Course Syllabus

SE 4400 Software Engineering Practicum I

Course Description

This course is the first in a two-course sequence. The senior year practicum courses (SE 4400 and SE 4450) provide career preparation and guide students through a culminating major engineering design experience (capstone project). This capstone project allows students to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work while they solve a complex engineering problem utilizing appropriate engineering standards and multiple constraints.

Justification

This course is a required component of the ABET accreditation standards. This course is designed to meet the requirements the BSSE program and provides a culminating major engineering design experience that 1) incorporates appropriate engineering standards and multiple constraints, and 2) is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work. This course is required for the BSSE degree.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will be prepared to enter the job market by: increasing interviewing skills, job seeking skills, career awareness and career planning.
2. Students will be able to function on a team to create a collaborative environment, establish goals, and plan tasks. (ABET-SLO5)
3. Students will be prepared to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics. (ABET-SLO1)
4. Students will be prepared to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts. (ABET-SLO4)
5. Students will be prepared to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions. (ABET-SLO6)

Course Content

This course is the first of a two-course sequence which will setup the practical software engineering capstone experience. Teams will be established, project scope and complexity will be addressed, team culture options explored, iterative patterns and artifact expectations will be covered. This will set up the teams to be ready for SE 4450.Together with SE 4450, key principles taught throughout the Software Engineering curriculum will be applied to each setting, such as: software design and construction, requirements analysis, security, verification, and validation; software engineering processes and tools appropriate for the development of complex software systems. The project will be large in scope, with no obvious solution, and will have many component parts and sub-problems. While producing a solution, students will apply an engineering design process in an iterative and creative decision-making process that meets desired needs and specifications within constraints. This process 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. (ABET-Criterion 5)