COURSE

The course is realized as a project-like assignment that requires approximately 120-160 hours from a team of two students during a single term. The deadline is the end at the of May i.e. 31.5.2007. You can get the full project assignment here.

Topics

In this course, you will build an embedded system from scratch. The topic of this year project is an Measurement Module.
You may also do your own topic, provided that you have some experience on electronics, you are capable of quite independent work, and you are willing purchase the key components yourself. To apply for your own topic, create requirement specification (similar to the specification for the basic topic), and email it to the professor of this course.
Sometimes we may also have some research related topics available. You may also apply to do them, if you wish. Email the assistants or the professor of this course for research related topics.

Procedure The course work is divided into five phases. In each phase the students must proceed with certain tasks in the project, and then attend a meeting with assistant. In the meetings the assistant will check your work so far, and give advice for the following part. Everything begins in the opening lecture, where you can sign up for the course, and you get a brief introduction to the course work and some general advice. From that point on, you will proceed by doing the tasks required for the next phase, and then booking a time to meet the assistant in order to proceed to the next phase.

Grading

Grading is based on

• Final report
  • General outlook
  • Informational coverage
  • Correct understanding of key issues
• Board design
  • How well the given design guidelines are used
• The sanity of the design (schematics check: pullups, filtering, hazardous connections)
• Some jump wires will not affect to the grading. The students must be able to experiment.
• The number of created board versions will not be considered, since it consumes so radically time to make another iteration of a board.
• Inspection against requirements
  • Check each requirement
  • Assesment of the stability of the system
• Timetable
  • The deadline is the end of May
  • If the students miss the deadline, they must apply for a new deadline. Missing deadline will drop the grade by at least 0.5 pts. Depending on the groups situation, the accurate grade drop is negotiable. This system should encourage the groups to determine a new well thought deadline if the first one is missed.