Senior Design Project Development

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Senior Design Project Development

• Dr. Jimmy Eggerton
• 16 Oct 02

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Overview

• Initial Steps of Project
• System Engineering
• Project Management
• Building Breadboard Prototype
• Documentation
• Final Product

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Initial Steps of Project

• Establish Team
• Friends
• Similar Interests
• CPE, EE , CS Good to Mix
• People You Can Work With
• One Leader
• All Work, Not Just Leader
• Make Assignments
• Monitor Progress
• Respect

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Initial Steps of Project (Contd)

• Establish Team (Contd)
• Meet at Least Once per Week
• Conflicts
• Member Not Working
• Choose Suitable Project
• Complex But Not Out of Reach
• Interest
• Proud to Have on Resume

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System Engineering

• Top Down Design
• Design Performed on Paper Before Any Soldering or
  Programming
• Define Objectives Clearly
• Project Description Sheet
• V1.0, V1.1 ,etc. Keep Old Ones on Web Site
• Get Approval from Mentor and Instructor
• Block Diagrams of Work Flow
• General Work Flow
• Signals Being Processed
• Divide Each Block into Manageable Subtasks

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System Engineering (Contd)

• Research
• White Paper 3 to 5 Pages, Writing Center
• Programming Languages to Learn
• Define Constraints
• Define Requirements
• Most Important Part of Project
• in Real World
• Allocate Requirements
• Define Which Part of Project Will be Responsible
• Define Extensions for Time Permitting
• Develop Web Site for Project

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Project Management

• Use Web Site as Progress Tool
• Present All Work
• Customers Can Monitor Progress
• Define Team Member Responsibilities
• Assign Team Member to Each Part of Design
• Assign Each Requirement to a Team Member

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Project Management (Contd)

• Develop Schedule
• Gant Chart Microsoft Project, etc.
• Examples Good and Bad
• Versions Keep Old Ones on Web Site
• List Each Task and Subtask for Entire Year
• Assign a persons name to each item
• Show Duration and Dependencies
• Report Progress Toward Schedule
• Each Week Email to Mentor
• Periodic Meetings with Mentor
• Each Month to Instructors

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Project Management (Contd)

• Problems Tell Mentor and Instructor Immediately
  Not 2 Months Later
• Stay Organized and Watch Time Carefully
• Communicate in all Directions Up/Down
• Make Certain Long Lead Items are Ordered Early

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Building Breadboard Prototype

• Roger Traylor will Lecture on this in November

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Documentation

• Discussed in Winter Term
• Many Examples from past 3 years in Tina Battens
  Office

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Final Product

• Open House Mid May
• Display your Project Poster, Demo, Video, etc.
• Writeup to hand out on your project
• Hundreds of Visitors