Senior Design [incorporating design controls into capstone design courses]

The degree of incorporation of design controls into capstone design courses varies between programs. The problem of how to incorporate design controls into the biomedical engineering design curriculum was discussed.     

Preparing students for capstone design [Senior Design]

The senior capstone design course is the culmination of the previous three years of the undergraduate curriculum. The goal of this course is to develop students' communication (oral and written), interpersonal, teamwork, analytical, design, and project management skills through a team-based design experience. Students learn about the product-development process and gain experience solving open-ended problems. Capstone design courses give students insight into what it is like to work as an engineer.     

Senior design capstone courses and ABET outcomes

Capstone senior biomedical engineering design courses typically include a wide variety of lecture topics and provide students with many opportunities to develop design, communication, and interpersonal skills. This learning environment can play an important role in producing the desired ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology)learning outcomes. Careful identification and assessment of appropriate performance indicators using the appropriate assessment tools can help a biomedical engineering program determine the role of their capstone senior design course in producing the desired ABET learning outcomes.     

A capstone design course [electrical engineering]

A capstone electrical engineering design course has been developed at the University of San Diego with the goal of providing students with the opportunity to: study design alternatives and select a design responsive to a request for proposal; sell the design concept to a panel of independent evaluators with a written proposal and oral presentations; obtain experience in design within a cooperating group; and completely fabricate and document a working electronic system. While innovation is not overtly discouraged, emphasis is placed upon satisfactory completion of a working product with the time constraints of a two semester course which spans one summer. The course is intended not only to provide a meaningful design experience but also to accomplish a confidence-building transition to the role of practicing engineer     

Power engineering design projects: capstone team projects versus topical design courses

Over the years, Michigan Tech has had two different philosophies for teaching design in the power area. Initially, we integrated design into topical courses, teaching the material the students would need to complete the design. Presently, our students complete year-long, industry-sponsored projects. We will give details on the implementation of the two approaches and compare and contrast the outcomes. Both techniques for teaching design have their advantages and disadvantages.     

Electronic vector-network-analyzer verification [Application Notes]

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently introduced a new electronic approach for verifying microwave vector- network-analyzer (VNA) calibrations with a single computer-controlled electronic verification artifact. The verification results are captured in easy-to-understand performance metrics that, unlike those derived from measurements of mechanical verification artifacts, are independent of the actual artifacts employed. The approach also verifies VNA calibrations more completely than was previously possible. Finally NIST's VeridiCal software automates the entire process and allows you to log results directly to NIST servers over the Internet or generate verification reports on site, greatly simplifying record keeping.     

A model of good design [Control Design]

Manufacturers are cutting the cost of design through investment in virtual tools, explains Guy Richards.     

Gadgets that design forgot [Consumer Tech Design]

The past 30 years have seen many devices become commonplace; the laptop, the portable media player and the compact disc, to name a few. But there have been many that were never going to become iconic. Kris Sangani browses a well-stocked rogues' gallery.     

Design freedom gets the brush-off [electronics design]

Various techniques have been used to push processes this far past the point where diffraction effects kick in. These have included using phase-shift masking to turn diffraction to the designers' advantage, and optical proximity correction (OPC) techniques, such as adding 'ears' to the corners of layout elements so that they are printed as right angles. The problem is that chipmakers are applying ever more Byzantine combinations of these techniques to keep up with shrinking process dimensions, and getting diminishing returns. Device characteristics are varying wildly as more aggressive OPC techniques are pressed into action. The chip equipment industry has been working to solve this for years, but couldn't persuade its customers that moving to 157nm illumination sources was worth the development costs given the marginal advantages it would bring over 193nm light. Unfortunately, the development of EUV lithography is fraught with difficulties. The solution to the 65 nm and 45 nm design for manufacture is new DFM routers. As they are DFM-aware they can run the rule-based checks and ensure that around 80 percent of the DFM problems are avoided. The layout team can then use model- based DFM to take care of the remaining 20 percent.     

A capstone design experience for electrical engineers

A senior-year sequence in design required of all electrical engineering students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering is described. Commencing in the fall quarter, students form groups of either three or four and formulate a problem having multiple possible solutions which must be approved by their instructor. They must then conduct a feasibility study and present their approach to solving the problem by the end of the fall quarter. During the winter quarter, they perform the paper design and analysis and begin prototyping. Spring quarter consists of prototyping, testing, modifying, retesting, and final documentation. All projects are displayed in a trade-show-type format during the day before spring commencement. Four senior classes have completed the nine-credit sequence to date     

Society News [Senior members; Obituaries]

Presents IAS Society members elevated to the status of Senior Member. Also recounts the career and contributions of Robert A. Myers.     

Independent verification and validation [computer programs]

Independent verification and validation (IV&V) is defined as the confirmation by a group, agency, or company other than the original developer that a computer program was developed in accordance with the stated specification and satisfactorily performs the function(s) for which it was designed. The characteristics of IV&V are discussed, and the role played by the IV&V team during the various phases of software development-requirements, design, coding, and testing/validation-is described