1 Introduction
The Level 3 project is a major part of your curriculum - Senate Ordinance 1.12 requires that no degree be awarded until a satisfactory project has been submitted. It represents 33% of the total marks at Level 3 and, therefore, has a substantial influence on the class of degree awarded.
You will be encouraged to commence preliminary discussions relating
to your project well in advance of commencement of Level 3. Sandwich course
students should discuss potential projects with their training companies.
Your personal tutor will also advise you. You must finalise your choice
of project within the first week of the Autumn Semester. Some 140 hours
will be allocated on your timetable for project work. It is however, essential
that you should also allocate at least another 220 hours of your private
study time to your project. A project can be a very demanding, enjoyable
and, if well executed, rewarding experience.
2 Nature of Level 3 Projects
Academic staff are committed to assisting you in carrying out a project which will give you the opportunity to exercise your knowledge, experience and initiative to the full. There are three main methods of selecting your project topic:
� you may propose a project relating to your own particular interests or inventive talents;
� a project may be proposed by one of the academic staff reflecting consultancy, research, teaching or laboratory development interests.
� Feasibility study involving research and design.
� Theoretical investigation.
� Experimental investigation.
The nature of the proposed project work needs to be discussed with
academic staff and, if appropriate, your training company as soon as possible.
When finalised, the title of the project should be given to the project
co-ordinator within the first week of the Autumn Semester. Where appropriate
the details of any company support should be agreed in advance.
3 Project Selection
When selecting a project the following factors should be considered:
� it should be in a subject area appropriate to your degree title;
� if the project is industry-based, continuity of support must be agreed with the company;
� "open-ended " projects are encouraged but they must be realistic and viable;
� motivation is a very important factor, therefore the project should match your background, experience and interests;
� proposed projects must have an acceptable technical/analytical content;
� projects should preferably include some element of "design";
� the project should be realistic with respect to workshop facilities and delivery times;
� if specialised equipment or instrumentation is required, you should establish whether it is available within the University or can be loaned from the sponsoring company;
� as a general rule, the Department will cover project costs to a maximum of £100 per project; only in exceptional cases will this figure be increased;
� safety should be carefully assessed by your project supervisor and, if necessary, a Risk Assessment Form must be completed.
4 Project Supervision
Each student is assigned a project supervisor who is responsible for providing guidance, academic assistance and advice throughout the project and for contributing to the overall assessment.
You should be aware that your approach to, and execution of, your
project are aspects of the assessment. Although you are responsible for
achieving the project goals, you should seek help and guidance throughout
the project.
6 Commencement of Project
You should see your project supervisor in the first week of the Autumn Semester. After an initial discussion, a detailed specification and a written work/time schedule for the whole of the project must be produced and agreed and signed by your supervisor not later than the end of week 3 of the Autumn Semester.
The work plan will help to clarify ideas and to establish an initial order of priorities. However, the plan should be flexible enough to accommodate changes which may prove necessary as the project develops. The project is an assignment with several submission deadlines and prior consideration of the time to be allocated to various activities will help you to meet these deadlines. Good planning is essential for a successful project. Lack of planning will result in wasted time, confusion and failure to make satisfactory progress.
It is strongly recommended that you set up regular weekly
meetings with your supervisor, and if necessary, you are encouraged to
consult other members of staff with expertise appropriate to your project.
7 Guidelines for Project Execution
The following guidelines, in conjunction with advice and support from your supervisor, will help you to make good progress:
� you should, wherever possible, undertake some preparatory reading and research during the summer vacation or during your final industrial training period. If, however, your project is part of a larger industrial project or a continuation of a project from a previous year, you must declare this to your supervisor;
� one day per week is timetabled for project work- overall the project task should occupy approximately 360 hours of work, including time tabled hours, private study and report writing;
� the project co-ordinator will assign a supervisor who is normally the member of staff who has approved the project;
� you are required to keep a project logbook which should be available for inspection, at any time by the project supervisor, and by the external examiner;
� if your project requires major workshop support, your supervisor and the chief technician will provide advice, including the availability of technicians;
� the Department holds in stock a range of electronic components. All purchases of equipment and/or components not in stock must be discussed with, and authorised by, the project supervisor. All items purchased for projects must be processed through the chief technician's office. The range of support provided by the department is outlined in Appendix A;
� laboratory technicians can provide support and assistance in the laboratories; they are not available for project supervision which can only be provided by an academic member of staff;
� every project student must complete Form 1A (Appendix
D), distributed at the second meeting with the project coordinator, before
commencing work in the laboratories. Safety should be carefully assessed.
