Guide for EE499 Final Reports and Presentations

 

Individuals must turn in their own written final report. Final reports from members of the same team are expected to be similar though they do not have to be exactly the same since some people will have understood the design issues better than others. Required Capstone Design Report Format and required sections.

 

Capstone Design Report Format

 

1.  Introduction (Problem identification and impact on society)

Suggested content:

(Motivation) In this section identify the problem to be addressed and explain why it is important.

(Impact) Explain the potential impact of the solution to other technologies and society.

(History of Similar Solutions) Present examples of similar/existing designs and solutions.  Discuss differences between the proposed design and its approach to that which already exists.

 

2.  Problem Statement (Solution formulation and design criteria):

Suggested content:

(Top-Level Solution) In this section describe the main function of the design and break it down into sub-functions/parts.  A top-level diagram should be used to help explain the relation between the sub-functions and the complete design with a team effort.

(Criteria) Present/derive specific criteria for the overall design and each block in the top level.  The specifications must be tied to the original problem.  Experiments or other research may be needed before determining the specifications.  An explanation of how these specification were determined must be included.  The design criteria must incorporate realistic design constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political.

 

(Testing)  Procedures for how the final design/solution will be tested to verify it meets the design specifications.

 

3.  Team and Work Organization (Teamwork and Timeline)

(Milestones)  Describe main tasks that must be performed in order to complete the design. Present a timeline of completing the milestones.

(Team Issues) Describe the main responsibilities of each team member in completing the task.

(Peer Evaluations) Describe how the team members will evaluate each other (what are the criteria by which they will judge each other).

 

Sections 1, 2, and 3 should be complete by mid-semester, reviewed by faculty coordinator and industrial advisor and returned to student teams with comments.   Comments must be responded to and the edited versions of these sections must appear in the final report.  A tentative grade can be assigned at this point and either averaged with or replaced by the grade of these sections in the final report.

 

4. Solution (Design Process)

Suggested Content:

Describe the design process for each element in top-level proposal.

(optimization/design alternative resolution) Describe how parameters were optimized relative to the specifications/performance, and/or how decisions between design alternatives were made.  If equations exist between performance specification and parameters, they should be presented in this section.  If simulations were used, the simulation procedure must be described and critical results presented.   If changes were made iteratively between design testing and design modification, this must also be explained. 

 

It is important to demonstrate your thinking or processes used to decide between design alternatives relative to your proposed criteria.

 

Final schematics, drawings, program flowcharts, and photographs of final device are presented in this section.

 

5.  Design Verification

Results of the testing procedure are presented in this section to show to what degree the design meets the original specifications.  Use tables, charts, graphs, and statistics to effectively demonstrate performance.  All must be explained clearly so reader can understand to what degree your design function and meets specifications.

 

6.  Conclusions

Suggested content:

Summarize the performance of your design, the effectiveness of the design process, and indicate what you would have done differently at the start of this design process knowing what you know now.  If you did not meet the criteria this is a good section to describe how future work you could do the criteria given more time.

 

Appendix

Must include engineering notebooks!  Optional: programs, detailed schematics, preliminary/alternative designs

 

 

Additional Final report guidance (General)

·       Summary of the design.

·       Demonstrate that you understand the design issues.

·       Alternatives considered, final choices made, reasons for choices.

·       You want to answer the question why, for each choice you have made.

·       Design calculations and/or simulation results that demonstrate the design meets its requirements.

·       Experimental results that demonstrate the design meets its requirements.

·       Experimental results that verify that your design calculations and simulation results are correct.

·       You want to demonstrate to the reader that your design meets its requirements and performs its desired function.

·       Be generous with explanatory text, schematics, tables of results, drawings, waveforms etc. You want to make it easy for the reader to understand your design and to conclude that it works.

·       Summarize where the design meets its requirement, where it does not, and what you would do differently if you were starting again.


Guide for EE499 Final Report Presentation

 

·       Present the information in the final report. Use Power Point.

·       Each team will speak for 20 minutes. This means each team should have about 10 to 20 slides.

·       Slides should include schematics, tables of results, drawings, waveforms etc.

·       Slides should have few words, the speaker provides the words, explains the schematics, gives the significance of the numbers in tables, and gives the significance of waveforms.

·       Slides should have few equations, only the most important if needed to explain an important point.

·       You want to demonstrate to the audience that your design meets its requirements and performs its desired function. This means experimental results.

·       Correlate your test data with design calculations and simulation results. You must choose what is most important to show.

·       The last speaker for a team must summarize the results. This means summarizing where the design meets its requirement, where it does not, and what you would do differently if you were starting again.

·       Be prepared to answer questions. Any member of the class as well as the instructor may ask questions during your presentation.