First and fourth year design-build team projects: a comparison David C Levy Director, Software Engineering Program School of Electrical and Information Engineering The University of Sydney

School of Electrical and Information Engineering Philosophy of the SE Degree Software Engineering is an emerging profession in a very dynamic industrial and global environment Degree focuses on principles and fundamentals while catering for a wide spectrum of industries and needs. Curriculum follows SWEBOK and IEEE/ACM Model Curriculum Educational context is CDIO –Rich with design-build experiences –All students so least one in each year of study, plus the capstone project –What are the intended outcomes and are they achieved?

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Structure of the Degree Core requirements of B.E. Software Engineering emphasise software process – requirements, design, implementation, testing, deployment, maintenance Fits well with CDIO concepts and design-build experiences

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering 18 Core Courses ALG Algorithms DB Database DS Data Structures ESSD Enterprise Scale System Design FCS Foundations of Computer Systems HCID Human-Computer Interface Design INTInternet Sw Platforms ITP Introduction to Programming Math Calculus, Discrete Maths and Graph Theory (18 Cr) MIT Management of IT NS Networks and Security OOD Object Oriented Design OSM OpSys and Mach Principles SAM Systems Analysis and Modelling SQE Software Quality Engineering PROF Professional Eng and IT (yr 1) PROJ Team Projects THE4 th yr Thesis project (12 Cr)

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Projects Team projects run in every year Part of larger course of lectures, labs, tutorials Increasing complexity Examples –Yr 1: Assemble and program a robot to negotiate a maze –Yr 2: Design and simulate a small microprocessor –Yr 3: Implement a prototype for an e-business. –Yr 4: Develop a management system for a parking garage –Yr 4: Capstone Are the projects delivering what we want?

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering What do we want? Think critically Strengthen fundamentals Gain confidence Communicate – –With each other and with academics –Reports and presentations Produce a functional result Manage the project in a team context Preparation for the Capstone project

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Progress from year 1 to year 4 Promote early success in engineering practice. Reinforce students' understanding of the system development process. Build deeper conceptual understanding of SE skills. Develop understanding of the connection between technical content learned and real-world SE. Increase fluency with SE tools and techniques

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering What will students do? Edstrom et al: Most students do most of the following but none do all of them Conceptual analysis Deep analysis Project management Manufacturing Experiments PR & sponsoring Planning and follow-up ….

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Two projects evaluated First year: part of Intro to Comp Eng – assemble a robot kit an program it to negotiate a maze forwards and backwards, and at the end of the maze play a tune and do a dance. Fourth year: part of Topics in SE – design and simulate a management system for a parking garage to keep track of and display occupancy, direct vehicles to vacant areas. Process a file of vehicle arrival data.

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Project formats 30 Teams of 5-6 in 1 st year, 7 teams of 3-4 in 4 th year. Form own teams 9 weeks duration 2 individual reports, 2 group reports, demo, presentation Week 1 – orientation Week 3 – preliminary report (individual) Week 5 – preliminary design report (group) Week 7 – final design report (group) Week 8 – demo, implementation and peer assessment Week 9 – reflective report (individual) Assessed by tutors (grad students) Does this process achieve the outputs we seek?

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering 1 st yr robot project Working on the robot Demo and peer assessment

How well do we do? What do we measure? Requirement item/performance (out of 5)4th yr1st yr Report 1: Initial evaluation Report 2: Initial design Report 3: Implementation Report 4: Reflection Project demo and presentation Innovation – inventive solution Modeling and analysis Planning and project management Project analysis Time management Team management Dropouts/total 3/2210/173

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Results analysis 4th year students were better at: – managing their teams –evaluating the problem –planning their attack before coding. 1st year students were better at: –Project analysis –Reflection –Final demo results What does this mean?

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Analysis (cont) 1 st year students responded well to being given a real object to design-build-test with clear outcomes –Negotiate maze within a certain time, reverse direction, one manual intervention permitted, more incur penalties 4 th year students were less enthusiatic, perhaps because they were not given a real object to design, build and test. Grading criteria were more stringent in 4th year, where students were required to show greater management skills and a more organized attack on the problem.

The University of Sydney School of Electrical and Information Engineering Conclusion Between the 1st and 4th year projects students show an improvement in approach, taking more care over the initial phases of analysis and knowledge acquisition and showing better management skills. Students prefer –to build something real –physical assessment criteria

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