COE Ad-Hoc Committee

Proposal for Senior Project Evaluation Guidelines

 

 

 

The senior project evaluation should be based on four components, each with the relative weight indicated:

1.      Action Plan                                                                   (15%)

2.      Project Implementation                                     (60%)

3.      Project Report (documentation)                                    (15%)

4.      Final Presentation                                                         (10%)

 

Proposal Guidelines:

 

Faculty members are required to propose senior projects with the following criteria:

  1. The project should be a design or design analysis type. No term-paper-like or research project should be given. If a faculty member wants to utilize the student(s) as a research assistant, he should formulate the problem to the student as a design problem; clear specifications and measurable (known apriori) outcomes.
  2. The project should represent a complete design cycle (i.e. product oriented), with cost-performance issues.
  3. Teamwork is a must? Projects should require at least 2 students to work on and a maximum of 5. This also necessitates project management (work division and allocation).
  4. Projects should deal with contemporary issues and expose the students to socio-economical issues of the new technologies.
  5. Faculty members should submit their project proposals two weeks before the end of the term that precedes the intended term. For next term, proposals should be submitted by Dec. 25th. This will allow the coordinators and student sufficient time to select the projects and start working early on.

 

Also, students are very much encouraged (or forced?) to propose senior projects based on their summer training experience (i.e. a project related to their work/firm where they were for summer training). Faculty members can adopt any of these projects (possibly modify it). Projects that have industrial sponsors would receive the highest priority and the department should make sure that faculty members sponsor them.

 

 

 

Student’s Project Proposal Grading:

 

The students should select a project within the first week of study and submit a full proposal within two and half weeks from the start of the term. Student proposals should contain the following:

  1. Detailed problem description (in the students own words) and the proposed solution
  2. A complete action plan detailing the required tasks, their duration, and their assignments. A task is a specific job with a specific duration and a measurable outcome. Even literature surveys are tasks. The action plan should show how the project would be finished in the allotted time (one or two terms).

 

Students should submit one copy of their proposal to their supervisor and another to the coordinator. The coordinator and the supervisor each will grade the proposal out of ten based on:

  1. Clarity of the problem description and proposed solution                             (10 marks)
  2. Feasibility of the proposed action plan                                               (5 marks)

The total proposal grade will be the average of the supervisor and coordinator grades. The coordinator should be able to enlist the help of faculty members in evaluating the proposals if he needs to. Feedback to students should be indicated on the graded proposals, which shall be returned to the students.

 

Implementation Grade:

 

This is the most important part of the project and as such deserves the largest grade percentage. A jury made up of the supervisor and two other faculty members should evaluate the following items of the design:

1.      Engineering approach: System design, critical examination of different approaches and justification for the selected approach(s) and the utilization of basic engineering science in the design.                                                    (20 marks)

2.      Completion of the design (including work habits, organizational skills, self-reliance, professional conduct, initiatives, …etc.).                                 (20 marks)

3.      Design verification and testing: Simulations, modeling, emulation, prototyping (when appropriate) and testing (again including methodology and organization of the whole testing process). No project should receive an A or A+ grade unless a complete prototype is demonstrated.                                                         (20 marks)

 

 

Documentation Grade:

 

The final report is the main method of communicating the student’s effort to the examining committee. What to be evaluated here are the communication skills (how well does the student convey his ideas and work). The work itself is evaluated in the implementation part of the grade.  Four copies of the report are to be submitted before the final presentation. The report grade is equally divided among the supervisor, coordinator and the two other examining committee members. The following items should be graded as shown:

1.      Compliance with the report writing guidelines issued by the coordinator.(5 marks)

2.      Clarity of the problem description and proposed solution (including System design, approach selection and design segmentation).                               (5 marks)

3.      Implementation/Testing report as well as any ‘product manuals’ if the project requires such a thing.                                                                                         (5 marks)

 

 

Presentation Grade:

 

Members of the final exam committee equally grade the student presentation according to the following distribution:

1.      Clarity of stated problem and solution.                                               (3 marks)

2.      Quality of presentation (organization, body language …etc)               (2 marks)

3.      Discussion (how the student answer the committee questions which demonstrate his understanding of the project and its socio-economical aspects).             (5 marks)

 

Demos: The time allotted for the final presentation is usually insufficient for having demos on the completed projects. Students should arrange in advance for demos to their examining committee members.

Policy for Obtaining IC Grade:

 

Currently students get an IC grade automatically if they do not submit a final report in the first semester of their project. This does not conform to the university’s policy regarding IC grade. A student will obtain an IC grade only under the following conditions:

1.      If the project supervisor had specified the project as a two-semester project in the beginning of the project (in the proposal) and if the student(s) completed at least 30% of the project tasks (as specified in the work plan and approved by the supervisor).

2.      If the project was specified as a one-semester project, then the student(s) should demonstrate 60% completion of the project (again as specified and approved by the supervisor).

3.      In any case, the student(s) has to submit a report at the end of the term showing his progress, reasons for demanding an IC grade, and work plans for the next semester. All this should be approved (and signed) by the supervisor before it is handed to the coordinator. No presentation is required from students with acceptable IC grade. Failure to submit this report means that the student will be scheduled for the final presentations. Failing to present his project, guarantees him an automatic F grade. Also, if the student fails to complete at least 30% of a two-semester project or 60% of a one-semester project they receive an F grade and they have to re-register the course again.