A systematic approach to the implementation of final year project in an electrical engineering undergraduate course

This paper describes a computerized management system for the processing of a final year project in an electrical engineering undergraduate course including a structured project allocation to students, a comprehensive assessment procedure, an automated processing of marks, and a management supporting system. An optical reader is used to scan the project selection made by all the students, and the allocation algorithm allocates as many projects as possible in meeting the students' preferences. A new attempt using a grading category index for each assessment criterion is implemented and the assessment of the student's performance is evaluated through five main components with 31 assessment criteria. The marks for each student are scanned by an optical reader and calculated by a weighted linear conversion of all the grading category indexes. The assessment system is more valid as it has many specific criteria and is more reliable as the process is consistent. The management supporting tools and experiences in handling very large groups of students especially in the maintenance of a uniform marking standard to all the students are highlighted. It is hoped that some of our approaches can be selectively adopted for undergraduate course work on continuous assessment even for a smaller student population.