Ok folks, here's the deal. You've probably asked your friends what the senior project is all about
(and how much work you have to do.) If your friends told you that it's basically an independent study, then
that's pretty accurate. But that's not the whole picture.
You're not working in a vacuum, and you are still being graded on
a regular (i.e. weekly) basis. So here are the ground rules:
You need to have a weekly
meeting with me to discuss your progress. This includes the
first week of the trimester in both Fall and Winter.
We probably won't have a regular meeting time set up yet during the
first week, but it's still your responsibility to find some free time to meet with me. Since
each week's progress counts for 3% of your total grade (see Grading below), you don't want to
miss meetings. Meetings for CSc 498 will probably last between 30-60 mins. Meetings for
CSc 499 will last between 15-30 mins.
Except for the first week, you need to turn
in a weekly report to me at each meeting detailing your progress. This
report should include:
your goals from the previous week that you wanted to meet
what you actually got done
justifications for why you did what you did, including any changes made to the
design of your project
On a Saturday morning sometime around late February or early March, as your project nears completion,
there will be a final presentation session where all of the
CS seniors, faculty, industry heads, parents, and other guests gather together to see your final results.
In the morning, each student gives a formal 15-minute presentation including a question-and-answer (Q&A)
session. After (the provided) lunch, there is a poster session where each student stands by his/her
poster that shows your detailed findings. The guests then get a chance to walk around and converse with
you about your work. You'll be getting a lot of practice leading up to this day because...
Each week, we will be getting together as a group in Olin 110 for presentations. Two people will present
each week. That means each of you will be presenting every other week (but you must be there, even if
you're just an audience member that week.) The purpose is to improve your oral presentation and Q&A
skills. And nothing helps you to understand your own topic more fully than having to explain it to others.
At the beginning, your presentation will really be more proposal-like: background info, what you're planning
on doing, methodology, etc. As time goes on, you'll have more slides showing results, discussion,
and conclusions. Each presentation lasts 15 mins (including Q&A time.)
Eventually, when it's time for the real presentation session in late Winter, you'll be
so prepared that it'll be a piece of cake. These presentations will
start around the 2nd or 3rd week of Fall term.
There are three papers you need to do for me over the
course of the senior project. They are:
a rewrite of your proposal paper from CSc 497 (or a new proposal
paper if you didn't take 497.) This will be done in the first
few weeks of the Fall term.
a "final design report" detailing the complete design of
your project. This is due at the end of Fall term.
Details about this paper can be found in these
design report guidelines.
your final report showing the results of your experiments,
screenshots of your completed implementation, conclusions of
your research, etc. This is due at the end of Winter term.
Details are available in this Word document.
You'll get more details about each of these papers as we progress
through the academic year.
Though not required, I hope that you'll also consider participating in the
Steinmetz Symposium in late Spring.
Since participating means just giving your presentation and/or showing your poster again,
it is not a lot of work. If you are considering getting honors in Computer Science,
then participation in Steinmetz Symposium is required.