Senior Design (ECE Department, Mississippi State University)



ECE 4512 (EE) / ECE 4532 (CPE) Senior Design I

EE/CPE Senior Design I is the first course in a two-semester sequence that constitutes the capstone design experience for undergraduate electrical and computer engineers. ABET engineering accreditation criteria states:

  • "Students must be prepared for engineering practice through the curriculum culminating in a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating appropriate engineering standards and multiple realistic constraints."

The criteria further identifies

  • "realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability."

Your design project is expected to address as many of these issues as possible. In this portion of the course, students will be expected to identify a team project, and complete the design and simulation phases of the project. The course will culminate with a presentation of the proposed project to a design review committee, a demonstration of a hardware prototype, and a detailed design document that clearly documents all aspects of the design process.

ECE 4522 (EE) / ECE 4542 (CPE) Senior Design II

EE/CPE Senior Design II is a continuation of the capstone design experience for undergraduate electrical engineers. In this portion of the course, students will be expected to fabricate their design, test and evaluate the design against their design specifications, and demonstrate a fully functional project to their design review committee.

Course Objectives

  1. explain the difference between a team and a workgroup

  2. list characteristics of successful teams

  3. distinguish five modes of handling team conflicts and how they may be useful or harmful

  4. list characteristics of effective leaders

  5. identity key reasons why projects fail or succeed

  6. write a team charter

  7. implement ground rules for effective meetings and demonstrate their use

  8. explain the motivation for using standards

  9. classify the cost components in a design and project a realistic price to the customer

  10. optimize a design for sustainability

  11. present a professional presentation with strong technical content and audience interaction

  12. execute efficient and effective team meeting and maintain meeting minutes

  13. interact efficiently and effectively with faculty advisor

  14. formulate a defensible design approach

  15. evaluate, design, and optimize custom hardware and software individually and as a team

  16. create an objective, testable design specification

  17. create and follow a test plan leading to a functional design

  18. write a professional project report

  19. design and create a project poster

  20. create a professional team Web site

  21. apply critical path scheduling

  22. apply entrepreneurial thinking in the context of a design project

  23. create a business plan

  24. apply ethical reasoning

The structure of the course for electrical and computer engineers is essentially the same since we follow the same design process. Computer engineering projects, however, must have both a software and hardware component. Electrical engineering projects most often have both, but occasionally focus only on hardware.