For some projects your supervisor will ensure that the Risk Assessment
Form is completed and signed. Form 1A is also available from the General
Office (H217).
These guidelines are intended to provide you with the aims and learning objectives of the interim report and presentation and to help you to prepare them. You should also consult your project supervisor for more specific guidance.
The report should form the basis of your presentation which will be given to an audience comprising both staff and students. Your project supervisor will mark the report but will not attend your presentation. The presentation should be planned to last 20 minutes including 5 minutes for questions.
Deadlines and Assessment
Your report must be submitted to the General Office (H217) by the specified deadline.
The presentations will take place during the inter-semester week.
The report and the presentation are worth 15% of the total project mark; the forms to be used in assessing both pieces of work are given in Appendix B.
Aims
To provide Level 3 students with an opportunity to formally review their project work in progress and to develop skills necessary in writing progress reports and in giving formal presentations to a mixed audience who may not have expertise in the area of study.
Learning Objectives
The writing and presenting of reports are an essential requirement for professional engineers and therefore a significant percentage of project marks is allocated to this activity. The objectives are to further develop competence in:
� writing technical material in a concise form within specified word limits;
� preparing diagrams, graphs and results in styles and to standards appropriate to a technical report;
� preparing presentation material for a given audience and venue;
� orally presenting technical material in a concise and clear manner in a specified period of time;
� responding to questions from what may be a critical audience.
In preparing your report, it will help you if you aim to:
� draw up an overall plan; this may be derived from the plan agreed with your supervisor at the start of your project;
� summarise the progress made to date, highlighting any major achievements and problems encountered;
� present preliminary results;
� provide interim conclusions and an outline of your work plan for the rest of the session;
� the report will be marked by your supervisor and will be available for the assessors at your presentation. Remember that the assessors may not be very familiar with your work. Therefore your report should be written for an experienced professional engineer who may not have much, if any, expertise in your field of study; eg your project may be in the area of microwaves, but it may be assessed by a power electronics lecturer;
� finally, the report should be clear, concise and no more than 1500 (typically 1000) words (font size 12 or 14), excluding diagrams.
� good presentation requires a logical overall plan and clearly identified points you wish to put over;
� remember that your audience may not have expert knowledge in your field of work;
� ensure that the amount of material you plan to present fits within the allotted time; inexperienced presenters often over-run significantly;
� as a general guide, for a 15 minute presentation, you should prepare no more than 6 slides;
� slides should be clear and uncluttered. As a rule of thumb, a typical slide of a graph or a diagram should contain no more than 15 words . A slide entirely containing text can contain many more words, say 30 to 40. Select the font and font size such that it is easy for a person at the back of the venue to read, eg Helvetica 18 or 24. These are very rough guidelines. The best method of judging the quality of your slides is to prepare a sample and ask a friend or your supervisor to comment; better still try it out!
� make detailed notes during preparation, but during your presentation try using a summary of your notes, i.e. headings with a few key words;
� inexperienced presenters often speak too quickly; one method of maintaining a comfortable speed (for your audience) is to maintain eye contact with your audience and try to gauge their reactions;
� the best way to gain confidence is to practise on your own or with supportive friends whom you can trust to make constructive criticisms;
� the department has provided a video recording facility for you to record and observe your own performance; think about using it with a friend -you will be amazed (!) to discover that you can achieve some significant initial improvement within one recording session;
� giving a presentation can be an unnerving experience for some people
but it is something worth learning to do well and can be very rewarding.
Therefore approach your presentation in a positive frame of mind. Enjoy
it!!
A short one page summary of your project must be submitted
to the General Office (H217) by the specified deadline. The purpose of
this summary is simply to inform the external examiner of the project topics
he is going to inspect. The summary must be headed by the final title of
your project and must state the number of the room where the project
will be demonstrated to the external examiners. Your summary should be
seen and initialised by your project supervisor prior to the submission.
10 Submission of Final ReportYou are recommended to submit a plan of your project report to your supervisor prior to the Easter vacation for comments and feedback.
