Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering Senior Design Project

Electrical Engineering/Computer EngineeringSenior Design Project

What makes a successful project

•Make your project ambitious enough•But make it do-able•Involve a range of activities to exercise a team•Specify something that you can prototype•Have more than one design approach•Involve some interesting non-technical issues– Ethical– Economic– Environmental

•Try to use experiments and trials – and set them up correctly


Scoring Rubric for Senior Design Projects

Outcome 4 Exemplary 3 Proficient 2 Apprentice 1 Deficient Rating

3c. Graduates will be able to design a system, component or process to meet specified project requirements by:

i. identify specific project objectives based on general project and client requirements

.

ii. gather and use relevant information

iii. generate and analyze alternative by synthesizing and applying approriate engineering knowledge

iv. consider all relevant constraints if applicable.

Economic

Environmental/sustainability

Manufacturability

Ethical/health and safety

Social/political

v. choose the best solution based on technical and economic criteria and considering relevant constraints

3.g. Graduates will demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively – written, oral and presentation skills.

ii. oral presentation

3.b. an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data

i. experimentation if applicable

ii. data analysis


Examples of Senior Design Projects (Summer 2006)

•1.5T Four-Element Phased Array MR Coil (Hashim Baradah, Ali Alibeji)Developed from summer job at Medrad

•Creating a More Efficient (Manufacturing) Process (David Schaffner)Applied to family-owned manufacturing company

•Nitrogen Doping of n-Type 4H SiC (Corey Schaffer)Developed from independent research projects in Physics Department

•Control System for Small Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (Jeremy Romeiko, Kim-Wai Lam)From Robotics Club activity

•RFID Workstation Design (Kyle Pentz, Paul Powell, Eric Shields)Associated with Prof. Mickle’s RFID research

•Hardware Prototype to Demonstrate Products with RFID Tags (Michael Wolff, Feng Gao)Associated with Prof. Mickle’s RFID research

•Control of Waste Water Treatment Plant (Arthur Brower)Related to regular job


What’s a Proposal For?

It establishes your credentials for a project and determines whether you will get it.

It usually establishes the scope of work for a project.

It definitely determines how much money you get.

It is a team planning document.


Written Proposal Executive Summary (1 page maximum)

A. Specific Aims (1 page maximum)

B. Background (~2 pages)

C. Preliminary Work / Design Possibilities (3-4 pages)

D. Design Approach to be used (~1 page)

E. Milestones and Schedule (~1/2 page)

F. Cost Estimate (~1/2 page)

G. Expected Problems and how dealt with (~1 page)

H. ReferencesTotal length should be no greater than 10 single-spaced pages,

including figures but excluding the Executive Summary and a title page


Questions that should be answered by Background

Significance of projectWhat is new or different?Why is it important?

How does it fit in with things that have already been done?This section should review the state-of-the-art and/or relevant scientific/industrial literature.

Potential design approaches

Why should our group be doing it?


What has already been done?Products commercially available

(State-of-the-Art)

Research Literature“Scientific” journals1

Professional meetings (Proceedings)1

Technical society magazines2

Industry magazines3

Web sources3

1 Material has been independently reviewed2 Material often has been “lightly” reviewed3 Material often not reviewed – anything goes!


IEEE Sources

Spectrum, Potentials and Proceedings of the IEEE

IEEE Specialized Publications Total of 126 titles in technical areas ranging

from computer engineering and biomedical technology to electric power and wireless technology:

MagazinesTechnical papersConference ProceedingsBooks

Available through IEEE Xplore in the library or go to http://ieee.org/web/publications/home/index.html


IEEE Spectrum, August 2004


IEEE Spectrum, August 2004


IEEE Technical Society Magazines

Aerospace & Electronics SystemsAnnals of the History of ComputingAntennas & Propagation MagazineCircuits & Devices MagazineCircuits and Systems MagazineCommunicationsCommunications Surveys and TutorialsComputer Computer Graphics & ApplicationsControl Systems MagazineDesign & Test of ComputersDistributed Systems OnlineElectrical Insulation MagazineEngineering in Medicine & BiologyEngineering Management ReviewIndustry Applications Magazine

