Best SD project competition

Starting Fall 2021, the department will be selecting the best SD team.

All the SD2 teams will be expected to create a 1-min elevator pitch video. This video will be a pass/fail assignment in SD2. The video should be uploaded to the SD team webpage 2.5 weeks before the Demo Day. This semester (Fall 2021), TBA

All the SD2 videos may be used for ECE department social media promotion and recruitment efforts.

The submitted elevator pitch should highlight the market potential of the future product and its competitiveness. However, the main emphasis should be on the technical complexity of the project, the soundness of the technical approach, the success in meeting the design constraints, the professional level and the comprehensiveness of the final testing, etc.

The SD1 and SD2 instructors will exclude week teams’ videos from further consideration. The main exclusion criterion will be struggling in SD2 (i.e., a team is on track to earn less than an A in SD2), which may be also connected to a below-average performance in SD1.

First-year Design (FYD) Students will view all the videos two weeks prior to the Demo day. FYD students will vote to identify the Top Three Teams. Additionally, FYD students will provide a short justification for their vote, which is related to technical communication learning objectives for FYD.

During the week prior to Demo Day, the ECE faculty will view the Top Three teams and vote on the Winning Team.

At the Demo Day, the department will announce the Winning Team. The Winning Team will be placed on the plaque.