ECE 480 Course Syllabus
Instructor: Erik
Goodman
Office: 2308M
EB
Phone: 355-6453, email: goodman@egr.msu.edu
Office hours: MWF 10:00 - 11:00 in 2308M EB
(other times by appointment)
Course Web Pages: http://www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480/goodman CHECK THESE FREQUENTLY!
ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE:
A. Purpose of the course and course learning
objectives
At the completion of this
course, each student should have actively participated as a member of an
engineering design team and made significant contributions to achieving the
team's stated goal and objectives. Each design project should involve the
collaborative development and evaluation of a "product" that contains
an embedded computer. Students will also demonstrate individual competence in
designing/building a digital circuit, programming a microprocessor, and writing
a graphical user interface. Students will understand ethical and
professional issues faced by engineers.
Specific team activities will
include:
1. Preparing an
engineering design proposal that has clearly stated specifications and design
criteria, including realistic constraints, based on the problem area presented
to the group
2. Sharing in the
day-to-day design activities and management of the project
3. Sharing in the
presentation of oral and written reports
4. Sharing in the
demonstration of results at key milestones during the life of the project
5. Evaluating the
project's progress and outcomes against a clearly articulated set of criteria
At the completion of this
course, each student will be able to:
1) describe
various forms of technical communication and the reasons for using them;
2) write well-organized technical reports;
3) write a team proposal for a major design project and obtain approval;
5) comprehend appropriate content and style of oral presentations;
8) access relevant standards and interpret their meaning and application;
9) delineate the principal design criteria and constraints for an electrical or computer engineering design project—e.g., cost, size, power, environmental factors, reliability, safety, maintainability, and reusability;
10) describe and understand the overall engineering design process—e.g., project justification, identification of constraints, establishment of design criteria, establishment of timetables, identification/scheduling of critical path, the partitioning of work, project monitoring, and project evaluation;
11) describe and understand contemporary industry practices and trends with respect to electrical and computer engineering;
12) describe, understand, and apply key tools used in the overall electrical and computer engineering design process;
13) understand the benefits and potential problems of teaming, describe qualities and processes of effective teams, and describe the role of teamwork in system design;
14) acquire and understand information contained in contemporary technical literature—e.g., trade journals, magazines, books, conference proceedings, and supplier literature—about hardware components, software, design tools, third-party suppliers, etc.; and
15) browse the web to acquire information about electrical and computer engineering, software, design tools, third-party suppliers, etc.
B. Overview of the course format
The course is structured
around four key activities, including (1) the completion of a team-based major
engineering design project, (2) individual development of design and lab skills
in a scheduled lab, (3) lectures and assignments on engineering ethics and
professionalism, and (4) lectures and activities on electrical and computer
engineering design.
The course places only minor
emphasis on lectures by the professor. Instead, there is a strong emphasis on
guiding the experiential learning of students, and on students teaching one
another. The first 6 weeks of the course focus on formation of design teams and
formulation of projects and project plans, and the last 9 weeks focus on design
project work. Lectures focus on both technical issues and on
teaming/ethics/professionalism issues.
Students will:
1. Attend lectures
2. Participate in class
discussions
3. Give demonstrations
and oral presentations
4. Write proposals,
progress reports and a final report
5. Write individual
papers – application note and professional self-assessment paper
6. Create web pages, a
page for a brochure, and a CDROM disk
7. Build and test
devices and systems, and deliver a completed prototype to their sponsor
8. Search for
information and apply it
9. Extend their
problem-solving skills
10. Maintain an "Engineering Project Notebook"
of their design project activities
11. Participate in a technical lecture
12. Work in teams to share in the learning and
to share in the work
13. Be responsible for
"taskwork" and "teamwork"
14. Complete selected lab
experiments/mini-projects in the first half of the course to become familiar
with the lab and its equipment
C. Design Team Composition
Design Teams:
i. There will be 4-6 members per
design team (typically 5). Projects involve an array of applications,
technologies, and strategies. Short descriptions of the projects to be worked
on in fall, 2005, can be viewed at "www.egr.msu.edu/classes/ece480"
Design
Team “Non-Technical” Roles: (These roles are in addition to the technical
responsibility you will have on your design team.) Individuals on a design team
will have one of the following roles:
1. Management (manages
project, including calling meetings, seeing that deadlines are met, revising
project plan in response to changing circumstances,
etc.)
