My professor screwed my final electronics project!

This is kind of an interesting story... At the end of our electronics engineering bachelor's we are supposed to develop a innovative and challenging project. We proposed one two weeks ago that we were fairly confident in. As it turns out the advisors disagreed. This means that our project is on the cutting room florr and we have to start from scratch. So, instead of breaking the news to us, my project management professor proposed a project on our behalf, without our permission, and had it approved.

Don't get me wrong, in a way this is good news, we have a fall back plan thats already been set up for us. The problem is that the new project isn't our idea and looks to be a project for the manager more than us. We, on the other hand, would like to develop something interesting and challenging for ourselves instead of being handed a project that the professor has already planned the realization of. So, I'm scouring every source for a project that has some roots in our original thought instead of just trying to pass (like most of our class mates).

Any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated, and, as with many things, time is of the essence. So, anything you would like to say can be sent directly to me at kung_fu_sansu@hotmail.com.

Thanks very much!

kungfusansu said:

Any ideas or thoughts are greatly appreciated, and, as with many things, time is of the essence. So, anything you would like to say can be sent directly to me at kung_fu_sansu@hotmail.com.

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What, so no one else can partake of the info? Anyway, replies to this thread will be sent to the email address in your user profile.

As to the project, I'd say that anybody would need more information to even guess what kind/level of project you're after. Are we talking about a simple audio preamp, or an ultrasound imager with speech interface? Help the board help you--we don't all know what is expected of a bachelor student where you are.

If your instructor really is trying to screw you over for personal gain, maybe try including at least one rare/expensive component that the thing just can't live without, if you have time to find one that fits and can't easily be replaced.


Torben

You might as well just get use to it. You should feel lucky that you have an approved project to work on, and should get busy putting it together. You might waste valuable time on making a new proposal, that might not gain aproval, again...

Welcome to the real world of electronics. It might be many years before you get a job where you actually get to even make a project proposal. Starting out, you will mostly likely be doing the grunt work for the senior engineers. Might even be a while before you get to do design work, or even troubleshoot a prototype.

I'm just finishing first year of my B.E and I guess I have all that to look forward to. Might I ask, where are you studying?

I study at DeVry in Fremont, CA. Now, before everyone starts bashing DeVry, its not that bad of a school. It has a lot of hands on work and good ties with many companies in the Silicon Valley. Also, my program is an accredited bachelor's of science and has the same value as any other BS.

As far as the difficulty level... its hard to say exactly. Many of the projects here are kind of on the simple side, but I'm definitely looking for one on the difficult side. Our idea was a remote control car that transmitted wireless audio and video, had ultrasonic distance sensing to help avoid obstacles, and we were thinking of getting some infrared capabilities. All this information was sent to a handheld receiver module. The module had control over the direction the vehicle moved and the direction the camera faced. Finally, if we had time, we were going to add an arm that could grab small samples or move objects out of the way.

We must use a microcontroller and some sensors and it has to be marketable. Hopefully, that gives a little more insight. Thanks in advance for all the help.

Your original project has been disapproved for a reason, probably because it was too complex. Remember this has to be marketable, which means minimum costs for maximum profit. Some of the most simple ideas are sometimes the best.

Go for the project you've been given if you want a high mark. It's been given to you for a reason, by someone who has a lot of experiance in the grading system.

Harvey and yngndrw are right on track.

Go with the approved project and do the best job you can. This project is not about pleasing you.

Yeah, most of the guys who have already done their design projects built fairly mundane things that would be used by someone else. Either that or they chose something they could get done with as quickly as possible.

ie. the group trying to build a hovercraft gave up and built a line follower instead. I must say the groups that did projects like multi-coloured lighting systems were the cleanest cut and most well done, even if they weren't the most impressive.

kungfu....
"Also, my program is an accredited bachelor's of science and has the same value as any other BS."
You may want to read about "accreditation":
**broken link removed**

The professor just gave you a lesson in real life. Can't learn that in a text book....

