Timeline


Getting Started

Welcome to ECE 445! If you've looked at the course
Calendar, you've probably already noticed that this class is quite different from most other classes in the department. The class only meets as a whole for the first three weeks of the semester. During these class periods you will meet the instructors, get a quick summary of what the class is about, and have a chance to meet other students to share ideas and pick teams. These are three of the most important weeks for the class since the decisions you make then will determine what you'll get out of this class and how much you'll enjoy it.

On the first Wednesday, you will meet the instructors. They will go over the Calendar and discuss some of the resources available to you in this class. You'll also get a chance to hear project ideas from visiting faculty members, industry contacts, and your own classmates. Time is left at the end for dividing up into smaller groups of people with similar interests, where project ideas can be shared and potential partners can be found.

Throughout the following week, take advantage of the Discussion Board to find teammates and share ideas.

Forming Teams / Brainstorming

During the second Wednesday class session, additional resources will be discussed, new project opportunities may be presented, and the Project Proposal will be described in more detail. Plenty of time will be left at the end for forming your teams of 2-3 people and discussing your project idea with teammates and the instructors if you haven't already done so. By the end of this class, you should have a team and a reasonable idea of what you want to do for a project.

Submitting an Initial Idea

By the end of the second week of class, you will need to submit a Request For Approval (RFA) for your team's initial project idea. This is done on the
Discussion Board, and should include the following information:

Getting Approval

If the Instructor thinks your idea is reasonable and hasn't been done previously in the class, your project will be approved. The Instructor may provide feedback on your idea, or suggested changes in the scope of the project and ask you to re-submit an RFA. Once the Instructor has approved the project idea, you will be assigned a project number in the
Projects list, a TA and a locker in the lab. Once you're approved, please go to the Projects page, log into the PACE system, and update your Project Information with your name, your project description and info, and any other useful information. This will earn your first points in the class!

Week Three

The third Wednesday will provide a broader overview of the class. The Design Review will be discussed in detail, and the engineering process will be presented. By this point, everyone should have a project approved, and should be ready to get working! At this time, you'll need to log into PACE and
submit your schedule for the semester. NOTE: Please be sure to make this as accurate as possible since once it's submitted, it can't be changed!

Meeting with Your TA

Once each person on your team has submitted his/her schedule, your TA will be able to easily check for available times to schedule a weekly meeting. Your TA should contact you, usually by the fourth week, via email, to set up a weekly meeting schedule at mutual convenience. These meetings will continue throughout the entire semester until demonstrations are completed. Your TA is your project manager. The "homework" of the course consists of preparing for the weekly meetings. Preparation is evaluated through the
Teamwork and Lab Notebook scores. Your TA will evaluate your lab notebook each week, provide feedback, and recommend improvements. Questions will be answered or else referred to someone who can help. At the meetings you will discuss work completed the previous week, planned work for the upcoming week, questions about course procedures or technical problems, or obtaining parts. If you can't make it to a particular weekly meeting, it is your responsibility to inform your TA and set up an alternative time.

The Project Proposal

The basic purpose of the Project Proposal is to "sell" your idea to your manager, or in this case, your instructors. It should outline the product features and benefits to the end customer, and give a general design overview, including the performance specifications the project will meet and your plan for meeting these objectives. It is also important to provide a schedule showing the division of labor between team members and the sequence in which work will be completed. This Proposal will be the first major deliverable for your project, and should be uploaded to your Project Page using PACE before the deadline.

Note that if your project does not involve a significant hardware component, you will need to complete a
Special Circuit in addition to your project. This circuit will be assigned by your TA and should involve 10-15 hours of work. This circuit will need to be demonstrated along with your project on Demo Day, and a tolerance analysis must be included in your Final Report.

Ordering Parts

As soon as you know which parts you'll need for your design, it's a good idea to start acquiring them. There are a few ways to do this, depending on what you need.

The ECE Parts Shop maintains a stock of around 8000 basic electronic parts, including standard resistors, capacitors, small switches, IC sockets, and many IC's. These are supplied free of charge. We also have a miscellaneous inventory of parts in the lab, available for use. Additionally, a limited number of special purchases can be made by your TA on behalf of a project. Finally, external parties sometimes provide parts or funds for individual projects through grants and the Partners Program. If available, these will be announced at the first class meeting. It also doesn't hurt to ask companies for free samples of parts, as many are willing to give parts to help poor college students finish their senior projects!

If the team purchases the major parts for a project with their own funds they may keep the project as personal property.

NOTE: It is not necessary to purchase anything personally, if the project is not to be kept as personal property. This way financial resources of individuals do not become an obstacle to choice of projects or opportunity for a good grade.

The Design Review

The Design Review, held in the sixth week of the semester, is the paper creation of the project. By this point, the entire project should be planned out in enough detail that it could be passed on to another engineer for implementation. The Design Review is led as a board meeting with fellow engineers (in this case, faculty, staff and a student peer review team). The style is informal and collegial, but the standards for preparation are professional. The following should be added to the Proposal and distributed in paper form for the review team, TA, and Instructors:
  1. Detailed design schematics with part numbers and pinouts (flow charts for software)
  2. Mechanical drawings with measurements where appropriate
  3. Preliminary simulation results (preliminary testing or user interface for software)
  4. A specific plan (more detailed than the Proposal) for modular and system testing and tolerance analysis
  5. Detailed Schedule, clearly showing the division of labor
  6. Parts list with cost analysis
  7. Ordering status of parts (many should be in hand already, with the rest in transit)
(Note for Power projects, RF projects, and projects using analog filters: Simulations are required along with thorough calculations supporting your design)

Several single-copy items should be brought to the review if applicable (do not go overboard):
  1. Mathematical calculations
  2. Lab notebooks
  3. The Proposal
  4. Manufacturer data sheets for parts
  5. Similar or related previous projects or sections thereof, journal articles, book excerpts
The Design Review is not a demo: Do not bring parts/hardware. We are looking for an understanding of the design. It is an informal event where you will briefly overview your project and then engage in an open discussion. We are looking for as many pictures/schematics as possible to quickly illustrate your design. Most of the Design Review material can be reused later in the semester with the Demo, Presentation, and Final Paper.

