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SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT STANDARD January 31, 2017
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Senior Design Project Standard
School of Engineering
American University of Ras Al Khaimah
January 2017
SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT STANDARD January 31, 2017
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Proposed Project Process Flow
3. Proposed Grading Policy
4. Proposed Articles of Policies
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Introduction
Senior design Projects are adopted by many universities around the world. Students need
a complete engineering exercise to challenge their knowledge and given a chance to develop basic
skills in engineering projects. Unfortunately, not all the students tend to fully exploit this chance
and they try to sneak out with minimum effort, forgetting that slow starts does not build enough
momentum in the direction of their engineering careers. Consequently, a complete overall look is
needed to evaluate the current situation, trying to reestablish the original deliverable outcomes of
the Senior Design Project.
Overview
Typically, senior design projects should be tailored to run as a scaled down real engineering
projects. Just like any practical engineering project, one should pay attention to engineering
planning, analysis, problem solving, task and time management, documentation…etc. The
concentration on problem solving parts with the exclusion of the rest has devastating effects on
the senior design projects ABET related outcomes. Many long life learning skills should blossom
in the project environment when the setup is right.
Attention should be drawn to the importance of the senior design project in all levels.
Engineering planning and management hands on skills could be accomplished, logical and creative
thinking atmosphere maybe induced, and finally engineering imagination possibly flourish.
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Proposed Senior Project Process Flow
The proposed process flow chart will be divided into sections to enable discussions and
commenting.
The first step is to announce the collection of proposals from the faculty members
(minimum one and maximum three) at the beginning of each semester. The maximum number of
students should be four with a minimum of two to induce team work and enable proper task
distribution. Supervisors need to submit their proposals for department approval using the project
proposal. The project proposals are expected to achieve the goals of SDP by:
Proposing projects that are up to date
Including ABET requirements for environmental, economic and ethical issues
Selecting projects that are related to community and industrial needs
Proposing multidisciplinary projects
Once all the project proposals are collected they need to be analyzed by the Department to
verify ABET requirements and approved. This step is needed to guarantee suitability, level, quality
and ABET requirements adherence and it will give the whole department a rounded overview and
awareness of who is doing what. The following flowchart summarizes this step.
The next logical step is to prepare and orient the students for Senior Design Project I and
Project II. There should be two separate workshops conducted in the School of Engineering to
facilitate the senior design project standard and its requirements.
Typically, Senior Design Project I workshop should be conducted in the fifth week of the
semester and it should train the students over planning using Gantt charts, task distribution, how
to use the project log book, MS project…etc.
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Senior Design Project II workshop should train students over the format, the write-up of
the project technical report and the presentations. A tentative date for this workshop will be
scheduled at the end of the fifth week. Please note that these workshops will be conducted in mass
numbers. Hence, the collaboration of all engineering departments is needed for these workshops
to succeed.
The next sequence mainly involves the direct supervision of the students by their
supervisor. Early contacts with the project’s supervisor are mandatory in order to create task
distribution, Gantt chart, and project’s Milestones. During the course of the project the supervisor
should closely monitor the progress of the project and mentor his students and keep documented
Logbook records to alleviate the level of achievements of the project’s outcomes. Depending on
the students’ individual performance and their evaluations of Project I short progress report, they
may proceed to Senior Design Project II or repeat Project I.
Once the students proceed to Senior Design Project II, they are expected to finish all the
announced project’s outcomes, meet all the milestones and fulfil all the requirements of the
Project’s Standard. The supervisor should evaluate the ability of the students to finish the project
on designated time and take a decision either to instruct the students to wrap the project for the
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final stage or he should file an incomplete for those individuals who did not succeed in fulfilling
the project requirements.
Please note that the supervisors close monitoring to the project cycle is vital for the smooth
successful flow of the whole process. For example instructing the students to perform tasks in
parallel processing sequence will speed up the execution of the project cycle in a more efficient
way than sequential approach. Hence, report writing and documentation should be done
continuously in all projects’ stages and not few weeks before presentations. It is the supervisor’s
role to create such an efficient engineering project management approach and he should mentor
and transfer such an experience to his students (Thus, lifelong learning skills maybe induced).
