Senior Project Proposal
(MTEN 490)
(Baldwin 757 Monday 12:00-12:50)

Faculty Sign-Off Sheet
Format for Proposal

Literature Search Engine (works only from UC IP or VPN connection)
Go to "General Search" and input "Topic"

Example Proposal; Budget Sheet from OSP at UC

Senior project proposal is a course intended to provide a format and schedule for organizing, planning and conducting a senior project.  (In addition to a senior project with a faculty member it is possible to conduct a design project with the Mechanical Engineering Design Clinic.)  A senior project usually involves the following sequence of events,

1)  Choice of an advisor and a project.
2)  Initiation of the project by conducting a literature search, discussing possibilities with an advisor and making a written project proposal including a cost analysis and reasoning behind the proposed project such as potential benefits resulting from the proposed project.  The proposal should be written with the intended audience of a potential funding agency so that at least a qualitative cost/benefit analysis should be included in the proposal.  Cost/benefit includes an estimate of the time you plan to spend on the project and the time required by the advisor and others involved in the project as well as materials and equipment and other costs associated with the project.  Benefits include both societal and knowledge based as well as educational benefits to you and your advisor (for instance opening a new area of research for your advisor or working out a technical problem you ran into during coop).
3)  After beginning the proposed work it is usually necessary to modify the planned work to match the realistic situation.
4)  The results of the project should be presented in a report and through a presentation that summarizes the findings and what was learned in conducting the senior project (the benefits). 

In this quarter items 1 and 2 must be completed and possibly some of item 3 will be acted on.  As a first step the students should look at the departmental web page and consider possible research projects (Link to Faculty Research Interests) of interest to the student and a faculty member.  In addition to projects proposed by Faculty members, students should consider proposing a project of their own design reflecting their own personnel or professional interests.  Senior project should be an opportunity to perform a capstone project for the BS Engineering degree that demonstrates what has been learned during your undergraduate years at UC.  The project does not need to be limited to technical issues and could include, for example, business or marketing of engineering products, environmental impact of materials or health impacts of materials processing for instance although most projects are fairly technical in nature and related to a research topic related to one of the faculty members in the department. 

Schedule for Senior Project Winter Quarter 2008

Meet January 8
January 8 - January 22 Review faculty research and consider 5 potential faculty for senior project.
Meet January 22 Present what you have found about the research of 5 faculty (or other senior project contacts).
    Rules:  1) No written words only pictures and plots (power point not necessary)
                2) Maximum of 5 slides
                3) 5 minute presentation
January 22 - February 5 Talk with 5 faculty members or other contacts (get signatures) and decide on a senior project. (Signature Sheet)
Meet February 5 and turn in signature sheet with 5 signatures and a title for the senior project.
February 5 - February 19 Perform a literature search, prepare a research proposal, discuss proposal with advisor.
                Literature Search Engine (works only from UC IP or VPN connection) Go to "General Search" and input "Topic"
Meet February 19 turn in a copy of a written Senior Project Proposal to Prof. Beaucage.
February 19 - March 4 prepare power-point presentation of senior project
        Rules for presentation are:  1) No written words, only pictures and plots   
                                                2) Maximum of 7 slides, minimum of 1
                                                3) 10 minute presentation
                                                4)  5 minutes questions
Meet March 4 present a brief oral summary of the project proposal to the class.  (Advisor must attend)

Days you will need to meet in Baldwin 661 at 4 pm:  January 8 (First Class), January 22, February 5, February 19, March 4.
Signature Sheet and Title of Project due January 22
Written Proposal due February 19
Oral Summary of Proposal with discussion March 4
You can informally meet with Prof. Beaucage when needed during the quarter.
He can be found in 492 Rhodes or 410B Rhodes or at beaucag@uc.edu or at 556-3063 or -5152.