Projects

The project represents an opportunity for you to add more depth to your study of computer science.  For some, the project is also an opportunity to pursue a topic that got you excited about computer science in the first place. The learning objectives must be clear.

Here are some constraints:

You must be able to complete it by the end of the quarter.
You learn something significant, and can demonstrate what you’ve learned.
You learn some things related to CS and software development

Organization:
Every project will be organized into affinity groups of 4-5 students and assigned a faculty mentor. Even if you have an individual project, you will be reporting to and getting feedback from your group. You will meet with faculty weekly.

Week 1:  Revision of Project Web Site (blog) – Tuesday.  Faculty form project affinity (research) groups, and weekly meeting times assigned.

Bring to your meeting with faculty (and update your project web site/blog)

  1. Hard copy of your revised project description (2 pages max), which should include the following:
    • Project title and url for project web site/blog
    • Students involved (first and last names)
    • Area of research (CS and domain, if relevant)
    • What the project invovles, what it will do, how it is being implemented (this is the bulk of the description!).
    • Learning objectives:  What you want to learn, why it is interesting, how you will learn it, how you will know that you have learned it.
    • Prior knowledge: an evaluation of your pre-existing knowledge (and work) on the topic. Maybe you already know a little about the topic and you want to know more. Or maybe you know nothing about the topic, in this case you should talk about how what you know from some other area might help you understand what you are about to learn.
    • Resources needed to accomplish the project (textbooks, manuals)
    • Short bibliography
  2. Project Timeline for Spring Quarter If there is more than one person on the team, this should also state who is doing what and when.

Weeks 2-9: Meet weekly with faculty in affinity groups. Maintain a project web site.
Weekly project status reports (one page max, hardcopy) due:

  • Name, Date and Week#, Project title, Affinity Group,
  • What you did this week
  • What Issues or problems you encountered
  • What you will do next week.

Week 8: Outline or Draft of Final Project Report due to Faculty (returned Week 9)

Week 10: Project presentation and final report due. Project presentation format TBD, but for group projects will likely be a presentation to the entire program, for individual projects, a presentation to the seminar group to which the affinity group belongs or a poster or software demonstration. Final report format is addressed at the end of this document.

Presentation Ideas  Project presentations will be given week 10 to the entire program or your affinity groups (individual projects).
What follows is a DRAFT to be updated Week 8.

  • Your presentation should be 12 minutes long (min of 10, max of 15) with time for questions afterward.
  • Your presentation should be a polished, carefully planned performance.
  • Briefly explain your learning objectives.
  • Include a short performance of some kind: a live demo etc.

Tips on Giving Good Presentations

  • Practice ahead of time. It’s surprising how quickly 12 minutes can go by; going through your presentation a few times beforehand will help you to be clear about how long each part will take and, naturally, will help you to work out the kinks.
  • Start with an outline and end with a conclusion. At the beginning of your presentation, let your audience know what to expect; at the end, concisely review what you’ve done.
  • Be confident; speak clearly. You designed picked the topic and studied it for 9 weeks, so you should know what you are talking about.
  • Maintain eye contact with the audience. We don’t want to watch you read your notes to us.
  • Use visual aids! Even simple visual aids will help keep your audience’s attention and will help keep your talk moving along. At a minimum, it’s a good idea to have a separate visual for each segment of your presentation. Whenever possible, show an example in addition to (or instead of) telling it.
  • Consider using handouts. Handouts are a great way to show your audience detailed information that doesn’t work well on the screen or blackboard; if you want to write a lot of information on the board, a handout may be a better alternative. If you do make handouts, remember to account for the time it will take to pass them out.
  • Plan for what to do if time runs short. It happens all the time, so be ready – that way you won’t waste more time being flustered if it happens to you.

 

Evaluation:  Project work will be evaluated on the basis of:

  1. significance of the project
  2. documentation of the project in the report
  3. the presentation
  4. preparedness for meetings and demonstration of weekly progress
  5. (if group project) contributions to the development of the others in your affinity group