FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE
ENGR 4901U/4921U: Software/Electrical Engineering
Systems Design II
Winter 2010
Course Coordinators:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
Jürgen Hecht
jurgen.hecht@uoit.ca
U5 61
TBD
Mikael Eklund
mikael.eklund@uoit.ca
ENG 1023
Open door policy
Project Advisors: Dr. Shahryar Rahnamayan, Dr. Daniel Fischer, Dr. Ramiro Liscano, Dr. Min Dong, Dr.
Ruth Milman, Dr. Vijay Sood, Dr. Shahram Shahbazpanahi
Course Meetings:
TBD
Team Meetings with Advisor: 1 hour per week (expected)
Labs:
Fri. 8:10 am - 11:00 am (scheduled) at a minimum
Other Consultation Information:
The course coordinator is available for individual student consultation in person or by electronic means. A
reasonable expectation regarding the amount of time a student should expect to wait for a response to
electronic communication is 48 hours through WebCT email.
Course Description:
In this course, students will complete the design and development of the system that they first started in
ENGR 4900U/4920U Software/Electrical Engineering Systems Design I. By the end of this course students
will have completed the following parts of the design process for their projects: Design Refinements based
on findings from Proof-of-Concept Prototype; Detailed Design and Engineering Analysis; Test Plan; Test
Results and Product Validation; Final Project Presentation; Final Project Report; and Prototype System
Demonstration.
3 cr, 1 tut, 3 lab. Prerequisite: ENGR 4900U or ENGR 4920U.
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Course Objectives
This capstone design course is envisioned to represent a culminating major teamwork design experience for
engineering students specializing in the area of software/electrical engineering. It is meant to allow senior-level
students to integrate their engineering knowledge and produce a useful engineering artefact.
The paramount objective of the course is to expose engineering students to successfully implementing
appropriate engineering design methods into creatively solving design problems conditioned with realistic
constraints while using state of the art engineering design tools methods and while incorporating engineering
standards.
Another objective of this course is to train design engineering students to focus on a variety of considerations
with respect to their designs, such as economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health
and safety; social; and political.
Yet another objective of this course is to focus on improving the students’ soft skills that include the ability to
work in teams, participate in project planning and scheduling, give presentations, and be able to deal with
uncertainties in a professional manner. In this context, the capstone design course serves as one of the final
preparations for students entering into industry.
Course Outcomes
The role of the capstone design course is for students to learn the product development process and complete
a significant design engineering project in the field of their specialization. The primary specific learning and
training outcomes are:
(i)
Identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems;
(ii)
Design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs;
(iii)
Use appropriately the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering
practice.
(iv)
Apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering;
(v)
Design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data,
(vi)
Function on multi-disciplinary teams; and
(vii)
Communicate effectively their work.
Prerequisites:
ENGR 4900U: Software Engineering Systems Design I or
ENGR 4920U: Electrical Engineering Systems Design I
Delivery Mode and Teaching Method:
ENGR 4901U/4921U is worth 3 credits. The course meets once per week for 1 hour tutorial, some lectures
material and design specific help. The teams will meet once per week with their advisor. The teams have three
hours per week of scheduled lab time to allow them time and space to build their design, they may (or may not)
also be provided with laboratory space by their Advisor, and they are further expected to devote significant time
outside of these hours to the project. There is no midterm or final exams in this course.
Laboratory work will generally entail supervised group work on projects while having the opportunity to
obtain immediate help from the TA/Lab Support. Laboratory Space will be provided for project work and
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prototyping either by the Faculty Advisor or in specific teaching laboratories. The teaching laboratories will
be available to students during the regularly scheduled lab time for this course, and these will be shared
with the other System Design courses based on laboratory equipment needed.
The online course related communication will be mainly conducted via WebCT and in the Tutorials. A series of
help items and course instructions will be posted online including the expected formats for deliverables.
It is assumed that students are familiar with the material covered in the prerequisites for this course along with
the material covered in other courses of their program that they nominally should have completed by this point
of their studies.
Attendance:
You are expected to attend all scheduled tutorials and meetings. You are responsible for all completed work,
schedule adjustments and assigned work addressed during class. It is your responsibility to make
arrangements for any planned or unplanned absences (i.e. interviews, illnesses, personal emergencies, etc.).
Computer/Software Experience:
Availability and proficiency in using laptop/desktop computers and the use of WebCT in classrooms wired for
computer use and internet access, as well as remotely, is assumed. In addition, it is assumed that students
are familiar with the use of Microsoft Office, MATLAB and Simulink, UGS NX, NX Nastran, and other
CAD/CAM/CAE packages that they have been exposed to through their course of study to date, including any
software used in the Systems Design I project work, and any additional software determined necessary to
complete the project.
References:
 Textbooks from relevant completed courses in the context of performing design/analysis.
 Library reference materials
o http://apps.library.dc-uoit.ca/new_erm/eResources/index.cfm?report=subOUeng
 Any kind of design engineering handbook.
o An extensive collection of handbooks in electronic format (in particular check out
ENGnetBase via CRCnetBase) is available at:
o http://apps.library.dc-uoit.ca/new_erm/eResources/index.cfm?report=ebooksou
 Relevant archived refereed journal and conference publications.
o Electronic versions for various engineering journals are available at:
o http://apps.library.dc-uoit.ca/new_erm/eResources/index.cfm?report=jrnlOUAtoZ
 Patent literature.
o Canada: http://patents1.ic.gc.ca/intro-e.html
o Europe: http://ep.espacenet.com/?locale=en_EP
o USA: http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html
 Engineering standards.
