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.

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.