CSCE
488: Computer Engineering Professional Development
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Spring 2007, T 8:00-9:15
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Room 111, Avery Hall
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Announcements:
Instructor: Witawas Srisa-an; Office:
123E Avery Hall; Office Hours: Wednesday 10am to noon (by appointment,
otherwise); EMail:
witty@cse.unl.edu; Phone: 472-5004
TA: Jie Feng; Office: 501
Bldg Room 5; Office Hours: 3:00-5:00 PM Monday (at other times by appointment);
EMail:
jfeng@cse.unl.edu;
Required Textbook :
- Inviting Disasters: Lessons from the Edge of Technology by James R. Chiles,
Collins; Reprint edition (September 1, 2002), ISBN: 0066620821. (Link to
the book on Amazon.com and at the publisher's website)
Official
Course Description:
- Pre- and
Post-requisites: JGEN 200; ELEC 362, 476 and CSCE 430; Must be taken exactly one
semester before CSCE-489. Credit, 2 hours/week.
Prepares
students for the Senior Design Project course and professional practice through
familiarity and practice with current tools, resources, and technologies;
professional standards, practices, and ethics; and oral and written report
styles used specifically in the computer engineering field.
- Prerequisites by Topic: operating system, microprocessors, digital and analog design.
- Familiarity with: professional writing
& speaking styles (in a general context), conventional word-processors,
computer organization, logic design, and computer programming.
- Exposure to: the concepts and
principles of professional ethics and team dynamics.
Course
Goals:
The
488-489 course sequence is unique among your undergraduate courses in aiming to
prepare you for the professional life after graduation. For a successful
engineering career, technical knowledge is certainly necessary but not
sufficient. Proficiency in technical communication, ability to work in a team,
and awareness of professional ethics are just as important. All of these
elements are brought together in the 488-89 course sequence under the guise of
a team project that you conceive, develop in sufficient detail to demonstrate
its feasibility, and report on it both in writing and orally.
Useful Information: Many reference
materials on oral and written communication exist. You may already have come
across some good sources in AgLec 200. Here are a few that I can recommend:
- Resources for technical writing, Dr. Steve Goddard
- Improve your written and oral presentation
styles, Dr. Stephen Scott
- How to write a research paper, Dr. Jean-Yves Le Boudec
- Common bugs in writing, Dr. Henning Schulzrinne
- Style in business writing, Dave Dusseau
- A Handbook for Scholars, Mary-Claire van Leunen
- Little, Brown Essential Handbook for Writers, Jane E. Aaron
- Purdue
Writing Lab
- Computers and Society, COS 490, CS Department, University of Maine
- A simple (incomplete) check-list for writing
papers, S. Sapatnekar, University of Minnesota
- Professional
Societies' Student Membership: IEEE, IEEE Computer Society, ACM, HKN
Acknowledgment: Special thanks to Profs.
Lisong Xu, Hong Jiang, Sharad Seth, and Stephen Scott at UNL for their lecture
notes and help.
Design Contests:
Course Grading: There are no tests in
the course. There will be about seven homework assignments that are tentatively
planned as follows:
- Homework 1: Survey and
technical research (5%) (Individual assignment)
- Homework 2: Reading and
Critiquing Technical Material (10%) (From the textbook, Team assignment)
- Homework 3: Reviewing Past
Senior Design Projects (15%) (Team Assignment)
- Homework 4: Design and Written Report
on Project Proposal (15%) (Team Assignment)
- Homework 5: Oral Presentation
on Project Proposal (15%) (Team Assignment)
- Homework 6: Team Project
Presentation (20%) (Team Assignment)
- Homework 7: Written Report
on Mini-project (20%) (Team Assignment)
Final
grades will be assigned based on the following cutoff percentages.
A+
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A
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A-
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B+
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B
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B-
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C+
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C
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C-
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D
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F
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97
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93
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90
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87
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83
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80
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77
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73
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70
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60
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<60
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Late
Policy: Homework will be due in class, before the beginning of the class.
Late homework will be accepted until the following Friday, with 10% penalty per
day.
Important Resources:
Course Schedule:
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Date
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Topics
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Assignments
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1/9
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Course syllabus
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Survey & Homework 1 (Due next week)
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1/16
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Overcoming Engineering Challenges
(showing video of DARPA Challenge)
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1/23
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Getting Started With Projects and discussion of Homework
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1/30
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Some Useful Links for Projects (See also the Getting Started With Projects above)
Engineering Accidents (Part 1)
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Homework 2
All: read Introduction
Team 1 (Di Salvo et al.): read Chapter 2 and 4
Team 2 (Fluehr et al.): read Chapter 5 and 7
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2/6
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Engineering Accidents (Part 2)
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2/13
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Discussion about Engineering
Accidents
Schedule for Mini-Project
Presentation (during last week of the semester)
Preliminary Discussion about the
Mini-Project
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2/20
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Individual Meeting about the
Mini-Project (my office)
- Fluehr et al. (8:15 am)
- Di Salvo et al. (8:45 am)
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Homework 3 (due March 20)
Additional Information
De Salvo et al.
- "System for Separation of Recyclables", by the SSR Corp. Team
(report,
presentation)
- "SmarTrash", from Boston University (CSIDC 2006)
(report)
Fluehr et al.
- Recycle Nation -- An Environment Improvement Program for Incentive Based Recycling", by The Trash Masters Team Team
(report,
presentation)
- "SunRay", from NC State University (CSIDC 2006)
(report)
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2/27
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Engineering Innovations
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Homework 4 and 5 (Mini-project proposal)
HW 4 Oral presentations on 4/10
HW 5 Due 4/18 by 11:59 PM via Web handin |
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3/6
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Homework 2 Presentation
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3/13
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Spring Break - no class
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3/20
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Homework 2 Presentation
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Homework 6 and 7
(Mini-project report)
HW 6: Presentation on May 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 am.
Submit the overhead via handin by 11:59 pm on May 3.
HW 7: written report in pdf format by 11:59 pm on May 3.
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3/27
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Homework 3 Presentations
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4/3
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Individual Meeting about the
Mini-Project (my office)
- Di Salvo et al. (8:15 am)
- Fluehr et al. (8:45 am)
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Update discussion log (4/2 5:00
pm)
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4/10
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Homework 4 Presentations
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--
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4/17
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Individual Meeting about the
Mini-Project (my office)
Fluehr et al. (11:00 am)
Di Salvo et al. (8:45 am)
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Update discussion log (4/16 5:00
pm)
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4/24
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Individual Meeting about the
Mini-Project (my office)
Fluehr et al. (11:00 am)
Di Salvo et al. (8:45 am)
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Update discussion log (4/23 5:00
pm)
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5/2
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Mini-Project Presentation
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Please note that
attendance by all is required.
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5/3
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Written Project Reports Due by
Midnight
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Enjoy your summer break! See you next semester.
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