Computer Engineering Department CS491/2 Senior Design Project I/II
Fall 2024 - Spring 2025

Course Description

CS491/CS492 Senior Design Project course is a two-semester course that will allow all senior CS students to gain and practice the required abilities and skills in the engineering design process.

According to ABET, engineering design is “a process of devising a system, component, or process to meet desired needs and specifications within constraints. It is an iterative, creative, decision-making process in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources into solutions. Engineering design involves identifying opportunities, developing requirements, performing analysis and synthesis, generating multiple solutions, evaluating solutions against requirements, considering risks, and making trade- offs, for the purpose of obtaining a high-quality solution under the given circumstances. ” ⁽¹⁾ Examples of possible constraints are: accessibility, aesthetics, codes, constructability, cost, ergonomics, extensibility, functionality, interoperability, legal considerations, maintainability, manufacturability, marketability, policy, regulations, schedule, standards, sustainability, usability, minimum hardware and/or software specifications.

All students enrolled in the Computer Engineering program at Bilkent University have the opportunity to learn and practice engineering design, through their coursework and, CS491 and CS492 capstone project courses will give a unique opportunity to demonstrate these skills within a team of 3-5 students.

CS491-CS492 projects are directed toward an innovative solution to a real and substantial problem. Students need to show their engineering design skills to solve practical and theoretical engineering problems that they will choose and pre-approved by the faculty. Below you can see the key outcomes of this course:

• Students will gain ability to identify, formulate and find innovative solutions to the open-ended engineering problem that is chosen and will translate their computer science knowledge into new context to design and implement an innovative solution as their capstone project.
• Students will experience collaborative work environment and will work productively as an individual and in a team on a project that produces a innovative solution to selected problem.
• Students will improve their project and team management skills, improve the ability to follow directions, instructions and project plans, and improve the ability to organize and use time effectively.
• Students will show their ability and competency in oral and written communications skills through oral presentations during project presentation, course seminars and technical reports.
• Students will learn to incorporate appropriate engineering standards while culminating a major engineering design experience which is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work.
• Students will demonstrate and improve their ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities, economic and environmental constraints in engineering while implementing their capstone project.
• Students will learn to do basic budgeting & feasibility Analysis for a start-up idea
• Students will learn ethics and intellectual property considerations while building a new product or service and learn how to do market competition analysis.

Progress and results of teamwork are required to be presented in both written and oral form during the course. Teams are advised to select complex and challenging subjects so that, they can demonstrate the knowledge and skills that they got from the engineering coursework, to analyze, develop, test, iterate, improve and deliver their design concepts using modeled or simulated artifacts and working prototypes.

Both CS491 and CS492 courses are 3 credits (6 ECTS credits). CS202 and CS319 are prerequisites of CS491.

"You will have many gains and experience during this course.The most important, yet the simple one will be learning and realising the importance of time management and efficiency in this capstone project course. Whether you realize it at the beginning or the end will determine the gains and stress you will experience during this course. ⁽²⁾

Staff:

• CS491/2 Courses Instructors: Atakan Erdem and Mert Bıçakçı
• CS491/2 Seminar Coordinators: Atakan Erdem, Mert Bıçakçı, A. Ercüment Çiçek and Sinem Sav
• CS491/2 Jury Members and Project Evaluators: Atakan Erdem and Mert Bıçakçı + 1 CS Faculty Member

Links:

• CS 491 Course Web Page

Moodle Pages:

• Moodle (CS491) - Fall 2024

⁽¹⁾ “Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2023 – 2024 | ABET.” Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2023 – 2024 | ABET, www.abet.org/accreditation/accreditation-criteria/criteria-for-accrediting-engineering-programs-2023-2024. Accessed 25 Sept. 2023.

⁽²⁾A sincere advice from past senior students to you.