Work in progress — transforming Senior Design

In 2004 the Electrical Engineering BS program at the University of Kentucky went through its latest ABET Accreditation Process. As a result, we began to change the Senior Design course. In the past, individual students or teams of students would find an advisor and a project and would work without interaction between any of the teams to design their prototypes. Today students are required to register for one common class. All students hand in the same number of reports and prepare presentations. The students are required to form a team of three or four. Projects might be proposed by a faculty member, local industry or might be an original student idea. The teams prepare a proposal and present the basic approach for their project design within the first three weeks of the semester. Randomly chosen industrial advisors review the proposals and comments are provided to the students. At midterm, they prepare and present a status report, which is also reviewed by the advisory board. During ECE Senior Design Day, a full day event, the teams present posters and demonstrate prototypes to faculty, students, and outside visitors. This paper describes changes implemented in senior design to incorporate ABET criteria.