Senior Design for Materials Engineers (MatE 491, 492, 493)

    The Senior Design course sequence (MatE-491, -492 and -493) is the most important challenge of the Senior Year. This three-term sequence is intended to simulate a professional research and learning environment, providing experience in solving problems independently and/or working in a group on an open-ended research/design problem, and to refine students' skills in information gathering, analysis, critical thinking and communication. Substantial interaction between students, faculty and industry/government institutions is an integral part of the experience.

    During the Fall term, students will work individually, or form teams within the Department of Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) or with students from other departments, then select an area of interest, and develop and present design/project proposals and their initial results to the MSE faculty and the rest of the senior class. During the Winter term, students will work on their research/design problems, giving oral and written progress reports to the MSE Dept. faculty towards the end of the term. At the end of the Spring term, individual students or teams will prepare and present a final oral report and submit a written report to the MSE faculty. Following the final presentations to the MSE faculty, the faculty will select one individual or team project to represent the Dept. in the College of Engineering's Senior Project Design Conference, also held in the Spring term, which represents the culmination of the Senior Design sequence.

    This sequence benefits students in two ways: it provides a forum for them to communicate their ideas and results to the faculty and their peers, and it gives students an opportunity to demonstrate, in an integrated fashion, the skills and knowledge they have acquired during their undergraduate education.

 
1. Curriculum

    The Senior Design experience is a three-term sequence that culminates in the final project presentations and reports given in the Spring term. In the Fall term, there will be regular weekly meetings at which students' attendance is required. These meetings will, in part, be organizational meetings and progress reviews, and, in part, will include selected lectures on topics such as:

• Aspects of the Design Process; Engineering Case Studies, What Makes a Good Proposal
• The Engineer as a Manager
• Engineering Economics
• The use of GANNT/PERT charts etc. in Design
• Marketing your Ideas
• Engineering Ethics and Professionalism
• Patents and Copyrights
• Professional Engineer License
• Graduate School - Better Jobs and the Stepping Stone to your own Business
• Presentation Skills

 

1.1  Topic, Advisor and Mentor Selection

    All students taking Senior Design are required to select or develop a topic for their project, and to identify a faculty advisor who formally agrees to serve as the students' advisor for the Senior Design sequence. Individual or team projects are allowed and both are encouraged.

Students may select the topic of their Senior Design projects via one of three routes (or a combination thereof):

(i)                By contacting one of the MSE faculty directly and discussing what projects are available.

(ii)              By joining a team Senior Design project hosted in another department within the College of Engineering (CoE), for example the SAE Formula Car project run each year in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, or the design, fabrication and characterization of nano-electronic devices as part of a team of one or more Senior Design students from MSE and ECE.

(iii)            By formulating a project based on their Co-op experience and activities.

    All MSE students taking Senior Design are required to have an MSE faculty member as their Senior Design advisor. Students undertaking individual or team projects involving substantial activity outside MSE should also have an additional faculty co-advisor from the other department. Students wishing to conduct Senior Design projects arising from their Co-op experience must, in addition to having an MSE faculty advisor, also identify a co-advisor from their Co-op provider.

    All MSE senior design students are also required to work closely with a senior graduate student or Post-Doc from their MSE advisor's research group, who will serve as the student's mentor.

 

1.2  Fall Term (2 Credits)

    In the Fall term (or even while students are on Co-op during the Summer prior to their senior year), students are required to select a project, select an advisor and mentor, form or join a team if a team project is selected, and submit a pre-proposal. The MSE Senior Design Evaluation Committee (SDEC), comprising the student's advisor(s) and the senior design coordinator (Dr. Knight), will evaluate and approve the pre-proposal. All students, regardless of the home department of their project advisor, must submit a pre-proposal to the MSE SDEC. The SDEC will review every submission, and must give their approval for students' undertaking of the project proposed. Formal approval by the SDEC is required for participation in a senior design project.

