefully
• Recommended personal characteristics
• Self-motivated and well-organized
• Polite but decisive
• Past experience in successful management of
  people a plus
• Timely and capable of working under pressure
• Able to handle administrative duties !!!
• Easily accessible and with spare time

7

• Administrative duties
• Represent the team to CC, AC (is a team POC)
• Responsible for the schedule and timely delivery
  of reports/doc
• Monitor project progress and identify schedule
  problems ahead of time (if possible)
• Keep the team motivated and working together
• You may assign someone else to coordinate
  technical aspects of your project (Technical
  Manager)
• If in a trouble, you may decide to reorganize
• Other issues see ECE-492 notes regarding
• Project Management and
• Project Manager

8
ECE-493 Activities and Milestones
ACTIVITY TIME MILESTONE

• End of prototyping
• Conclusions

Week 1 ? Kick-off meeting Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
? Progress Report 1 Week 5 ? In-progress
meeting Week 6 Week 7 ? Progress Report
2 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 ?
Progress Report 3 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14
? Final Report and Oral Presentation Week
15 ? Project Poster

• Full scale implementation

• Experimentation

• Final Reporting

• Preparation for
• final presentation

9
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
• No Plan-B handy
• Lack of engineering imagination and planning

10
Deliverables

• Project Title form and Detailed Project
  Description/Abstract (2nd week)
• Progress Report
• 1 (4th week)
• 2 (7th week)
• 3 (11th week)
• Final Report (14th week)
• Hardcopy and an electronic copy on a CD
• Project Tracking form (14th week)
• Team Evaluation forms (14th week)
• Project Poster (15th week)

11
Grading

• This is only an estimate guidance your FS may
  apply his/her own priorities
• Components
• Technical / engineering in-depth study Approach
  and technical merit of the solution (based on
  Final Report) (30 points max)
• Teamwork habits (20 points max)
• Final presentation (20 points max)
• Experimentation and results evaluation (based on
  Final Report) (20 points max)
• Administrative issues, Lessons learned, and Other
  issues properly addressed in the Final Report
  such as Reason for the project Potential use
  Alternative designs Cost and time
  Maintainability Retirement, replacement, or
  disposal (see point 11 of the ECE-493 pamphlet)
  (based on Final Report) (10 points max)

12
Progress Report Format

• Cover page with the report number
• Technical Section
• Description of progress for each task/subtask
  undertaken in the reporting period. Include
  sample designs/results achieved in the reporting
  period.
• 3. Administrative Section
• Progress summary table list of tasks and
  subtasks in a table format with graphical (bars)
  and numerical (percentages) progression
  indicators. Mark milestones on the table as well.
• Funds spent (out-of-pocket, in-kind, etc.)
• Man-hours already spent.

13

• Plans for the next reporting period
• Problems/surprises you encountered including
  answers to the following questions
• Is the project on schedule?
• Are there any problem areas causing project
  delays, etc.?
• Plan to deal with problems/delays.
• What has been done to correct encountered
  problems?

14
Managing Your Bank Account

• Each team must set rules to manage teams budget
• In general, follow the following guidance
• Allocate one person to be responsible for funds
  and purchases
• This person must
• Keep all invoices and cash buys data
• Provide detail account information to the team at
  each meeting
• The account balance must be always positive (no
  debt allowed)
• Team members contribute initial funds to the
  account (e.g., 50 from each member the initial
  account value will be 200 for a four member
  team)
• Team members maintain positive account balance by
  subsequent incremental contributions
• Team member contributions must be equal across
  the team no exceptions