Instrumentation & Measurement MagazineIntelligent SystemsInternet ComputingIT Professional MicroMicrowave MagazineMultiMediaNetworkPervasive ComputingPower and Energy MagazineRobotics & Automation MagazineSecurity and Privacy MagazineSignal Processing MagazineSoftwareTechnology & Society MagazineWireless Communications








Comments on Literature Citations

Take the approach that the reader is your adversary.You are trying to convince your reader that you are right, and your reader is likely to be looking for evidence that you are wrong. By citing publications in the scientific and engineering literature, you are providing authoritative outside evidence that what you say is correct . . .

and you are protecting yourself from someone else’s error – as well as charges of plagerism.

Web citations are becoming increasingly acceptable but are still suspect (review issues). Be sure to include date you accessed a website.

Personal experience is important, but it is generally not acceptable as documentation. If you must use personal experience, give details on how your conclusions from the experience were formed.

Examples of statements that cause problems“Developing this type of algorithm for use on this processor is something that has not been

done before.”A statement like this cannot stand by itself. It must be supported. You can support it by reviewing what has been

developed for the processor and noting that none of the applications involve the algorithm of interest.

“This approach has . . . already . . . been published in several papers . . .”To support a statement like this, you need to list (cite) at least two papers.

“Based on our research, the best approach is to . . .” Not enough. You need to describe the research with enough detail to allow the reader to draw the same

conclusion you did.


Use of Literature CitationsThe output of a rotary LVAD, however, is sensitive to afterload, i.e, to the hydraulic load it must pump against [1]. In addition, due to the fact that, at least until now, there are no reliable pressure sensors available to detect preload conditions, adaptation to venous return changes is still a missing factor in many of the control approaches reported in the literature [2, 3].

[1] Boston, J.R.; Antaki, J.F.; Simaan, M.A.,“Hierarchical control of heart-assist devices”, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, vol. 10, 1, pp. 54 - 64, March 2003.

[2] Maslen, Eric H. et al.,“Feedback Control Applications in Artificial Heart”, IEEE Control Systems, vol. 10, 1, pp. 26 - 34, December 1998.

[3] Giridharan, G., Skliar, M.,“Physiological Control of Blood Pumps Without Implantable Sensors”, Proc. of American Control Conference, Denver, CO, June 2003, pp. 471 - 476.

From A. Ferreira, M. A. Simaan, J. R. Boston, and J. F. Antaki, “Frequency and time-frequency based indices for suction detection in rotary blood pumps,” Proc. Int’l Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, pp. II-1064 - II-1067, Toulouse, France, May 16, 2006.

See Engineering Citation Formatting Guidelines on web site.


Library Research Plan

• The Bevier Library staff has created a set of on-line teaching modules that run in BlackBoard to help engineering students develop a range of skills related to information literacy.

• Each design student is required to complete the modules and the associated quizzes with scores of at least 80%.

• Each design group is to complete a Library Research Plan by September 10, listing at least five non-web sources with a sentence or two on each to explain how they relate to the proposed project.


Library Research PlanBevier Engineering Library

Preparation for Senior Design ProposalsDue September 10 (beginning of class)

1a. What is the area of your design project? Write 1 sentence broadly describing it.

1b. What specific aspects of this area or problem do you plan to explore/utilize in your design solution?

1c. Highlight the key terms in your responses above and add any additional terms you plan to use as initial search terms to begin your review of the state-of-the-art related to your project.

2. What types of engineering literature are relevant to your project (and to your audience and the purpose of your project)?

3. What research tools will you use to identify relevant information for your topic?

4. Attach citations to 5 sources that you think will significantly contribute to your project proposal, including a sentence or two on how each is relevant.

