1 ECE - 156

2 ECE Homework #1 1. Develop a presentation describing 3 ideas for senior design projects. Use 3 slides to explain each proposed device. Describe what it is, why it is needed, *exactly* what it needs to do and what it isn't required to do. Describe the resources and academic skills needed to successfully execute the project. 2. Prepare and submit to us a CV / Resume and your academic transcript. Make sure you list your major/concentration and any specific interests & career plans you may have.

3 ECE What constitutes a good, feasible senior project? Not too difficult -- not too easy We will give you help on this, but you should think in these terms as well Likely different for EE, Computer E., and BME students Depends on which courses you have taken, how well you did, your lab skills, etc. Depends on financial and other resources available to you

4 ECE Evaluation Criteria – Student Project Ideas 1. Is the description of the proposed project adequate and understandable? 2. Is the need for the device compelling? 3. Are the goals clearly defined? 4. Is the success of the proposed project demonstrable and “testable” (i.e., in a quantitative way, in a classroom environment.). 5. Is the proposed project not too difficult and not too easy. It needs to be at an appropriate technical level to demonstrate the skills and concept learned in lower level ECE courses. 6. Does the proposed project depend on any courses that the student hasn’t taken or lab experience that the student has not yet had? –e.g., analog circuits, digital circuits, microcontrollers, RF, sensors, power systems, filters, signal processing, biomedical specialties, assembly programming, etc 7. Are the other resources required (particularly, time and money) reasonable?

5 ECE Homework #2 1. Evaluate each of the three project ideas you proposed in Homework #1 using the guidelines presented earlier in this presentation. –For each of the three project ideas that you proposed, I want to see one numerical grade ( 0% to 100%) and two sentences (max) of justification for each of the 7 evaluation criteria in slide #4. Put differently, you need to produce 21 numerical grades (and, if called on in class, verbally justify each). –The grade you receive on this assignment will reflect how closely your evaluations correlate with mine. 2. For each of your 3 project ideas, use the examples of good and bad requirements that follow to write a good set of requirements for each of your projects.

6 ECE Requirements and Specifications The organization funding a project might state that they need a device to do X, Y and Z, but not say how to accomplish this. This statement is called a Request for Proposals (RFP) and almost always contains a formal set of requirements generated by the people who actually need and will use the device. The engineering firms that respond to the RFP will respond with a White Paper or a full proposal containing “specifications”. The “specs” will state exactly how, and how well they think they can meet each requirement. For example, if a requirement is, “The device must communicate with good fidelity with the base station at distances of 10 feet”, an appropriate set of responding specifications might be: “The device we are proposing will communicate with the base station at 1 Megabit per second rates with error rates of less than when within a 20 foot radius of the base station”.

7 ECE Acceptable Set of Overall Project Requirements Example #1 – RFID tag controlled pet door The pet door must not open unless an “approved pet” is near the door. The size of the pet door opening must be large enough to allow a medium-sized dog to pass through with ease. The system must be able to distinguish between at least 50 collars, but the system only needs to grant access when only one approved pet at a time is detected. The system must prevent unapproved animals from using the door on their own. The system, minus the collar transmitter, must be mountable onto a normal household door or wall. The system must display the ID’s of the last several animals that went in or out, as well as their direction of travel. The display must be readable from three feet away in a well lit room. The system must allow the user to review historic information regarding each pet’s usage of the door. The transmitting collar must be battery powered. The transmitting collar must have a battery life exceeding 1 hour for normal usage. The pet door may be powered by a standard household outlet. The transmitting collar must communicate with the portal wirelessly.

8 ECE Acceptable Set of Overall Project Requirements Example #2 – Device for the recording, audio analysis and classification of coughts System must be non-contacting and is to consist of two parts – (a) a small digital audio recorder, and (b) a COTS PC for data analysis. Standard placement of the microphone from the patient’s mouth must be enforced without posing contamination issues. The microphone must be protected against wind noise and wind induced “pops”. The microphone and recorder must capture and store at least one single cough from the patient. The microphone and recorder should capture all important frequencies in coughs, and with sufficient dynamic range to cover the loudest to softest parts of the signal. The microphone/recorder module must be battery powered, with a battery life to exceed 6 hours of continuous use. The recorder must have an “on/off” switch. The recorder must have a “start/stop recording” switch.

9 ECE Acceptable Set of Overall Project Requirements Example #2 (cont’d) – Device for the recording, audio analysis and classification of coughs The recorder should be no larger, nor weigh more than an average paperback novel. The recorder must have a “transfer recorded cough” button and “real-time transfer” button. The recorder will begin to record with no noticeable delay when prompted to start by the user, and will transfer data to the PC no slower than 1 cough every 5 seconds. When data is transferred to from the recorder module to the PC, signal degradation must be almost non-observable. Data is transferred to PC in real time or from saved data in recorder Custom PC software will display the following analysis outputs to the user: –The original cough signal ( v(t) ). –Parameters of the cough: loudness, length, amplitude, power/energy content, average and dominant frequencies. –An graphical display of the spectral energy content of the input signal as a function of time. –The category/classification of the the cough using a classification algorithm and a catalog of previously recorded coughs of different types (eg, asthmatic, deep chest, upper respiratory, etc.) GUI (Graphical User Interface) to the PC software must be simple to use and visually appealing. The time to calculate and analyze each set of data must be conform to the needs of an active clinic situation, ie, at least one cough every 5 seconds

10 ECE Acceptable Set of Overall Project Requirements Example #3 – Device to automatically control the volume of telephone calls Device is to be used with conventional, wired telephones. Device must increase incoming voice signal as the local background noise increases. Device must hold the outgoing voice signal constant as the local background noise or the volume of the speaker’s voice changes. Device must not cause any undesirable effects on telephone or telephone network. User must be able to set an initial volume setting and turn the device ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’. The device must connect safely and easily to the telephone and telephone network.

11 ECE Examples of Poor Overall Project Requirements Unnecessarily forcing the responder to use a specific approach and/or components, –“The system (you propose) must use three LM741 op amps and must operate in the VLF radio band”. Incomplete requirements –Nowhere do you ever say exactly what the system must do, how big/small it needs to be, etc. Inconsistent or impossible to meet requirements –“Batteries must last more than 24 hours without re-charging, and the battery must weigh less than 1 gram.”, –“Accuracy of the heart rate must be better than 5 significant figures”, –“the platform will rotate to a new position in less than 10 msec”, etc.. Vague requirements –“The system must come with a large display”. (How large – a big wristwatch display or an image projected on the side of a building? What info is to be displayed, etc.. Requirements which might force the responder to use resources that simply might not be available or might be very costly. –“The proposed device must be demonstrated to the review committee after being mounted on board a 747 jet” –“The proposed device will require fabrication of an ASIC” –Etc.