Project Guidelines by Prof. Craig E. Wills

This document is intended to provide guidelines and expectations for IQP and MQP projects advised by me. The guidelines given herein reflect my advising standards and expectations. These guidelines are derived from my own experience, a resolution on project grading endorsed by the WPI faculty and from guidelines used by Professors Michael Gennert, Roy Rubinstein, John Griffin and Rick Vaz.

The following guidelines are expected to be adhered to by all members of the project team. If you have any questions, be sure and ask me.

• Students should contact the project advisor promptly at the beginning of each term to set up a weekly meeting for the project. Meetings are expected to last up to one hour each week.

• Each member of the group should spend 10-25 hours per week on project work. The average amount of work over the course of the project is expected to be 15-20 hours per week.

• Each meeting students are expected to report on activities since the last project meeting including obstacles encountered and work to be done. To aid in this report students should prepare a progress report concerning project efforts. This report should be submitted at or emailed prior to the weekly meeting. These reports should be maintained online as they are likely to be useful in writing the final project report.

• If a student cannot make a meeting he or she is expected to notify the project advisor prior to the meeting.

• Students should establish regular meeting times outside of the weekly project meeting time.

• The initial assignment for the project group is to decide on and define the project. This effort leads to the creation of the project proposal, which should define the problem and goals, provide motivation for the project, describe related work and outline the approach to be taken for solving the problem. The proposal should also include a schedule covering the entire project, including milestones and deadlines. It should also propose how the responsibilities for the project will be divided among team members.

  As part of this work each member of the group is expected to acquire a copy of ``How to Write a Project Proposal'' from the project center and read it thoroughly. This document will help you in writing your proposal. It also provides information that is essential if you are seeking funding for your project.

  Students are expected to research background material for the project by reviewing books, journals and magazines in the library as well as using online sources available on the network.

  The time taken to write a proposal will vary between groups. Some groups may have a project proposal done within two or three weeks while other groups will need more preparation work and require up to a term. It is expected that the project proposal will be finished by the end of the first term at the latest.

• Project students are expected to attend relevant seminars and colloquia on campus and nearby.

• A well-written final report is required! Correct spelling and grammar are mandatory. Contact the Writing Center if writing assistance is needed.

• Thoroughly document all software. The work will have more value if others can use and modify it. Write a users manual and include it as an appendix to your final report.

• A well-organized final presentation is expected for MQPs. This is likely to be done at the Computer Science MQP Presentation Day each Spring, but may occur at some other time and place. Presentations for IQPs may also be done.

• All project students share responsibility for the project's success. Each team member should understand the entire project and should help with all weekly progress reports, the proposal and final report.

• Honesty and integrity are essential in all work. All work submitted must be original and all sources quoted. Minimize direct quotations, but when needed be sure to indicate which material is a quotation and provide a reference with page numbers.

• You must prepare final copies of the report for all advisor(s), off-campus sponsors and the registrar. Bring these copies along with completed CDR forms to the advisor when the report is done.

Project Grading

All team members will usually receive the same grade. If a team member is not pulling his or her weight, it reflects badly on everyone. If this situation cannot be worked out among yourselves, be sure to discuss it with me.

Upon completion of the project, students will receive an overall project grade. It is important to note that this grade reflects not only the final products of the project (results, report, etc), but also the process by which they were attained. No amount of last-minute effort will turn a mediocre project effort into an A.

Final grades will be assigned as follows:
A: denotes consistently excellent effort that attains the project goals.
B: denotes consistently good effort that attains the project goals.
C: denotes acceptable effort that partially attains the project goals.

Each term a student is registered for a project, a grade will be given to the student reflecting a judgement of accomplishments for that term. The same guidelines given above will be used to assign a grade for progress during the term. Term grades are independent of each other and an indication, but not an absolute determinant of the final grade. In addition, the grade SP may be given for a term grade when acceptable effort has been done to earn credit, but the quality of the work cannot be judged. The grade NAC will be given for unacceptable effort and the grade NR for situations where credit cannot be given, but a grade should not be placed on the student's transcript.

A word of caution: Do not get overly concerned about the ``grade'' you receive for the project as much as doing the project work to the best of your ability. Rather than concentrate on the grade, think about the impression your work on the project will leave with me and others as you will be seeking recommendations for future employment and school. It is not only important what you do, but how you do it.