Names of team members:_______________________________ ______________________________________________________________ _______________________________


Preliminary Work/Alternatives (3-4 pages)

Describe alternative design approachesHardwareDSP chip/microcontroller

Experience with development environmentComputer

PeripheralsLanguage

Arguments for selected approachTechnical capabilitiesCost and experienceDevelopment time


Milestones (~1 page)

Identify key tasks of projectWhich tasks can be done independently and which depend on previous workHow much overlap is possibleHow many people will work on each taskEstimate time for each task

Progress report should address milestones


Data Acquisition Results

Left and Right channel signals

Microphone array and mount

Acoustic Source Tracker

Objective

To locate an acoustic source and

indicate the position with a rotating

laser

Team Members:

David Corsello

Matthew Ferencz

Brian Venus

Adviser:Dr. Bob Boston

Applications

Video conferencing, security, targeting

Design Alternatives

Implement~Microcontroller~FPGA~PC

Algorithm~Calculate the delay in time domain~Multiple microphones

Solutions~Implement with Nios processor on Altera Board~Servo Motor to direct array and laser towards source~16-Bit A-to-D Converters for high resolution

ConclusionSystem integration complete

Signal Processing algorithm

ECE 1896Senior Design

ServoMicrophoneMicrophone

18"

2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

x 104

Samples

Left/Right Audio Data

Algorithm SimulationR M S E rro r v s . θ me asu re d

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

A n g le θ m e a s u r e d (d e g re e s )

RM

S E

rro

r (d

egre

es)

12 ft rad

7 ft rad


Acoustic Source tracker

control

computer

acoustic


Example of Milestones

FinalPrototype

Algorithm

AcousticData

Acquisition

SoftwareDesign

AlgorithmImplementation

PointerController


Schedule (1/2 page)

TasksCan sequential tasks be completed in

time?Who is doing what?

PartsSourcesHow long will it take to get them?

Time frameProposals due September 26Four weeks – October 24 – progress

reportsSix more weeks (including Thanksgiving)

– Design Expo (December 5)Need time for debugging and testing


Cost Estimate (1/2 page)

A. Development costsWhat will it cost you to design and build a prototype?Parts neededAvailability and sourcesAlternatives

B. Funding request

C. Production costsWhat would it cost to produce the product in market-sized quantities for sale?


Expected Problems (~1 page)

Identify bottlenecks in projectIdentify technical hurdles

What don’t you know how to doDevise alternatives in case problems can’t be solved in time

Parts sourcing problems

Purpose of this section is to show you have thought through the project and have some expectations of how it will turn out


Oral Proposal Presentation

10 minutes

About 1 slide per minute (less than 10)

Be selective - you can’t explain everything

Title slide should include team members, advisor, and acknowledgement of any outside groups you are working with. You are to give Angela a copy of the title slide after your presentation.


Comments on Proposals (and final reports)

1) A proposal or report is a sales document – you are trying to sell a project to someone (boss, customer, investor). You have to be convincing. Remember that you are trying to convince your reader that you are right, and your reader is likely to be looking for evidence that you are wrong.

2) The Executive Summary is not an introduction. It needs to include technical detail about what is to be done and why it should be done. You will need some introduction for the summary to make sense, but use as little a possible. (This is part of the art of writing summaries.)

3) Background should include a general introduction to the problem. This is where you cite references to the state-of-the-art and current research. Justify that what you are proposing is important and worthy of a senior design effort.

4) Don’t just say that you have done such-and-such. Give sufficient detail for the reader to be able to evaluate the reliability of your results and the validity of your conlusions directly. Remember, the reader is your adversary, looking for holes in your arguments.

5) Reports should make the project look like it was planned and executed perfectly. Anything else is hard to understand. You can (should) discuss at the end what problems were encountered and whether they were solved.

6) Learn to be your own editor. Be tough. Unnecessary words are usually confusing.Remember that behind every great novelist, there is a great editor who reduced the book length by two-thirds! (Okay, I made that up, but it is close.)

7) Use white space – bullets and lists can make a page much easier to read.

8) Be careful of how you use words. Avoid colloquial and picturesque language. It is likely to mean different things to different people.

9) Minimize repetition, even when you are forced to use an organization that is inherently repetitive.

See Hints on writing technical reports on the website.