Once the students finished their project manuscript within the projects milestones and
according to the senior design project’s report writing guidelines and template they should submit
their work for their supervisor for evaluations, corrections and comments. The supervisor must put
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enough effort in criticizing the students work and direct them in the right direction; because all
subsequent steps will be penalized in both language, engineering content and ABET adherence
requirements.
The students should perform all the supervisor’s required changes and they should resubmit the
project manuscript to their supervisor for final approval. The supervisors should verify all their
required changes and scan the students’ manuscript
In the following step, the students need to submit copies of signed project manuscript to the
coordinator one week before announced presentation dates in order to have enough time to dispatch
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it for the Examining Committees. Parallel to that the students should be finalizing their
presentations and Posters.
Once the students’ presentation date is due many forms need to be filled out in order to compute
the team’s final grade. The Examining Committee (EC) need to bring their reports evaluations’
forms completely filled out and should pass their comments on the projects’ manuscripts to the
students in order to make the changes. Please note that the project’s team grades will not be
released until the students perform all the required changes by the EC members.
The student teams should rehearse in English their presentation before small audience to
alleviate their self-esteem, practice on the flow of segments, and induce more confidence. Project
Supervisors should inspect the students’ presentation slides and they should check for all the
needed items in the presentation to guarantee a high grade.
The following figure shows the complete flow of the senior design project process. The
integrity of the flow chart needs to be preserved in order to generate all the expected outcomes
with minimum complications. The ABET requirements need to be kept in mind all the time in
order to support the program outcomes in their intended arrangements.
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Proposed Grading Policy
The supervisor grades are based on the Supervisor’s direct interaction with his students;
hence his inside information judgment is vital. At the end of Senior Design Project II, Supervisors
should fill out Senior Design Project II Supervisor Evaluation Form.
The next grade portion belongs to the coordinator. The coordinator grade is to be used to
manage the students and to direct them to accomplish needed items that are necessary for the
Project’s Process Flow. Hence, the 5% grade is to be used to award the students on items on their
report in Senior Design Project II, which are related to task distribution, Gantt chart, Milestones,
and Logbook. The grade is based on the poster structure and content. 10 % of the grade is assigned
to Senior Design Project Audience who attend SDP II presentations. For this purpose 2 forms were
prepared; poster evaluation form and presentation evaluation form.
The engineering technical content and students’ comprehension of the project should be
verified by the Examining Committee. The EC members should read the projects’ manuscript
before attending the students’ presentations; also each member should fill out the EC Evaluation
form. An EC member evaluator should scrutinize and verify the submitted report for technical
sound and get familiar with the project’s deliverables. Also, the EC members should leave their
comments, concerns, and corrections on the project manuscript using either RED or GREEN ink
pens. The coordinator should after presentations pass the required changes for the students for
corrections in the final manuscript report, which is submitted to the coordinator for ABET record
keeping. In case of student’s failure to do the changes their grade will not be released unless the
changes are performed.
In the presentations, the EC members should evaluate the students’ soft skills,
comprehension, inspect hardware/software if applies and deliverables of the project’s outcomes.
The EC committee is also asked to evaluate the posters which will be collected.
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TotalGrade
Examination Committee
40%
Coordinator
5%
Supervisor
45%
Audience
10%
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Proposed Articles of Policy
Articles
I. Failure to complete the senior design project
a. Project I stage
Students maybe given a no pass grade based on supervisor’s evaluation and/or their
progress report that is submitted their supervisor.
b. Project II Stage
i. Supervisor Evaluation
The supervisor needs to closely monitor the progress of the project and
evaluate the students efforts based on the first month Task Distribution,
Milestones, and Gantt chart.
The supervisor final decision should be either to direct the his students to
finalize the Senior Project and manuscript in preparation for the Examining
Committee (EC) evaluation or fill out an incomplete form for the
students who did not perform well and are unable to complete their
project within the required time frames.
ii. Plagiarism
Engineering ethics are expected to be used and highlighted throughout the
project’s stages. Zero tolerance for cheating and Plagiarism and all
offenders will be prosecuted severely.
