1. Project Proposal
ECE 445
Lecture 2
Jan 27, 2015
ECE Main Slide

2. Begin working on your proposal once your project is approved!
The Project Proposal
The purpose is to articulate:
Benefit to end user
Product features
Design overview
Anticipated performance specs
Project plan and timeline
Begin working on your proposal once your project is approved!

3. Document Outline Introduction Design Requirements and Verification
Title Page
Objectives
Design
Block design
Block description
Requirements and Verification
Requirements
Verification
Tolerance
Cost and Schedule
**See commented example on course website!
Commented Example of Project Proposal

4. 1. Introduction Title page Statement of Purpose (Motivation)
Project title, group members, TA, date, course #
Statement of Purpose (Motivation)
Why did you select this project?
Objectives
Goals: What problem is being solved?
Functions: What is the product supposed to do?
Benefits: How is it good for the consumer?
Features: What aspects make it marketable?

5. Example: Swim Pace Aid Objectives Goals Functions Benefits Features
Improve athletic training and coaching for swimmers
Functions
Light a sequence of LEDs at a set pace to guide swimmers
Benefits
Provide real-time visual indication of pace to swimmer
Features
LED panels submergible in up to 2.5 meters of water
Lap pace ranges between 8 and 45 seconds, 0.5 second increments

6. 2. Design Block Diagram Block Description Modular Interconnections
Consider high-level and detailed-level diagrams (example on website)
Block Description
Matches block diagram 1-1
Describe function of each block
Contribution to overall system
Interconnection
Functionality
Use quantitative, specific language
Summary of system followed by specific descriptions

7. Example: Swim Pace Aid

8. Example: Swim Pace Aid Power Supply Not quantitative
The power supply will provide power for all of the components in the system. The power supply will consist of 3 AA batteries wired in series to provide a 4.5 V voltage source. The power supply will have reverse voltage protection in the form of a MOSFET reverse voltage protection circuit. The MOSFET circuit is a much more efficient alternative to a diode reverse polarity protection circuit and will increase the lifetime of the batteries in the voltage source. A low dropout regulator (LDO) or linear regulator will be used to step down the voltage source voltage to 3 V in order to provide power for the microcontroller and communications modules. The voltage at the output of the reverse polarity protection circuit (~4 V) will be sent to the LED module.
Not quantitative

9. Requirements and Verification
At least one per block
Concise and specific – don’t need full sentences
Define functioning behavior
Project should work if all requirements satisfied
Verification
Test procedure for each requirement
Quantitatively define “passed” test
Describe how results will be presented (i.e. tables, graphs)

10. Example: Power Supply Requirements Verification
Power Supply must provide 12 V ± 0.2 V at output.
Connect output of the power supply to multimeter.
Check that output voltage falls within spec.
The measured value will be presented on a number line with specified voltage range indicated.
Quantitative values on this side

11. Tolerance Analysis Critical part of the design process
Pick 1 significant component of your design
Why is this component significant?
What is an acceptable tolerance and why?
Relate back to requirements on that module
What is the test procedure?
How do you check the component is operating within that tolerance?
Use quantitative language
If I choose resistors with +/- 10% tolerance, will the resulting variation in gain of my amplifier be within spec? Tolerance analysis isnt an experiment done after the project is constructed to find the tolerance of some parameter.
At any point in the semester:
Test this component at the extremes and include results in lab notebook and final report.

12. 4. Cost and Schedule
Cost
Labor = (Ideal salary) * 2.5 * (hours to complete)
Sum labor costs for each partner in the project, to compute the total labor cost
Parts = Sum of cost of all parts
Include part #
GRAND TOTAL = LABOR + PARTS

13. Example: Swim Pace Aid
Person B
Person C
Person A

14. Example: Swim Pace Aid

15. Keep careful track of all costs and schedule changes along the way—you’ll need them for the final report!

16. Schedule Use the modularity of your design to allocate responsibility
Weekly time-table outlining project completion
Only one person responsible for each task
At least one task per week per person
Responsibility ≠ workload
Define tasks in terms of deliverables
Research and ordering parts not considered weekly tasks (by themselves)
No "To be determined" weeks
Be SPECIFIC
Use the modularity of your design to allocate responsibility

17. Example: Swim Pace Aid
Person B
Person C
Person A

18. Additional Info Proposal due Wed 2/17 at 4pm 25/515 points
Grading Scheme and Evaluation sheets located here
Detailed description located here
Web resources in “The Written Report” section here
IEEE Citation Guidelines
LaTeX template
Label figures, schematics, etc.
Approx. 5 pages (of writing)
Upload PDF to PACE