BSc Final Year Projects (CIS320)
Your Report
Your project report will contain about 10,000 words not including the contents pages or appendices
and will contain at least the following sections:
- Title
- Contents
(Every section, subsection, sub-sub section with the relevant page number)
- Abstract (Half a page or less mainly to help a librarian decide how to categorise your project)
- Introduction
(Chatty stuff about why you chose the project,
why it's interesting, what you will learn etc. This chapter will end
with brief a "road map" of the rest of the report.)
A road map very briefly summarises each chapter of the report e.g.:
"Chapter 1 on page 17 introduces us to the ....Chapter 2 on page 33 discusses..."
etc.
- Background or Literature Survey
Here you will show that you understand the problem and
discuss how other people have attempted to solve the problem you are tackling.
A good report will critically evaluate other people's work in the area you have chosen.
- Specification of what you set out to do.
- Design and Implementation of what you set out to do.
- Conclusions and Future Work
- How successful or unsuccessful was your work?
- How much of what you originally set out to achieve did you achieve?
- How did it compare to what others have done?
- How could it be extended if you had had more time?
- Bibliography (All the books, papers,
websites that you looked at in order to complete your project.)
- Appendices containing:
- Program Code
- Your Weekly Diary Reports
- Your Original Project Description Report.
Do not include any code that has not been written by you explicitly.
Warning:
Do not include code that has been automatically generated.
Any parts of your project that you cannot explain to
the examiners' satisfaction will not be counted.
First Proper Meeting with Supervisor (by 10 October 2006)
At this meeting, you should discuss the
Project Description Report
together
with your supervisor.
This report is very important.
In it you set out
the aims and objectives of your project. You should think of it as a contract
between you and your supervisor, having agreed the tasks you need
to compete for your project.
Three copies of this need to be made. One for your supervisor and one for the project co-ordinator
and the other for yourself. The project description form will be
considered by the project panel to ensure that your proposed work is
of sufficient standard. You may be asked to rewrite the form as a result.
It is on this that you will be marked in relation to
the completion of work criterion in the project marking form.
Also you should set up regular weekly meetings with your supervisor.
Ask your supervisor for a regular slot.
Read section 10 of the Project Guide to understand the relationship between you and your supervisor.
Weekly Diary Reports
Before each meeting with your supervisor you must prepare
about a page stating what you discussed with your supervisor
and what work you did on your project since your last meeting.
It is expected that during the year you produce at least 20 such reports.
These reports are to be collected by your supervisor
and collated. This collection of Diary Reports will be assesed as part
of your project.
Handing In Your Project Deliverables (by 1pm Friday 4 May 2007)
Please hand in your project deliverables (two copies) to the Project Co-ordinator's
office ( room 5, 29 St James'). He will be available between 9am and 1pm on this day to collect
your project deliverables.
Late projects will be penalised. Late projects can be handed in at 2pm on Tuesday
8th May to the Project Co-ordinator's
office ( room 5, 29 St James').
- Your Project report
- A disc containing any relevant files. e.g. software,
Your report should be bound in a spiral ring binder.
Your name, student ID and project title should be written on the front cover.
Other methods of binding will be penalised.
The Appendix must include:
- Program Code
- Your Weekly Diary Reports
- Your Original Project Description Report.
Please keep a copy of the report for yourself.
The Project Exam (Week beginning 28th May 2007)
After you have handed in your project, your supervisor will complete
a Project Marking Form
and return it
to the project co-ordinator.
In the week beginning 28th May 2007, you will be further examined by a
panel. The panel may:
- Question you on the subject matter in the general area of your project.
- Question you on details of your project.
- Expect a demonstration of any software that you have produced.
This is an examination of your project as a whole.
Please note: It is not
allowed for a student's supervisor to be part of the panel that examines him/her.
This will occasionally require members to be temporarily interchanged between
Panel A and Panel B.
For a detailed explanation of each category, see the Project
Guide(Section 12).
A final mark for your project will be awarded by the panel.
You do NOT need to prepare a presentation for your project.
- You must bring a copy of your project report to the exam.
- The Panel expects a demonstration of any software that you have produced.
It is up to you to ensure that your software can be demonstrated in the
Hatcham House labs. If you do not demonstrate any software, the panel will
assume you have not produced any.
We strongly recommend that your software should be downloadable
and installable via a web browser.
Alternatively, you may
bring your own laptop in order to demonstrate your software.
It is your responsibility. If you do not demonstrate the software that
you produced your mark could be substantially reduced!
Explanation of the Marking Form
Please read the Project Marking Form
carefully. In order to assess your project, the panel have to
tick each box on the form.
The categories are:
- BASIC CRITERIA
- A Explanation of the project
This is based on how well you answer
general questions asked at the viva.
- B Completion of the project
Here the work is compared to that set out in the
Project Description Report
completed by the student and supervisor in October.
- C Quality of the Software
Here, the functionality of the software will be assessed.
The user-interface are only of minor importance unless your project
is specifically about HCI.
- D Quality of the dissertation
See the section enititled Your Report on this web page.
- Attendance
This will be assessed by perusal of the
Weekly Diary Reports.
- ADDITIONAL CRITERIA
- Knowledge of the area and background
The panel will assess your familiarity and ability to explain
work that is similar to yours that you have come across during
your research.
- Critical evaluation of own work
The panel will assess how well you can explain the relationship
between your project and other similar work.
- Justification of the design decisions
Here you need to justify to the panel how you designed your software
and why you designed it the way you did.
- EXCEPTIONAL CRITERIA
- Evidence of Ingenuity
Is your software or research exceptionally clever?
- Critical evaluation of previous work
Here not only do you need to be familiar with similar work,
but you need to be able to criticise it and state the ways
in which your work is superior.
- Contains publishable material?
Is your work sufficiently original that it could be published
as an academic paper to be presented at a conference or in a journal?
s.danicic@gold.ac.uk
Sebastian Danicic BSc MSc PhD (Reader in Computer Science)
Dept of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London, London SE14 6NW
Last updated 2011-01-29