Practice Makes Perfect: Success in Undergraduate Projects

1
Practice Makes PerfectSuccess in Undergraduate
Projects
Seminar in HIT, Harbin, 12.01.2005

• Dr Bing Wu BSc MSc PhD
• Head, Department of Computer Science
• School of Computing
• Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland

2
Outline of Todays Seminar

• 1. Discussions on Undergraduate Projects
• 2. Information Technology Needs Hands-on
• building-up abilities by doing minor projects
• 3. Getting Ready for Employment/Industries
• the first ever major project -- final year
  project
• 4. Summary and Discussions

3
Outline of Todays Seminar

• 1. Discussions on Undergraduate Projects
• 1.1 Objectives of Undergraduate Projects
• 1.2 Minor and Major Projects
• 1.3 Life Cycle of a Project -- software
  engineering disciplines
• 1.4 An Approach for a Undergraduate Project
• 1.5 Students RoleS in Conducting a Project
• 1.6 Qualities of Good Projects -- student,
  supervising system (static, dynamic), supervisor,
  etc.

4
Outline of Todays Seminar

• 2. Information Technology Needs Hands-on
• building-up abilities by doing minor projects
• 2.1 Design a Set of Assignments for a Subject
• 2.2 Case Studies of Minor Projects UNIX System
  Programming
• 2.3 A Polo System as a UNIX assignment

5
Outline of Todays Seminar

• 3. Getting Ready for Employment/Industries
• the first ever major project -- final year
  project
• 3.1 Objectives of the Final Year Projects
• 3.2 Stages of Final Year Projects
• 3.3 Playing Proper RoleS
• 3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students
• 3.5 Meeting Project Deadlines
• 3.6 Writing Up Project Documentation
• 3.7 Aiming at the Real World
• 3.8 Case Studies

6
Outline of Todays Seminar

• 4. Summary and Discussions
• 4.1 Summary
• 4.2 Discussions

7
1. Discussions on Undergraduate Projects

• 1.1 Objectives of Undergraduate Projects
• 1.2 Minor and Major Projects
• 1.3 Life Cycle of a Project -- software
  engineering disciplines
• 1.4 An Approach for a Undergraduate Project
• 1.5 Students RoleS in Conducting a Project
• 1.6 Qualities of Good Projects

8
1.1 Objectives of Undergraduate Projects

• To allow each undergraduate to conduct an
  (substantial) piece of technologic, academic,
  scientific or engineering work as an individual
  initiative, and to write it up and present it in
  a scholarly/professional fashion. This will
  further the students' analytical skills and their
  abilities in oral and written communication.

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1.1 Objectives of Undergraduate Projects

• To train and enhance the creativity and to test
  the students ability to apply the knowledge
  learned from the relevant subject(s) and/or the
  course as a whole

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1.2 Minor and Major Projects

• Minor Project
• may be known also as assignment of a subject
• may be conducted as a group project
• normally run for one or few weeks
• the tasks are normally specified clearly by
  lecturer(s)
• the main aim of such an assignment is to let
  students learn and practice some specific
  techniques and/or methodologies and so on.

11
1.2 Minor and Major Projects

• Major Project
• final year project
• normally runs for one academic year
• normally is conducted by an individual student

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1.3 Life Cycle of a Project -- software
engineering disciplines

• Water Fall Model ( software engineering, Ian
  Sommerville, 5th Ed, page 9)

Requirements Analysis
System and Software Design
Implementation and unit testing
Integration and System testing
Operation and maintenance
13
1.4 An Approach for a Undergraduate Project

• Identify a project topic and main objectives of
  the project (mainly by students themselves if
  major)
• Submit a proposal articulating clearly the aims
  and objectives of the project
• Research and/or analyse the project area to gain
  an understanding of the work involved
• Design, implement and test a solution if
  appropriate
• Write a manual/report which clearly documents the
  project and how each of the above stages were
  carried out
• Present the project

14
1.5 Students RoleS in Conducting a Project

• 1. Technic Aspects
• requirements analyst,
• architects designer,
• system developer (programmer),
• system tester, etc.
• 2. Management and Administration Aspect
• a project manager
• 3. Learning and Teaching Aspect
• a student -- regularly meeting your supervisor
  is vital!

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1.6 Qualities of Good Projects

• 1. Qualities of Supervising System
• Static -- project guidelines, second supervisor,
  etc.
• Dynamic -- things can go wrong!
• 2. Qualities of Supervisors
• Caring, Responsive, etc.
• 3. Qualities of students
• open minded
• determined
• organised
• imaginative
• curious

• critical
• careful
• good communicator
• creative
• positive

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2. Information Technology Needs Hands-on
building-up abilities by doing minor projects

• 2.1 Design a Set of Assignments for a Subject
• 2.2 Case Studies of Minor Projects UNIX System
• Programming
• 2.3 A Polo System as a UNIX assignment

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2.1 Design a Set of Assignments for a Subject

• Software are produced through programming, not
  just thinking!
• Hands-on skills can only be gained by practising
• It is up to the lecturer to design a set of
  assignments for a subject
• However, it would always be good if students want
  to practise more

