Title:	CE 3992 - Senior Pre-Thesis, Spring 2007
Instructor:	Ken Stevens, kstevens@ece.utah.edu, MEB 4506, 585-9176
Classes:	Wed 2:00 - 2:50, MEB 1225
Office Hours:	by appointment
Web Page:	www.eng.utah.edu/~kstevens/3992/3992.html
Prerequisites:	CE Major

This course is for students with major status who are seniors within one year of graduation. In this course the student defines an engineering project that is selected with approval of the instructor. This project is planned and executed to completion over the course of two semesters.

There are several major goals for this project, which will prepare the students for industry or graduate work:

1. Define and complete a significant engineering project
2. Develop proposal and presentation skills
3. Project organization, planning, and teamwork skills

Recommended Textbook

William Strunk and E. B. White, Elements of Style

Course Mailing Lists

You will need to sign up for the class mailing list. You can add yourself to the list and see archived messages by accessing the cs3992 mailman web site.

The class mailing list can be accessed by sending messages to cs3992@cs.utah.edu. Note that to send mail to the list you must be sending mail from the same address you sign up under. There is no TA, so just e-mail all assignments to the instructor. Please use discretion when sending messages to the entire class.

Incomplete Policy:	You can't get an incomplete unless you have a documented medical or legal emergency.
Add/Drop Policy:	The University is very strict on this.
Disability:	If you have one that needs addressing contact the instructor immediately in the beginning of class.

Following is the grading for the course:

Detailed report requirements for the proposal and presentation.

Jan 10 Introduction, Organization, Logistics, Expectations
Homework 0: Due Friday Jan 12. Subscribe to the class mailing list.
Homework 1: Good engineers fix things that are broken or just lame in the world around them. Carry a note pad and list all of the things that you find broken in the world for the next week. Organize them into two categories (a) problems that you've noticed and have no idea how to fix, and (b) problems that you have an idea how to fix. For category b, sketch out an initial idea of how you could engineer a better solution.
Homework 2: Write a brief resume of yourself including the following:

• Contact information
• Your GPA to date
• list of your good engineering skills
• Constraints

Jan 17 Project Management.
Due by 1:30pm via e-mail: Assignments 1 and 2. Submit by a pdf file via email to the instructor.

Jan 24 Project Ideas discussion.

Jan 31 No Lecture.
Homework: Meet in class and discuss potential projects and the formations of teams of size 3-5.

Feb 7 Team Dynamics lecture.
Due by 1:30 via e-mail: Tentative group list and one page single spaced pdf project synopsis per potential project. Sign up for a 20 minute discussion with instructor during the week.

Feb 14 Anatomy of a proposal.
Due by 1:30 via e-mail: One page project description. Contents must include team members, functional description of the project demonstration, overview of how you will implement the intended functionality.

Feb 21 No Class - plan and prepare project presentation.

Feb 28 Preliminary Project Presentations.
Due in class: A Three page abstract, introduction, and project synopsis including initial schedule flows, interface issues, risks, and tentative task list.
Due in class: Initial Project Presentation.
You must prepare a 15 minute presentation on your project that will include:

• functional description of the project
• what will be designed, what will be purchased, and some details of the hardware and software design.
• components and implementation strategy and interfaces.

Mar 7 Writing a good proposal.
Due by Class: Web site must be operational and weekly meeting logs must be started.

Mar 14 Team Group Meetings - no official class.

Mar 28 Intermediate Project Presentations.
Due by 1:30pm via e-mail: 5-10 page preliminary pdf project proposal including abstract, introduction, schedule flow, interface specification, risks preliminary BOM and vendors (including contact person name and phone numbers), and base line deliverable and stretch goals.

Apr 4 Team group meetings - no official class.

Apr 11 Meet with instructor in class.

Apr 18 Final Project Presentations.
Due in class: Final presentation of full project proposal including deliverables and stretch goals, full task assignments, etc.

Apr 25 Final Project Presentations.
Due at 1:30pm via e-mail: Final proposal presentation slides as a pdf document.
Due at 1:30pm via e-mail: Final proposal of approximately 20 pages as a pdf document.

Web Page Setup

The downloaded file, public_html.tar, contains some web pages that you can use if you are unfamiliar with creating web pages. To install these pages, do the following:

1. Download the above file to your home directory on the CADE server.
2. If you already have a directory public_html, then:
   • cd public_html
   • cp index.html index.html.original
   • cd ..
   this will back up your original web page.
3. tar xvf public_html.tar
4. chmod -R 755 public_html

This will create a template of the web pages you need to set up the 3992 project logs. Contact me if you have any questions.

• A wireless positioning measurement system based on Active Sonar and Zigbee wireless nodes.
  Matt Fisher, Spencer Graff and Chris Jones.

• Synapse Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle.
  Michael DeLisi, Dariel Marlow, Toren Monson and Matt Stoker.

• Aquatic Guidance System.
  Tyson Ellsworth, Nick Edwards, Paul Hansen, Ed St. Louis and Richard Wright.

• Hands-Free Music Tablet.
  Nate Decker and Steven Tomer.

• WI-FI Clock Radio.
  Greg Bray and Kyle Stewart.

• Procedural Modeling of Clouds.
  Eli Ribble.