ECE 4532: CPE SENIOR DESIGN I
Professor Joseph Picone
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Mississippi State University

email: picone@cavs.msstate.edu
phone/fax: 662-325-3149; office: 413 Simrall
URL: http://www.cavs.msstate.edu/research/isip/publications/courses/ece_4512

Senior Design I is the first course in a two-semester sequence that constitutes the capstone design experience for undergraduate computer engineers. In the ABET handbook on accrediting engineering programs, it states:

"Students must be prepared for engineering practice through the curriculum culminating in a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating engineering standards and realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political."

Your design project is expected to address as many of these issues as possible. In this portion of the course, students will be expected to identify a team project, and complete the design and simulation phases of the project. The course will culminate with a presentation of the proposed project to a design review committee, a demonstration of a hardware prototype, and a detailed design document that clearly documents all aspects of the design process.

The course objectives are as follows:

1. explain the difference between a team and a workgroup
   
   
2. list characteristics of successful teams
   
   
3. distinguish five modes of handling team conflicts and how they may be useful or harmful
   
   
4. list characteristics of effective leaders
   
   
5. identity key reasons why projects fail or succeed
   
   
6. write a team charter
   
   
7. implement ground rules for effective meetings and demonstrate their use
   
   
8. explain the motivation for using standards
   
   
9. classify the cost components in a design and project a realistic price to the customer
   
   
10. optimize a design for sustainability
    
    
11. present a professional presentation with strong technical content and audience inter-action
    
    
12. execute efficient and effective team meeting and maintain meeting minutes
    
    
13. interact efficiently and effectively with faculty advisor
    
    
14. formulate a defensible design approach
    
    
15. evaluate, design, and optimize custom hardware and software individually and as a team
    
    
16. create an objective, testable design specification
    
    
17. create and follow a test plan leading to a functional design
    
    
18. write a professional project report
    
    
19. design and create a project poster
    
    
20. create a professional team Web site
    
    
21. apply critical path scheduling
    
    
22. apply entrepreneurial thinking in the context of a design project

The structure of the course for computer engineers and electrical engineers is essentially the same since we follow the same design process. Computer engineering projects, however, must have both a software and hardware component. Electrical engineering projects most often have both, but occasionally focus only on hardware.

Questions or comments about the material presented here can be directed to ies_help@cavs.msstate.edu.