1 (fie03.ppt – 11/06/03) The Capstone Senior Design Course: An Initiative in Partnering with Industry Dewey Rundus Kenneth J. Christensen Department of.

1 (fie03.ppt – 11/06/03)

The Capstone Senior Design Course: An Initiative in

Partnering with Industry

Dewey RundusKenneth J. Christensen

Department of Computer Science and EngineeringUniversity of South Florida

Tampa, Florida 33620{rundus, christen}@csee.usf.edu

• Introduction and background

• Role in ABET EC 2000 • Course design and implementation • Examples of projects

• Evaluation of the course • Summary and future work

2

Topics

This material was partially presented at the ASEE Southeast Section Meeting in Macon, Georgia in April 2003.

• Our department – Computer Science and Engineering- BS in Computer Engineering (ABET accredited)- BS in Computer Science (ABET accredited)- BS in Information Systems - MS and PhD programs

• 18 faculty members- Research funding from NSF, Navy, other federal agencies- Well rated PhD program

• Department enrollment is about… - 400 (!) undergraduate students - 200 graduate students (50 are PhD)

6

Introduction and background

• Senior capstone design course (CIS 4910) – Part of most engineering and computer science curriculums

• Purpose is to…– Integrate knowledge – Produce a useful artifact (design and build)

• Many models for a capstone course…– Internal - individual or team-based

» Students select project» Faculty members select project

– Industry - individual or team-based» Providing projects and/or support

3

Introduction and background continued

• Growing trend towards industry-based project courses – One motivation is to prepare students for industry careers

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Introduction and background continued

University Web site for CE and/or CS capstone course

Arizona http://www.ece.arizona.edu/~ece498/

Mich Tech http://www.ece.mtu.edu/pages/senior_design/index.html

NCSU http://courses.ncsu.edu/ece480/lec/001/

NCSU http://sd.csc.ncsu.edu/SeniorDesign/index.html

Oregon State http://www.ece.orst.edu/industry/srprojectbrochure.pdf

Portland State http://www.cecs.pdx.edu/capstone_student.php

UF http://www.ise.ufl.edu/IPPD.html

USF http://www.csee.usf.edu/~christen/class6/class6.html

UIUC http://www.ece.uiuc.edu/corporate/design.html

UIUC http://slappy.cs.uiuc.edu/cs292/

Small sample

• Example #1 – UF IPPD program (college-wide)- Selective program (top 25%), interdisciplinary, team-based

• Example #2 – NCSU Senior Design center (CS dept)- Design center, catalog of projects, emphasis on “soft” topics

• Example #3 – UIUC “Corporate Connective” initiative (ECE dept)

5

Introduction and background continued

• Design is a major concern of ABET accreditation visits- Integrated throughout program- Capstone course can be be a major focus of a visit

• EC 2000 criterion 3 (a thru k) outcomes involve design

• EC 2000 criterion 4 directly addresses design

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Role in ABET EC 2000

Our view… a capstone course is the cornerstone of the professional requirements of a quality undergraduate engineering curriculum.

• EC 2000 criterion 3 (subparts that apply to a capstone course)…

(a) apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering;

(c) design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs;

(d) function on multi-disciplinary teams;

(e) identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems;

(g) communicate effectively; and

(k) use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice.

8

Role in ABET EC 2000 continued

• EC 2000 criterion 4…

“…engineering standards and realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political.”

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Role in ABET EC 2000 continued

• History of capstone course in our department- Individually selected projects – 1987 to 2000 - Industry-based team projects – 2001 to present

• Individual projects are good…- Students with a strong idea are driven to do well- Only modest overhead for department

• Individual projects are bad…

- Little topic constraint- Students without ideas would search aimlessly- No team-work experience- Sometimes very little supervision

» No recognition of faculty effort High variability in project quality

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Course Design and Implementation

• Our course objectives…

1) Students will select an industry-contributed hardware or software project and form teams of size four to six based.

2) Student teams will follow a formal development process.

3) Students will complete requirements, spec, and test plan.

4) Students will implement their design.