For the final report:
� Your report should be printed on A4 size paper with one and a half line spacing and font size 12;
� the final report should be both comprehensive and concise. It is not a log book or a diary of the project. A good report represents and explains your work such that a professional engineer, on reading it, would be able to understand your work fully without your assistance;
� the length of the main text in a typical report is around 40 pages. Unnecessarily long reports will loose marks;
� data sheets should not be included in your report unless you are advised to do so by your supervisor;
� standard covers and binding must be used and will be supplied by the Department free of charge;
� the final report should contain, when appropriate, a section on the costs associated with executing the project. Some estimates should be made of (i) the cost of all purchased or donated items (both hardware and software) and (ii) cost of services and facilities used during the investigation; these could include use of library, computing etc. You are also encouraged to take the opportunity, where appropriate, to predict the likely costs involved in any implementation of the project. The purpose of this section of the report is to allow the demonstration of awareness of the costs of hardware/software and services etc. It will also provide the report with a business dimension;
� it is not possible to lay down rules for the content
and structure of all project reports, as the nature of projects varies
greatly. However, you must consult your supervisor, who will advise you
on the appropriate structure and content for your particular project.
You will be required to make a 15 minute presentation to an external
examiner towards the end of the Spring semester. You should present yourself
as you would for an important interview. Remember that the external examiner
will have read your project summary before his/her visit. The presentation
should be clear and concise covering some of the following points very
briefly: (i) the aims and objectives of your work, (ii) a description of
your design, (iii) a review of the problems you have encountered and (iv)
results and conclusions. Ensure that you allow enough time for the external
examiner to ask you questions.
12 Assessment Procedure
The project co-ordinator will appoint a second reader for your project. The precise way in which the project is assessed is at the discretion of the supervisors, the project co-ordinator, the second reader and the external examiners. The basic scheme is as follows (for details see Appendix C)
Interim Report and Oral Presentation 15%
Library research and relevant reading
Project management
Experimental (hardware/software) and theoretical expertise
Final report and conclusions
Obviously late submission of projects should be avoided. If, however, circumstances beyond your control result in late submission, you should discuss the matter with your supervisor and provide clear evidence of the circumstances, including medical certificate etc., which led to late submission. You must complete and submit the Late Submission Form with your project.
Late submission of projects without credible justification will
incur penalty; the penalty is a multiplication of the original mark by
a factor of (0.98)N, where N is the number of working days late. Project
reports submitted more than 10 working days late, with no acceptable mitigating
circumstances, will not be marked until the following academic year.
14 Reading List
Bond W T F: Design project planning: a practical guide for beginners, Prentice Hall, 1966. (Library classmark TS171.B66)
Eisenberg R, Kelly K: Organise yourself, Piatkus, 1988. (Library classmark HD38.E43)
Gitlin M: Making time work for you: an inner guide to time management,
Sheldon 1990. (Library classmark HD5106.G57)
STORES � Tower C, Room 55E Storeman: Steve Gardner
A wide range of components are stocked. Components not on our list can be ordered through the store. Please use Farnell or RS components whenever possible. Orders are normally dispatched on Fridays; requests handed in by 5.00pm on Thursday are usually received by the middle of the following week. Students are expected to give the Storeman full details of the components they want ordered, including part number or ordering code, supplier, and price. For specialised IC�s etc., it is worth making a phone call to check the expected delivery time.
LIBRARY � Tower C, Room 55E
The Library adjacent to the Stores contains component data books, equipment manufacturers� catalogues and past project reports. Data sheets can be photocopied there, but not other material.
ELECTRICAL WORKSHOP � Tower C, Room 64E Martin Rafati
With supervisors� agreement, help with time consuming and tedious wiring can be obtained. For example, after you have built and tested a prototype circuit, identical copies can be assembled in the workshop. Assistance will not be given to those who have allowed themselves to fall behind with their project because of poor planning.
Computer software is available for preparing the artwork for small printed circuit boards, which can usually be made within a week or two.
Wire-wrapping tools are available for use in room 64E only. They many not be taken away from the workshop.
MECHANICAL WORKSHOP � Near Tower C, Room 67 Philip Cook
The workshop has equipment to perform all the usual mechanical processes, metal cutting, bending, machining, etc. Again, supervisors� agreement is required for technical help. Safety regulations place limits on what students are allowed to do for themselves.
CHIEF TECHNICIAN � Tower C, Room 54 John Newton
Please see John Newton about all problems of finance,
and matters involving technician help that cannot be solved by the laboratory
technicians or those listed above. Before spending your money on components
etc. you must seek John Newton�s permission, otherwise you may not be reimbursed.
Mohamed.Darwish@brunel.ac.uk