Hence, in case the Examining Committee (EC) encountered a plagiarism
issue then an incomplete grade shall be given or the students shall be asked
to rewrite the copied parts and resubmit the project’s manuscript for further
evaluations depending on the severity of the Plagiarism. The Jordan
University cheating and plagiarism penalties shall be enforced.
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iii. Project Final Grade
Students may get a failing grade (F) in case if ones total grade based in all
the different evaluation parts (see the grad computation related section)
below 60% on the fixed letter grade scale.
II. Forming SDP Committees
These articles lay guidelines for forming the different needed SDP committees and their
corresponding duties for the Senior Design Project process.
The duties of the coordinator include the following:
Responsible for applying and monitoring the process flow Senior Design
Project Standard
Receiving and posting all approved Senior Design Project Proposals
Organizing workshops to orient and prepare the projects’ student teams
Evaluating Project I short report and logbook
Forming Examining Committees (EC)
Aggregating the final project grades
Performing the required ABET documentations
The duties of the Supervisor include the following:
The role of SDP supervisor is very crucial. Supervisors are requested to work
closely with their designated students, while students should allocate time in their
schedule to meet regularly with their supervisors. The main responsibilities of each
SDP supervisor are:
To suggest topic(s) that is (are) within his area of expertise.
To give general description of the suggested topic.
To define the maximum number of students to be involved in the proposed
research topic(s)
To meet with student(s) regularly for efficient guidance and
communication.
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To guide students for the purpose of efficient work
To ensure that student(s) meet(s) planned schedule
To maintain record of regular meetings with students (Logbook form)
To evaluate work produced by student(s) based on the evaluation policies
set by the School of Engineering for the SDP course
To assign grade to the work progress in accordance with the grading policies
set by the School of Engineering for the SDP course.
Examining Committee (EC)
The EC members’ duties include the following
Reading and evaluating the projects’ manuscripts for technical content and
plagiarisms issues.
Evaluation of the projects’ presented work, students understanding and
project’s difficulty and novelty
III. Organizing Workshops
a. Senior Design Project I workshop
The workshop should be held on the third week of the beginning of each regular
semester on Wednesday at 12:30pm.
The workshop will touch on the following items:
Introduction of the new Senior Design Project Standard and ABET
outcomes and requirements
Overview of the students’ motivation and regulations
Training on planning and organization: Gantt charts, Milestones, Time
management, Team work, Task management…etc.
b. Senior Deign Project II workshop
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The workshop should be held on the fifth week of the beginning of each regular
semester on Wednesday at 12:30pm.
The workshop will touch on the following items:
Overview of the new Senior Design Project Standard and ABET outcomes
and requirements
Discussing Report manuscript template
Training on Abstract, Discussion and Conclusion sections on the report
Highlighting presentation slides’ contents and format
Enlisting the poster elements
Illustrating the grading scheme and hints how to score high
IV. Project Change after DB Approval
In case of a need to change project’s title or description or both the following applies sub
articles:
1. Project’s Title Change
The supervisor should submit a change form to the coordinator.
2. Project’s Description Change
The supervisor must resubmit the project’s proposal form to the DB for re-approval. Please
note that this process is only allowed during the senior design project I period but not
possible during senior design project II period.
V. Supervisor Change
The following applies in case of supervisor project discontinuity with an approved student
project:
In case of supervisor leave of absence (sabbatical, emergency, unpaid leave…etc.)
the supervisor needs to plan and arrange for the project’s continuation with another
faculty member and an official handover must be performed via the Project
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Handover Form. Note that the change process should meet the senior design project
requirements. Changing the supervisor is not allowed after approving the project.
VI. Student’s Issues
This article deals with different unforeseen issues that might appear with the project
students
a. Dispute Among Team Members,
The supervisor must try his best to solve the dispute issue internally; highlighting
the teamwork concept and he should activate the task distribution more effectively.
In case of failure in resolving the issue internally team members should be advised
to meet with Project Committee for further counseling.
b. Inactive Project Member
The supervisor first should motivate all inactive students’ project members and
he/she should warn of issuing an incomplete grade project penalty. This includes
frequent absentees to project’s meetings and delinquent project tasks.