The E155 Final Project is a chance for you to apply your new skills in digital design to a moderate sized problem as part of a two-person team. You should begin thinking about a project and teammate right away. Your project has the following milestones:
Be creative when selecting your project. Your project should be bigger than a 1-week lab assignment, but small enough to be doable. If in doubt, err on the side of smaller. You will fail the class if you underake a project that is too big and produce no completed work.
We expect a typical project will use both the FPGA and PIC and will perform a function that is useful, interesting, or of artistic value. Examples include games, electromechanical systems, prototypes for a startup company, or elements of a Clinic project (with your advisor’s permission).
If your team needs parts that are not available in the stockroom, you may spend up to $50 (per person) to purchase them. You will need to save your receipts, fill out a reimbursement form in the department office, and have one of us sign the form. Of course, you can exceed this budget, but you must pay the remainder out of your own pocket.
Your team is responsible for the following deliverables at the dates described above:
A 2-page proposal describing what you plan to build. It must be specific enough that I can tell when you demonstrate your project that it meets the specs of the proposal. Include a budget for any supplies are not available in the stock room. Describe the main subsystems of the design and the features of the PIC that you plan to use. State what you are committing to do; avoid stretch goals and features that “might” be implemented.
A 4-page report (plus appendices) documenting your design at the midpoint. The status should include schematics of anything on a breadboard, a complete bill of materials, block diagrams of the logic on your FPGA, and an outline of the routines used on the PIC. You should include as an appendix either your Verilog code or software that is mostly complete (but do not have to have both ready). You must be ready to demonstrate some working hardware in the lab.
Your team will sign up for a 10-15 minute presentation on one of the days near the end of the class. Your presentation should include a 3-minute overview of your project followed by in-depth presentation of a specific technical problem your team is working on and has not yet solved. The goal of the presentation is to get input from other students who might have ideas of how to solve your problem so you must explain the problem clearly enough to get meaningful suggestions back.
Demonstrate a working project to the instructor in the lab during your lab section. There will be signups for 30-minute demonstration periods, during which you will be asked technical questions about the operation of your design. Come prepared with printouts of your schematics, software and Verilog. If your project is one day late (Wednesday), one letter grade will be deducted. If your project is two days late (Thursday), two letter grades will be deducted. Teams unable to demonstrate at least some functional system by Thursday will fail the project.
Turn in a final report documenting your design, not to exceed 12 pages plus appendices. Clearly explain how your design works. If you have developed techniques that would be useful for students in the future (i.e. how to interface to an LCD display), document these features well so that future students may build on your work. The appendices should include complete schematics, the bill of materials, code, and Verilog for your design.
Late projects will not be accepted except in the case of unusual extenuating circumstances. Be careful to choose a project within a scope that you can reasonably expect to finish. If you realize your project is too large, contact me as soon as possible to renegotiate your project proposal. I will not accept revisions to the proposal after 11/20.
Your project will be graded as follows:
| Proposal | 10% |
| Status Report | 20% |
| Presentation | 10% |
| Demonstration | 30% |
| Final Report | 30% |
Remember to properly attribute sources. For example, incorporating a schematic or image from a website without attribution is plagiarism.
If you feel there has been inequality between the work you and your teammate deliver, contact a professor.