L41 — Course Wrap-Up

L41 — Course Wrap-Up#

The last period of ECE 495. The Final Project and HW4 come in at the start of class, Quiz 4 checks Block 4 individually, a team review game runs all four blocks one more time, and a short after-action review closes it out.

Due at the start of class#

Final Project — through the course Teams team, before class starts:

  • The final paper (PDF), in the IEEE template.

  • The response to reviewers (PDF, from ResponseToReviewers.tex in the template): every comment from both reviews, what you changed and where — or why you did not.

  • Your code — every script used for the analysis and the figures, runnable from the issued bundle (FPToolkit.m, the four CSV files, the starter and your scripts in one folder).

  • AI transcripts, if any AI was used — a copy of or link to every chat, submitted with the code. The handout’s Use of AI paragraph sets the rule.

HW4 — Survivability and Mission Planning is turned in on paper at the start of class. Individual work; see HW4.

Late deliverables require coordination at least 24 hours in advance; non-coordinated late submissions receive a zero. The full rules are on the Final Project page and in its handout.

Quiz 4#

  • Taken in class, on paper: open book, 15 minutes, individual.

  • It covers the Block 4 topics and your Final Project work. If you did the project and HW4 honestly, the quiz is a victory lap.

  • Authorized: your notes, your returned work, the handouts, the course site (readings, flashcards, slides), and a calculator.

  • Not authorized: generative AI of any kind, and help from anyone else.

  • When time is called, stop writing and pass the quiz forward.

Course review game#

After the quiz the class splits into teams for a review game that runs across all four blocks. There is nothing to prepare beyond the course itself. Responses come in the form of a question.

Course AAR#

The period closes with a short after-action review of the course itself — three questions:

  • Sustain — what worked, and should stay next fall?

  • Improve — what would you change: the pace, the workload, the order of topics?

  • The one thing to keep — the idea from ECE 495 you expect to still be using.

The end-of-course critique asks the same questions in writing. Specific comments help most: name the lesson, the demo, or the project, and say what to keep as well as what to fix.

One problem, four blocks#

ECE 495 worked one problem four ways. Block 1 built the threat: how a radar finds, ranges and tracks an aircraft, and why detection range answers to the fourth root of radar cross section. Block 2 turned the same physics into a fight — listen (ES), protect (EP), attack (EA). Block 3 moved into the infrared and back onto the airframe, and showed that you are only as quiet as your loudest band. Block 4 put every lever on one map: the kill chain as a probability, the threat rings as geometry, the adversary’s track as information, and the route as a shortest path that a stand-off jammer and SEAD can reshape.

The kill chain from L1 organized all of it — Detect, Track, Identify, Engage, Kill — and each block broke a different link. The B-21 carried the thread: Project 1 found where it is seen, Project 2 found the threats, Project 3 made it quieter, and the Final Project flew it through. Survivability is breaking the chain before it breaks you.

Lesson slides (HTML deck)

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