MS&E 108 Senior Project

Announcements

Presentation tutorials with the Technical Communications Program (TCP):

• Tutorial time slots will be posted a week or two in advance at //cgi.stanford.edu/~class-engr103-1072/cgi-bin/tutorialPage-msande108.pl and are available until twenty-four hours before the tutorial.
• All team members are expected to come to the session prepared, but only one person should sign up for a tutorial time slot.
• At the appointment time you should all report to the TCP office, Huang 049.
• Please try to use one of the posted times if you can, but if none of the time slots available work for your team, please contact the TCP manager, Matt Vassar, mvassar@stanford.edu, with several blocks of time your whole team is available, so he can try to arrange one.

MS&E 108 Course Description

This course is devoted completely to your senior project. You form four-person teams, preferably by December 2011, but no later than January 13, 2012. Each team is responsible for identifying an organization with a project that can be addressed using methodology learned in your MS&E courses. MS&E faculty have contacts at a number of local organizations with potential projects. Contact Prof. Shachter as soon as possible for details if you anticipate needing assistance identifying a project. (You must form and register a four-person team before requesting project leads.)

The learning outcomes of this course are to help you further develop the following skills:

• Formulation: identifying, formulating, and solving engineering problems;
• Analysis: using the techniques, skills, and tools necessary for engineering practice;
• Communication: communicating effectively; and
• Teamwork: functioning effectively on multi-disciplinary teams.

Your advisor will assign grades to your team based primarily on your final oral and written reports. Advisors will also take into account your contribution to the team's efforts, and your attendance at class and project team meetings.

Standards for Professional Behavior

Project Description

1. Project title;
2. Administrative information (client organization; names, telephone numbers and emails of all team members and your organization contact);
3. Statement or description of the problem, approaches you plan to use, and nature of the results you plan to deliver; and
4. A schedule of 5-6 available meeting times (one hour blocks between 8am-6pm, Monday-Friday) when your entire team can meet with your faculty advisor.

Project Team Meetings

1. A review of work accomplished since the last meeting,
2. A description of what work will be done next, and
3. A list of questions and issues to be discussed at the meeting.

Written Report

• letter of transmittal to the client organization (attached to the report)
• cover page
• one-page Executive Summary
• one-page table of contents
• report sections as follows (modified to suit your particular project):
  • introduction (including organization background, nature of the problem, and project description)
  • methods (including any model and data collection)
  • results
  • conclusions and recommendations
  • technical appendices

Please use at least 1.5 line spacing and reasonable font size for readability; number body pages 1, 2 . . . and Appendix pages A-1, B-1, B-2, C-1 . . . and use those numbers when referring to material in an Appendix.

There is no minimum or maximum number of pages in the body of the report or in the appendices. Typical reports will have a body length of between 10 and 20 pages and between 5 and 15 pages of Appendix material.

Discuss the content with your faculty advisor. Ideally, you should prepare sections of the report (e.g., project description, methods, etc.) as you progress along the project timeline. Your grade will almost surely suffer if you leave all the writing to the end.

The written report will comprise the majority of your course grade, as modified by your attendance and your contribution to the project's success. In grading reports, faculty advisors evaluate both technical content and presentation style (including such things as appropriate organization, use of headings, clear explanations and charts, and absence of grammatical errors or misspellings). The report should clearly reflect the effort you exerted during the quarter as well as the quality of your solution; in other words, it should represent your achievement. You may ask your advisor to discuss with you specifics of what he or she expects in the context of your particular project.

You should submit the final written report to your faculty advisor, your client organization, and the course archives by the last day of class (March 15, 2013).

Oral Presentation

Please inform the people you have worked with at the client organization that they are welcome to attend our final oral presentations and a lunch afteward. They truly enjoy being invited, being introduced to the class, and listening to the results of projects. You should also offer to present your findings to the organization.

All teams are expected to schedule and attend at least one tutorial with the staff of the School of Engineering's Oral Communication Program in the Terrace level of the Huang Engineering Center, at least a week before your presentation in class. Do not wait until the last minute to schedule your tutorials.

Every year Accenture sponsors monetary awards to be split between the top two senior project oral presentations in MS&E 108. The course faculty determines the winning teams based on the oral presentations, and the awards will be presented at commencement. Criteria for judging the presentations include ample motivation for the problem, sufficient support for the methodology, clear explanation of the results, and quality of presentation skills.