The Project Notebook for ECE 480 -- Purpose and Requirements

Purpose of Notebook (in Professional Practice) Document evolution of new ideas, concepts, products Needed to establish IP rights Useful during preparation of reports/presentations

Notebooks for ECE 480 Each student required to maintain a project notebook for the design project portion of the course. Notebook will document the evolutionary development of the student's knowledge and understanding of the systems created. Helps demonstrate how well the student was able to fulfill the course learning objectives. Stimulates student to reflect on what has been accomplished to date and what remains to be accomplished

Requirements: Style and Format Sewn binding so that pages cannot be added pages must have printed numbers on them, so insertions/deletions are obvious: buy a “lab” notebook Entries must be dated in their proper time sequence Begin a day by dating the journal/notebook and end the day by signing and dating the journal/notebook Multiple time-separated work sessions during one day? -- Treat each as separate entry Project notebook may reference software, hardware, reports, etc. that you have produced as interim or final products -- if you turn them in to the instructor, you may assume that they can be referenced in the notebook Reference figures or diagrams by number or by name. Student's name in upper-right corner of the outside cover of the journal Entries must be written in ink in the project notebook

Requirements: Content Documents evolutionary development of student's knowledge and understanding of technical components/systems/software involved in project Draw your “working” or rough schematics and diagrams, do your technical calculations, etc., there. Documents what you have tried, what worked, what did not, and why. Shows your facilitator what you have contributed to the team’s technical progress. Mistake? Draw a line through it, but do not “obliterate” it. If something is superseded by later work, record that, saying what replaced it (page number, date). Notebook must provide demonstrate how well student was able to fulfill the course learning objectives. At accreditation time, the visiting team will look critically at examples of these notebooks to determine what the students gained from this capstone course. Project notebook DOES document all design-team meetings that you attended, and decisions that were made, but it is NOT just a meeting log!

Review and Evaluation Handed in to facilitator for interim review once during the term – as a PHOTOCOPY (high quality, 8.5x11”, student’s name on first page) Facilitator will give you feedback and grade on first submission of notebook Handed in for final grading at end of semester Must bring to each team meeting (with facilitator and without). Facilitator may want to examine it Each student must also hand in a graph showing dates of entries to the notebook. This should be appended as the last page handed in (first time) and placed after the last used page of the notebook when the final one is handed in at the end of the semester. The graph should be a histogram, showing for each week the number of entries made in the notebook (some days may have multiple entries, if distinct “work sessions” occurred on the same day).