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Course Evaluation
The percentage of overall course grade belonging to each course deliverable as well as the week in which it is
due is shown below.
Weekly Meetings – 10% {individual}
This is used to ensure students are present and participating in group and team discussions.
Final Presentation – 15% {group} (last two weeks of term)
This presentation will present the group’s project and prototype to the class and invited guests.
Poster – 10% {group} (April 9th)
Create and present your project via a poster. A template will be provided.
Prototype and Demonstration – 15% {group} (April 9th)
What you would show at a design review to give the customer something they can touch and feel, and how
you describe your work.
Final Report – 50% {group} (April 9th)
Page limit is 100 pages excluding appendices and design engineering documentation. Each group
member’s contributions must be outlined and identified.
This final report is to include updated details, specification, designs, test plans, etc from ENGR
4900U/4920U.
Individual Project Advisors may require earlier submission of drafts of the final report and/or midterm
reports and may allocate up to 20 of the 50 percentage points for the final report to these earlier reports.
To do so they must inform the project group and the Course Coordinators not less than four weeks prior to
the due date for any of these earlier deliverables.
Peer Evaluation (April 9th)
Use to assess the final individual marks. Note the Peer Evaluation is a means to which a group mark is
converted to individual marks. This is the team’s opportunity to tell the Course Co-ordinator and Faculty
Advisor who has done how much on the project. This will affect your mark.
Final Delivery of all items – (April 23rd)
Final delivery of TWO electronic versions of the complete (finally revised) thesis on archival media such as
CD/DVD (including the full set of engineering documentation, defence presentation, poster, and pictures or
videos of the physical prototype and/or an adequate simulation), one to each of the Thesis Advisor and the
Course Coordinator. The preferred format is Adobe Acrobat (PDF) (the student may include other
electronic formats, e.g., Word (DOC), MS PowerPoint, and MS Publisher etc.). The student's thesis title,
degree and year of convocation, full name, name of Faculty, and name of university must appear on the
label affixed to the CD/DVD. Late submissions will NOT be tolerated. If late, the thesis submission will be
rejected.
Final report submission due date: Friday, April 9th by 06:00 PM
Late submission of any deliverable will NOT be accepted.
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Note: Notifications of changes to information in the course outline and this document will only be made after
appropriate consultation and will be announced in class prior to being implemented.
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Course Content Breakdown (CEAB Categories):
Mathematics:
0%
Basic Science:
0%
Engineering Science:
10%
Engineering Design:
75%
Complementary Studies:
15%
Total:
100%
Ownership of Intellectual Property
The following policies apply to intellectual property developed in the course:
 UOIT Policy on Ownership and Acknowledgement of Intellectual Property (IP):
http://uoit.ca/EN/main2/about/14057/14152/Academic_Policies_and_Procedures/intellectual_property.
html, in which it is noted that undergraduate students are included in the definition of Academic
Personnel.
 Furthermore, Graduate Studies Policy on Graduate Students and Intellectual Property
(http://uoit.ca/EN/main2/about/14057/14152/150940/GradStudiesIP.html) is recognized in this course
to provide further clarification of intellectual property ownership, where undergraduate and graduate
students are treated equivalently for this course, and the section “Students and Ownership of
Externally Funded Research” is also recognized.
 Endorsements: By taking this course, students grant a permission to the respective
instructors/advisors to use project materials in their future academic publications provided that proper
credit and recognition is provided for acknowledging the student’s contribution and the
instructors/advisors are thankful for that.
Design Exhibition and Student Design Competition:
There will be an optional Public Design Exhibition and Student Design Competition on the April 9th following the
mandatory Project Demonstrations on the same day.
Deadlines and requirements for the exhibition and competition are separate from ENGR 4901U/4921U
requirements. No student is compelled to enter. STUDENTS ARE CAUTIONED TO ALLOCATE ADEQUATE
TIME TO ALL COURSES. WINNING THE DESIGN COMPETITION WILL NOT OFFSET A POOR OR FAILING
GRADE IN ANOTHER COURSE.
Academic Integrity and Conduct:
Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of Academic Misconduct as outlined in Section 5.15 of the UOIT
Calendar will be PUNISHED to the fullest extent.
UOIT is committed to the fundamental values of preserving academic integrity as defined in UOIT policies and
contained in the UOIT Calendar. Students should familiarize themselves with UOIT’s policies and statements in
this area. Acts of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, cheating, aiding others in cheating, and
examination impersonation, will be dealt with severely as they threaten the integrity of the academic system
and are not acceptable.
UOIT and faculty members reserve the right to use electronic means to detect and help prevent plagiarism.
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Students agree that by taking this course all assignments are subject to submission for textual similarity review
to Turnitin.com. Assignments submitted to Turnitin.com will be included as source documents in Turnitin.com's
restricted access database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism in such documents for five academic
years. The faculty member may require students to submit their assignments electronically to Turnitin.com or
the faculty member may submit questionable text on behalf of a student. The terms that apply to UOIT's use of
the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com website.
Accessibility:
To insure that disability-related concerns are properly addressed during this course, students with documented
disabilities and who may require assistance to participate in this class are encouraged to speak with their
instructor as soon as possible. Students who suspect they may have a disability that may effect their
participation in this course are advised to go to the Centre for Students with Disabilities (room B297) as soon
as possible.
Approval
This course outline approved by (indicating approval of Faculty’s Curriculum Committee):
______________
Mikael Eklund, Program Director
Date: 4 January 2010
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