5) Students will test the resulting system.

6) Students will produce a written final report, poster, press Release, final oral presentation, and project demonstration.

7) Students will experience all phases of project development and thereby will gain an appreciation.

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• We approach central-Florida companies that hire our graduates- “Sell” the course based on two benefits to company

1) A first look at graduating class (recruiting)

2) An opportunity to have a back-burner problem solved

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Course Design and Implementation continued

A presentation is made to industry…

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• We need project ideas and champions for Fall 2002 • A good project is…

– Technical– Slightly open-ended– Project scope: 4-student team prototypes within 3 months– Not on the “critical path” for industry– Not proprietary

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Need 8 such projects by mid-December 2002

Industry participation in senior project continued

Our fourth semesterPre

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• What is needed from you

1) A project and a kick-off meeting with a student team 2) Mentoring (amount is up to you) 3) One guest lecture 4) Final student presentation at your corporate site

7

Industry participation in senior project continued

Pre

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to in

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• Development process used…

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Course Design and Implementation continued

Requirements

Specification

Design

Implementation

Test

Manufacture

Distribution

Maintenance

End-of-life

Prototype

• Teach standard development process

- Emphasis on prototype demo» 20% of final grade

• Textbook is Fred Brooks Mythical Man Month

- Brooks was manager for OS/360- Founded CS department at UNC

• Course outline…

Weeks 1 thru 4: Lecture on development process Week 5: Project work day Weeks 6 thru 12: Guest lectures from industry - Prototype demo on week 9

Week 13: Mini-exam

Week 14: Practice presentations Week 15: Final presentations and deliverables due

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Course deliverables…

1) Requirements document – week #3

2) Specification – week #6

3) Prototype demonstration – week #9

4) Test plan – week #10

5) Final demonstration and presentation – week #15 - Project demo - Formal presentation - Poster - Press release

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Course Design and Implementation continued

• Course deliverables – sample poster

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Course Design and Implementation continued

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Examples of projects

• Breed Technologies - Spring 2002

Situation: Breed Technologies develops auto safety products andhas many ongoing projects and employees. Time cards and projecttracking is paper-and-pencil based.

Requirements: Develop a web-based labor and project tracking system.

Project results: Web-based system developed and deployed.

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Examples of projects continued

• Raytheon - Fall 2002

Situation: Raytheon develops secure telephone systems. There isa need to be able to validate the user of a telephone.

Requirements: Prototype the use of finger-print biometric devicesfor authorizing the user of an IP telephone.

Project results: Developed software to use off-the-shelf biometricfingerprint device to enable a PC-based IP telephone.

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Examples of projects continued

• Sonny’s BBQ – Spring 2002 and Fall 2002

Situation: Sonny’s is the largest USA BBQ chain. Order taking is paper-and-pencil based and is labor intensive and error prone.

Requirements: Prototype the use of wireless hand-held computersfor order taking and transmission to the kitchen.

Project results: First semester developed user interface for hand-held Palm computers. Second semester developed wirelessinterface and order delivery to the kitchen.

• Sypris Electronics – Fall 2002 and Spring 2003

Situation: Sypris develops cryptographic “boxes” for the DoD. There is a need for cryptographic security on COTS hand-heldcomputers.

Requirements: Develop a cryptographic service provider softwarepackage for a Microsoft WinCE handheld.

Project results: First semester developed most of software torun on a PC. Second semester group ported to hand-held and productized the software.

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Examples of projects continued

• Component #1 – Modified course structure is an improvement– Structured environment, no “back ending” of project work

• Component #2 – Student self-surveys– Almost all the students state that soft topics covered are critical to career success– Almost all students state that they believe this course is better preparing them for industry that any other course

• Component #3 – Long term evaluation– Yet to be done, we need to survey graduates 2 to 5 years past graduation

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Evaluation of the course

• Described design of an industry-based capstone design course

• We believe very beneficial to students entering workforce

• Future work is long-term evaluation of graduates

• We hope that our experience can be of value to others

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Summary and future work

Course outline and syllabus are included in the paper