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Course
Organization and Operation
This webpage serves to address
questions students might have about the course.
Enrollment
- I am a freshman / sophomore who
is very interested in the course, but I do not yet have experience in
fabrication techniques that the projects may require. What would you recommend
I do?
- You can take the course this year
for one-credit unit and attend at least 15 lectures (including the first one).
When you are a junior or senior, you can take the course again and work on a
team project.
- Why is the course enrollment
capped?
- The course can only accommodate 27
students who work on projects - 9 teams of three students. The cap does not
apply to students who take the course as a one-credit lecture-only or
individual project options, rather than working on a team project.
- Can I take the course if I am not
in an engineering discipline?
- Yes, the course is open to everyone,
regardless of major. The lectures are non-technical and some projects may not
require extensive engineering or fabrication skills. Other team members who
have some building experience can be helpful. In addition, PRL Teaching
Assistants can provide useful advice and suggestions.
- question
- answer
Class sessions
- Why aren't smartphones and
laptops allowed during the class?
- These devices create a distraction,
not only to the student who uses the device, but also to others nearby. It is
very disrespectful to the guest lecturers to be on these devices during their
presentations. Guest lecturers have requested that students do not use these
devices.
- Why am I asked to fill out
speaker evaluations at each class session?
- These anonymous evaluations provide
the teaching team with information on how guest lecturers' presentations were
received. Student comments are sent to the lecturers.
- Why isn't any class time set
aside for teams to work on their projects as it is in the ME capstone
course?
- Tthe capstone course is 4 credit
units and its class sessions are 170 minutes long, more than twice the length
of ENGR110/210. There simply isn't sufficent time to include team meetings in
addition to the instructor's administrative comments, short discussion topic,
and the guest lecturer's presentation. However, the classroom is usually vacant
after the class session. In the past students have used this time to meet as a
team and to receive guidance ffrom the instructor and course
assistant.
Projects
- Why do project teams consist of
three students?
- Three students seem to be the
optimal number. Two students would most likely not be able to address all the
project tasks and there may not be enough concurrent tasks for four students.
In addition, it is easier to find a common meeting time among a team of three
rather than four.
- Why is there a cap on the number
of project teams?
- Nine teams gives an adequate time
(about 7 minutes) for each team to present their projects in an 80-minute class
session.
- Why don't lecture topics relate
to the projects?
- Lecture topics are chosen to be
interesting assistive technology subjects presented by local experts. A talk on
a specific project topic might only be relevant only to the team of three
students pursuing that project.
- Why are teams requested to meet
with the instructor?
- The instructor can provide valuable
information and suggestions regarding the team's progress, resulting in better
use of fabrication time, a better project outcome, and an optimized
grade.
Grades
- Since there are no exams,
quizzes, problem sets, or finals how are grades decided?
- Grades are based on students'
performance on their projects, presentations, reports, and
participation.
- Do all students on a team get the
same grade?
- Typically all students on the team
get the same grade. However there have been circumstances in which a particular
student got a different grade based on his/her efforts and course
participation.
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