Project Workshops
Initial Preparation
Final Year Projects
• A significant piece of individual and academic
work
• A double module -- 20% of final mark; a third of
final year work
• Assessed mainly by report and oral exams
• Compulsory Workshops on planning, writing,
evaluation
• You will learn two main things
– How to conduct a big project, and evaluate it
– Something about the project topic
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Date this Term
• Project Selection
– Week 22-23
• Project Workshop
– 12:00 3rd June (Week 26) Room CG85
• Resources Course
– 5-6 June (Week 26)
• Project Specification
– 6 June (Week 26)
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Deliverables
1. Project Specification
•
Staff to deliver 6 June (Week 26)
2. Preliminary Report
•
20 June (Week 28)
3. Project Plan
•
Week 2 of Next Term
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Final Year Projects
Selection Process
Project Selection Process
1. Decide which area of Computer
Science/Software Engineering you want
to work in. Theme selection.
2. Develop a project proposal
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Project Areas - Themes
• Areas in which staff are interested in
supervising projects
• Non-specific – there is room for
negotiation
• Choose your Theme
• DEADLINE: 14th May (Week 23)
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Theme Allocation
Project Supervisor
• Choices will be balanced to:
– Satisfy as many first choices as possible
– Evenly distribute the supervision load across
academic staff
• Project Supervisor will be allocated
• NOTIFICATION: 21st May (Week 24)
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Project Specification
• Student and supervisor work together to
produce a project specification
• Basic, Intermediate and Advance
Objectives
• There is flexibility BUT it MUST be within
the Theme
• PERIOD: Week 24 and Week 26
• DEADLINE: 6th June (Week 26)
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The Project
Types of Project
Types of Projects
• Software Engineering
– application of SE principles
• Computer Science
– application of computer science
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Computer Science Projects
• To conduct a substantial piece of
Computer Science research as an
individual initiative
• To write and present that research in a
scholarly fashion.
• To demonstrate management skills
through project planning and organisation.
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Computer Science Projects
• To further analytical skills and abilities in
oral and written communication.
• To draw together skills and techniques
learned in other modules.
• To gain experience at presenting research
coherently and effectively.
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Software Engineering Projects
• To draw together the skills and techniques
learned in the final and previous years of
the degree
• To demonstrate the application of a well
executed software engineering
development process.
• To further analytical skills and abilities in
oral and written communication
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Software Engineering Projects
• Conduct a substantial piece of software
engineering research as an individual initiative
• To write it and present it orally in a scholarly
fashion
• To demonstrate management skills through
planning, commitment and individuals focus to
the project work
• Gain experience at presenting materials in an
understandable way for those without a detailed
knowledge of the specific technical area under
study.
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Project Elements
Common
• Week 10 Benchtest
– check progress
– design choice rationale
• Skills
– Writing (report)
– Presentation (to group in January)
– Management (supervisor)
– Viva Examination (demonstration of work)
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Assessment
Project Element
Mark
Benchtest
5
Writing
5
Presentation
5
Management
5
Oral
5
TOTAL
25
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Project Elements
•
•
•
•
Preparation and Literature Survey
Analysis and Design
Implementation
Evaluation
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The Project
General Information
Timing
• Approx 14-16 hours per week
– Be sure to do enough work - catching up is
hard
– But do not be tempted to do too much
– There are 4 other modules to pass (and you
need time off!)
• Good planning is essential -- and it is
assessed!
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Planning
• Good planning is essential -- and it is
assessed!
• In particular: keep the writing side in pace
with other work
• Note that your supervisor plays a big role
in marking, so it will be hard to get away
with certain things
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What is the Supervisor for?
• Weekly meetings - your responsibility to
arrange
• You can expect:
– Help with organisation and planning
– Help/advice on project topic
– Some technical help, or suggestions on what
to do
– Reading and comments on draft chapters
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What is the Supervisor for?
• Main points of meeting are recorded on a
form, for reference and guidance
• Golden rule: use your supervisor!
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When Things Go Wrong
• It is a big piece of work, and most people
run into:
– Loss of motivation or focus
– Problems of understanding
– Technical difficulties (ie programming)
– Writers' block
– External problems
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When Things Go Wrong
• Golden rule: keep in contact with your
supervisor
• We all suffer from these, at various times
• Do not waste time in a hole, when a quick
chat could solve it
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Work this Term
• Project specification
• Course on productive use of library
resources
• Preliminary reading on topic area,
improving your background knowledge -based on info in the project description
• At least two meetings with your supervisor
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Theme
Theme: Software Visualisation
Visual representations of software can help
in the comprehension process. This
project will develop a tool to visualise an
aspect of software.
Keywords: program analysis; graphics;
java3d, VRML
Type of Project: Software Engineering
Number of Students: 2
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Project Specification
Title
Project Type/Degree
Description
Preliminary Preparation
Minimum Objectives
Intermediate Objectives
Advanced Objectives
References
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Project Specification
Visualisation of Spreadsheets
Project Type/Degree
Software Engineering
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Project Specification
Description
Spreadsheets are a powerful tool that are
developed and used by non-professional
software engineers. They are also very
prone to errors. This project will
investigate the automatic analysis of
spreadsheets in order to be able to view
them in a Virtual World.
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Project Specification
Preliminary Preparation
1. A thorough understanding of Excel,
Java3D and VRML
2. A survey of Virtual Reality techniques
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Project Specification
Minimum Objectives
1. Simple 2D visualisation of the
dependencies within a Excel
spreadsheet
2. Definition of the representation of
spreadsheets in a Virtual World
3. Mapping of Excel spreadsheet into a
Virtual World
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Project Specification
Intermediate Objectives
1. Complete definition of all dependencies
in an Excel Spreadsheet
2. Complete formal mapping of
dependencies to a virtual world
3. Implementation of the Virtual World using
ether Java3D or VRML (or both)
4. Evaluation of the visualisation using a
series of case studies.
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Project Specification
Advanced Objectives
1. Editing functions incorporated into the
Virtual World software that will enable an
Excel spreadsheet to be changed in the
Virtual World and exported back to
Excel.
2. Addressing the issues of embedded VB
in the spreadsheet
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Project Specification
References
• The work by Gregg Rothermal on analysis
of spreadsheels at
http://csce.unl.edu/~grother/
• Books on VRML and Java3D
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Work this Term
• Short report (six pages) on what you have
found out
• DEADLINE: last day of term (20th June)
• You can expect brief feedback on this
document
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Work Over the Summer
• We acknowledge the pressures...
• But always good to keep things ticking
over
• For example carry on background reading,
or learn relevant techniques
• This helps to make better use of the first
term next year
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Work Over the Summer
• Amount depends on your ambitions
• Suggest: one or two days a month?
• Note: do not try to finish the project!
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Plagiarism and Related Issues
• Golden rule: be honest and objective about the
work
• Key point for us: we just want to know what is
your work, and what came from others
• Reuse and sharing of work or ideas is fine, as
long as it is correctly attributed
• Forms of dishonesty in project are taken
seriously
• You will be required to sign a statement with the
final report
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Summary
• Final year projects are important
• Make sure you know why type of project
you are doing
• Meet with your supervisor
• Attend the Project Workshops
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