2. Web site (coordinates
preparation and maintenance of the design team’s web site)
3. Document preparation
(coordinates the preparation of documents including proposals, reports,
posters, etc.)
4. Presentation
preparation (coordinates the preparation of presentations using PowerPoint,
posts on web site)
5. Team Lab coordinator
(coordinates keeping the lab clean, orders and tracks parts with ECE shop,
etc.)
ECE 480 design teams compete
for the Prism Venture Partners Prize (Mr. William Siefert,
an alumnus of ECE, is a General Partner in Prism Venture Partners). The
prizes provide $1,500 for First Prize, $1,000 for Second Prize,
and $500 for Third Prize, divided among the team members (via checks issued by
MSU). Judging is done by a panel from industry who
attend the final presentations, ask questions of the teams, and view posters
and demonstrations. An additional award,
the Professor’s Choice Award, which carries a cash prize of $1,000, is also
recorded on a plaque outside the capstone lab.
D. Scheduled Laboratory
In the scheduled lab sections
the students work individually and independently on four mini-design projects.
The purpose of the lab is to improve lab skills and become acquainted with the
ECE 480 lab equipment, to assure that all students possess certain basic
competencies, to improve skills at finding and reading technical literature
such as specification sheets, to get practice at working on some simpler design
problems, to increase the student's confidence and independence in the lab, and
to get some practice at using written and oral communication skills.
Lab design miniprojects: (labs start the first week of class)]
Weeks 1-2: Build a timer (555) circuit: Use spec sheet, prototyping on
protoboard first, then putting on circuit board with solder
Week 3-4: Program a
Week 5-6: Write a GUI—in Visual C++, Visual Basic or Labview
E. Travel policy for students:
Some
teams may wish to travel out of the
F. Ordering parts for your design team projects
You will not be reimbursed for any parts ordered or purchased from any source except through the ECE Shop, unless you have in advance the WRITTEN permission of the ECE Shop staff to do so.
G. Course Grading Policy
1. Everyone currently has a
4.0 grade for the course -- but you must earn it to keep it.
2. How might this be reduced?
By not attending class
By not participating in team activities
By
not developing and documenting an identifiable and appropriate
"intellectual property/technical
contribution" on your team’s project
By not completing class deliverables with a high standard of quality
By not completing scheduled
lab deliverables
By not having a positive impact on team outcomes or course outcomes
By failing to demonstrate that you have fulfilled the course learning
objectives
Please note that an identifiable "intellectual property/technical contribution" by each individual is required. The teams, as they plan their projects, will be asked to clearly divide the technical tasks and identify individual responsibilities for the technical portions of the team design project (not “web master”, “project management,” etc., roles, but technical responsibilities). Each individual will be required to submit an application note documenting his/her intellectual property/technical contribution to the project. In addition, all such technical contributions should be documented in each student’s engineering notebook – that means that the notebook should contain the drawings/schematics/etc., not words like “designed xyz circuit today.” The engineering notebook is NOT a “meeting log,” but rather the place where the student performs and thereby documents the technical work he/she has performed, signing it after each day’s entries (in industry, it would also be periodically witnessed, to assure its usefulness in documenting time of first creation/discovery of intellectual property). The Professional Self-Assessment paper turned in by each individual must also describe the student’s technical contributions to the project. Also, the facilitator should be briefed by each person at the meeting each week, so that the facilitator can clearly identify the technical contributions made by each individual during the semester.
3. Class and team meeting attendance
are required. Unexcused absences will result in a reduction in your grade.