Good luck either way

Yeah from the stories I've heard about real-life as an EE your professor just gave you the best experience you can get. He gave you a project that he probably could do himself, that he will expect to be done quickly and done to his standards. My guess is that's what real-life will be...don't complain basically.

As I see it there are a number of points here?.

1) Was your original idea much too complicated, and they didn't consider you capable of completing it? - we see a LOT of those sort of questions on here!.

2) Was it too simple, not considered challenging enough, and turned down for that reason?.

3) I thought the idea of these projects was that YOU came up with the idea, and ducumented the entire process - even if you didn't manage to make it work, you could still pass.

Yopu've never mentioned what your original idea was, nor what you've now been given?, perhaps you might like to let us know what they are?.

look for a book called "pda robotics", it has your entire project in it.

Super_voip said:

look for a book called "pda robotics", it has your entire project in it.

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Considering he's supposed to be doing "develop a innovative and challenging project" - copying a design out of a book hardly meets those requirements?.

it's how you use the parts in the book, googling for circuits would achieve the same result. If applied in "a innovative and challenging" system s/he has simply expedited the process, the book deals with making the entire vehicle with sensors and controlled by a pda which then trasmits to another pda/pc. Maybe he could work on a wifi camera, the only one I've seen on the web is used in a art sense. the camera is a cantenna rotated by steppers, the signal level interrepted as colour

Nigel Goodwin said:

As I see it there are a number of points here?.

1) Was your original idea much too complicated, and they didn't consider you capable of completing it? - we see a LOT of those sort of questions on here!.

2) Was it too simple, not considered challenging enough, and turned down for that reason?.

3) I thought the idea of these projects was that YOU came up with the idea, and ducumented the entire process - even if you didn't manage to make it work, you could still pass.

Yopu've never mentioned what your original idea was, nor what you've now been given?, perhaps you might like to let us know what they are?.

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a fourth reason could be that the proposed project is beyond the comperhension of the teacher / lecturer and perhaps he/she would be emberrased to monitor and guide the project-- with due appologies to the present day teaching staff.

Sarma

If that's the case then it's probably too complected for the student too.

Perhaps your proposal greatly exceed the content of the course, or maybe doesn't involve stuff taught by your instructor, and doesn't reflect what you learned in his course. You want to build a remote controled robotic vehicle, where the rest of your class is doing projects little more complicated than blinking in LED with a microcontroller, would that make the rest of the class a bunch of slackers, just sliding through the course, and the instructor letting them?
It's good to have higher ambitions, but you need to stay with in the boundries set by your instructors and other students. You can give yourself challenging, but not a good idea to crush the efforts of everyone else in the class.

Well, I made the mistake of setting myself a project beyond my level of experience for A-level computing and paid the price. I attempted to create a BASIC compiler that converted the program to assembly code and got an E because I didn't finish it. I wish the teacher had spoken to me about it and encouraged me to do a more simple project but he probably thought I wouldn't listen.

I also made the mistake of doing a project far too simple and paid a similar price. I took my time deciding a project to do for A-level design and technology so the teacher set me a simple project that didn't motivate me, a desk organiser. I didn't really bother and thought it was a retard's project and got an E for that too. Looking back I should have just told him that it didn't inspire me much and it was too simple.

I used to consider A-levels as a waste as I got three Es but looking back I learnt a fair amount about life's lessons so it was worth it.

The best course projects are the ones that make use of things actually taught in that course. It shows you were paying attention nad understand what was being taught. Too simple, and you are just trying to get by with what you learned before taking the course. Too complex, and you are showing that the course isn't important, and doesn't offer anything you find useful (instructor might get worried about his employment...).

My first 2 years of college were the worst waste of time and money. In high school I learned calculus, semiconductors, and assembly language. But course requirements make you start over at the beginning. Algebra, ohms law, and BASIC... Not to mention the other crap, like various writing/language, history, sociology... I suppose eventually you'll move up to challenging classes and projects. I didn't want to spend any more time or money, and eventually dropped out.