Projects

Capstone Projects provide unique opportunities through which ECE students can develop important attributes of a competent professional engineer. Projects facilitate the development of engineering problem solving skills, i.e., formulating a problem and a set of specifications for the solution, the requirement to use a more holistic approach to arrive at an optimal solution, and the need to draw on the knowledge and skills from different disciplines and to bring it to bear on the solution.

This course aims at providing students with design and hands-on experience in developing suitable innovative systems that solve real-world complex problems, by applying skills acquired in the classroom. Skills reinforced in this module are questioning, forming hypotheses, gathering evidence, designing and building complex systems and evaluating their performance. Apart from intrinsic rewards such as the pleasure of problem solving, students are able to acquire skills for independent lifelong learning, teamwork and effective communication. In addition, students learn how to make trade-offs between conflicting issues and give careful consideration to multiple impact factors, e.g. societal and environmental impact.

Group projects in which students experience mutual dependence while working in a team towards a common goal. Group work requires the students to develop their inter-personal and communication skills, hone their skills in the art of negotiation, persuasion and compromise in order to achieve consensus towards a common goal.

The research capstone project provides students with an opportunity to work on a complex engineering problem with a strong element of investigative and exploratory research. It requires a confluence of knowledge, skills and capabilities in project management and communications. The project will involve a varied blend of research, design and development activities and is carried out over two semesters.

Students learn how to apply knowledge and skills acquired in the classroom and also think of innovative ways of solving complex problems. Learnings and rewards include knowledge and experience that are essential to problem solving. Students also nurture and acquire skills for independent and lifelong learning for long-term success as engineering leaders. Issues pertaining to environment and sustainability may also arise and studied per the nature of the research capstone activity. They have the opportunity to hone effective communication skills through presentations and writing.