Coordinator: Bob Bond; 225 Workman; 835-5411; rhb@ee.nmt.edu

Schedule: 4:00 - 5:50 PM Monday in 117 Workman

The "senior design project" is to develop all of your skills (technical and non-technical) by solving real problems. This will involve project definition, development of detailed project plans, specific use of your technical knowledge, oral presentations, documentation, team building efforts, conflict resolution, and many other (often unpredictable) functions.

All projects must represent solutions to real problems, and your first task will be to convince me, and your customer, that you understand the project and have a plan that will lead to a solution. Your project effort will be primarily monitored by a faculty advisor outside of the two hour weekly class meeting.

One use of the weekly class meeting will be project status reporting (not technical problem solving). It will be required that periodically each project group report on the status of their work with respect to their project plan. In particular, are all tasks complete that should be complete, are all ongoing tasks proceeding as planned (if not why not), and is the group ready to begin all tasks that should start in the near future.

The Fall 1996 Senior design course will include presentations and discussion of the following along with the project selection, definition and actual implementation work:

• Two class sessions on "Getting the Job Done" which will look at planning for success in project teams. Book of the above name by Randolph and Posner used as a reference.
• One session on development of good team communication skills with demonstration video showing some of the ways small groups fail in their attempts to communicate
• An introduction to the concept of team dynamics with emphasis on what you can expect when groups of people come together to work on a new project, and what can be done by team members to encourage true team effort.
• An introduction to the idea that individuals have different social styles and what that implies in a group environment
• Discussion of conflict. Why it is good and how to work toward appropriate resolution. Humorous conflict resolution video will be shown.
• The Quality Function Deployment formalism as a model for truly understanding your customers needs and guaranteeing that you product design meets these needs.

About two thirds of the way through the term each group will be required to participate in a design review of their project with the EE faculty serving as a board of technical experts. Final project presentations (given during the last week of classes) will be evaluated by the faculty and peer group using criteria developed by the class members.