1 (fie03.ppt

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The Capstone Senior Design Course An Initiative
in Partnering with Industry
Dewey Rundus Kenneth J. Christensen Department of
Computer Science and Engineering University of
South Florida Tampa, Florida 33620 rundus,
christen_at_csee.usf.edu
1 (fie03.ppt 11/06/03)
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Topics

• Introduction and background
• Role in ABET EC 2000
• Course design and implementation
• Examples of projects
• Evaluation of the course
• Summary and future work

This material was partially presented at the ASEE
Southeast Section Meeting in Macon, Georgia in
April 2003.
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Introduction and background

• Our department Computer Science and
  Engineering
• BS in Computer Engineering (ABET accredited)
• BS in Computer Science (ABET accredited)
• BS in Information Systems
• MS and PhD programs
• 18 faculty members
• Research funding from NSF, Navy, other federal
  agencies
• Well rated PhD program
• Department enrollment is about
• 400 (!) undergraduate students
• 200 graduate students (50 are PhD)

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Introduction and background continued

• Senior capstone design course (CIS 4910)
• Part of most engineering and computer science
  curriculums
• Purpose is to
• Integrate knowledge
• Produce a useful artifact (design and build)
• Many models for a capstone course
• Internal - individual or team-based
• Students select project
• Faculty members select project
• Industry - individual or team-based
• Providing projects and/or support

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Introduction and background continued

• Growing trend towards industry-based project
  courses
• One motivation is to prepare students for
  industry careers

University Web site for CE and/or CS capstone course
Arizona http//www.ece.arizona.edu/ece498/
Mich Tech http//www.ece.mtu.edu/pages/senior_design/index.html
NCSU http//courses.ncsu.edu/ece480/lec/001/
NCSU http//sd.csc.ncsu.edu/SeniorDesign/index.html
Oregon State http//www.ece.orst.edu/industry/srprojectbrochure.pdf
Portland State http//www.cecs.pdx.edu/capstone_student.php
UF http//www.ise.ufl.edu/IPPD.html
USF http//www.csee.usf.edu/christen/class6/class6.html
UIUC http//www.ece.uiuc.edu/corporate/design.html
UIUC http//slappy.cs.uiuc.edu/cs292/
Small sample
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Introduction and background continued

• Example 1 UF IPPD program (college-wide)
• Selective program (top 25), interdisciplinary,
  team-based
• Example 2 NCSU Senior Design center (CS dept)
• Design center, catalog of projects, emphasis on
  soft topics
• Example 3 UIUC Corporate Connective
  initiative (ECE dept)

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Role in ABET EC 2000

• Design is a major concern of ABET accreditation
  visits
• Integrated throughout program
• Capstone course can be be a major focus of a
  visit
• EC 2000 criterion 3 (a thru k) outcomes involve
  design
• EC 2000 criterion 4 directly addresses design

Our view a capstone course is the cornerstone of
the professional requirements of a quality
undergraduate engineering curriculum.
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Role in ABET EC 2000 continued

• EC 2000 criterion 3 (subparts that apply to a
  capstone course)
• (a) apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and
  engineering
• (c) design a system, component, or process to
  meet desired needs
• (d) function on multi-disciplinary teams
• (e) identify, formulate, and solve engineering
  problems
• (g) communicate effectively and
• (k) use the techniques, skills, and modern
  engineering tools
• necessary for engineering practice.

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Role in ABET EC 2000 continued

• EC 2000 criterion 4
• engineering standards and realistic
  constraints that include most
• of the following considerations economic
  environmental
• sustainability manufacturability ethical
  health and safety
• social and political.

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Course Design and Implementation

• History of capstone course in our department
• Individually selected projects 1987 to 2000
• Industry-based team projects 2001 to present
• Individual projects are good
• Students with a strong idea are driven to do
  well
• Only modest overhead for department
• Individual projects are bad
• Little topic constraint
• Students without ideas would search aimlessly
• No team-work experience
• Sometimes very little supervision
• No recognition of faculty effort
• High variability in project quality

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Our course objectives
• 1) Students will select an industry-contributed
  hardware or
• software project and form teams of size four
  to six based.
• 2) Student teams will follow a formal
  development process.
• 3) Students will complete requirements, spec,
  and test plan.
• 4) Students will implement their design.
• 5) Students will test the resulting system.
• 6) Students will produce a written final report,
  poster, press
• Release, final oral presentation, and
  project demonstration.
• 7) Students will experience all phases of
  project development and
• thereby will gain an appreciation.

