Texts & Useful References | Course Policy | Useful Web Links | Often-Used Forms, etc.

EE 4900 Schedule.  Revised thru: Week 1 (other materials may be from Fall'08!)

Week	Lecture Date	Material Coverage, Major Deadlines:
1	L1 - Sep 2nd	Welcome, Introduction, Week 1 Activities, What a Project Manager Does | Roles & Responsibilities  Invitees: Dennis Wiitanen, Sr. Design Coordinator; Rick Berkey, College of Engineering Sr. Design Program
2	L2 - Sep 9th	Team Formation, Project Definition/Spec/Deliverables, Expectations, Grading Criteria, Week 2 Activities  Invited Speakers:  - John Miller, Lab Supervisor - Lab Safety, Lab Policy, Purchasing, other procedures.  - Michelle Borkowski - Computer Support - Senior Design Computing, other procedures.  Career Center - Extreme Makeover: Resume Facelift, Sept 10th and 11th.
3	L3 - Sep 16th	Major Deadlines, Final Report Format, Archival needs of Sponsor, Budgeting Basics, Week 3 Activities   Invited Speaker:  - Mark Kilpela, Research Associate - Fabrication requests, design drawings, specs, other procedures.  Career Center - Extreme Makeover: Resume Facelift, Sept 15th and 16th, 10am-2pm, MUB Commons.  Career Center - Extreme Makeover: Resume ReNew, Sept 17th - 19th.   Resume Idol - 6pm Sept 17th, Fisher 135.
4	L4 - Sep 23rd	Leadership - Invited Speaker: Glen Archer;  Budgeting; Project Scheduling,  Week 4 Activities  Career Center - Interview Skills Week, Sept 22nd - 26th.
5	L5 - Sep 30th	Brainstorming, Competing Designs, Workshop on Use of Pugh Method to evaluated multiple design options.  Invited Speaker - Rick Berkey, MTU College of Engineering, Manager of  Sr. Design Projects  Week 5 Activities , Design/Performance Criteria to Consider | Pugh Evaluation Spreadsheet  Career Center - Landing That Dream Job - 6pm Sept 30th, MUB Ballroom A.
6	L6 - Oct 7th	Career Fair: Professional Development Day - Team Assignment - Due Tues Oct 14th, at start of class.  Week 6 Activities
7	L7 - Oct 14th	Design Standards | Week 7 Activities
8	L8 - Oct 21st	Oct 23rd - Deliver to sponsor for feedback: draft of three competing concept design approaches, evaluation, and recommendation  Technical Writing | Getting Ready for PDR | Week 8 Activities
9	L9 - Oct 28th	Writing a Technical Specification | Week 9 Activities Oct 30th - Intra-Team Evaluations performed, submit to advisor
10	L10 - Nov 4th	Legal Issues -- Some of the most basic legal issues, important to you.  Invited Speaker - James Baker, Director, MTU Technology Partnerships  Employment contracts, ethics/workplace issues, Intellectual Property  (Patents, trade secrets, copyrights)  Nov 7th - PDR Scheduled, room and resources arranged (coordinate w/Dr. Wiitanen).
11	L11 - Nov 11th	Upcoming PDR.  Wrapup on writing a technical spec for design/bid/manufacturing/construction.  Nov 14th - Deliver draft design report and supporting mat'ls to sponsor and advisor for review.
12	L12 - Nov 18th	Career Development - transition from college student to engineering professional.  Week 12 Activities.  PDR - Schedule for Nov 20th or 21st, invite sponsor to campus or arrange video conference.
Fall Break	Nov 24th - 28th	Thanksgiving Recess - Get everything ordered/requested before leaving!  Enjoy break.  Come back refreshed and ready.
13	L13 - Dec 2nd	Invited Speaker - Michelle Borkowski, Instructions on generating and printing poster.   FE Exam, PPE Exam, Professional Licensure, Ethics.   Engineering Forensics, Failure Analysis, Liability
14	L14 - Dec 9th	Poster Printing Orders - must be submitted by noon Mon Dec 8th!  Poster Session - Thurs Dec 11th  Financial Decisionmaking, Engineering Econ, personal finances.
Finals Week	Dec 15-19th	Before leaving campus: - Intra-team evals performed, submitted to advisor.  - Updated Draft of Project Report Due, incorportate all PDR feedback, revisions, progress to date.  - Updated budget, schedule, hours submitted to advisor.

EE 4900 is a one-credit course in Fall Semester, concurrent with the first 2 credits of Senior Design, EE4901. This "course" is actually a professional and career skills development seminar.  Each week, the focus is on skills and information needed to progress with your project.   Some of the more important Learning Goals, individually and as a team, are:

• how to organize a team,
  
• taking on a new project and get it under way,
  
• apply basic scheduling, budgeting, and project management,
  
• leadership
  

• Engineering Ethics
• NSPE Code of Ethics
• IEEE Code of Ethics
  
• Order of the Engineer "Obligations"
  

• Attendance and absences:
  
• Rule Number 1 - Don't do anything to slow down the project or your team.  Arrange absences in advance, get approval from your team, complete needed tasks/deliverables before you leave, and make up any incomplete tasks or missed hours so it does not impact your project or sponsor.  Your team is most impacted, coordinate with them first of all, then inform your faculty advisor of your planned absence.
  
• Rule Number 2 - Participate and Contribute.  You must be at key events such as: on-campus meetings with sponsor, conference calls with sponsor, design reviews, poster sessions, and the symposium at end of spring semester. 
  
• Job Interviews - We expect seniors to be actively hunting for a job.  Although MTU does not deem interviews and interview trips to be an excused absence from lectures and exams, you may be able to coordinate with your professors for a reasonable number of interviews provided you follow Rules 1 and 2.  You know ahead of time what your obligations are, so schedule your interviews so they don't conflict.  You are responsible for learning and applying any material covered in lectures missed while you were away. 
• Absences beyond your control, such as accident, sudden or serious illness, death in the family, etc. are of course an excused absence.  Notify your team and faculty advisor as soon as you can, and make up the work as soon as you are able.
  
• Vacations, family events, roadtrips to sporting events, and 4-day weekends are of course not an excused absence.   You may be able to coordinate with your team if it does not impact your project.  All of your work must be done in advance before you leave.
  

• Useful References, Journals, Publications
• Research Journals and Transactions
• IEEE Xplore - online database of all standards, and all articles since 1989