Electrical and Electronics Engineering Practice EEME20002

Assessment Details 2024-25

The summative assessment for this unit is composed of

A. Coursework Portfolio (50%). This consists of three components that are detailed in this document.

B. Summer Exam (50%). This is a two-hour, in-person written exam which tests

your knowledge in the Digital Design material covered in TB1 (1 hr, 25%) and the Systems and Control material covered in TB2 (1 hr, 25%).

The remainder of this document is related to the coursework submissions for the unit.

Coursework Portfolio Details

The following components constitute your summative coursework for the unit. They are worth a combined 50% of the total unit mark.

1.  Personal Reflection on Your Group Working Experience (5%)

2.  Group Zip File: Digital Design Technical Report and supporting design files (30%)

3.  Group Project Management Report (15%)

• Every student must submit item 1 (Personal Reflection).

• Items 2 and 3 are group submissions whereby one member of the group can submit on behalf of their own group.

•    Items 1 and 3 must be uploaded to Blackboard in the specified formats (detailed below) to enable efficient marking processes. Students who do not provide files  in the correct format will be given a mark of zero for that element of the unit’s assessment.

Coursework Overview

The group design project, upon which the coursework is built, is a core component of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Practice unit. It provides hands-on experience in digital system design using VHDL and FPGA prototyping, fostering both technical and professional skills. The project aims to simulate real-world engineering scenarios, promoting teamwork, problem-solving, and the application of digital design principles.

Coursework Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of your coursework, you will be able to:

•    interpret the specification of a digital system

• structure a design into components and define component interfaces

•    use VHDL to model and design digital components and systems

• approach the testing and simulation in a systematic manner

•    use simulation and placement & routing tools for FPGAs

•   demonstrate successful application of engineering practice skills to complete a complex project in a professional manner

Part 1 - Individual: Personal Reflection on Your Group Working

Experience

Introduction

In any successful engineering business, there will usually be a ‘lessons learned’ review as part of the close-out of any significant project. The review helps the organisation to:

•   ensure that successful aspects of the project are documented so they can be repeated in the future.

•    ensure that significant mistakes or errors will not be repeated.

In this assessment task you are going to complete a similar type of activity, but at a personal level. You will reflect on your personal experience of the group project within this unit. But what does a good personal reflection look like?A good reflection should be:

1. Personal – By yourself and for yourself.

2. Relevant – Focused and connected with the subject topic(s).

3. Self-critical – Shows your ability to consider yourself from the viewpoint of others (including both positive and negative factors).

4. Analytical – Move beyond simple descriptions to logical reasoning for actions, feeling, decisions etc.

5. Constructive – Discusses your future approach and any actionable steps that can be taken for future improvements.

Task

You are to produce a video or narrated presentation that contains answers to the following three questions: Use the example questions given below to help you frame. your reflection and to get started. You do not have to address these exact questions but do use the questions to prompt you in what you discuss.

Question 1: What role and tasks did you take or were assigned to you by the rest of your group?

You can use these prompts to help compose your answer:

•   Were these roles a good match for your skills, experience and interests or were they unsuitable, and if so, why?

• Was there another role that you would have preferred to have taken and why?

•   What roles do you see yourself gravitating towards future projects of this nature and why?

•   Are there any gaps you have identified between the roles you like and the roles you are ready for and how might you address those gaps?

Question 2: How do you think the interactions within the team developed?

You can use these prompts to help compose your answer:

•    Did good teamworking develop quickly or did issues present themselves?

•    How did you try to address any teamworking issues, and were your interventions successful?

• On a future project, what methods might you implement to improve teamwork?

• Are there aspects of the way you work that can (or did) cause issues for others?

•   What did other members of the team do that may have caused trouble for you and how did you manage that?

•    How can you overcome the gaps between how you like to work and what others seem to want?

Question 3: What do you think helped the project proceed effectively, what did not, and why?

You can use these prompts to help compose your answer:

•    Did you find the taught tools beneficial, or did you experience any difficulties deploying the methods?

•    Did the team make any mistakes and how will you avoid these in the future?

Constraints

The volume of content is limited by a time limit. You must produce content that should take an academic professional between 4-8 minutes to watch or listen.

Things You Should Do

1.  Start keeping a personal journal of your experiences working with your group and review it regularly. This will also help you learn more about yourself and develop your teamwork skills.

2.  Stick to the time limits; an article that is less than 4 minutes long will not allow enough time to answer the most basic questions in enough detail to pass. Any content presented that falls outside the 4-8 minute limit will not be marked.

