FSE100 Introduction to Engineering

Course Syllabus
Fall 2013, August 22
nd
December 6
th

Arizona State University
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering

Class times: Tuesday 10:30 AM 11:20 AM in BYAC 260
Lab times: Tuesday 1:15 PM 4:05 PM in BYENG 222
Instructor: Chao Zhang
Email: ChaoZhang@asu.edu
Office hours: Monday 1:00 PM 3:00 PM or by appointment in BYENG 438

Course description:
This course introduces the engineering design process, working in engineering teams, the
profession of engineering, engineering models, and gives students opportunities to develop
written and oral technical communication skills.
Textbook:
None.
Course Objectives:
1. To discover the excitement and creativity in the practice of engineering and computer
science.
2. To learn and use the engineering design process.
3. To learn to work in a team environment.
4. To improve technical communication skills by writing and speaking about the projects in
the course.
Course Outcomes:
Students who complete this course will be able to:
1. Apply the engineering design process
2. Demonstrate project teamwork and management skills
3. Make use of software tools in the design process
4. Communicate technical material in oral and written form
5. Demonstrate problem solving skills in engineering and computer science
6. Demonstrate elementary computer programming skills
Grading:
Individual:
Exam 1 15%
Exam 2 15%
Quizzes 10%
Written Report 10%
Group:
Final Project 30%
Lab Work 20%

The final letter grade is decided according to the percentage points obtained as follows:
A+ >=97%
A >=92%
A- >=90%
B+ >=87%
B >=82%
B- >=80%
C+ >=77%
C >=72%
D >=65%

Course Schedule:
Date # Lecture Lab
8/27 1 Introduction Team Building, Careers
9/3 2 Engineering Design Process 1 Assembly Line 1
9/10 3 Engineering Design Process 2 Assembly Line 2
9/17 4 Engineering Design Process 3 Assembly Line 3
9/24 5 Computers Introduction to VPL
10/1 6 Robots Drive by Wire & Touch Sensor
10/8 7 Exam 1 More on Sensors
10/15 - No Class: Fall Break!
10/22 8 Robot Programming 1 Prepare for Sumo Competition
10/29 9 Robot Programming 2 (FSMs) Sumo Competition
11/5 10 Project Intro/Project Management Maze and FSMs
11/12 11 Maze Algorithms Prepare for Maze Competition
11/19 12 Quality and Testing Maze Competition
11/26 13 Presentation Techniques Presentation and Report Writing
12/3 14 Exam 2 Presentations

Tips for Success:
1. Come to class! Although the lecture slides will be posted on Blackboard, most of the
concepts that end up on the test come from the discussion we have as a class during
the lecture time.
2. Ask questions. Not only is it the best way to learn, it also helps you stay awake.
3. Practice coding in VPL on your own time. A sound understanding of VPL will give
you a huge advantage in the project competitions, which in turn greatly benefits
your final grade.
4. Read the lab manual thoroughly before lab. This will save you tons of time in the
lab.
5. Do the pre-lab quizzes early so you have time to contact me if you have questions.
6. Pay close attention to announcements.
7. Please email me or come visit me during office hours if you are struggling with
anything. I want to do whatever I can to help you succeed, but I cant do anything
about a problem I dont know about.
8. If there is ever a discrepancy between what is written in the lab manual and what I
say in class or announce on Blackboard, do what I say and not what the manual says.

Instructions for Installing VPL:
The development environment and language we will be using to program the Lego NXT
robots is probably very different to anything youve used before, even if you have prior
programming experience. It is a good idea to install VPL on your laptop, if you have one, for
two reasons. First, youll be able to try out different things and debug your code outside of
the lab. Second, youll be able to use your own computer for the competitions.
To install VPL follow the instructions below. It is free.
1. The first thing you need to do is download Visual Studio 2010. To do this, log on to
MyASU, then click on the My Apps link on the left navigation bar. This will ask you
to log in again. When you see the list of software, do a search for Dreamspark, and
then click on "Dreamspark". From here you can search for Visual Studio however
you like. I chose VS 2010 Ultimate because it has a superset of the features offered
in other versions and I figured I could just not install the ones I don't need for
now. Add it to your cart.
2. Under the Developer Tools category, find Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 4.
Add this to your cart as well, and then check out.
3. When you finish the "order", you'll see a page with details about the software. Click
on "Download Options". Then click through the annoying windows that come up
until you finally start downloading. The item you actually get is a download
manager, which will handle the 2GB+ file. Make sure you have a good connection
and/or that you have plenty of time to let the download do its thing. When it is
finally done downloading and extracting, you'll have an ISO file, which is a virtual
disk. You have two options for using this to install Visual Studio. 1) You can burn it
to a DVD and install like normal. 2) You can use a virtual drive manager like
PowerISO to mount it to Windows (my preferred method).
4. Install Visual Studio. If you decide to do less than the full install (recommended),
the only feature you need to run VPL is C#. Everything else is fluff for development
in VS. Even with only installing C#, it will take over 5GB of disk space, so make sure
you have room on your hard drive.
5. Finally you can start installing VPL. This is much smaller and easier to install. In
fact, if you have any missing dependencies other than Visual Studio, this will install
them for you. Make sure that you keep the option selected to install the samples for
VPL, otherwise you won't have any of the Lego services when you run it (learned
that the hard way).

Attendance
Attendance is REQUIRED for all lab and lecture sessions. Students who miss class are
responsible for contacting the instructor for lecture/lab materials and
homework/assignment information. If you miss more than one class or are late to class
regularly, points may be deducted from your grade. An absence will not be counted against
a student for excused absences (illness, death in the family, university sanctioned event,
etc.) providing that the reason for the absence is documented in writing and the instructor
is notified prior to the absence (if possible).
Academic Integrity
ASU expects and requires all its students to act with honesty and integrity, and respect the
rights of others in carrying out all academic assignments, in accordance with the ASU
Academic Integrity Policy (AIP) and. Any form of plagiarism and cheating will not be
tolerated. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: copying another students
work; copying or using words or ideas from a book, article, website, etc. without citing a
source correctly.
You are encouraged to work with others on assignments. However, assignment denoted as
individual assignments MUST be your own original work. Team assignments are expected
to be the original work of the team. All members of the team must participate in completing
these assignments. The instructor reserves the right to not give credit or give partial credit
to individuals within the team who do not participate in completing team assignments.
Student Code of Conduct
The Student Code of Conduct is designed to ensure an environment that encourages
reasoned discourse, intellectual honesty, openness to constructive change, and respect for
the rights of all individuals. All Students are expected to follow the ABOR Student Code of
Conduct.