    Individual researchers, or teams, will begin work on their projects during the Fall term and, close to the end of the term, will each give 15 minute presentations, plus 5 minutes for questions, on their topics during the senior design presentations to the MSE faculty and the rest of the senior class. Written proposal reports are due at the time of the oral presentation. Students' oral presentations and written reports should include a clear definition of the problem being studied, an outline of the proposed solution and details or the proposed the design, experimental and analytical work needed to accomplish the project objectives.

    In addition, during the Fall term, all MSE Seniors are required to attend the  senior design lecture series provided by the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) (see schedule below). Starting in the 2006-07 AY, the ECE senior design program includes an Entrepreneurial Option for Senior Design, which adds an entrepreneurial enhancement to the senior design sequence for several (3-5) teams. Volunteer senior design teams will be matched with 2 Seniors from the LeBow Business College and will undertake not only a product design/research project but also a business plan that could bring this product to market. Team composition may be all ECE or mixed ECE/CoE (including MSE) or ECE/Biomed students. The students in this program, who will register for the MatE 491-493 courses and attend the same lectures as students in the "normal" program, will also be required to attend the Baiada Center's entrepreneurial seminars and to enter the Baiada Business Plan Competition. At present, no ECE student can enter this competition because ECE has no course approved for entry by the Center. By revising the ECE fall lecture syllabus and adding these new requirements, ECE hopes and expects to gain entry to the competition and open new opportunities for students. Teams interested in the entrepreneurial option should contact Dr. Bruce Eisenstein directly E-mail: eisenstein@ece.drexel.edu

 
1.3  Winter Term (2 Credits)

    In the Winter term (working during term break is allowed and encouraged), individual students, or teams, will continue their project work. At the end of the term, individual students or teams, will give 20 minute presentations (+ 5 minutes for questions) summarizing their progress and results to date to the MSE faculty and the rest of the senior class. Written progress reports are due at the time of the presentation.
 

1.4  Spring Term (4 Credits)

    In the Spring term, (working during term break is allowed and encouraged), individual students, or teams, will complete their projects. The term will culminate with a 20 minute oral presentation, + 5 minutes for questions, of the project to the MSE faculty. Final reports are due at the time of the presentation. Selected individual students, or teams, will then proceed to the College of Engineering Senior Design Competition.

 

1.5  Grading

    Grades for all MSE students' Senior Design projects will be assigned by the MSE Dept. Senior Design Evaluation Committee, and will be based on students' written project proposals/reports and oral presentations given each term.

 

1.6  Progress Meetings & Reporting

    All seniors are required to meet with their advisor(s) on a regular basis to review progress, identify problem areas and develop solutions. In addition to the oral and written progress reports required each term, as detailed above, a weekly 1-page progress and lecture report is required and should be submitted electronically to the MSE Senior Design coordinator (Dr. Knight) before 5:00 pm each Tuesday. This report should include a summary of each students' meeting with their advisor(s).

 

1.7  Students Pursuing B.S./M.S. Degrees in Materials Engineering

    MSE students in the B.S./M.S. program carry out their M.S. thesis research in lieu of the traditional Senior Design projects described above. The B.S./M.S. culminates with an oral presentation and defense of a written M.S. thesis, in accordance with the department's graduate studies requirements and guidelines. ABET accreditation of the department's undergraduate degree program requires a significant "design" component, which is fulfilled, in large part, by the Senior Design sequence, but which is not included in a traditional M.S. program. ABET does include B.S./M.S. in its program assessment, and requires fulfillment of the "design" component as part of students' M.S. studies.

    All B.S./M.S. students undertaking the research/thesis portion of their studies are required to participate in those parts of the Senior Design sequence which provide the required design component. Specifically, all MSE B.S./M.S. students in their final year must also:

(a)    Attend the Fall term lecture series organized by ECE and

(b)   Give oral progress reports to the MSE faculty as part of the Senior Design presentations scheduled at the end of the Fall, Winter and Spring terms.