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The paper presents the teaching methodology of a new course in

Electronic Project Engineering in the Bachelor degree program of
the Electrical Engineering Technology. This course is a precursor
to the course in Senior Design Project. The course contains two
components: (1) Introducing the principles and concepts of project
planning and engineering and (2) the execution of a demonstrable
project that is run very close to the principles learned. The first
component is conducted through a regular lecture and the second
component through an interactive session.

Page 3.540.1
 

INTRODUCTION

Senior Design Project is the capstone course in the Bachelor degree program of Electrical
Engineering Technology. The primary focus of the course is on the planning and the execution of
a demonstrable project. There is very little time to learn and practice the principles of sound
project engineering and management. A course to address these needs is being felt for quite some
time in the technology program. An effort is made1 in this direction but no experiences have been
reported. However, in addition to above issues, we should also consider that most of the real-life
projects in the industry are executed by a team rather than a single individual. Hence team
building and team dynamics become an overwhelming issue in project execution. This paper
presents a new course EET 397, Electronic Project Engineering, which is designed to teach
project engineering techniques with a focus on team-building. The students in this course actually
practice the learned techniques through executing an electronic project.

This paper presents the teaching methodology of the proposed course. The course is
comprised of three components: (1) introduction of the principles and concepts of project
planning and engineering, (2) the execution of a demonstrable project that utilizes the well tried
project management techniques and (3) the critical evaluation of the project and the techniques.
The first component is delivered through regular lectures. The second component involves
interactive laboratory sessions. The third component is the most important component. The
evaluation is a continuous in the form of regular oral reports, written progress reports and
maintaining a log book entries by each student in the class.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

EET 397 ELECTRONIC PROJECT ENGINEERING

Catalog Data:
Introduction to electronic project engineering principles and techniques. Topics include
technical feasibility studies, project specification, scheduling, testing, validation and cost
Page 3.540.2

estimating. Focus is on team work. These principles and techniques are emphasized through the
design and execution of an electronic project.
 

class 2, laboratory 3 credit 3

Prerequisite: Junior standing

Course Organization

Three components: (I) Lecture on project management/engineering topics

(II) Project execution in a team-environment
(III) Critical evaluation

The class meets for five hours per week. Four hours in each week for the first eight weeks
are devoted to lecturing on project management topics. Two hours in the first eight weeks are
reserved for oral reporting, information gathering, trouble-shooting and problem analysis in
component specifications and procurement.

Five hours in each week in the final eight weeks are exclusively reserved for laboratory
sessions. The laboratory sessions comprise of closely supervised activities of testing, interfacing of
subsystems and trouble-shooting.

Lecture Topics:
Project engineering and the nature of project management 1 hour
Feasibility study and project specification 1 hour
Learning curves 2 hours
Scheduling 4 hours
Component procurement and project inventory techniques 4 hours
Design review and reliability analysis 2 hours
Value engineering and ergonomic issues 2 hours
Costing 4 hours
Project ethics 2 hours
Total quality control 4 hours
Page 3.540.3

Report writing 2 hours

Electrical technology topics 4 hours
 

TEXTBOOK
Project Management, Engineering, Technology and Implementation
-Avraham Shtub, Jonathan F. Bard and Shlomo Globerson
Prentice-Hall, 1994 (ISBN )

The book presents a concise treatment of most of the topics of the course. It supplements the
subject matter with case studies. The principles are reinforced through problems and exercises at
the end of the chapters.

PROJECT
The project selected was an electric bicycle with commercial specifications. It is essentially
an electromagnetic project that involves multi-disciplinary design and interfacing of subsystems.

ELECTRIC BICYCLE
Target specifications
Maximum speed: 20 mph
Range : 20 miles, (70 Kg. Without pedaling)
Battery Charging time: 4 hours
Peak power : 1400 Watts
Safety limit output power : 720 Watts
Battery : 12 V, 17 Ah x2
Motor : DC motor
Charger : 110 V ac, 60 Hz.
Page 3.540.4
 

COURSE PEDAGOGY

In this course, the class is divided into groups of four or five students. All groups are
assigned the same project. The project requires a major design in electrical or electronics but
includes design in mechanical and other necessary disciplines. All teams compete and are
expected to complete the project by the end of the semester. The student teams are required to do
the feasibility study, develop the specifications that either meet or surpass the similar
commercially available products. The teams are allowed to have variations in the specifications
to achieve niche in the market.

The teams are asked to divide work into smaller segments, draw detail specifications for
compatibility in assembly of segments, select components, plan schedule for procurement,
prototype design etc. Team building is the very essential aspect of this course. They are asked to
use Internet and e-mail services for information search and networking among themselves and
with the instructor.

