Welcome to ECE Senior Design
The EEL 4914C and EEL 4915L - Senior Design courses are intended to serve as capstone courses for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Bachelor of Science Degree. The courses provide the opportunity to practice the engineering skills which you have accumulated to date and to learn certain concepts in engineering practice. In EEL 4914C issues of engineering design and management are presented along with discussions of ethics in engineering. Topics of the course lecture include engineering economics, the history of engineering education, engineering management, and engineering research. An engineering design project is jointly agreed upon by the instructor and a student team. The student team studies the problem, develops design alternatives and selects an approach which can be implemented. The design prototype is then completed in EEL 4915L by performing the necessary parts acquisition, circuit hardware realization, and debugging. Once completed the students present the project design and prototype to a faculty review committee for evaluation.
These courses subject the students to an environment unlike the majority of their previous curriculum. Aspects of engineering design not found in classroom academic discussions are encountered. The need to assign responsibilities to team members and to rely on other individuals to perform necessary work for successful completion of team goals is encountered. These and other aspects of team member interactions are often cited as a valuable course experience.
The requirement to succeed to the point of a functioning prototype implies the need to go beyond the circuit prototyping experiences which are common to previous electronics laboratories. The skills necessary for soldering, printed circuit board manufacturing, and wire wrapping are just a few of the prototyping needs which are encountered. These skills along with the knowledge required for efficient component identification and acquisition are learned as a necessity for successful design completion.