How can you make EPD 397 mean more than just 3 credits and a grade on your transcript?

Senior design classes require excellent communication skills Co-op supervisors expect your willingness to document Leaders in companies demand competent and clear language and their recruiters look for signs of those abilities Engineering jobs will increasingly involve international cooperation: English is the closest we have to an international language of business Being able to communicate well will put you in a position to choose the kind of life you will lead

How do you start building communication skills today?

Use this class to build your expertise in your field. If you have no expertise yet, start with the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges website: NAE website and video:

Other ideas for topics.... Are you active in a student organization? Concrete Canoe, FSAE, Hybrid car, etc.

How many of you are active members of Engineers without Borders? Eyleen Chou, president of Engineers without Borders, continued her work in Haiti after graduation by joining Meds & Foods for Kids.

Become aware of the campus research being done in your field... look into research done in Heidi Ploeg’s Bone and Joint Biomechanics Lab... Photo and graphic courtesy of Professor Heidi Ploeg, Bone and Joint Biomechanics Lab.

...or the fusion research going on in the Helically Symmetric eXperiment Lab, with ECE researcher David Anderson and EP professor Chris Hegna....

... or look into work done by COE interdisciplinary undergraduate teams like the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) team, which applies synthetic biology to global problems. The 2011 UW-iGEM team investigated the use of biosensors to quantify the presence of biofuels. They were invited to world finals at MIT.

How many of you have studied or worked abroad?

Put these experiences on your résumé. Use an interest in any of these areas as a starting point for a topic in EPD 397.

The course packet provides seven topic specifications: First, the project should have some level of social, political, or economic relevance so that it is both interesting to you and important to an identifiable community beyond this classroom; you will also need to be able to explain its general relevance to people in the classroom. A photo of the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, August (Courtesy of Jim Gehrz, AP; Washington Post)

Second, the topic should have a technical component that allows you to gain experience tackling specific challenges in technical writing, such as researching different dimensions of a technical problem, describing a technical process, walking us through technical graphics, communicating with equations, and effectively using numerical data. (Seigel, R. Cancer Statistics, 2012)

Second, the topic should have a technical component that allows you to gain experience tackling specific challenges in technical writing, such as researching different dimensions of a technical problem, describing a technical process, walking us through technical graphics, communicating with equations, and effectively using numerical data. (Seigel, R. Cancer Statistics, 2012)

Third, the topic should be one that can be researched effectively within the span of a semester.

Fourth, the topic should be narrow enough that your report can achieve depth and technical complexity -- your instructors will help you with that focus. Anaerobic digesters for use in large-scale municipal waste systems. Anaerobic digesters for use in large-scale municipal waste systems.

Fifth, the reporting of your topic should be unique. In some way, such as the audience you choose or the reference sources you select, your final report or design proposal should be distinct from other published documents on the subject. Your project also must be substantially different in scope from any other project in this class and it must go well beyond introductory information offered in other engineering classes. “ Offshore wind turbines are an engineering challenge for those interested in alternative energy.”

Sixth, you must be willing and able to approach the topic objectively, research it thoroughly from many different angles, and demonstrate an openness to different perspectives on the topic in your early documents of the semester. We take our sifting and winnowing seriously on this campus; it is part of our history.

Seventh, the topic should allow you to do more than simply provide information: it should involve analysis, evaluation, or design, and it should provide your own well-supported, carefully-qualified answer to an open research question.

Eighth, the topic should involve an identifiable ethical dimension. Most topics do, once you think about them. 20

Begin researching at least TWO viable topics. Be ready to post those by the end of next week.

Be prepared for the assignment structure and the relationship between deliverables in EPD 397. All semester: Your Major Technical Project: Memo, Elevator Talk, Proposal, Progress Report, Formal Presentation, Final Technical Report Early semester: Cover letters, resumes, interviewing skills Mid semester: Engineering Ethics Multidisciplinary Team Project, Discussion, and Online Test

Get started today on your topic and on your job application materials. Wikipedia, Grand Challenges website, and Google Scholar – start looking for a couple of possible technical projects Job search: ECS website and course packet for advice