The Project Notebook for ECE
480 -- Purpose and
Requirements
Purpose of Notebook (in
Professional Practice)
Document evolution of new ideas,
concepts, products
Needed to establish IP rights
Useful during preparation of
reports/presentations
Notebooks for ECE 480
Each student required to maintain a project
notebook for the design project portion of the
course.
Notebook will document the evolutionary
development of the student's knowledge and
understanding of the systems created.
Helps demonstrate how well the student was able
to fulfill the course learning objectives.
Stimulates student to reflect on what has been
accomplished to date and what remains to be
accomplished
Requirements:
Style and Format
Sewn binding so that pages cannot be added
– pages must have printed numbers on them, so
insertions/deletions are obvious: buy a “lab” notebook
Entries must be dated in their proper time sequence
Begin a day by dating the journal/notebook and end the
day by signing and dating the journal/notebook
Multiple time-separated work sessions during one day? -Treat each as separate entry
Project notebook may reference software, hardware,
reports, etc. that you have produced as interim or final
products -- if you turn them in to the instructor, you may
assume that they can be referenced in the notebook
Reference figures or diagrams by number or by name.
Student's name in upper-right corner of the outside cover
of the journal
Entries must be written in ink in the project notebook
Requirements: Content
Documents evolutionary development of student's knowledge and
understanding of technical components/systems/software involved
in project
Draw your “working” or rough schematics and diagrams, do your
technical calculations, etc., there. Documents what you have
tried, what worked, what did not, and why. Shows your
facilitator what you have contributed to the team’s
technical progress.
Mistake? Draw a line through it, but do not “obliterate” it. If
something is superseded by later work, record that, saying what
replaced it (page number, date).
Notebook must provide demonstrate how well student was able to
fulfill the course learning objectives. At accreditation time, the
visiting team will look critically at examples of these notebooks to
determine what the students gained from this capstone course.
Project notebook DOES document all design-team meetings that
you attended, and decisions that were made, but it is NOT just a
meeting log!
Review and Evaluation
Handed in to facilitator for interim review once during the term
– as a PHOTOCOPY (high quality, 8.5x11”, student’s name
on first page)
Facilitator will give you feedback and grade on first
submission of notebook
Handed in for final grading at end of semester
Must bring to each team meeting (with facilitator and without).
Facilitator may want to examine it
Each student must also hand in a graph showing dates of
entries to the notebook. This should be appended as the last
page handed in (first time) and placed after the last used page of
the notebook when the final one is handed in at the end of the
semester.
The graph should be a histogram, showing for each week the
number of entries made in the notebook (some days may have
multiple entries, if distinct “work sessions” occurred on the same
day).