05 January 2015
From:
To:
Professor Samara Firebaugh, PhD, EE411/414 Course Director
CDR John Schedel, USN, EM485D/EG472 Course Director
LCDR Ethan Lust, USN, EM471/472 Course Director
Students Enrolled in EE411/414, EC415, EM471/472, EM485D, EG472
Subj:
ENGINEERING DESIGN I & II COURSE POLICY STATEMENT
Encl:
(1) ECE Course Objectives
(2) EME Course Objectives
1. Course Description. Your capstone design experience spans both fall and spring semester. Last
semester you chose a project. Fall semester, you’ll define the problem, gather information, generate a
number of design concepts as possible solutions, evaluate and select one design from among them,
and complete detail design in preparation for spring semester’s testing, evaluation, and redesign.
2. Course Objectives. The primary course objective is to have students complete and document a
significant engineering design project, inititated in the fall semester and completed in the spring
semester. The specific learning outcomes for each course is included in Enclosures 3 and 4.
3. Course Facilities. The course lecture will be given each Monday during sixth period in Rickover
Hall, room 102. Weekly meetings will be held at a time and location to be determined by your project
mentor. The Capstone design labs are located in Rickover Hall, rooms 002, 003, and 216.
4. Course Texts.
 George E. Dieter and Linda C. Schmidt, Engineering Design, 5th Ed. (New York: McGrawHill, 2013) (Required, soft-cover and e-book special issue available at reduced cost from
textbook issue)
 Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010) (required
portions available free online and also available in the library)
5. Course Organization. This course is scheduled for four hours each week. You will be required to
attend lecture during one hour per week, scheduled according to the syllabus (Enclosure 1), and a
group meeting during another. The remaining time is set aside for you to work on project tasks,
consult with other faculty members and members of the technical staff, and meet with customers.
However, the scheduled time is insufficient for you to complete all of the required tasks. Therefore,
the burden falls on you to ensure enough time is allocated to finish the project.
More broadly, the course will be conducted as though you are a team of design engineers in industry.
Your mentor will act the part of the engineering vice-president of your company, who has final
approval on all aspects of the project. Other faculty who will be involved in grading your
presentations during the semester will be considered “financial backers” or board members who have
a professional interest in the success of the project. In this context, you will find it necessary to
research subjects that you have never “studied” in a formal course at USNA. Examples of this might
include environmental impact, product and workplace safety, manufacturing, and economic analysis.
You will be expected to address these subjects in your project through research in the library, the
Internet, faculty and technical staff, and any other source you deem helpful (make sure to cite your
sources appropriately!).
6. Grading Policy. Grades for the fall semester will be based on the following schedule :
Reading Guides
Assignments
Exam
Reports
Presentations
Total
10%
20%
10%
30%
30%
100%
Grades for the spring semester will be based on the following schedule :
Reports
Presentations
Poster
Video
Total
45%
45%
5%
5%
100%
7. Presentations and Reports. Due dates for each of the major pieces of design communication are
included in the course syllabus (Enclosure 1). Guidance and grading rubrics for each report and
presentation are again contained in the Capstone Design Project Guidance document located in the
course shared folder.
8. Reading Guides. Prior to each lecture you will be expected to read the associated material in the
course text. A reading guide for each reading has been provided to help you focus on the key
information. The reading guide will be turned in at the beginning of each lecture and will also be
used to verify attendance. In the event you are going to be absent you may have someone else turn in
your reading guide, however you must write ABSENT across the top of it.
9. Reading Guide Exam. There will be an examination towards the end of the fall semester that will
cover the contents of the reading guides. The exam will be closed book, but open reading guide as
incentive to read the material and complete the assignments prior to lecture.
10. Peer Evaluations. You will be asked to assess the contributions of your teammates to the overall
project several times during the semester: just before the 6, 12, and 16-week marking periods. The
assessment will conducted via e-mail form send to you by your project mentor. The outcome of the
assessment can have a significant effect on your grade and on those of your peers. To be clear, peer
evaluations can increase your current mark by an entire letter grade or decrease it by as many
letter grades as assessed by your teammates. The purpose of this is to ensure that everyone is
contributing their best effort to the project and that the work is being distributed equitably. Failure to
submit your peer evaluation form by the due date will result in a minimum 5% reduction in your grade
for that marking period.
11. Honor. Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own. Examples
include (but are not limited to) copying homework from a colleague or from a solution manual,
copying computer code, copying text or figures from the Internet, or using another’s data in a lab
report. It is your responsibility to use proper documentation to always give credit where it is due.
