SYLLABUS
Contact Information:

Lecture Time	T: 12:30 - 1:50 PM
Lecture Place	EA 102
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_01@listserv.temple.edu
URL	http://www.isip.piconepress.edu/publications/courses/temple/engr_4196
Textbook	None
Suggested Reference	L. Daniel, et al., MIT 6.003: Signals and Systems
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:
Design Document	25%
Proposal Presentation	20%
Weekly Deliverables	20%
Preliminary Proposal Presentation	10%
Advisor Evaluation	10%
Peer Review	10%
Web Site	5%

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.

We use a popular project planning tool, Microsoft Project, in this course. This will help you plan your projects on a daily basis. Every Friday evening, you will be responsible for making a deliverable available on your web site. There will be approximately 10 deliverables over the course of the semester, each worth about 2% of your grade. These will be described in detail in class and via email. A schedule is provided below. Team leaders will be responsible for managing the project document. This will be explained in more detail in class. The weekly MS project assignments, and related documentation assignments, now comprise the single largest component of your final grade.

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 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 10% (one 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.

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	01/19	Organization and Introductions
2	01/26	The Design Cycle
3	02/02	Abstract Review / Title / Problem Statement
4	02/09	Design Constraints
5	02/16	The Design Document
6	02/23	Design Constraints Review / The Executive Summary
7	03/02	Technical Presentations
8	03/09	Spring Break
9	03/16	Preliminary Design Review
10	03/23	Design Review Post-Mortem
11	03/30	Cost and Schedule
12	04/06	Simulation and Testing
13	04/15	Design Reviews
14	04/20	Design Review Post-Mortem
15	04/27	Guest Speaker
16	05/04	Study Day
17	05/11	Final Deliverable

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	01/25	Product Specification and Web Site Entry
2	02/01	Project Abstract
3	02/08	Revised Abstract / Project Title / Problem Statement (1st Draft)
4	02/15	Project Report Cover Page / Web Site Main Page (Team, Advisors, Title) / Design Constraints (1st Draft)
5	02/22	Revised Problem Statement / Integrated Design Document
6	03/01	Design Constraints (Complete Section)
7	03/15	Mid-Term Technical Presentation
8	03/22	Executive Summary
9	03/29	System Block Diagram
10	04/05	Cost and Schedule
11	04/12	Test Plans, Final Presentation
12	04/19	Revised Schedule
13	04/26	Approach, Updated Web Site
14	05/06	Design Document and Web Site