College of Engineering ECE Curriculum Enhancements: Senior Design Experiences Professor David G. Meyer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

College of Engineering

ECE Curriculum Enhancements:Senior Design Experiences

Professor David G. Meyer

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering


Outline

Design Context

Senior Design Options

Sample Projects

Self-Evaluation

Panel Discussion


Definition – Senior Design Course

A Senior Design Course must provide students with a major multi-disciplinary design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work. The design project must be team-based and must incorporate engineering design standards and realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political. The experience must also reinforce the students’ understanding of ethical and professional responsibility and their ability to communicate effectively.


Definition – Major Design Experience

A major design experience is one that involves at least three (3) credit hours of coursework with 100% engineering design content and involves most of the following elements of the design process: the establishment of objectives and criteriasynthesisanalysisconstructiontestingevaluation


Senior Design Learning OutcomesA student who successfully fulfills the course requirements will

have demonstrated:1. an ability to apply knowledge obtained in earlier coursework and

to obtain new knowledge necessary to design and test a system, component, or process to meet desired needs.

2. an understanding of the engineering design process. 3. an ability to function on an interdisciplinary team. 4. an awareness of professional and ethical responsibility. 5. effective communication skills, both oral and written. Successful demonstration of all five learning outcomes is

required to receive a passing grade.


Senior Design Reports Summary of the project, including customer, purpose, specifications, and a summary

of the approach. Description of how the project built upon the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier

ECE coursework (include course numbers). Description of what new technical knowledge and skills were acquired in doing the

project. Description of how the engineering design process was incorporated, with reference to:

establishment of objectives and criteria, synthesis, analysis, construction, testing, and evaluation.

Summary of how realistic design constraints (economic, environmental, ethical, health and safety, social, political, sustainability, and manufacturability) were incorporated.

Description of the multidisciplinary nature of the project. Description of the project deliverables.


ECE Senior Design Advisory Committee

Review ECE senior design course certification requests

Review ECE senior design semester reports

Make recommendations to ECE Curriculum Committee regarding reviews


Current ECE Senior Design Options

ECE 402 ECE Design Projects

EPCS 402 Senior Participation in EPICS

ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Project


ECE 402 – EE Design Projects

Each student shall:Develop ownership in a sub-system (or two)Design, build, and test to meet specificationsInterface with the team systemCause team success—by contributing technicallyCause team success—by leading and followingGet somewhere with something real


ECE 402 – EE Design Projects

› Main Features:– One semester design / build / test / demonstrate

– Teams of four (ECE and some CmpE students)

– Concepts: block and flow diagrams, schematics, printed circuit board design, programming, packaging, RF and Optical signal transmission, imaging, actuators, motors, sensors, physics, and chemistry. (Not all at once)

– Design considerations: reliability, safety factors, cost, etc.

– Individual laboratory notebooks

– Two Design Reviews, Two Individual Oral Progress Reports, One Demo

– Opportunities for teams to do special projects as feasible.


ECE 402 – Sample Project


EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS› Description: Uses service-learning to teach design within

vertically integrated and multidisciplinary teams that design, develop, deploy and support projects that meet the needs of their local community partners.

› Objective: To provide long-term, authentic design experiences that exposes students to the entire design process from problem identification to support and retirement/disposal within a community/human context.

› Senior Design: Senior design students are distributed on EPICS teams with appropriate project potential and fulfill additional requirements to verify outcomes.


EPCS 401/2 – Senior Participation in EPICS

› Main Features:– Service-Learning Model

• Real projects for real people– Experience the entire design cycle– Multi-semester projects

• Senior design is a two semester experience for 3 credits with individual documentation and presentation requirements

– Large (~15 students) and diverse teams with 3-5 active projects– Professional development:

• Leadership; Project management; Personnel and placement; Customer relations; Budgets; Technical reviews and Delivery• Extensive communication requirements• Ethics and social context• Entrepreneurship and innovation

– Formative and summative assessments of teams and individuals


EPCS 401/2 –Sample Projects› EPICS Projects are done in four broad community areas

– Human Services

• Information management, improved services

– Access and Abilities

• Technology for adults and children with disabilities

– Environmental

• Remediation designs, community education

– Education and outreach

• Designs for schools, local museums and zoos


EPCS 402 – Sample Project

Sensor network for Imagination Station Museum


ECE 477 – Digital Systems Design Project

› Description: A structured approach to the development and integration of embedded microcontroller hardware and software that provides senior-level students with significant design experience applying microcontrollers to a wide range of embedded systems.

› Objective: To provide practical experience developing integrated hardware and software for an embedded microcontroller system in an environment that models one which students will most likely encounter in industry.


ECE 477 – Digital Systems Design Project› Main Features:

– One semester design / fabricate / test / demonstrate – Students pick own project (subject to constraints) and define own

project-specific success criteria– Work in teams of four (mixture of ECE and CmpE students)– Design components include: packaging design, schematic design,

printed circuit board design, and software design– Professional components include: design constraint analysis,

reliability and safety analysis, patent liability analysis, and ethical and environmental impact analysis

– Individual (on-line) laboratory notebooks– Extensive reporting/presentation requirements– Technical communication skills development activities– Quantitative assessment of all five course outcomes

Some BSCmpE Senior Design Projects...

Demo Video

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ece477/Webs/S08-Grp12/vids/Greg05.wmv





Demo Video

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ece477/Webs/S08-Grp11/files/PSSC.flv




DSDP Outcomes and Assessment

1. An ability to apply knowledge obtained in earlier coursework and to obtain new knowledge necessary to design and test a system, component, or process to meet desired needs – design component report

2. An understanding of the engineering design process – individual lab notebook

3. An ability to function on a multidisciplinary team – project specific success criteria (functionality)

4. An awareness of professional and ethical responsibility – professional component report

5. An ability to communicate effectively, in both oral and written form – formal design review, final written report, and final presentation


Outcome Tracking Results forDigital Systems Design Project

Outcome 1 – design component report

Outcome 2 – individual lab notebook

Outcome 3 – project specific success criteria

Outcome 4 – professional component report

Outcome 5 – technical communication skills

2 Tablet PCs per team

1 Tablet PC per team

TCSP sessions initiated

HTML notebooks

initiated


Self-Evaluation

› Strengths– Good diversity of design experiences afforded by current

options available to students– Research/publications on outcome assessment

› Areas for Improvement– Ability to handle the projected enrollment increases in

ECE 402 and ECE 477– More consistency in outcome assessment among the

various senior design options– More consistency in project deliverables and their

evaluation


Opportunities for Input/Involvement

› Opportunities for input

– How well are the various ECE senior design options preparing students for the future?

– What are (other) potential areas for improvement?

› Opportunities for involvement

– Crafting ideas for senior design projects

– Participating in the formal evaluation process

– Supporting parts acquisition and PCB fabrication

Documents

College of Engineering ECE Curriculum Enhancements: Senior Design Experiences Professor David G. Meyer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering