Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Write a general introduction about the content of this chapter. At least two sentences
will suffice.

Your introduction should provide the reader with a general introduction to the topic area.
The writer should introduce clearly and succinctly, the rationale for choosing the topic
under discussion. The introduction should provide the reader with a definitive statement
of the problem under consideration and the potential benefit of the application. The
author should indicate the objectives of the project and the general rationale for choice of
methodology (if required).

1.1 Background of the Project

This should give a brief introduction on why a project is chosen. Set the project into its
wider context and background. Explain its relevance and importance. What is the need?

1.2 Statement of the Problem/project

This presents a succinct definition of the problem of the project. This is also called
Rationale of the project.

1.3 Objectives of the Project

This will give an outline on what are the expected outputs to be produced in the project.
List the main objectives of your project. These should correspond to your original brief.

1.4 Project Scope and limitations

The coverage of the project as well as its limitations is discussed here.

1.5 Definition of terms.

The commonly used technical terms are operationally defined in such a way that the
readers will understand them.
 Chapter 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
Write a general introduction about the content of this chapter. At least two sentences
will suffice.

2.1 Feasibility Analysis (optional):

Explain how the project can be effective in terms of time and cost

2.2 Past Related Projects (rephrase accordingly)

Every project needs to do a certain amount of “research” into relevant problem areas,
appropriate solutions and the technologies that support them, and also a review of
existing examples covering these areas or other projects that have tackled similar
problems. Try to illustrate how this research has led to or justified the decisions you’ve
taken.

It is expected that work done by others in the past that are relevant to the present work be
discussed briefly. This constitutes the foundation on which the intended report is built on.
The review of the literature summarizes and evaluates the previous authors’ contribution
to the present study i.e. Teitelbaum [3] noted that while reviewing the work done by
others, there are five types of notes that can be taken. They are:

i. Quotation (use author’s exact words),

ii. Paraphrasing (use the authors’ idea in another words),

iii. Summarizing (use author’s main points),

iv. Copying (use author’s figures, tables or charts), and

v. Personal reactions or comments on the work.

 Direct quotation should be used sparingly in the write-up and it should be brief,
starting and ending with inverted commas. When paraphrasing, the ideas are stated in the
writer’s own words. This is an alternative to direct quotation. Teitelbaum [3] has
suggested that to ensure that the writer uses his own words; he reads the portion of the
text to be paraphrased, close the book and then write down the idea in his own words. A
summary is the gist of the work being reviewed stated in the writer’s own words.

2.3 Current/ Innovations

The current practice and innovations of the related project will be mentioned here.

2.4 Project Trend/Future Scope

The trend of the related project as well as its future scope will be dealt with in this
section.
 Chapter 3

METHODOLOGY
(Appropriate title related to project)

Write a general introduction about the content of this chapter. At least two sentences
will suffice.

Methodology explains how data was gathered or generated and how it was analyzed. The
method of analysis should be fully justified while considering other methods of analysis
that are previously been adopted or may be adopted. The use of program language,
hardware devices and software tools should be well discussed and justified according to
the application constraints.

Indicate the systematic approach you have adopted to take you from the problem
definition through to your solution. In particular explain the reasons for choosing the
approach. This could be a sub-section of the Introduction.

3.1 Estimating Procedure

3.1.1 Standard Method of Measurement (7th Edition)
The specification of the different functions and the working details of the
application should be presented. Function/circuit block diagram are often used, at
this level, to give enhanced explanation.

3.1.2 Dimension Paper (Take-off sheets)

The working of the proposed system will be depicted in terms of the standard
symbols through a flowchart. It will describe through symbols the interaction
between the different parts/elements of the proposed system.
3.2 Technical Requirements

3.2.1 Drawings and Specifications

The major components that may be used in the proposed project will be discussed
in detail. Examples are the type of microcontroller to be used, the appropriate
sensors, motors, etc.

3.2.2 Site Inspection

The required software that may be used either for simulation or implementation of
the proposed project will be presented here. Examples, like the use of matlab,
multisim and other similar tools. The system requirements for the software to
work will be listed here.

3.3 Gantt Chart

The proposed system and its implementation should be arranged according to a specific
period of time from project planning stage to project implementation.
 Chapter 4

DATA RESULTS AND FINDINGS

(Appropriate title related to project)

Write a general introduction about the content of this chapter. At least two sentences
will suffice.

With diagrams, graphs, tables, pseudo code, testing, circuit layout, circuit, etc., the
results are presented by giving clear explanations on the results obtained. The
characteristics and the performances of the circuit/application should be well discussed.
They should be compared with what has been in previous literatures highlighting
conformity or deviation. The purpose of the results’ discussion is to communicate what
was learned and how the results lead to the conclusions. The results are discussed in
terms of what they show about the results and what they mean in the context of the goal
of the report.

4.1 Schematic diagram

This is the actual circuit illustration of the implemented hardware project. The
thorough explanation of the working of the project will be presented here.

4.2 System Analysis and Design

Use the tools of your particular problem domain to describe the logical parts of
your problem. This section identifies the areas of your project to which you must
find and design particular solutions. Moreover, it describes the solutions you have
devised to the problems identified in the Analysis section. It will be very problem
domain specific.
4.3 System Simulation

The implemented system will be simulated using the appropriate tool (Matlab,
multisim…etc). The snapshots of the different processes to obtain the objectives
are clearly shown here. All the snapshots should be described in detail.

