Final Design
Project Proposal: Format
1.
Letter of Transmittal:
This identifies the proposal so that it will be sent to the correct
reviewers in the agency at which it is being considered. A letter of transmittal will contain:
Contact information – where
can you be reached for questions. Include name, address, phone number, FAX
number, email address. (You may omit any
information that you do not feel comfortable to release. Remember that these reports will be on file
for other students in future years).
The date of submission.
Name and business address of the person
to whom the proposal is being transmitted – In this case it will be: Steven
A. Jones, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering Program,
A statement that you are submitting this
proposal for review, including the title of the proposal and
what it is being reviewed for (Final Design Project Proposal for Biomedical
Engineering Senior Design).
Any additional information that
you believe will help support your proposal.
Note: be brief.
Expression of gratitude for the
addressee’s effort and for that of the reviewers.
Closing, signature, and your name
(typed).
2.
Title Page: This provides the reviewers with
important information that he/she can reference quickly. Include:
a. Your institutional affiliation (
b. The title of your proposal. This should be descriptive of your
project. Do not use a title like, “BME
402 Design Proposal.”
c. Your name.
d. The date of transmittal.
e. The
statement: Final senior design proposal presented to Dr. Steven A. Jones in
partial fullfillment of the requirements for
Biomedical Engineering 402.
3.
Table of contents. Section headings must be included, along with
the page numbers on which these sections begin.
1.
List of figures and list of tables. Include figure/table captions and page
numbers.
2.
Project summary: This must be no longer than ˝ page in length (250 words). Include 1) The major
problem you intend to address and why it is important, 2) The specific aspect
of the problem that you will address, 3) A statement of how this problem will
be addressed, 4) Indications from your proposal as to how you evaluated the
feasibility of the project. 5) A
statement of the project’s feasibility. 6) The expected benefits of the
project. The summary should be 1 to 2
paragraphs long. It will probably be the
first part of the proposal that the reviewer reads, and he may use it as an
initial screening when he has to review a number of different projects. The summary can slant the reviewer’s attitude
toward your entire proposal, and conceivably the rest of your proposal may
never be read if the funding agency has large competition and if the summary is
poor, so it is highly important that your summary be straightforward and
clear. Generally this section does not
include figures.
3.
Specific Aims:
This section is intended to tell the reader specifically what you plan
to do and how you plan to do it. This section must be no longer than 1.25 pages (500 words
max). Generally this section
does not need to include figures or a large amount of explanation because the
reader knows that you will elaborate on what you say in the Background
section. A good form to take in your
Specific Aims section is:
a) Identify
the general problem you are trying to solve.
b) State
the specific hypotheses or research questions you are trying to answer.
c) State each objective or experiment that you intend to carry
out to answer your hypotheses.
It is highly recommended that if you have 3 hypotheses, you should have
3 objectives, each of which matches up with a stated hypothesis.
d) State in
what way the accomplishments of the objectives will address the hypotheses.
e) State
what impact the results of each hypothesis will have on the general problem.
Try not to make it obvious that
you are following this as a “formula.”
Parts a-f must hold together cohesively, not be
separate items that you “have to get in.”
The argument you make above will be expanded in the Background and
Significance section. Provide
authoritative references.
4.
Background and Significance:
The background has both major purposes and minor
purposes. The primary purposes are: 1) To give the reviewer enough information that he/she can
understand what will follow. 2) To
establish in detail the importance of the problem 3) To show that there is a need to solve
the problem. 4) To demonstrate that the
problem has not yet been solved. 5) To
show that the direction you propose is the next logical step in the evolution
of the solution. The minor purposes are
to 1) To demonstrate a high likelihood of the project working and 2) To
demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about the subject. Generally you do not show that you have expertise by adding irrelevant
information in this section. Rather you
show your understanding through a cohesive argument that addresses the primary
purposes. When this is done, the
reviewer will be convinced of your competency.