Weekly report presentation and bi-weekly written report are required. All teams engage
in active exchange of information in the class room setting within the framework set by the
instructors. The teams present their weekly progress and tell what they are going to report in the
next weekly session. Seminars by industry managers and a visit to a company are also parts of
this course. Maintaining log-books is mandatory. The team members evaluate each other in
addition to the evaluation by the instructor.

TEAM BUILDING

TEAM CHEMISTRY
A project team should be comprised of members who share common views, can meet
often and have easy access to communication. All three objectives are very difficult to achieve
when the class is comprised mostly of the part-time students. Students, being busy as they are
Page 3.540.5

with job and family, have hard time in knowing, leave alone developing understanding of, fellow
student’s views. Hence, the group is initially formed by the students with physical proximity in
 

the class room. A few modifications in team chemistry may have to be allowed but limited to the
first week of the semester.

Weekly meeting of all team members is absolutely essential in building the group
chemistry. The scheduled laboratory meetings can be used for this purpose. Attendance in the
group meetings should be rewarded by allocating some grading points. The group leader must be
required to maintain the group meetings in his or her log-book.

DIVISION OF WORK
The division of work among the group members is the key to the success of the team
building. A detail work plan (schedule) must be developed which consists of sequential and
parallel activities. The instructor must provide help in this process. Division of work may have to
be revised in first couple of weeks due to realignment and drop-out of students. The group is also
required to designate a reporter who would log the meetings and prepare the oral and written
reports. The group should be told to prepare alternate plans for realignment of work. It is
advisable to assign two students to a single activity.

The dissentions and complaints in the group must be addressed immediately by the
instructor. Typical complaints are abstention and lack of communication. Internet access or
listserve email communication would be of great help in removing the complaints.

DOCUMENTATION
Division of work must be accompanied by detailed documentation of activities and
assignments. The documentation must also be shared among the team members so that all team
members are aware of each others work. In the event of personal emergencies or absenteeism,
this documentation would be very helpful in keeping the schedule on time.
Page 3.540.6
 

EXECUTION PHASE

All the three teams in the class decided on a modular design that would be retro-fitted on
the commercially available bicycles. The project design was divided into three parts:

(i) Mechanical design of the retro-fit unit

(ii) Motor drive circuit design
(iii) Battery charger design

Each team divided work internally. A project leader emerged in each team automatically. An
individual responsible for an activity was also responsible for the research in components, for
exploring the state-of-art technology and the implementation aspects. Component costs are shared
among the team members. Each team is required to present an oral report every week and a written
report bi-weekly. Every student is required to maintain a log-book.

The teams were advised to make judicious choices between purchasing the sub-
assemblies or build them in-house by taking into account the time and money constraints.
Emphasis was laid on obtaining the state-of-art components and sub-assemblies even if meant
more waiting time. The students were also advised to draw up the list of long-lead items and plan
their procurement as early as possible.

EVALUATION

Careful and continuous evaluation is the most important component of the course. The
evaluation is comprised of two components: (i) team evaluation and (ii) individual evaluation. The
team evaluation constitutes about fifty percent of the total grade to reflect the importance and
emphasis of team-building and co-operation. The remaining fifty percent of the grade is based on
the performance in two written tests, individual contribution, the critical self evaluation, the
evaluation of the project by a team of one or more faculty member, and the suggestions by the team
for improvements.
Page 3.540.7
 

Course Evaluation:
Mid-term test I 50 points (individual evaluation)
Mid-term test II 50 points (individual evaluation)
Project execution 100 points (group evaluation)
Final project report 20 points (group evaluation)
Oral and visual presentation 20 points (group evaluation)
Peer evaluation 20 points (individual evaluation)
log-book 20 points (individual evaluation)
Attendance in group meetings 20 points (individual evaluation)
(2 points per meeting)
Critical self-evaluation, individual 50 points (individual evaluation)
assessment of the project and
suggestions for improvements
Total 350 points

Division of the evaluation of oral and visual presentation project points (20 points)
Organization 5 points
Visual communication 5 points
Oral communication 5 points
Interaction (Question/Answer)5 points

Division of project report evaluation points (20 points)

Quality of project idea 5 points
Amount of technical content 5 points
Amount of work done 10 points

Division of the peer evaluation points(20 points)

Contribution 10 points
Co-operation 10 points
Page 3.540.8

Project report format (20 points)

Table of Contents with page numbers,
 

Introduction,
Specifications (electrical and mechanical),
Feasibility study
Division of responsibilities
Original schedule
Component list with resources and costs
Schematics, and mechanical drawings
References

Division of critical evaluation and project assessment points (50 points)

analysis of mistakes 20 points
project assessment 10 points
suggestions for improvement 10 points
self-evaluation 10 points

OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS

The feasibility study consisted of both the technical and commercial feasibility aspects. The
study showed that the project was not attractive commercially due to two reasons:

(1) The added weight of a 24 volts battery and the dc motor alone adds a weight of 25 pounds
on the bicycle. The added weight would cause balancing problems and may require a third
wheel.