Any material obtained from websites, books, journal articles, or other sources not originally generated by the project team must be appropriately attributed with properly cited sources.

Three sample Design Review documents are available as a measurement of what we expect. Notes are made in red type to point out what is lacking.
Sample DR 1, Sample DR 2, Sample DR 3.

Sign-up for the Design Review is handled through the PACE system, and will be opened approximately one week in advance of the reviews. Please also remember to sign up for a peer review of another group. The Design Review document should be uploaded via PACE before your review.

Mock-up Demos

The Mock-up demo is an informal but mandatory event held with your TA during your weekly meeting time. No score is directly attached to this demo, but adequate progress is critical if the project is to be completed on time. At this point, the major sub-systems should have been constructed, but perhaps not yet integrated or tested. These sub-systems correspond to the blocks outlined in the Project Proposal.

However, it is strongly recommended that the system be completed and integrated to as great an extent as possible, leaving the Mock Demo to Final Demo period for calm, systematic debugging and testing.

The Final Demo

The Final Demonstration is the single most important measure of your project. Test results outlined in the Proposal should be documented and available for inspection. The design team should be ready to justify their design decisions and discuss any technical aspect of the project or its performance (not just one's own responsibilities). Quantitative results are expected wherever applicable.

The evaluation is much like for the Design Review, but here there is more weight on the issue of completion, testing, and reliable operation.

For a full score on the Final Demo, show the following:
  1. Completion: The project has been entirely completed.
  2. Thoroughness: Care and attention to detail are evident in construction and layout.
  3. Performance: Performance is completely verified, and operation is reliable.
  4. Understanding: Everyone on the project team must must be able to demonstrate understanding of his/her technical work and show that all members have contributed significantly.
Sign-up for a demo time is handled through the PACE system, much like the Design Review. Again, remember to sign up for a peer review.

The Presentation

Presentations of the projects are given a few days after the Final Demo to an audience of fellow student reviewers, the lab instructors, and occasionally faculty or even students from outside the class who are following up a project of personal interest to them. The style is formal and professional.

Each project team has 25 minutes for a Powerpoint presentation and questions. All group members must speak and be ready to answer questions. Individual grades are given, and everyone in the audience participates in the grading. Talks are judged on the basis of presentation technique and of technical organization and content.

Points of technique include dress, use of display materials and their design for readability, clarity of speech, absence of annoying mannerisms, proper eye contact with audience and smooth transitions between speakers. Content is judged on use of a proper introduction, orderly and connected development of ideas, absence of unnecessary details, proper pacing to stay within the allotted time, and an adequate summary at the close of the talk. Quantitative results are expected whenever applicable. Here is a general outline to follow:
  1. Introduction
  2. Objective
  3. Review Original Design
  4. Describe project build and functional tests
  5. Discuss successes and challenges
  6. Other tests
  7. Recommendations
Two sample Presentation documents are available as a measurement of what we expect. Notes are made at the top of the slides. Sample
PRES 1, Sample PRES 2.

Sign-up is just like that for the Design Review and Demo. Remember to sign up for a peer review of another group.

The Written Report

The Final Report is held to professional standards of language and format, and is evaluated by the people who check Master's Theses for the Department. It is also evaluated for technical content and organization by your instructors. Quantitative results are expected wherever applicable. The Final Written Report is submitted to the web site through PACE, just like the Project Proposals. Check the links below for detailed instructions on how to write it and what to include:
Three sample Final Report documents are available as a measurement of what we expect. Notes are made in red type to point out what is lacking. Sample FR 1, Sample FR 2, and Sample FR 3 with a separate Appendix. Examples of what we expect in graphs and tables are available in the document Conveying Data.

Checkout / Pizza

Checkout Day usually follows a day or two after Final Reports and Lab Notebooks have been turned in. You'll need to return all your major parts to your TA and make sure nothing is missing from your lab kit before you can get a grade in the class. After Checkout, a short Awards ceremony will be held to honor those who, in the instructors' opinions, have managed to do exemplary projects during the semester. Immediately afterwards, you're all welcome to celebrate your project completion with free pizza and pop with the rest of you classmates!

Continuing your Project

Groups that wish to continue their projects are encouraged to sign up for Undergraduate Independent Study: ECE 396, ECE 397, ECE 497, or ECE 499.

Funds of up to $500 are available in order to defray project expenses. These funds have been generously provided by the ECE Alumni Fund and may be used for materials and supplies, equipment, computer software, etc. Funds may not be used for salaries or wages. Purchases may be made through the ECE Business Office, ECE Stores or reimbursement of personal funds with proper documentation. More information will be provided upon approval.

Please see the
Undergraduate Independent Study Funding page for more details.