Students will consolidate the project management skills developed in the first year course of PBL. From a more technical perspective, they will learn how to design, develop and validate a real communication system, implemented in practise. Knowledge - Organization and management of a project - Required technical competences - System design and development Abilities - Ability to work in a team - Ability to choose the best hardware to implement the communication system - Ability to disseminate project progress and results - Ability to validate an hardware project

As the different student teams will work on different topics, a basic knowledge of the broad field of communication systems and networks is required. Every team, depending on the project assigned, will be responsible to define a learning plan and interact with the professors to get consultancy on the specific area of knowledge required to address the project technical issues.

Every academic year the course will be offered to students, a different set of projects will be proposed for the development in team of 3 or 4 students. Each project will fall in a specific area of Communication Engineering. This is a list of possible areas for the development of projects: - Open control of optical transport network elements - Optical sensing - Motion tracking techniques for inclusive musical activities - Radar-based driver assistance system - High-speed PAM link for datacenter/HPC applications

The course will start to provide a common background on communication systems and IoT. Along the semester, on a regular basis (about every 3 weeks), each team developing a project will present the progress of the work completed and the plan for the remaining period. Presentations must include the discussion of all the achievement in the learning plan, all the issues encountered during the design and development of the hardware system, the eventual adjustments to project planning and the motivation for all taken technical choices. Periodical presentations are mandatory elements of course activities and they will allow students to acquire and improve their ability to communicate results obtained while motivating all choices the team will made. Presentations will contribute to the final grade. All students in a team must contribute both to the work and to deliver the presentations. The individual contribution within the team will be also evaluated in the final grade. At the end of the course, a final presentation of the projects is organized: each group will demonstrate the results achieved, presenting them to other teams. Every group is required to deliver a final report describing in detail the hardware communication system developed. Both periodical presentations and the final presentations must be uploaded on the course repository.

The course starts to provide a common background on practical issues related to communication systems and IoT. Along the semester, on a regular basis (about every 3 weeks), each team developing a project will present the progress of the work completed and the plan for the remaining period. Presentations must include the discussion of all the achievement in the learning plan, all the issues encountered during the design and development of the hardware system, the eventual adjustments to project planning and the motivation for all taken technical choices. Periodical presentations are mandatory elements of course activities and they will allow students to acquire and improve their ability to communicate results obtained while motivating all choices the team will made. Presentations will contribute to the final grade. All students in a team must contribute both to the work and to deliver the presentations. The individual contribution within the team will be also evaluated in the final grade. At the end of the course, a final presentation of the projects is organized: each group will demonstrate the results achieved, presenting them to other teams. Every group is required to deliver a final report describing in detail the hardware communication system developed. Both periodical presentations and the final presentations must be uploaded on the course repository.

Specific teaching material will be provided through the course website based on the learning plan agreed with each team.

Lecture notes; Multimedia materials;

Exam: Compulsory oral exam; Group graphic design project;

Each team is required to deliver a final report on the project. Every student is required to take an oral exam. The final report must summarize all the work carried out through the project, highlighting main choices and describing all property of the developed communication system together with some practical use case. The oral exam is a discussion on the whole project and it will start from the delivered report. Periodical presentations must show the ability of the team to manage the project and the organization of the teamwork. The evaluation will consider the ability to use correct technical language, to focus on the core ideas and to clearly introduce concepts. The oral exam must show that the student: - understands the whole work developed by each student of the team; - contributed in a meaningful way to the team achievement; - learned the required competences and abilities to solve the addressed problem; - understand the achieved results. The exam grade is a weighted average of the following evaluations: quality of presentations (periodic ones and final one), final report, individual contribution within the team, individual oral discussion. The precise weighting criteria will be presented and discussed at the beginning of the course.

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.