4.4 System Testing

Having built a solution you must establish that it is fit for purpose. Did you
choose a particular strategy? What aspects you decided to test and how? What
was your test plan? If you have obtained data then it needs to be analyzed.
Ideally quantified results should be produced and evaluated. May warrant a
separate section.

The different conditions as well as the failures and successes in coming up with
the project will be revealed here. In hardware project, circuits mounted on
breadboard will be illustrated through snapshots along with their comprehensive
description.

4.5 System implementation and prototyping

Describe here the implementation of solutions described in the Design section.
Depending on your area you might be building some kind of artifact or
experiment.

The Final system will be implemented under almost real conditions. Snapshots
need to be taken for the whole system operation (hardware projects). All the
snapshots should be described in detail.

4.6 Critical Evaluation

The overall system results and performance need to be evaluated against the
objectives which are mentioned in chapter 1 and also with other related work (if it
is available). Ideally any metrics like (voltage, time, distance) need to be provided
here for the discussion and comparison purposes.
 A reflective and critical appraisal of your personal performance, problems
encountered and how they were resolved, lessons learnt, what could have been
done better or differently, etc.

4.7 Legal, Social and Ethical Aspects of the Project:

(The actions that society finds acceptable versus the actions which society do not accept
create the ethics by which a member of society must abide.  From this definition, ethical
action on the part of engineer can be partially simplified, (as it is in most codes of ethics
from engineering organizations,) as the simple mandate that an engineer's greatest
responsibility is to the public good.  The following discussion is centered around what
responsibility comes with being an engineer, the challenges an engineer faces, and some
resources for helping an engineer fulfill his responsibility to do the public good.
Engineering as a profession encourages the view that the public good must outweigh all
other factors when determining the course of action for an engineer. Unfortunately, not
all situations are morally well defined and engineers will be called upon by themselves,
their company, or society to make profound, or more often, personally conflicting
decisions.) http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/des_s99/ethics/#introduction

Who is responsible for assuring the safe, legal, and ethical use of this project?
What are the consequences of dishonesty in system/project use, individual and
professional? How does ethical analysis apply to activities that are against the
law?

Social issues

What effects have your project had on the quality of life in the workplace, and in
society in general? Are your projects addictive? Do they depersonalize the
individual to the point that ethical issues no longer seem relevant? How do
electronics engineering professionals determine ethical standards to deal with the
effects that their work has in these areas?
 Chapter 5

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Conclusions section should be a summary of the aims of project and a
restatement of its main results, i.e. what has been learnt and what it has achieved. An
effective set of conclusions should not introduce new material. Instead it should briefly
draw out, summarize, combine and reiterate the main points that have been made in the
body of the project report and present opinions based on them. The Conclusions section
marks the end of the project report proper. Be honest and objective in your conclusions.

It is quite likely that by the end of your project you will not have achieved all that you
planned at the start; and in any case, your ideas will have grown during the course of the
project beyond what you could hope to do within the available time. The Future Work
section is for expressing your unrealized ideas and the possible extension in these ideas.
It is also a way of stating what you would like to have done if only you had not run out of
time. A good Future Work section should provide a starting point for someone else to
continue the work which you have begun. Outline possible enhancements or extensions
to the project, or further work needed to address outstanding issues, etc.
 REFERENCES

Provide a complete list in CU Harvard format of both the sources you have read but not
used directly (bibliography) and those sources you have cited in your report (references).
A single list will suffice.

Examples of Printed Journal Article or Magazine Article referencing:

Give the author’s surname and initials then the year in brackets then put the title of the
article within single quotation marks, followed by a full stop. Give the title of the journal
in italics then the volume number followed by the issue number in brackets if there is
one, then the pages in between which the article is found after a comma. Articles in
magazines that have issues numbers may be references in the exact same way as articles
in journals.

[1] Maiers, J., and Sherif, Y. S. (1985) ‘Application of Fuzzy Set Theory’. IEEE
Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (15), 41-48.

[2] Drucker, D. C. (1943) ‘Photoelastic Separation of Principal Stresses by Oblique

Incidence’ Journal of Applied Mechanics (65), 156-160.

Example of Book referencing:

Give the authors surname and initials then the year in brackets, then the title in italics
followed up by a full stop. Finally, give the place of publication followed by a colon then
the publisher. e.g.

[3] Doebelin, E. (1985) Control System Principles and Design. New York: John Wiley.

If there are multiple authors then for each author put the surname first followed by the
initials. Put a comma between each author. E.g.

[4] Doebelin, E., Amborse, A., and Baker, C. (1985) Control System Principles and
Design. New York: John Wiley.

When there are only two authors, separate them by ‘and’. E.g.

[5] Doebelin, E. and Baker, C. (1985) Control System Principles and Design. New York:
John Wiley.
Example of referencing of a conference paper:

[6] Akìn, H., Levent P. and Tamper T. (1991) ‘Nuclear Reactor Control Using Back
propagation Neural Networks’. Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on
Computer and Information Sciences. held 30 Oct.- 2 Nov. 1991 at Side-Antalya.
Amsterdam: Elsevier, 8-20.

Example of referencing of a Web Site (or other online media):

Give the author’s surname and initials or the name of the organization that produced the
website as a corporate author. Give the year it was created or last updated in brackets.
Give the title in italics (you may need to make up an appropriate title), then write ‘online’
in square brackets. Write ‘available from’ and give the full web site address starting with
< and ending with > then write the date of access in square brackets. e.g

[6] Centre for academic writing (2006) The list of references illustrated [online] available
from <http://home.ched.coventry.ac.uk/caw/harvard/index.htm> [20 July 2011].
Appendix A –

Include here the documents submitted for the Project Specification.