SYLLABUS

Contact Information:

Lecture Time T: 12:30 - 1:50 PM
Lecture Place GH L021
Laboratory Anderson Hall 104 (see your department's lab manager)
Lecturer Joseph Picone, Professor
Lecturer Office EA 712
Lecturer Office Hours TR: 11:30 - 12:30 PM (also available as needed at other times)
Lecturer Phone 215-214-4841
Lecturer Email picone@temple.edu
Lecturer Instant Messaging Google Talk: joseph.picone@gmail.com
Class Alias engr_4196@listserv.temple.edu
URL http://www.isip.piconepress.edu/publications/courses/temple/engr_4196
Textbook None
Prerequisites ENGR 2196 or equivalent, senior standing in the student's department (90 s.h.) and completion of ENGR 4169

You must also be a member of a team that has a project that has been approved by the course instructor.


Grading Policies:

Item: Weight:
  Weekly Deliverables   30%
  Design Document   20%
  Web Site   20%
  Proposal Presentation   10%
  Advisor Evaluation   10%
  Preliminary Proposal Presentation   5%
  Peer Review   5%
  Extra Credit: Hardware Prototype   25%


Description:

The goal of our two-semester sequence is to provide you with a realistic design experience, and teach you the tools and methodologies that can help you be successful at this endeavor. Demonstration that your project can be successfully constructed to meet your design constraints is an important requirement to complete this course. Receiving a passing grade is not a guarantee that you will be allowed to proceed to Senior Design Project II. You must first demonstrate feasibility to your advisor and the course instructor. In the event that you do not meet this requirement, you should plan on making up the work over the semester break. Without this approval, you will not be allowed to enroll in the second semester of this course.

In order that each team member be motivated to participate fully in the team, teams are allowed to vote members out of the group (we were inspired by the television series "Survivor") at the end of semester. For the member voted out, this might mean you have to retake this course, so you need to work to avoid this at all costs. Communication amongst team members and the project advisor about expectations and performance is essential. Far too often, students voted out complain that no one in the group appreciated how much work they really did.

To be considered for a passing grade in this portion of the class, your design review must convince the committee this project is ready for the fabrication stage (the following course in the two-course sequence). You also must convince the committee that you have done a sufficient amount of simulation and prototyping of your system, and that all critical design questions have been answered.

The design document is a comprehensive description of the entire project including: requirements, test specification, design, and test certification. It presents both simulation data and eventually hardware measurements (for the final system), demonstrating that your project has met its goals. This document should address most of the points listed on the cover page of the course web site. Templates for this document are available on-line.

Technical writing is a very important part of the overall course goals in senior design. Because you are supplied with a detailed Microsoft Word template for the design document, grading of the design document will be strict. Documents will first be graded based on their technical content. Next, for each infraction of the formatting guidelines, you will have one letter grade deducted from the overall grade for your document. A failing grade on the design document will be counted more heavily - a team cannot receive a grade higher than a C in this course if they fail the design document component of the course.

The design review is the big enchilada. You must address all design deficiencies noted in your preliminary review, and review all aspects of the project (with technical details supporting your claims). This will be a 15-minute presentation. At the time of the design review, a project web site must be available containing all information about the project, including the documents described above and the design review presentation.

The preliminary design review should be a dry-run of the final presentation. It is a 15-minute presentation by one team member that reviews project. At this presentation, any deficiencies that are documented must be rectified in your final design review. At this stage of the course, you will be expected to show solid design constraints, a preliminary design, and a comprehensive simulation and testing plan.

Another significant component of your grade is derived from your advisor's evaluation of your role on the team and your peer review. Remember the prime directive: "Keep your advisor happy." The rationale your advisor uses to arrive at your grade is at his or her discretion. Be sure to communicate with your advisor to fully understand his or her expectations.

The project web site will be graded according to its comprehensiveness. A good site will contain a complete archive of the project, including all documents, presentations, data, measurements, schematics in source file format, software, etc. Web sites are graded on a competitive basis so keep an eye on your competition.

Your course grade will be computed using the categories and weights described above. Final grades can be adjusted by 5% (one-half letter grade) based on feedback collected from a peer review process. The method of application of this input is rather complicated, and arrived at using a "raise-pool" format (based on the way salary raises work in industry). This will be explained in greater detail at the end of the semester.

Since demonstrating proof of concept is important, we are offering you a chance to earn extra credit by creating a hardware prototype in the first semester. This will help guarantee you a successful build phase in the second semester. This is an optional step. Teams electing to do this must demonstrate a working prototype by the last regularly scheduled class. The maximum credit that can be earned will be 25%; partial credit will be awarded based on the degree of completion.

Schedule:

Please note that the dates below are fixed since they have been arranged to optimize a number of constraints. You need to adjust your schedules, including job interviews and site visits, accordingly.

Class
Date
   Topic(s)
1
08/31
   Organization and Introductions
2
09/07
   The Design Cycle
3
09/14
   Guest Lecture
4
09/21
   The Design Document
5
09/28
   Technical Presentations
6
10/05
   Formatting, Problem Statement and Design Constraints Revisited
7
10/12
   Approach
8
10/19
   Preliminary Design Review - Part I
9
10/26
   Preliminary Design Review - Part II
10
11/02
   Cost and Schedule
11
11/09
   Standards and Testing
12
11/18
   Design Reviews
13
11/23
   Design Review Post-Mortem
14
11/30
   Executive Summary
15
12/07
   What's Next?


Deliverables:

All deliverables will be posted to the project web site by 8 AM on the day indicated below. The course instruction team will download these documents from the web site at this time and grade them.

Assignment
Due Date
 Item(s)
1
09/06
   Web Site (Team, Advisors, Title)
2
09/13
   Project Title and Abstract
3
09/20
   Problem Statement
4
09/27
   Project Report Cover Page / Design Constraints
5
10/04
   Revised Problem Statement / Revised Abstract
6
10/11
   Revised Design Constraints
7
10/18
   Mid-Term Technical Presentation
8
10/25
   System Block Diagram
9
11/01
   Product Specification
10
11/08
   Cost and Schedule
11
11/15
   Design Review Presentation
12
11/22
   Executive Summary
13
11/29
   Approach
14
12/06
   Design Document and Web Site