BSc Final Year Projects (CIS320)

Useful Files

Project Description Report

Project Marking Form

Supervisor/Student List 2006-7

LaTeX Report Templates etc.

Project Timetable

TASK	DEADLINE
First Proper Meeting with Supervisor	October 7 2006
Hand in your Project	4 May 2007
Project Examination by Panel	29 May - 1 June 2007
Project Panel Details

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:

1. Title
2. Contents
   (Every section, subsection, sub-sub section with the relevant page number)
3. Abstract (Half a page or less mainly to help a librarian decide how to categorise your project)
4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Specification of what you set out to do.

7. Design and Implementation of what you set out to do.

8. 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?
9. Bibliography (All the books, papers, websites that you looked at in order to complete your project.)

10. Appendices containing:
    1. Program Code
    2. Your Weekly Diary Reports
    3. 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:

1. Program Code
2. Your Weekly Diary Reports
3. 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.

Preparation for the Project Exam

• 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
  1. Evidence of Ingenuity
     Is your software or research exceptionally clever?
  2. 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.
  3. 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?