CS542 Final Projects

<DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> CS542 Final Projects </TITLE>

  
<h1>   CS542 Final Projects </h1>


</UL><BR> <HR>

<h2> Logistics and Due Dates </h2>


The final project presentation 
will be in class on Thursday, 13th of Dec., 2012. <br>
The associated project report (in hardcopy and online via email),
and presentation overheads (in hardcopy and online) are 
due on that same day,   on Wed., 14th  of Dec 2011. 
However, any material turned in by Sunday, the 18th of Dec. 2011
will still be considered for full credit for the final greade.
<br>

</UL><BR> <HR>


<h2> About the  Presentations</h2>

We will have 7  projects  presenting in 
two person and in three person teams.
We  aim to keep the project demonstrations  concise
so that we can leave class (not too too late).
Each  project  will have 
a total time slot of 10 minutes!
This  presentation slot includes everything,
that is, setup time, presentation time, demonstration
time, as well as question period.
<b> Thus, please do plan your time carefully to provide
the class an insight into the most interesting
aspects  of your project.
</b>
<i>
Also, do make sure to  practice this
beforehand to get your timing down,
and to figure out how to bring out the highlights of your
accomplishments. 
</i>
<p>

Focus on the main  accomplishments of your project,
highlighting 
the key characteristics of the working system you have build,
and convincing the audience of the quality and magnitude
of the system you have developed via a
working  demonstration. 

<p>
The life software demonstration
is typically the most important component of your presentation,
especially, if you have developed an application project.
For some projects,  a demonstration may  not be 
that meaningful, 
possibly 
for some performance-oriented
research projects where you should be explaining the system
architecture and then show instead results and performance
charts instead just giving us a demo, or for some research
projects, where the ideas  may be the most critical component
and the methodology yet a demonstration may not give us much
insight.  In these later  cases, please determine what
most would 
 illustrate the quality and quantity of the work that
you have undertaken.

<p>
<b>
In the worst case, if your system is not working (or not
working that evening a la Murphy's Law), be prepared by
a-priori putting together   sample screen dumps or system runs  
as backup to show to the class (on powerpoint).
</b>
<i>
If worst comes to worst and your system fails on that
evening, but generally works, then we would
schedule an alternate time slot with your team and the 
instructor to have a second attempt to give your system demonstration.
Without a fully working system, the highest grade you could
reach for the project is a B, assuming everything else is good.
</i>

</UL><BR> <HR>

<h2> Content of Report (and Presentation) </h2>

The  written report typically is  15 pages long.
Please feel free to reuse any and all of the written material
about your project  that you have been preparing before first
for the project proposal and then for the project progress.
However, please do make sure that any omissions or problems
that had been pointed out in an earlier version, have been
now been fixed. If needed, please do bring your document to the
WPI writing center to receive editing help.


Typically, your  written report
may contain  the following sections:

<ul>
   <li>
COVER PAGE.  You need to have an appropriate title,
authors,  an abstract, and keywords.


   <li>
OVERVIEW.
Clear outline of the project you tackled, and
a description of your project goals.
This includes a precise
characterization of your application requirements, potential user
group targeted, and so on.
   <li>
BACKGROUND  MATERIAL.
Specific background material
that your work is based on; this would include a
description of the DBMS tools you used, 
such as, architecture, features, etc.
A description of other systems/papers
that have done similar work or 
approaches that you have read about before building your
own solution is also useful ! 
Manuals you used and/or tools, and why.
   <li>
YOUR SOLUTION APPROACH:
<ul>
   <li>
GENERAL APPROACH you took to address problem  and its justification
   <li>
DESIGN and its justification : object diagrams for system
design and database design.
   <li>
IMPLEMENTATION and system details;
architecture and tools.
   <li>
ISSUES:   problems you  encountered, special features
or tools you used to achieve certain advanced  capabilities.

   <li>
VALIDATION OF YOUR APPROACH:
is it fully running?
which part of it is not working ?
what  experiments and /or  sample
data sets have you run? how do you know your system works,
i.e. what evaluations have you run?
</ul>
   <li>
LESSONS LEARNED. Describe your 
experience what you have learned (skills practiced or
new tools and techniques you worked with)?
Describe whether you would do this work again the same way,
or  if not, what you would recommend doing differently.

   <li>
MEMBER CONTRIBUTION:
I expect your report to include
a  list the tasks and amount of respective effort that each
member of the team contributed re this task.  This is  important
to have precisely and clearly stated. <li>

CONCLUSIONS: Describe your contributions, and
whether you have  achieved what you set out to do.
Also, list what you have NOT managed to accomplish and why.
   <li>
FUTURE WORK: Give potential tasks for future research  work  or
to make your tool into a really usable and practical system.
   <li>
APPENDIX.  There are no length restrictions
on this appendix. Add any detailed sample data sets, diagrams,
detailed background material, etc.  that illustrates what
you have accomplished.
</ul>


</UL><BR> <HR>

<P>
<H2>Final Project Grading</H2>

<P>


Assuming a maximum of 100 pts, 
the following guideline will be to grade
the projects:

<UL>
<LI>
oral project presentation    and demonstration,
including the quality of your overhead slides used
and overall flow and content of your  presentation  
(clear, well-organized and informative?)


<LI>
demonstration of your system, in particular does
your demonstration include
successful
example runs, set of functions shown
and  other means of illustrating that the
system is indeed working and successfully tested.

<LI>
scope of project and features accomplished              
(percentge to what degree is system functioning,
difficulty amd ambition of chosen project scope,
and has a rich array of features implemented)

<LI>
written project report.
Is the report  well organized,  easy to understand,
complete, informative, well written, has citations?
</UL>

<BR> <HR>


</body>
</html>