Senior Design

Course Description

This is a senior level course, after a student has completed all the required major core courses, core math, and core science courses. This "capstone design course" involves multidisciplinary teams of students who build and test custom designed systems, components or engineering processes. Design projects selected from problems submitted by the students, faculty and local industry; Industry projects are given preference as they are best suited for meeting the course objectives; Instructional phase includes (not limited to): communications, report writing, visual aids, design process (requirements/specifications/objections, synthesis/analysis, design evaluation, implementation, maintainability, manufacturability, economic and social influences etc.), proposal preparation, estimating, project management and scheduling, contracts etc.; Performance phase includes (not limited to): design team formation and organization, design proposals, implementation of design process, project scheduling and management, design reviews, design simulation and testing, preparation of documentation, drawings, specifications, etc., written and oral presentation of completed projects.

Course Objectives

This course familiarizes students with the fundamental principles involved in the design process by doing a real design that solves a real world problem. Topics include problem identification and definition, mechanisms of technological problem-solving, design alternatives, and project planning, implementation, and proper documentation. The influence of cost, material resources, performance criteria, and relevant ethical and safety issues will be discussed. All students will work on a design project. Students will be required to keep a journal of notes detailing their work and how the design process arrives at the solution.

Course Learning Outcomes

The students who complete this course should possess:

Course Objective and Learning Outcomes:

Journal Policy

The journal will consist of notes taken by the student of their work. A portion of the journal could consist of notes taken during lectures. Another portion of the journal could consist of notes taken regarding reading assignments from the text. However, the major portion of the journal should consist of the student’s ideas that the Labs generate and what you did with those ideas. These ideas should be set off, starred, asterisked, or otherwise denoted from the rest of the information in the journal. The journal would consist of a record of how the student’s ideas progress through the design process. The journal should be kept current; entries should be dated; and, usually, entries should be made prior to the student leaving a lab. The journal is to be submitted at the end of the semester for grading; then it will be returned to the student. The final version of the journal should be submitted at the end of the continuation course “Senior Design II” for the purpose of final journal grading.

Design Project Topics

• Students should propose topics of their own.

• Project topics may also be suggested by the instructor

• The topics need to be approved by the instructor before the students can begin working on the projects

• If possible, project outcomes should include tangible things which can be showcased in an event.

• A really successful projects may have the following characteristics (not limited to):

‒ They may lead entrepreneurial endeavors, i.e., some students may start companies where they may manufacture, create, and/or market their own product or product ideas generated from the capstone project

‒ They may be featured in national news outlets (such as newspapers, TV channels, etc.) as new innovation solving real world problems

‒ They may lead to conference and/or journal publications

Roles

Student’s Role:

• Students will form groups of three members.

• Each group will meet the assigned instructor each week during the assigned lab time (attendance will be taken)

• Besides meeting the instructor, the groups should also work on their projects during the lab time

• It is expected that groups will do most of the work at their own free times outside the assigned lab times.

Instructor’s Role:

• The instructor will focus more on project methodology and guide the students accordingly

• The instructor may give lectures during some lab times on project development methodologies. Some of the related topic (but not limited to) would be

- Creativity

- Design Process

- Design Planning

- Legal Concepts for Engineers

- Social Context of Design

- Engineering Ethics

- How to Write Project Proposal/Reports/Technical Manuals etc.

Project Proposal

The project proposal must be written using Microsoft Word and submitted to the instructor by the due date. The report (less than 15 pages) will consist of:

• • Description of the problem being solved

  • Review of existing similar systems

  • Feasibility study indicating at least two possible solutions

  • Solutions adopted and the reasons for that

  • Detailed diagrams for the complete system and all subsystems

  • Explanation of the functioning of the complete system, and all subsystems

  • Diagrams drawn using software showing the layout of the systems

  • Diagrams drawn using MS Word or MS Visio showing flow chart for processing

  • Graphs drawn using MS Excel

  • Figures and graphs showing inputs and outputs, as applicable

  • Tables showing input and output data, as applicable

  • Bill of materials required to build the circuit, and the approximate cost

  • MS Project charts including Gantt Charts showing the expected timeline of progress

  • Bibliography

Find further details in the attached file (below this page)

Progress Report

At the end of the semester, the current status of the project will be presented by the group to the entire class using Power Point slides. This presentation should be between 10-15 minutes, and each member of the team should present for at least 3 minutes. The slides must be emailed to the instructor by 11:59 pm the night before. The final status report (between 10 and 15 pages) will also be due at this time and it should include the following:

• • Cover page

  • Description of the problem being solved

  • Feasibility study indicating at least two possible solutions

  • Solution adopted and the reasons for that

  • Detailed diagrams for the complete system and all subsystems

  • Explanation of the functioning of the complete system, and all subsystems

  • Figures and graphs showing inputs and outputs, as applicable

  • Tables showing input and output data, as applicable

  • Bill of materials required to build the system, and the approximate cost

  • Suggestions for improvements

  • Suggestions for future work

  • Bibliography

Marks Distribution

Register Your Group

Register your group details through the following link

Acknowledgement :

The outline is a modified version of the detail format created by Dr. Hasan Uz Zaman sir for CSE 499.