Think carefully about what information is and is not needed. If you are designing a new total knee
replacement, for example, it is appropriate to list for the reviewer several
reasons why people need knee replacements and give figures as to the prevalence
of each one. If your project addresses a
specific disease that requires a specific type of replacement, you will need to
explain what is different about that disease and what the problems are. However, it is not appropriate to give a complete description about the
pathological processes involved in each knee-degenerating disease. Under the major heading of Background and
Significance you should use the following sub-headings:
a.
Background: Tell the reader what he/she needs to know
to understand the rest of the proposal.
b.
Analysis of Need: This section will convince the
reader that what you propose to do is reasonable and necessary. It will consist of the following subsections.
i.
The Overall Need: Provide a logical argument which
states the problem, justifies that it is
a problem, and states why the design you propose is needed?
ii.
Current Solutions: Establish point by point all
solutions currently available to address the general problem. Include any disadvantages that each solution
may have.
iii.
Enabling Technology: Give a reason why the atmosphere
is now right to address that aspect (for example, through some technological
aspect, change in attitudes of society, etc.). This is important. A reviewer will be skeptical if your idea
seems to come from nowhere and will not believe that you happened to come up
with an idea that nobody has ever though of before. The immediate reaction will be either 1)
someone has probably done it already or 2) someone has tried it and it turned
out not to work. However, if you say that Michaelangelo,
Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein all thought about it but they did not have the
technology available to them to carry it out at that time, it is much easier to
convince the reviewer that you are taking the logical next step in the
evolution of the problem.
iv.
Problem to be Solved: Having
reviewed what is available in part ii above, determine what central aspect is
missing from all of the current solutions.
This aspect will be the specific problem you will address, and it should
follow logically from the problems that have been shown to exist with other
current solutions. Provide a direct
statement of this problem, as in, “The proposed project will create and test a
rocket design that is capable of lifting payloads of up to 2,000 pound to an
altitude of 1,000 miles and yet is light enough to be carried by an
average-sized Brazilian llama.”
c.
Design Criteria: There are two types of criteria that you
will need to address. One is user
specifications, and the other is engineering specifications. You should have separate descriptions of both
of these. User specifications are
criteria stated from the point of view of the users. Engineering specifications are a translation
of these criteria into measurable criteria.
For example, in the design of a lightbulb, a
user may be concerned with the ability of the bulb to mimic daylight. The engineering will translate this criterion
into other specifications such as 1) the spectrum of the light must be flat
from 400 to 700 nm, and 2) the intensity must be at least 5,000 lumens. Whereas the user criteria will state in
general what you
want your design to accomplish, the engineering criteria will be carefully defined,
quantitative, and measurable. Each
engineering criterion must refer to one or more of the user criteria. You should consider such things as cost,
durability and functional aspects.
Assign weights as to how important each criterion should be. You will need this information for your
analysis of alternative solutions below.
Each criterion should follow logically from the background you have
already given. For example, if you want
to include size as a criterion you must discuss the importance of size in the
background section.
d.
Analysis of alternative solutions: Give a
number of alternative designs for your problem.
These alternatives are what you could use for your design,
they are not necessarily current
solutions already in place. Assign
values to the design criteria for each of these designs. Use the weightings assigned in a. above and a
decision matrix technique to determine the viability of each solution. This analysis will help to demonstrate that
your proposed project is the next logical step in the overall problem.
It is critical that the
subsections of the Background and Significance section be supported by current
literature references. References from
the world wide web, though often useful, are not
sufficient to show that you have made a thorough study of the literature. Refereed journal articles must make up the
bulk of your references for your argument to be convincing.
8. Preliminary Results: This section will, to some extent,
support the major purposes of the Background and Significance section, however,
its major purposes are to show 1) That the project you propose has a strong
likelihood of success, based on some preliminary
experiments that you have done
(feasibility), 2) That your group has some expertise in the field (either
through experiments, surveys of patients, or contact with experts in the
field). Information gained through a literature review should not go in
this section, nor should you try to show your expertise by stating that you
have reviewed the literature extensively.
