CS/ECE 4710
CE Senior Project
Syllabus
 
Fall 2010
General Information

Course Information

This year there are 3 project teams: UAV, SmartLot, and iTeach.  The key is to implement the proposal that was completed in CS/ECE 3992.  Over the summer you undoubtedly changed a few things so check the following schedule to see when things are due.  In particular, you will have an early chance to submit a revised schedule and milestones.  Since the project final report has typically been too hastily done in the past, you will be required to do a preliminary report just before the Thanksgiving break so that you can get some feedback on what is missing.  You will need to demo a successful project on Dec. 10 which is the last day of classes.  

Special Needs

The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services, and activities for people with disabilities.  If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Olpin Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD).  CDS will work with you and the instructor to make arrangements for accomodations.  All written information in this course can be made available in alternative format with prior notification to the Center for Disability Services. 

College of Engineering Add/Drop Policy

This is cast in concrete by the College, so make sure you know the deadlines.

Grading Policy

Your grade will depend on 3 things: timely completion of your self-selected schedule, quality of the completed project on demonstration day, your ability to demo and present your project, the quality of your demo day poster, and your final report.
Each aspect is worth 100 points and is weighted as follows:

10% for hitting your scheduled milestones
60% for the quality of the completed project
20% for the final report (refer to 3992 web page for examples of high quality reports - look for *)
5% on the quality of your demo day performance
5% on the quality of your team's website

Note that this roughly corresponds to 70% of the value being based on your engineering skills, and 30% based on your ability to communicate to others what you have done.  In the workforce both are extremely important so you might as well start now.   
 Fall 2010 Meeting Schedule

Tuesday   2:00 - 3:00 -  SmartLot (Alex Freshman, Kam Sheffield, Landon Anderton, Sunny Trinh)
Thursday  2:00 - 3:00 - iTeach (Eyad Fallatah, Long Nguyen, Navid Sobhani)
                 3:30 - 4:30 - UAV (Grant Ayers, Nic McDonald)

The first meeting (Aug. 31 & Sept. 2) will take place in Al's office - after that the meetings will be in the Sr. HW Lab.  Every team member is expected to be at every meeting but things do come up and all will be well as long as you don't miss more than 2 during the term.  The meetings are scheduled to be an hour long but this is just to make sure there is time to discuss things adequately - in the past the typical meeting time is more like 30 minutes.

Jon Davies and Tyler Patterson are doing theses so their meeting times will be on an as needed basis with their advisor - however at the end of each term, both Jon and Tyler will need to send me a written progress report that is also signed by their advisor.  You also need to schedule a meeting with me so we can discuss your progress, it is likely that Erik Brunvand (CE program director) will also attend.  [Note this is an attempt to track our thesis student progress better than we have in the past.  This issue came up in our recent ABET review.]  However if you feel that Al can be of help during the term feel free to schedule additional meetings even though they aren't required.
 
 Course Schedule

Aug. 29 - Due - via email have weekly team meeting scheduled with Al, and send Al your Ucard number (16 digit number that's under your name and NOT your ID# or the Lib#) so you can be added to the Sr. HW Lab door lock.   Revised effort and milestone schedule as a .pdf via email.

Week of Aug. 30 - Sept 4: First meeting in Al's office, have revised schedule submitted prior to the meeting so it can be discussed, and be ready to describe progress that you've made over the summer on your project.  Also make sure you have selected your teams workspace in the Sr. HW Lab.  Make sure your project website is up to date concerning your summer progress, schedule or strategy changes, etc.

Subsequent meetings: Will be held at your work area in the Sr. HW Lab.  The point will be to discuss the current progress or problems encountered, demonstrate milestones if they are scheduled for that week.  Due: A synopsis of what will be discussed also needs to be posted on your team's website prior to the meeting.  

Oct. 11-15 -  No team meetings - FALL BREAK 

Tu Nov. 18 - Due: draft of your final project report.  Granted it won't likely be completed by this time but you will need to provide a framework in which more details such as text, schematics, photographs will be placed.  Submit via email to Al as a .pdf file of the report. 

Th Nov. 22-26 - No team meetings - THANKSGIVING BREAK 

Week of Nov. 29 - Dec. 3  -  You will receive feedback on your preliminary project report during this weeks meeting, as well as the usual project progress report.  You will also need to present your ideas for how to demonstrate your project and have a rough draft of the poster that you will create to accompany your demo day presentation. 


Will be made available at some point.

Tu Dec. 7 -  Due - pdf file of your poster due to Al  (check 3992 web page 2008 projects for examples)
Make sure the paper size for your .pdf is 36" x 48".  Al will deal with getting it printed and ready for Demo Day.

Fri. Dec. 10 - Demo Day - time TBD based on when all of the teams can be present for a 2 hour block of time.