You must properly reference the work of others and ensure that your contribution is clear in your
writing and presentations. Here are some essential points:
 When presenting information that you gathered from another source, be sure to paraphrase rather
than directly copy text. If directly quoting, the text should be set apart with italics or quotation
marks. Direct quotation of this sort is rarely necessary for technical writing, and paraphrasing is
preferred.




Paraphrasing is not just taking the same sentences and changing a few words. Paraphrasing is
presenting the ideas of the referenced text in your own words.
Always reference information that you gathered from another source, either using a footnote or an
endnote, with a citation to the reference at the point in the text where the information is used;
don’t just put a list at the end of the document of “sources used.”
When referencing material that was found on-line, you should include the name of the
organization that produced the web site, if known, and the access date. Be wary of on-line
sources.
You should provide a citation for every figure that you do not generate yourself in presentations
and in written work. This can be done with small-font text on the edge of the figure, like a photo
credit. For this purpose it is sufficient to provide the web address if no more is known about the
figure than its web location. This is not common practice, unfortunately, but it is easy to do and
a good professional habit.
"Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right. They tell the truth and ensure that the
full truth is known. They do not lie. They embrace fairness in all actions. They ensure that work submitted as
their own is their own, and that assistance received from any source is authorized and properly documented.
They do not cheat. They respect the property of others and ensure that others are able to benefit from the use of
their own property. They do not steal."
– Honor Concept, Brigade Honor Program.
12. Calculators. For calculator use in courses taught to engineers, it is the policy of the ECE and EME
Departments to only allow calculators that have been approved for the Fundamentals of Engineering
Exam (FE). Acceptable calculators are listed at: http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Examday_policies/Calculator_policy.php.
E.E. LUST & S.L. FIREBAUGH
Course Objectives for EE411, EE414, & EC415
Updated 8/15/14
EE411. Students shall be able to demonstrate the ability to:
1. Starting from an open problem statement, formulate design objectives and then
engineering requirements.
2. Generate and evaluate alternative solutions in order to select the best reasoned approach
for solving a technical problem.
3. Formulate a project plan, including the work breakdown structure and budget.
4. Prepare a well-written project proposal that explains the project and lays the foundation
for its pursuit.
5. Begin the proposed project by prototyping, characterizing, modeling and/or simulating
some portion of the final design.
6. Properly record and report project work in a lab notebook.
7. Apply ethical theory to analyze ethical problems related to engineering in order to arrive
at the best solution.
8. Function effectively in the professional engineering environment.
EE414 & EC415. Students shall be able to:
1. Keep a laboratory notebook in the context of an engineering design process.
2. Develop appropriate requirements for the solution to a technical problem.
3. Use quantitative analysis to make design decisions and choose between alternatives.
4. Prototype and package a capstone design product.
5. Assess the operation of a capstone design project and verify its performance relative to
design requirements using appropriate metrics.
6. Prepare a final report of a capstone design project.
7. Prepare and present a capstone design project to faculty and peers.
8. Work effectively in teams.
9. Effectively manage a long-term project by breaking the project down into appropriately
sized tasks and making good use of resources.
10. Analyze the larger societal and ethical implications of a technical problem.
Enclosure 1 – ECE Course Objectives
Course Objectives for EM471, EM472, EM485D, and EG472
Updated 8/15/14
For Design I:
1. Select a Capstone Design Project, develop a proposal for the project and present the
proposal
2. Employ the engineering design process to develop candidate solutions to meet the
objectives of the capstone design project. Document the candidate solutions in a
Conceptual Design Report. Refine the selected concept and document models of
performance and supporting design calculations in a Preliminary Design Report.
3. Use project management tools to plan the design process and track progress of the project
4. Use computer-aided design techniques such as solid modeling, assembly modeling, rapid
prototyping and finite element analysis to document and analyze design details.
5. Apply principles of professional engineering ethics to case studies.
6. Understand the role of engineering codes and standards in the design process.
For Design II:
1. Employ modern techniques such as computer-aided design and analysis software required
for engineering design.
2. Complete a major team design experience following the engineering design process.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of project management.
4. Identify and formulate engineering problems which involve the applications of
mechanical systems, thermal fluid systems and materials selection for such systems.
5. Apply knowledge of mathematics and the sciences of engineering principles to solve
problems in mechanical engineering.
6. Work in and lead teams in the solution of engineering problems.
7. Communicate effectively through written reports.
8. Communicate effectively through oral presentations.
9. Apply engineering fundamentals as a basis to learn about and understand other technical
topics not explicitly covered in the mechanical engineering curriculum.
Enclosure 2 – EME Course Objectives