3.  Try to balance your composition equally across the three areas of reflection.

4.  Discuss your interactions with team members, but keep your comments anonymous, respectful and as objective as possible. Any comments made in relation to your performance or other team members'performances will not positively or negatively impact any other assessments in the unit (i.e. this reflection is treated as an independent exercise). Your reflection will not be discussed with or seen by any other student.

5.  Make sure your work is your own. It may be checked for plagiarism. Where you want to include other sources in your work you must reference these correctly in your writing

6.  Use a Bibliography to list your references. Label the citations in your text with numbers in square brackets e.g. [6] and then list them with the same number in the bibliography.

7.  Use the prompts given in Part 1, 2 and 3 to help you frame your reflection and to get started. You do not have to address these exact questions but do use the questions to prompt you in what you discuss.

8.  Use this file-naming convention: EEME20002_2024_Part1[Student Number] plus the appropriate filename extension for your submission. Here is an example for you: EEME20002_2024_Part1_1234567.pdf

IMPORTANT:

1.  Do not leave this task until the very last minute; if you do, then you will only remember the most recent events and then you may not present a balanced overview.

2.  Do not treat this as ‘selling exercise’ where you try to portray your professional practice skills in a purely positive light. Rather, it is an honest self-appraisal of your experience & performance (both good and bad).

3.  You should not include any experience of the Industrial Mentoring scheme. This reflection is just about your group project within this unit.

4.  Do not identify any specific individuals from your group in your reflection. These reflections are related to the process rather than the people involved.

5. Do not complete this task working with other people at the same time. This is a private and confidential activity, and your composition should not be influenced by the views of other people who may know your co-workers socially.

Part 2 -Group: Digital Design Submission (single Zipped file)

Requirements

The entire team is required to submit a single entry through one group member. Ensure that all necessary files are included in your submission. The zip file must contain:

1.   VHD code for the CMD processor and any associated submodules.

2.   VHD code for the data processor and any associated submodules.

3.  The generated bit file, if integration has been completed.

4.  Team Technical report (as described below), including the Project Schedule and Work Division Form.

Please verify that you have submitted the final version of your project and confirm that all crucial design files are included in your submission.

Important: Please ensure that the Project Schedule and Work Division Form. is the same one you submit for part 3 (Project Management Report).

Marking

This part of you coursework submission (part 2) is worth 30% of the overall unit mark distributed as follows:

1-  Team Technical Report (5%) 2-  Submitted files (25%).

Assignment Goals

•   To provide you with hands-on experience in digital design using VHDL and FPGA prototyping

• To familiarize with related industry standard tools (ModelSim, Vivado)

• To work in a team to design a digital system and implement it in an FPGA

Assignment Summary

You are required to design, build and test a peak detector on an FPGA board which is under the control of a computer. The system operates via a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, facilitating command input from an external PC. The assignment specifies using a Xilinx Artix 7 FPGA, which communicates with the external PC using the RS232 protocol. Key functionalities include processing a specified number of data bytes, detecting peak values, and returning related byte sequences. Commands allow users to start data processing, list peak results, and reset the system. The coursework emphasizes understanding and effectively utilizing the specifications for implementing the system. Key specifications are listed as follows:

• Set of user commands accepted from PC keyboard, output printed on PC screen

•   Start command to process NNN bytes of data. Print each byte processed in the terminal window in hexadecimal format, separated by spaces.

•    Capture of seven points around the highest peak; 3 on each side

•    Print the peak byte itself, followed by a space and the peak index in decimal format.

•    Use RS232 serial protocol to communicate between PC and FPGA

•   Serial communication Implemented by Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART)

Please access more details on the technical aspects of the project on Blackboard, including the project planning document available at

https://seis.bristol.ac.uk/~sy13201/digital_design/ECAD/A2_index.htm

Team Technical Report

In terms of format, this report must be written in font size 11pt, with a maximum of 10 pages (single-spaced).

In terms of content, the report must contain the following four components:

1. Project Schedule and Work division Form.: Please fill in the below form. and added it as the first part of your technical report. This must be the same form that you also submit for the Project Management report and is intended to provide a uniform. guideline for both the technical and professional practice aspects of the project.

2. Architecture of the Data Processor: including a block-level sketch of the main logic components and an algorithmic state diagram with corresponding simulation results.

3. Architecture of the Command Processor: including a block-level sketch of the main logic components and an algorithmic state diagram with corresponding  simulation results.

4. Integration and system evaluation.