Each year, the Penn Engineering Alumni Society sponsors a Senior Design Project Competition for undergraduate engineering seniors at Penn Engineering. This competition assembles together the winning senior design project teams from each of Penn’s engineering majors. Each of these design teams presents their accomplishments to a panel of “real world” judges who collectively represent a diverse set of technology disciplines. Having already received departmental accolades for technical achievement, this Senior Design Project Competition now challenges each team to succinctly articulate their design project’s objective, strategy and results to a diverse audience. As such, of chief importance in this competition is the ability to clearly communicate complex subject matter to those who are not experts in that subject matter.

This year’s competition was held on Friday, May 2, 2008 in the Wu and Chen Auditorium.

Prizes and Distribution:

1 - 1st Prize $800

1 - 2nd Prize $400

1 - 3rd Prize $200

Honorable Mentions Certificate recognition; No financial award

Judging Criteria:

Each project/presentation is limited to 15 minutes including setup and questions and answers. The project/presentation will be judged using the following four criteria:

• Project Overview

Prior to their presentation, each student is required to submit by e-mail to Janice Rafferty a word document containing a project overview. The overview should be single-spaced, 12-point font, 250 words or less. Project title, department and author name(s) are to be clearly indicated at the top of the sheet. Project overviews will be used to inform the judges of the important aspects of the project by providing a brief background, a statement of the problem, methods used with results, and conclusions.

• Communication (40%)

The team’s ability to effectively convey to the audience their project’s objective, approach and conclusion is weighted the highest in this competition. Verbal communication, diagrams, demonstrations, etc. can all be used to explain and support the project’s design objective.

TIP: It is strongly recommended that teams do not give the same presentation they gave to their respective departments. The judges comprising this competition hail from a wide variety of technology and industry backgrounds. As such, while they are all technically savvy, teams should not expect them to be subject matter experts in the team’s particular field of study. Each team may therefore want to consider modifying their departmental presentations to fit the broader nature of this audience.

• Design Approach (30%)  

Scoring in this category is based on a team’s design approach. Specifically, how well did a team achieve its stated design objectives through implementation of a technically sound strategy.

• Results and Support (30%)

Scoring in this category is based on several criteria. First, how well do the technical data and, if provided, cost analyses support the outcome. Second, how successfully does the design outcome achieve the objective of the stated design objective. A team’s ability to succinctly and clearly articulate what was accomplished is crucial.

IMPORTANT:

If the students have any A/V requirements, they must e-mail Janice Rafferty so the proper equipment can be set up and available on the day of the Competition. Remember that all setup is included in the 15 minutes of presentation time.

The students should call Janice Rafferty ASAP to schedule time in the Wu and Chen Auditorium to rehearse their presentations.

Dress Code:

Professional attire recommended.

For Additional Information:

Please contact Janice Rafferty , Office of Development and Alumni Relations, at 215-898-6564 or or Walt Korn, EE’57, GEE’68, Senior Design Project Competition Chairman, at

Past Senior Design Competitions:

2008 Senior Design Competition

2007 Senior Design Competition

2006 Senior Design Competition

2005 Senior Design Competition

2004 Senior Design Competition

2003 Senior Design Competition