The CSE 477 course at the University of Washington is a capstone design course in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. The course involves roughly 5 weeks of lecture centering around high-level design concepts; two or three lab assignments; and one major design project. Students work either alone or in groups of two for the lab assignments, and work in pairs for the project.
The Spring Quarter 1996 offering of CSE 477 was taught by professor Steve Burns. About 20 students were enrolled, leading to roughly 10 different projects by the end of the course. Although the labs and lectures were interseting, the real fun of the course is in the projects! In this offering, the following projects were undertaken:
As is the case with most college courses, the last week of class is the busiest. CSE 477 was no exception, and the hardware design lab was never empty during the last week of the quarter. In fact, at least half of the project teams worked spent a 36-hour vigil in the lab the two days before the project demos were due. I was one of those frantic students, working diligently on through the night. To capture forever the atmosphere of this unique experience, I have many pictures of the event.
Watch the video that was produced which highlights the Talking Toaster, the 6-legged robot, and the truck-tank. The video is available in Microsoft NetShow format from the NetShow server at the UW.