The senior design experience is intended to be a culminating experience in your education as an engineer. In planning, designing, and executing your design project, you will be expected to bring together disparate pieces of knowledge that you have gained throughout your studies in the ECEn Department. In addition, you will be expected to gain a solid understanding of the "engineering method" of design. Your senior design experience will be very similar, in many respects, to "the real world." In contrast to other courses in this Department, there will be few fixed assignments and requirements. You will be expected to be self motivated and to pace yourself throughout the semester in order to complete your project. It is precisely for this reason that industrial recruiters will spend a good portion of interview time discussing your senior design experience.

As a result of your senior project, you will have new competencies in areas such as working in a team, communicating, and applying standard engineering design practices.

2007-2008 Projects

The senior project consists of taking ECEn 490 after taking some number of prerequisite preparatory courses. If you have questions about the content or prerequisites of a particular senior project, you should talk (or email) directly with one of the faculty advisors shown in the table below.

Project Prerequisites Availability Advisors Class Size

Space Center No specific class required, programming experience Fall Long 20

Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking ECEn 324, ECEn 380, ECEn 427 (preferred) Winter Rice, Nelson 20

Free Space Optical Communications System ECEn 452 or ECEn 443 Fall Hawkins, Schultz, Selfridge 20

ME Capstone Take ME 475(F, 3 hrs) and ME 476(W, 3 hrs) instead of ECEn 490. Those courses will substitute for ECEn 490. Fall/Winter Parkinson(ME), Pugh(ME)

Quadrotor ECEn 483 and Quadrotor Lab Winter Beard, Taylor 30

Autonomous Vehicle Vision ECEn 425, or ECEn 483 or ME 431 Winter Lee, Archibald, Wilde 10

Embedded Systems ECEn 427, ECEn 425 or ECEn 451 Winter Nelson,Wirthlin 20

Robot Racers ECEn 425, ECEn 427 or ECEn 483, C or C++ programming, VHDL Winter Archibald, Wilde 20

Universal Auxillary Fuel System ECEn 313 Required, ECEn 443 or ECEn 445 preferred Winter Comer 9

Discontinued Projects

Project	Prerequisites	Availability	Advisors
Robot Soccer	One of ECEn 483, ECEn 425, CS 470, or CS 550	Discontinued: Winter 2005	Archibald, Beard
Analog and Mixed Signal Circuits	ECEn 313 and one of ECEn 443, ECEn 445, or ECEn 548 (any of the latter three may be taken concurrently)	Discontinued: Winter 2005	Comer
VLSI	ECEn 451	Discontinued: Fall 2004	Manwaring
Solar Power	ECEn 313 and one of ECEn 443, ECEn 445, or ECEn 450	Discontinued: Fall 2004	Petrie, Hawkins
Mini MRI	ECEn 460	Discontinued: Winter 2004	Oliphant
Cooperative Decision Making	Stat 441 or ECEn 493R,section 2 (probability theory)	Discontinued: Winter 2003	Stirling
Software Radio	Two of ECEn 485, ECEn 487, ECEn 460	Discontinued: Winter 2007	Rice, Jeffs
Mini-UAV Systems	ECEn 483 or ECEn 425	Discontinued: Winter 2007	Beard, Taylor

ECEn 490 will consist of three or four lectures a week. All sections meet together during the business lectures. The different project sections then meet seperately with their advisors for the other lecture periods. Please consult the appropriate project home page for detailed meeting schedules. The business lectures will be devoted to teaching you the engineering design method.

Grades

Grades for ECEn 490 will be assigned by the faculty advisor supervising the particular project that you are involved in. Please see project home pages for details.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I have already completed my senior project requirement, and now I want to do a second project. Can I do that?

A: Yes you may. Your enthusiasm is admirable. You need to first ask permission of the project advisor, and then sign up for 3 credit hours of ECEn 493R, section 1, under his advisement. You do not have to retake the business lectures. The 3 credit hours you earn will count as technical electives.

Q: I have an idea for a senior project of my own. Can I do that instead?

A: First of all, you cannot work alone. It must be a faculty-advised, team-based project that is open to other students. To make a new a senior project, you must find a faculty advisor who is willing to advise you and at least 3 other students on the project. He then can open a new section of ECEn 490 that you and your friends may enroll in. You will have to attend the sr. project business lectures as part of your ECEn 490 class, as well as meet with your advisor on a regular basis.

Q: I had an internship last summer. Can I count that as my senior project?

A: No.