An absence is excused if you notify the instructor prior to the class
session (e.g., leaving a phone or email message), or if you notify the
team leader in advance of the meeting. In both cases, a legitimate reason is
required (for example, “In
4. You will be evaluated
through the following graded activities:
5. Your reports, technical
lecture, presentations, and demonstrations will be reviewed for individual
technical accomplishments and contributions, as well as for teamwork.
Your personal engineering design notebook and in-class assignments will be key
documents, recording your ideas and efforts as well as supporting other
reporting requirements (such as the professional self-assessment and team
progress reports). Although you will assess team members' performances as part
of group processing, all grading is the responsibility of the instructor.
6. Communication Skills
Practice: Each student will:
talk three times in an oral presentation before the
class.
write 2 papers individually (application note and
professional self-assessment)
participate in preparing 3 oral presentations during
the semester.
be involved in a team.
participate in writing 6 team reports during the
semester.
7. An approximate
breakdown of the grading is:
15% Professional
self-assessment paper, notebook and application note (individual)
5% Design
issues paper (group)
25% Miniprojects (in scheduled lab)
55% Design project
work (technical aspects-1/2, teaming-1/4, communications-1/4)
(Primary
input comes from facilitator, with some from instructor and judges)
The overall grade is also reduced by unexcused absences beyond 2.
H. Estimated time required
per student
Each student should plan on
budgeting approximately 12 or more hours/week (3+ hours per credit) for this
course on average. (Some weeks may require less time and some more time,
particularly toward the end of the semester.)
This includes:
- time spent in the classroom
- time spent completing homework/lab assignments/papers
- time spent in design team meetings
- time spent working individually on design project
- time spent on preparing for oral presentations
I. Class Meeting Time
ECE 480 meets on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday. Labs sections meet once per week, for 2 hours and 50
minutes. You are required to attend your lab section approximately the
first 7 weeks of the semester, until you have completed all miniprojects.
However, once you have completed and presented to the teaching assistant any
particular miniproject, you need not attend lab until
the scheduled date of assignment (beginning) of the next miniproject.
You should make every effort
to reserve Monday and Thursday evenings from 7-10:00 p.m. for special meetings
of your team, since no lab sections meet at those times, to guarantee some
evening when all members are available. However, your regular weekly team
meetings can be set for other days/times as appropriate. Your weekly
meeting time with your facilitator must be scheduled for a time when all team
members and the facilitator are available, before
Week 1: Miniproject
#1 (in scheduled lab)
Week 3: Miniproject
#2 (in scheduled lab)
Week 4: Preproposal
& initial team webpage
Week 5: Miniproject
#3 (in scheduled lab)
Week 6: Proposal – on paper
and via oral presentation
Week 7: Miniproject
#4 (in scheduled lab); team’s page for Design Day Program due to Goodman
electronically
Week 8: First DFSS
assignment, Voice of Customer
Week 9: Two-page progress
report (see guideline); demo for facilitator; photocopy
of each person’s engineering design notebook to
facilitator
Second DFSS
assignment, FAST diagram for your project
Week 10: Demo in lab of
design project, for facilitator
Week 11-13: Student technical
lecture (by team)
Week 11: Application note
(individuals)
Week 12: Design issues paper
to Goodman (team)
Week 12: Demo for
facilitator, and second written progress report
Week 14: Professional
self-assessment paper (answering specific questions, and
including one-page resume)
Week 15: Wednesday, April
23: Final written report (7 printed
copies + electronic) due to Goodman for judges to read on
Thursday. Web site should be finalized for judges to
examine Thursday.
Friday, April 25: Design Day, final oral presentation, poster, demo, and judging.
All
other deliverables due (CDROM containing deliverables, poster returned to
480 lab)
Finals Week, no later than Wednesday, April 30, noon: Turn in all hardware, clean out
lockers, return team’s laptop PC,
get signoff from ECE Shop, turn in to Goodman's mailbox
Estimated hours per week: (4
credits x 3-4 hours per credit) gives 12+ hours/week.