(2) The sale price of an electric bicycle would not be less than one thousand US Dollars.

The use of the electric bicycle may be limited only to sports. High cost will put the bicycle beyond
the reach of common persons. The project was still given a go-ahead since it was meant to be a
learning exercise.
Page 3.540.9
 

There were serious problems in obtaining electric motor. The teams’ selection of the dc
motor in preference to a light weight ac induction motor was because of the complexity of
designing an ac drive system. The dc motor was further narrowed down to a low dc voltage version
in comparison to easily available 90 Vdc motors because an additional step up dc-dc converter
would have been required. The waiting time for the low-voltage dc motor turned out to be very
long. It was realized, although late, that a 90 volts dc motor would have been an appropriate choice.

The mechanical design of the three competing teams were completed by the time the
semester came to a close. The teams procured the electrical components for the dc motor controller
and the battery charger, but the time for testing and trouble shooting of the circuits was not
sufficient. One of the teams obtained a controller sub-assembly but they also ran out of time for an
actual trial on the bicycle.

FAILURE-ANALYSIS
Most of the problems can be traced to the failure in visualizing the extent of effort and time
of various activities of the project. This is the classical problem of scheduling. The work division
was satisfactory but the alternate plans were not developed.

The follow-up of the details of the schedule became difficult in general report taking
sessions. The group reporting sessions should have been a combination of an open reporting and a
closeting with an individual team. As a consequence,

Documentation of each member’s activity were not emphasized which lead to other
members waiting for the absent member to show up in the class or to establish contact with the
team members. Another handicap was that the listserve service could not be established.

Teams spent excessive time in searching and obtaining components for sub-assemblies. The
time for testing and interfacing sub-assemblies was grossly inadequate. Unfortunately, group could
Page 3.540.10

not apprehend the seriousness of this problem inspite of several warnings by the instructors.
 

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS

Team-building was the most difficult task considering that almost all students were evening
students. However, the use of Internet for mailing by some students was very helpful. Later on we
intend to create a “listserv” e-mail platform for reports and message transfer and information
sharing among the teams. Physical meetings became necessary towards the end of the semester for
interfacing sub-assemblies. More laboratory time was needed at the end of the course. Hence, a
gradual increase in laboratory time with advancing weeks is recommended. The lecture content of
the course may be delivered at an intense pace in the beginning of the course. The laboratory
content of the course may be heavy towards the end.

The course has the tendency to drift into a execution-intensive mode. The slackness must be
avoided very skillfully by setting an elaborate road-map and setting warning flags and presenting
the bottleneck scenarios. Teams must be continuously engaged in the brain-storming sessions. The
instructors must conduct themselves like managers in these report taking sessions.

SUMMARY

A new course in Electronic Project Engineering was designed to introduce the principles
and practices of project management in the Bachelor degree program of the Electrical
Engineering Technology. This course is a precursor to the course in Senior Design Project. The
course contains two components: (1) introduction of the principles and concepts of project
planning and engineering and (2) execution of a demonstrable project that is run methodically in
a team environment. The first component is conducted through a regular lecture and the second
component through an interactive laboratory session.

Team-building was the most important though difficult task because the students were
evening-time students. The use of “listserv” Internet environment for report submitting, message
Page 3.540.11

transfer and information sharing among the teams would help greatly. Physical meetings, however,
become necessary towards the end of the semester when the interfacing of sub-assemblies and
testing are required.
 

The course has been found to have a tendency to drift into a project-only course if the
lecture part is slackened and the goal of finishing the project is over emphasized. It must be avoided
very skillfully by setting an elaborate road-map, setting warning flags and presenting the bottleneck
scenarios. The failures were analyzed and the suggestions were invited. Most of the problems can
be traced to the lack of visualization of the extent of effort and time of various activities of the
project. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience. The course instructors are required to conduct
themselves as the managers in a real-life industrial setup.

Overall, it was a worthwhile experience. We expect to pick the threads from where the class
left this project, improve and complete the electrical and safety measures of the design in the next
time this course is offered.

REFERENCES
[1] “Curriculum 2000 for EET”, the new study plan for EET students in B.S. Program at
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.

[2] The new study plan for EET students in B.S. Program at Purdue University Calumet,
Hammond, IN.

asee97.31

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