Option 1: Senior Design Project I and II (EE 4899, 4999)
Before registering for Senior Design Project I, students must form a project team inclusion of at least two EE students and select a faculty project advisor. The project team may consist of all EE students or include (or recruit) students from other departments; the EE department highly encourages inter-disciplinary teamworks. Once you formed a project team and found your faculty advisor that agrees to supervise your team, you may obtain a registration number from the Department office and register for Senior Design Project I.
In Senior Design Project I, the focus is in exploring project ideas and writing a proposal. Your faculty adviser will arrange weekly or by-weekly meetings to discuss and refine your project ideas. Creativity is part of the process and the team should come up with an idea that is new or improves the current techniques, products, or theory, but the idea must be doable or verifiable within the given time constraints. Once your team selects a project, a proposal should be written, which specifies the idea, tasks with deadlines, parts needed, role of each member, and budget. It is important to note that writing a proposal helps to write the final project report because you can reuse many parts of the original proposal in your final report.
In Senior Design Project II, the goal is to execute and complete the project as closely as written in your proposal, but some modifications may be necessary due to unexpected events or outcomes. Project objectives would be highly dependent upon your project, but in most cases, the objective should be in generating proof-of-concept using a prototype or proving concept or theory using data collection and analysis. During this period, your team will be required to have weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your faculty adviser to ensure that your project is on track and successfully completed.
For obtaining parts for building a prototype, many common parts are available from the EE department shop. Please read the section on "How to obtain parts"
At the end of Senior Design Project II, each project team is required to make an oral presentation and submission of the final report that conforms the format defined by the Department. It is required that your team must submit an abstract of your project to the Department and arrange your presentation time. The final grade is given by your faculty adviser.
Pros:
(1) You can choose a project that your team is interested in and motivated.
(2) Two semesters provide a sufficient time to design and execute the project well, as well as to write a quality final report.
Cons:
(1) It takes two semesters.
(2) Must choose topic and form team
Option 2: Design Workshop (EE 4951)
EE 4951 - Design Workshop is a fast-tract one-semester course that can replace the regular Senior Design Projects I and II sequence courses. It is offered for students who were unable to complete the EE 4899 and 4999 sequence due to special circumstances.
This course is offered when an instructor comes up with or creates a special topic and offers several different approaches to solve the given problem. For example, an instructor may select a special topic, “development of vehicle presence sensors.” Vehicle sensors may be developed using many different sensing approaches, for example, inductance changes of coil, laser, ultrasound, microwave radar, piezoelectric, magnetometer, etc. Each sensing approach would then be assigned to a project team under the umbrella of the special topic “vehicle presence sensors.”
Before registering for this course, students must talk to the offering instructor and get a permission to proceed.
During the first couple of weeks of the semester, the instructor will provide lectures that cover the theoretical foundation needed for the project and introduction on different approaches. After the basic lecture sections are complete, the instructor will then divide the students into individual project teams and assign different methodologies or sub-topics. The instructor may then ask each project team to write a proposal on the assigned sub-topic. After that, each team will proceed and execute the project according to the proposal. Your project team will be required to have weekly or bi-weekly meetings with your instructor to discuss the progress of your project.
At the end of the semester, each project team is required to make an oral presentation as well as submission of the final report. For an oral presentation, an abstract of your project should be submitted to the Department and your presentation time must be arranged. After all requirements are met, the final grade is given by the instructor.
Pros:
(1) It takes only one semester.
(2) The instructor narrows down the project scopes, which may help when you are lack of project ideas.
Cons:
(1) Your choices of available project topics are limited.
(2) Must be completed within a single semester
(3) May not be offered every semester
(4) In general, students will feel a heavier load, since you have to finish everything within one semester, which includes a proposal, design and execution of the project, write-up of the final report, and the final oral presentation.