EET 364 Project Report Guidelines

Winter 2011

The project report is a formal report which has several purposes:

• It provides a way for you (the student) to demonstrate the knowledge you gained from the course and show your understanding of microprocessors in system design.
• It acts as a summary of the course.
• It provides an independently developed component of the final grade.
• It is an exercise in technical writing, which is possibly the most important skill needed by practicing engineers.

So is a combination of a pure project report and a take-home final exam.

The project report is to cover the design, development, and testing of your project as well as work accomplished in EET 364. The following topics, as a minimum, should be covered:

• Description of your project. What you intended to accomplish.
• Use of the ADC (even if not used in your project)
• Design and use of the (external) DAC (even if not used in your project)
• Use of interrupts (which should be used in your project!)
• Use of serial port (SCI) (even if not used in your project)
• Timing considerations for all the external interfaces in your project. Expected performance, based on calculations.
• Detailed explanation of how your application program (code) works.
• Description of external components - data sheets if available, schematic diagrams.
• Design problems and how they were solved (give at least two examples).

The project report should have the following sections:

• Title Page and Table of Contents
• Abstract or "Executive Summary", description of what you accomplished, expressed in 50 to 100 words.
• Body of report, covering the topics listed above. The body of the report should be at least 1500 words long.
• Conclusion, describing final performance of project and how it matched expectations.
• Appendices containing schematic of external components (not on the Dragon-12 board), the program listing, test data, and any charts or figures.

Unlike other assignments, the report is to be printed and pages "bound" together. It is an individual (not group) effort, however you are encouraged to have someone proofread your report to minimize careless mistakes. The report will be graded on the following criteria:

• Thoroughness - does it cover the complete design?
• Technical correctness
• Spelling and grammar
• Style - is it well organized and easy to read?

A report receiving an "A" grade must be exceptional and have a quality suitable for publishing. A report receiving a "B" grade may have some style issues but otherwise exhibit the technical quality expected of a practicing engineer. A "C" report may have technical issues and/or some spelling or grammatical errors, but needs to show understanding of the topics. A "D" report has serious issues making it unacceptable, but demonstrates an effort was made to complete the report (all topics covered, although poorly).