Expected Student Work
Attendance: As you transition into adulthood, you are expected to be able to meet the responsibility of classroom attendance and participation by yourself. If you choose to skip or miss class (for whatever reason), it is your own responsibility to check on announcements, gather new prelab or laboratory assignments, pick up graded notebooks, and still turn in laboratory notebooks and reports that are due — on time. To help facilitate attendance during the semester, unannounced pop quizzes will be given during the first 10 minutes of class.
All quizzes, including the final exam, are mandatory (although the lowest quiz score may be dropped). Failure to take the final exam will result in an F in the course, irrespective of whether or not you have a passing grade from your cumulative lab and quiz scores. In addition, I do not anticipate scheduling a make-up final. If you realize that you will miss the final as a result of a serious illness or another emergency, I must be informed as quickly as possible.
Homework: Homework will be assigned periodically throughout the semester that is intended to help you learn the material and provide you with insight into the subject matter. Homework will generally be collected a week after it is assigned, and will typically involve the use of a computer. Unless otherwise stated, all homework must be done completely independently by each student. In addition, in lieu of an assignment, you may be required to attend a seminar and/or technical presentation of the instructor's choice and be required to write a brief written report after sitting in on it. All due dates will be verified by me whenever you receive an assignment.
Project: During the semester, you will be required to form a group of 2 - 3 students where you will select, purchase, assemble, test, and demonstrate a small electronic project kit. (Details about acceptable projects will be provided to you during the semester.) You will also prepare a PowerPoint presentation, a written project report, and make an oral presentation in class about your assembled and working(!) project. When you present your project, you will be required to dress professionally so that you gain familiarity with professional engineering business attire — for men this includes slacks, a button down shirt, and a tie; for women, appropriate slacks (or a skirt below the knees) and a blouse are acceptable.
HTML/Wiki Project: As a part of learning about technical communication, you will be required to write a paper on a current topic in Electrical or Computer Engineering by creating your own web page. Once created, you will upload the web page to a Wiki, in which you will be a part of a peer review process that will track any changes that are made to your technical content. Details will be available later in the semester.
Examinations: Since this is an introductory course, the only exam will be the final, which is mandatory. The test will be based upon reading material, lecture presentations, class discussions, and the group projects and presentations. In other words, the final exam is comprehensive, but it will be short.
Note: I reserve the right to ask you to move to another chair at any time during an exam.
Final Exam, Section 1: Thursday, May 21, 08:45 am - 10:45 am
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Unless specified otherwise, you may not use any type of calculator to help you perform calculations during the final exam. The exam will be closed book and closed notes (unless specified otherwise). Questions about your final projects are fair game, so I suggest taking your own notes during class, as necessary.
Laboratory Work: All laboratory experiments pertaining to the Boe-Bot should be completed during the alloted lab session, since the robot will only be available to you during that time. However, EE 287 can be used by any student or group as long as it is within the proper time frame (i.e., before the lab session when the individual notebooks and lab demonstrations are due), so you may continue to develop code for the Boe-Bot outside of class. To facilitate this process, each laboratory procedure will be made available to you online a few days before its corresponding lab session. For access to EE 287 outside of your lab session, see the Department Secretary or Technician during normal working hours. If you need special access (weekends or nights), see me during office hours.
In the event of an emergency or illness, you may make up a laboratory experiment provided that:
- The instructor is informed prior to the lab session during which the absence occurs (I can be reached by either voice mail or e-mail).
- The make-up is accomplished prior to the next lab session (unless the emergency/illness is of an extended duration. In this case the student must make special arrangements with the instructor.)
Notebooks and Reports: For all laboratories, each group must maintain an individual, complete(!) record of all your work in a laboratory notebook. Every week, one person in your group will be responsible for the record keeping during the laboratory session, and the person responsible for the record keeping will rotate on a weekly basis. At the end of each lab session, you will turn in the lab notebook, which will then be graded. Please note that each person in your group must have a lab notebook.
At the minimum, the notebook should include all information pertaining to the equipment being used, prelab information (if assigned), your laboratory procedure (written in your own words), your working design and experimental results, and conclusion. Please see the General Laboratory Information guide for further details. Forms for your group laboratory reports will be made available to you online.
Laboratory Demonstrations: For all laboratories, a demonstration is required in addition turning in your laboratory notebooks and group report. The demonstration to the instructor will confirm the students' understanding of the material as well as confirm the completion of the assigned project(s). The demonstration must be completed before the end of the laboratory session. Grading (for each individual within the group) will be as follows:
- Full Credit – The student completed the laboratory experiment and the demonstration before the end of the laboratory session.
- Partial Credit – The student worked on the laboratory experiment(s) for the entire laboratory session(s) but failed to fulfill all laboratory requirements before the end of the allotted time.
- No Credit – All other scenarios.