Be creative with this section.
Think of simple experiments or rough theoretical calculations that you
can do that relate to your experiment.
For example, if you propose to modify a wheelchair, at least you might
sit in a wheelchair to see what it feels like from the subject’s
perspective. If your project involves
endothelial cells, you might show that you have at least grown endothelial
cells before. If you are making some
kind of warning device that uses a sound alarm, test a few sounds to examine
their effectiveness.
More examples of preliminary results
A student wishes to redesign a
football helmet to reduce the incidence of concussion. He creates a crude small scale prototype and
compares its ability to protect an egg from cracking when dropped from a given
height.
A student wishes to combine a
cleansing/antibacterial agent with a growth factor for treating diabetic foot
sores. She finds the conditions under
which the two agents are stable and determines that: (1) there is a pH at which
both chemicals will be stable and (2) there is no obvious chemical reaction
through which one of the chemicals would degrade the other.
A student wishes to use electrical
stimulation to treat Reynaud’s disease (a problem
that results in pain to the extremities as a result of low blood flow caused by
vasospasm). He sets up interviews with
three people who have the disease to determine 1) the conditions under which
episodes occur, 2) the frequency of episodes, 3) what treatments the subject is
using or has used, 4) the side effects of these treatments.
A student wishes to use a chemically-activated heating sources as part of a system
to combat hypothermia. The student
should find a sample of the material to be used and determine 1) the total
amount of heat it can produce per unit weight, the peak temperature it reaches,
and the time duration of the reaction.
The student might then deduce the total weight of the substance needed
for the specific application.
9. Research Plan:
This section is designed to convince the reader that you have an idea as
to how to proceed and that your plan is organized and feasibile. Subheadings of this section will be:
a.
Detailed design: Give a detailed description for the
design you select. You must have a
figure that illustrates the design.
Don’t even think about turning your proposal in without this
figure. State how you will construct
your device. You must indicate that some kind of quantitative analysis will
be applied in the design process, and you must state what that analysis will
be. You do not need to actually have this analysis completed at this time.
b.
Cost Analysis: Give an estimate of the cost of building
a prototype.
c.
Method of evaluation: How will you evaluate the merits of
your design once it has been built? Your
evaluation should be based on the design criteria you have set up in (a)
above. Be specific about experiments you
will run and the data that you will collect.
Provide some detail.
d.
Statistical Analysis: What statistical analysis will you
use to evaluate the results of your measurements?
e.
Organizational Structure and Schedule: State
how the project will be divided up among the design team. If you need expertise in a particular area
(e.g., mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, etc.) state this and
give the role of the expert in that area.
Use the precedence matrix to show that your time plan makes sense. Give a time-table of specific landmarks in
your design and display these in a Gantt
chart. Do not make this general
(e.g. project definition, evaluation of solution, etc.), but be specific about
your project (e.g., selection of knee material, machining of joint, etc.).
10. Acknowledgements:
Few projects can ever be done without the help of others. In your acknowledgements name each person who
has helped you, with a brief statement of what their contribution was. Use
complete sentences. Likely
candidates for this section are your sophomore assistant, professors with whom
you have consulted, people who have personal experience with your problem
(although subjects who participate in surveys that are quoted in your paper
should remain confidential), and experts in the field whom you have
contacted. Do not acknowledge anyone who
is listed on the title page of your proposal or report. They are already acknowledged on the title
page.
11. References: Any reference that is
listed in this section must be cited in the text of your proposal.
You should use references primarily to back up specific statements you
make throughout the proposal. Cite
references with the (author, date) format.
