Course Overview
Welcome to ECE 445 / ME 470 Senior Design ZJUI Spring 2024!
Welcome to the class! 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 four weeks of the semester. During these lectures, you will meet the Course Staff, learn about specific requirements, resources, and project choices for the course, and have a chance to meet other students. These are some of the most important weeks for the class since the decisions you make during this time will determine what you'll get out of this class and, in many ways, how much you'll enjoy it.
In this course, you will form teams and propose projects that solve an engineering problem in a unique way. The projects generally involve a device that you will design, build, and demonstrate. We are excited to see what projects you create this semester! In the midst of an ever-changing learning environment, we want to encourage you to think, create, design, and build exemplary projects. We want to ensure that your experience in 445 demonstrates your potential as an engineer graduating from the University of Illinois.
This course is taught hybrid for ME and ECE students, and some projects are mentored by ZJUI faculty. Here are a few items that you will need to consider as we enter this semester.
Expectations and Requirements
We have high expectations for students participating in ECE/ME Senior Design. You are soon to be an alumnus of one of the top engineering schools in the world. Our alumni hold themselves to high technical and professional standards of conduct. In general, projects are expected to be safe, ethical, and have a level of design complexity commensurate with the rigour of the ECE/ME Illinois curriculum. Requirements for specific assignments due throughout the semester can be found by looking through the Grading Scheme for the course. Please read through this documentation well before each assignment is due. Specific due dates can be found on the course Calendar.
Below are a few words of wisdom to keep in mind throughout the semester to increase your enjoyment and success in the course:
- Team Formation: Students in this class will be assigned to 3 or 4 person teams. Each team will have a combination of ECE and ME students, depending on the project's needs.
- You will be introduced to a problem statement and general project idea, however, you will be responsible for proposing, designing, and implementing a novel solution.
- Introductory lectures: We will have four class meetings which will be held on the first four Fridays of the semester (2/17, 2/24, 3/3, and 3/10). It is important to attend these lectures to understand the class logistics and hear about the choice of projects.
- "You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note" (attributed to Doug Floyd). You might be tempted to form a team exclusively of your friends you have worked with in previous courses. While it is important to make sure you can have a good working relationship with your teammates, it is equally important to make sure that your team consists of engineers with a wide range of skill sets. If you are only working with people who have taken courses with in the past, you likely will have overlapping skill sets and the same technical blindspots. Consider talking with other students who have taken courses in areas you have not. You might find that the combination of these disparate skill sets lend themselves to creating a more exciting project!
- "With great freedom comes great responsibility" (attributed to many, including Benjamin Franklin). In this course, you are ultimately responsible for the success of your project. To a very large extent, you define your own requirements and metrics for success. Although the course staff is there to support and encourage you, you and your teammates must put in the time and effort that will lead to a successful demonstration of your project at the end of the semester. However, seek out and carefully consider the advice provided to you by the course staff. We tend to have a good sense of what is and is not possible within the constraints of the course.
- "Slow and steady wins the race" (from an Aesop's fable). You will actually be constructing and physically demonstrating the project you design in this course. Creating a schedule that distributes work amongst your team throughout the semester, and sticking to it, is paramount! Please do not leave things until the end of the semester and expect a positive outcome. Procrastination is not your friend, for no other reasons than parts take time to order and arrive, the electronics and machine shops get inundated with requests from this and other courses and so may not be able to immediately address your needs, and the lab can get very crowded and you may not be able to access a lab bench whenever you want.
- "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar" or "Treat others the way you expect to be treated" (attributed to many). Conducting yourself professionally will take you far in this course. Be considerate to your teammates, TA, and anyone else you interact with in this course (and in life, for that matter!). Your TA will be working with many groups in addition to yours. Be respectful of their time. If you are going to be late or miss a meeting with them, contact them as soon as you know this so they can repurpose their time. Get in touch with the electronics and machine shop as early as possible if you are going to need their services and seek their advice. Be considerate of your teammates and others in the course - clean up lab benches, log off of computers when not in use, don't hog test equipment, help others if they ask. You will find that this department is filled with people who will bend over backwards to help you succeed, and this help will be given happily if they are treated respectfully.