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• We approach central-Florida companies that hire
  our graduates
• Sell the course based on two benefits to
  company
• 1) A first look at graduating class
  (recruiting)
• 2) An opportunity to have a back-burner problem
  solved

A presentation is made to industry
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Course Design and Implementation continued
Industry participation in senior project continued

• We need project ideas and champions for Fall
  2002
• A good project is
• Technical
• Slightly open-ended
• Project scope 4-student team prototypes within
  3 months
• Not on the critical path for industry
• Not proprietary

Presentation to industry
Need 8 such projects by mid-December 2002
Our fourth semester
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Course Design and Implementation continued
Industry participation in senior project continued

• What is needed from you
• 1) A project and a kick-off meeting with a
  student team
• 2) Mentoring (amount is up to you)
• 3) One guest lecture
• 4) Final student presentation at your
  corporate site

Presentation to industry
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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Development process used

Requirements Specification Design Implementati
on Test Manufacture Distribution Maintenance
End-of-life

• Teach standard development process
• Emphasis on prototype demo
• 20 of final grade
• Textbook is Fred Brooks Mythical
• Man Month
• Brooks was manager for OS/360
• Founded CS department at UNC

Prototype
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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Course outline
• Weeks 1 thru 4 Lecture on development process
• Week 5 Project work day
• Weeks 6 thru 12 Guest lectures from industry
• - Prototype
  demo on week 9
• Week 13 Mini-exam
• Week 14 Practice presentations
• Week 15 Final presentations and deliverables
  due

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Course deliverables
• 1) Requirements document week 3
• 2) Specification week 6
• 3) Prototype demonstration week 9
• 4) Test plan week 10
• 5) Final demonstration and presentation week
  15
• - Project demo
• - Formal presentation
• - Poster
• - Press release

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Course deliverables sample poster

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Examples of projects

• Breed Technologies - Spring 2002
• Situation Breed Technologies develops auto
  safety products and
• has many ongoing projects and employees. Time
  cards and project
• tracking is paper-and-pencil based.
• Requirements Develop a web-based labor and
  project tracking
• system.
• Project results Web-based system developed and
  deployed.

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Examples of projects continued

• Raytheon - Fall 2002
• Situation Raytheon develops secure telephone
  systems. There is
• a need to be able to validate the user of a
  telephone.
• Requirements Prototype the use of finger-print
  biometric devices
• for authorizing the user of an IP telephone.
• Project results Developed software to use
  off-the-shelf biometric
• fingerprint device to enable a PC-based IP
  telephone.

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Examples of projects continued

• Sonnys BBQ Spring 2002 and Fall 2002
• Situation Sonnys is the largest USA BBQ chain.
  Order taking is
• paper-and-pencil based and is labor intensive and
  error prone.
• Requirements Prototype the use of wireless
  hand-held computers
• for order taking and transmission to the kitchen.
• Project results First semester developed user
  interface for
• hand-held Palm computers. Second semester
  developed wireless
• interface and order delivery to the kitchen.

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Examples of projects continued

• Sypris Electronics Fall 2002 and Spring 2003
• Situation Sypris develops cryptographic boxes
  for the DoD.
• There is a need for cryptographic security on
  COTS hand-held
• computers.
• Requirements Develop a cryptographic service
  provider software
• package for a Microsoft WinCE handheld.
• Project results First semester developed most of
  software to
• run on a PC. Second semester group ported to
  hand-held and
• productized the software.

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Evaluation of the course

• Component 1 Modified course structure is an
  improvement
• Structured environment, no back ending of
  project work
• Component 2 Student self-surveys
• Almost all the students state that soft topics
  covered
• are critical to career success
• Almost all students state that they believe this
  course is
• better preparing them for industry that any
  other course
• Component 3 Long term evaluation
• Yet to be done, we need to survey graduates 2 to
  5 years
• past graduation

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Summary and future work

• Described design of an industry-based capstone
  design course
• We believe very beneficial to students entering
  workforce
• Future work is long-term evaluation of graduates
• We hope that our experience can be of value to
  others

Course outline and syllabus are included in the
paper
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