For example, “Nussbaum et al. (1990) states that …,” or “Myocardial
infarction is the result of coronary artery thrombosis (Nussbaum et al.,
1990).” Remember that “et al.” is an
abbreviation for “et alii,” so there is a period
after al., but not after et. Cite your references as: Author List, Date, “Title”, Journal, Volume,
12. Qualifications of the Design Group: State
who will work on this project and their qualifications. This will include you as the principle
investigator. Please specify what
special experience you have to work on this project. This section will also include other people
who you know will be working on the project (e.g. your sophomore
assistant). Since you do not know in
advance everyone who will be involved, specify the other people by their
qualifications. For example, “A
biomedical engineer with a concentration in electrical engineering will be
needed to perform ….”
13. Budget: State the cost of this project in
the following terms: 1) Personnel (in most cases this will be zero cost since
the students will be donating their time). 2) Supplies. 3) Travel. 4) Equipment
5) Other costs.
It is likely that supplies will be the largest category, and in many
cases the only category that is non-zero.
14. Budget Justification: Any costs specified in the budget section
must be justified. You should also
specify anything that may be considered “matching funds,” such as the time
donated by yourself and your fellow students.
15. Research Facilities: State
what facilities you will have available to you for this project and how they
will be used. If someone has stated that
they will provide a piece of equipment for your use, include that. This may include instrumentation from the
undergraduate laboratory, equipment committed to the project by one of your
professors, or equipment that you will be able to borrow from someone outside
of the university. But be specific. Do not just say that such-and-such laboratory
will be used. State what equipment will be used from that laboratory and why it is
needed for this project.
16. Miscellaneous:
Use good grammar, spelling and organization. These aspects are paramount in convincing
your audience that you have the necessary competence to carry out your work. Make your report as easy to read for a
reviewer as possible. Make tables and
figures as complete as possible. Do not
make the reviewer flip back to the text to find out what “Alternative 1” is, or
what a particular abbreviation stands for.
Make table and figure captions self-explanatory. In general the table or figure caption should
tell the reader what the overall point of the figure/table is. For example, do not say simply: “Number of
Diabetics vs. Time.” Rather say: “Number
of Diabetics vs. Time. This shows that
the number of diabetics have increased exponentially in the past 10
years.” Number all pages. The reports must be typed double-spaced, with
1-inch margins on both sides, a 1-inch margin on top, and a 1.5 inch margin on
the bottom of the page. Use 11-point
type. Include your previous report
(where applicable) as an appendix. Also
include reviews from your colleagues and rebuttals to those reviews as
appendices.
17. Writing Constructs
to Avoid: Please
avoid the following in your writing:
Do not use first person.
Passive voice is fine.
Never use the phrase “due to the fact that.” This is wordy and can be replaced by the more
succinct “because.”
Do not use words like “quite” and “very.” These are always superfluous and usually do
not add the intensification desired. Compare
the following two sentences: “Arthritis
is very painful.” vs “Arthritis is painful.” Interestingly, the use of the word “very”
makes the sentence sound more subjective and less authoritative, tending to
reduce its impact rather than intensify it.
Do not indicate any signs of doubt.
Do not express opinion.
Nobody will care what you think.
If you say, “I believe that this project will lead to improved
diagnostic procedures for hepatitis,” it sounds less authoritative than, “The
proposed project will lead to improved procedures for hepatitis.” And you certainly do not want to say, “I
believe that the incidence of tuberculosis has increased over the last 5
years.” You want to say, “The incidence
of tuberculosis has increased from 4000 per year to 8000 per year from 1997 to
2002 (Nussbaum et al., 2002).
Do not use statements like, “The American Heritage
Dictionary defines bursitis as inflammation of a bursa, especially in the
shoulder, elbow or knee joints.” The reader will infer that you did not know
what bursitis was when you first started this project, so you looked it up in
the dictionary. This approach may be
okay for someone who is writing for a newspaper, but is inappropriate for
someone who is working in the field.
Consider how much more convincing it is to simply say, “Bursitis is an
inflammation of a bursa (Boyer et al., 1983).”
Be aware also that the dictionary may not be the best place to go for a
clinical definition of a disease.
Steven A. Jones
Senior Design (BIEN 400, 402 and 404).