ECE Department Capstone Project Program

Grading

Students are assigned individual grades based upon:

While your final grade is assigned by the faculty advisor, the community partner's recommendations are given particular weight so we ask them to complete a brief evaluation for each student also. Note that because projects span two quarters, you will receive an incomplete (I) for ECE 412. When your grade is submitted for ECE 413 at the conclusion of the project, the I grade for ECE 412 is replaced with the ECE 413 final grade.

Team Evaluation and Self Assessment

Each member of your team needs to complete and turn in to your faculty advisor a completed team evaluation and self assessment twice during your project: once by the end of February, and another with your final project report. 

Project Notebooks and Engineering Logbooks

There's some confusion about Engineering Logbooks and Project Notebooks. The former are generally used to assist in patent applications and have fairly rigid requirements. These requirements make it difficult to use the Engineering Logbook as a repository for all project-related information (e.g. meeting agendas and minutes, external specifications, etc). Thus, in practice most engineers also maintain a project notebook to help keep all these items in one place. Both Engineering Logbooks and Project Notebooks have utility, and depending upon your work environment one may be mandatory. For this course (and the Capstone Project in ECE 412 and ECE 413) you'll be required to maintain both.

Engineering Logbooks

A principal use of the Engineering Logbook is to document IP development in support of patent applications. For that purpose you must adhere to specific standards for it to be useful:

However, even in organizations that do not require engineering logbooks to protect IP, most engineers still use them. You are required to maintain an engineering logbook for your capstone project. Your faculty advisor will review it periodically, and you'll be required to turn it in at the completion of the project. Check with your industry sponsor to see if they have specific requirements for their engineers. At a minimum, your engineering logbook should include:

Weekly Progress Reports

Weekly progress reports play a crucial role in team communication and keeping a project on track and on schedule. Each week on a day agreed to by your industry sponsor and/or faculty advisor you need to send an email containing your weekly progress report (WPR). The e-mail should be sent to each of your teammates as well as your industry sponsor and faculty advisor. It's a good idea to cc: yourself so that you have a record and can include them in your project notebook. It's a good idea to make the subject line of your WPR e-mail include your project name and the keyword "WPR" along with the period covered (e.g. the week ending date).

Your weekly report should be brief but contain:

Here's an example weekly progress report:

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