Steven A. Jones			Biomedical Senior Design
	Guidelines for your proposal.
ITEM	MAX	Score	Comments
General Sections	29	0	These may seem like picky details to you, but they make the review process easier for the reviewer, something that you definitely want to do to make the reviewer more sympathetic to you and to ensure that the reviewer understands what you are saying.
Letter of Transmittal	2		Make sure it is signed and dated.
Title Page	2		Follow the format described in the "Proposal Structure" document.
Table of contents	2		Include section names and page numbers.
List of figures & tables	2		Include Figure/Table number, title and page number. Have separate lists for figures and for tables.
Acknowledgements	2		Use complete sentences and state why you are acknowledging each person.
References	5		Only include references that are directly cited in your text. When citing references, use (Name, Date) format. E.g., either "Nussbaum et al. (1997) showed that the sky is blue," or "The sky is known to be blue (Nussbaum et al., 1997).
Qualifications	2		State qualifications relevant to the project.
Facilities	2		List facilities that you will use or might use in the project. This includes available laboratories and equipment.
Misc.	8		Includes grammar, spelling, figure formats, obvious errors.
Rebuttal	2		Rebuttals to my comments and those of your pears.
Summary	6	0	The summary should make the proposal sound like something you would at least like to read more about? Would you be interested in the results of this research? Keep this short - no more than 1/2 page single spaced or 1 page double spaced.
Major Problem	1		Start out with a clinical problem that needs to be solved. Do not be too narrowly focused. This puts the proposed work into context.
Aspect to be Addressed	1		Be more specific here about which part of the problem you intend to address.
Approach	2		What are the most important and unique aspects of your approach?
Statement of Viability	1		Don't just say that it is viable. Give a reason why the project has a good chance of success.
Benefits	1		How will the results of this project ultimately benefit the patient and/or society?
Specific Aims	12	0	Show that you have a clear idea of what you want to do? The idea must be clear, doable, not naïve, and not a fishing expedition.Keep this less than 1.25 pages, double spaced.
Clinical Problem	2		Show that you know what general problem you are trying to solve.
Consequences	2		Show that the problem has severe consequences.
Prevalence	2		Show that you know how prevalant the problem is. Be quantitative. Rather than saying it "affects thousands of people each year," find a reference that says it, "affected 200,000 people in the United States in 2002."
Need	2		What is the most reasonable thing to address with respect to the problem? For example, you may not be able to cure cancer, but you might be able to make chemotherapy less unocomfortable for the patient. Here the clinical problem is cancer, and the need is a way to ease the discomfort of chemotherapy.
Time is Right?	2		Show that there is a need to address the problem now, either because of enhanced perception of need or because of new technology that enables a solution.
Statement	2		State directly what you will do.
Background & Significance	24	0	The background should be relevant to what you are proposing. Show that there is a need for what you want to make. Show that you have a command of the literature. Show that you are aware of other approaches being taken by investigators and that your problem has not already been solved. Make sure your desgn criteria are well spelled out, quantitative and measurable. Most importantly, cover anything that will need to be known to the reviewer at a later point in the proposal. E.g., if you specify a given design criterion, make sure that the background makes it clear that the criterion is important to the overall design.
Background	4		Familiarize the reader with the problem.
Need Analysis	4		Is your device really needed? Who would use it?
Current Solutions	4		How else has the problem been addressed? What works/does not work about these solutions?
Problem to be Solved	2		What do you plan to do that has not yet been addressed by other devices?
Design Criteria	4		What specifically will your device do? Describe criteria quantitatively. All criteria should already have been introduced in previous sections. Do not surprise the reader with a criterion that has not been adressed. For example, if you talk about the weight of the device, check your background section to ensure that you have already said that weight is an important paramter, why it is important, and what the acceptable ranges for weight are.
Alternative Solutions	4		How could you achieve the device you want? Pros and cons of each idea. Decision matrix.
Method Chosen	2		What approach will you use?
Prelim. Results	4	0	Provide experiments or calculations that deonstrate that your project is feasible and that you have some expertise in the field. You should provide a plot of any data you collect and interpret the data and calculations with respect to your problem.
Research Plan	25	0	The section should answer the following questions. Does the design make sense? Does it sound like something that will fulfill the design criteria? Do the proposed tests address the design criteria? Is the analysis quantitative, plausible, and related to the design criteria? Is the cost estimate based on reasonable assumptions? Is the timetable reasonable?
Design	3		Show a detailed sketch of the device you plan to make. How will this device work.
Method of Construction	3		How do you plan to make the device?
Quantitative Analysis	6		You must propose some type of physiological modeling.
Cost Estimate	2		How much will it cost to make the device? What is the expected selling price?
Experiments for Evaluation	4		Provide a concise description of the experiments that you will perform to test whether or not your device satisfies the design criteria. State specifically what data you will collect from these experiments. Provide acceptable limits for your device.
Statistical Analysis	3		Specify the tests for significance that you will use on the data you collect. Simply using means and standard deviations is not sufficient for this section. Refer to the handout on statistical testing for more information.
Division of Labor	2		Show that the project can be performed by four people working interdependently.
Ghantt Chart	1
Predicate Analysis	1		See Mittendorf and Engleman for a description of this.
TOTAL	100	0