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Capstone Overview

During the senior year, all computer engineering students are required to take the two quarter Senior Computer Systems Project course also know as the Senior "Capstone" Project. This course helps satisfy CE Major Degree Requirements in the Senior Elective Study Plan.

The Capstone Project gives Computer Engineering students the opportunity to put their education into practice. Students, working in small teams, design and engineer innovative hardware and software systems using techniques from robotics, distributed systems, circuit design, networking, and real-time systems to tackle problems and create a final "tangible" project.

Every year at the end of the Spring quarter the final projects are presented at a full-day, industry-sponsored event where student groups publicly present their projects and participate in an outdoor lunchtime project demonstration and poster event.

Senior Capstone Project Courses

Student groups design a significant computer-based project. Groups work independently with interaction among groups via interface specifications and informal meetings.

Computer Science 189A/B - Course Website

Instructors: Tevfik Bultan (CMPSC 189A), Giovanni Vigna (CMPSC 189B)
Teaching Assistant (2008-2009): Chris Coakley

The outcome of the first course (189A) is a prototype for the project, and the second course (189B) ends with a presentation day in which the completed projects are demonstrated publicly. The courses will establish partnerships between student project teams and companies who will provide challenging problems to the students based on what they will face in industry.

The Capstone course is an excellent opportunity to do something interesting and "real" that showcase students' abilities. Prospective employers value the ability to understand, explore, and present innovative solutions to real-world problems that are provided in this course.

Electrical and Computer Engineering 189A/B - Course Website

Instructor: Steven Butner (ECE 189A/B)
Teaching Assistants (2008-2009): Achutam Murarka and Nilesh Modi

During the first half of this course sequence, student groups choose a project, define and refine a description of its external behavior, then launch into a hardware design phase. By the end of fall quarter they have detailed hardware schematics, fabrication-ready printed circuit board artwork, and an organized project notebook describing all aspects of the project. During the winter quarter, while students take other senior-year courses, the ECE department has the capstone project designs fabricated and assembled. The course website tracks the current project fabrication status, including the initial layout screenshots, then later photos of the bare printed circuit boards, and ultimately photos of the assembled boards.

When students return for the second half of the capstone project course during spring quarter, their projects are ready for initial power-up, followed by design debug and verification. During this quarter the rest of the project software is created and the overall project is integrated. At the end of spring term each project team participates in the Computer Engineering Capstone Project Presentation Day during which they put up a poster display and give a demonstration and presentation.