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2.2 Case Studies of Minor Projects UNIX System
Programming

• Lab-1 (4 hours) getting familiar with the
  Unix/Linux environment (.bashrc, .bash_profile
  and .bash_logout, etc.)
• Lab-2 (4 hours) Unix Quoting mechanism. Y2K
  problem
• Lab-3 (4 hours) developing Unix utilities on its
  own (cat, cp and ls)
• Lab-4 (6 hour) developing a mini Shell for Unix

19
2.3 A Polo System as a UNIX assignments

• The Personal Links Book
• The main aim of the Personal Links Book (polo)
  program is to maintain a DATABASE/File (mybook),
  which holds records of your personal links.
• The Features
• The main features of the polo program is to add,
  search, display, change and remove your personal
  links against your database file mybook.
• The Usage
• polo can be executed without any arguments, which
  then asks inputs interactively
• polo can also be executed with string of words,
  which are used for search for records

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2.3 A Polo System as a UNIX assignments

• The Record Output Protocol/Format
• __________________________
• Name string
• Address1 string
• Address2 string
• Address3 string
• Telephone string
• Fax string
• Email string
• WebSite string
• o o
• ________________________

_____________________________________ Name
Dr Bing Wu
Add Computer Science Department
D. I. T
Kevin Street,
Dublin 8 Tel 01 402
4819 Fax
01 402 4985
Email bing.wu_at_dit.ie
Web http//www.comp.dit.ie/bw
u

o o
____________________________________
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3. Getting Ready for Employment/Industries
the first ever major project -- final year
project

• 3.1 Objectives of the Final Year Projects
• 3.2 Stages of Final Year Projects
• 3.3 Playing Proper RoleS
• 3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students
• 3.5 Meeting Project Deadlines
• 3.6 Writing Up Project Documentation progress
  reports, final manual
• 3.7 Aiming at the Real World list of projects
• 3.8 Case Studies Failed, successful and
  award-winning Projects

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3.1 Objectives of the Final Year Projects

• A final year project will be a major piece of
  individual work, bringing together several
  strands of students study.
• Students should consider it as a preparation for
  work in industry, or (in some cases) preparation
  for a higher degree.
• The main aim is to draw together knowledge,
  skills and techniques learnt in the previous 3
  years plus new material from the final year.

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3.2 Stages of Final Year Projects

• 1. Investigating ideas
• 2. Selecting and Proposing a direction topics
• 3. Analysing requirements
• 4. Determining specifications
• 5. Designing architecture and components
• 6. Carrying out implementation
• 7. Reviewing and Adjusting the progress
• 8. Testing and Maintaining the system
• 9. Demonstrating the system
• 10. Writing the project manual and
• 11. Presenting the final results

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3.3 Playing Proper RoleS

• 1. Technic Aspects
• requirements analyst,
• architects designer,
• system developer,
• system tester, etc.
• 2. Management and Administration Aspect
• a project manager
• 3. Learning and Teaching Aspect
• a student -- regularly meeting your supervisor
  is vital!

25
3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students

• Responsibilities of the Supervisor
• to give guidance about the nature of the project
  and the standard expected, about the planning of
  the project, about literature and sources, about
  techniques and methods and about any problems of
  plagiarism
• to maintain contact via regular tutorial
  meetings
• to be accessible within reason at other times for
  giving advice to the student
• to give detailed advice on milestones

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3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students

• Responsibilities of the Supervisor
• to request written work as appropriate, and
  return such work with constructive criticism
  within a reasonable time
• to ensure that a student is made aware of any
  inadequacy of progress, or of standards of work
  below those expected
• to encourage the student to produce early draft
  chapters, to comment on them critically and
  return the comments promptly. If the student does
  not do so, this is the student's responsibility.

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3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students

• Responsibilities of the Student
• to agree on a schedule of meetings with the
  supervisor, and to attend such meetings
• to take the initiative in raising problems,
  however elementary they may seem
• to maintain the progress of the work in
  accordance with the milestones and objectives
  agreed with the supervisor
• to contribute to planning the project, and
  monitoring progress against the plan

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3.4 Responsibilities of Supervisors and Students

• Responsibilities of the Student
• to keep a project log for recording results,
  ideas, references etc. acquired as the project
  progresses
• to determine the contents of the report and of
  oral presentations
• to present draft chapters to the supervisor
  before the Easter vacation. There is no
  obligation on supervisors to read drafts during
  the vacation.
• In summary, the management of the project, and
  the course that it takes, are ultimately the
  responsibility of the student.

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3.5 Meeting Project Deadlines

• Project schedule must be planned at the beginning
  of the project
• Milestones must be clearly identified
• Deliverables of each stage must be specified
• Deadlines must be met!
• However, project schedule is subject to adjustment

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3.6 Writing Up Project Documentation

• Project proposal
• Research reports
• Design report(s)
• Coding Commenting
• Final project manual

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3.6 Writing Up Project Documentation

• Report Format -- A typical report will require
  the following
• 1. a title page, containing the title,
  author's name and date
• 2. the second page must contain an abstract of
  150-300 words, summarising the project
  objectives, approach and achievement
• 3. subsequent pages should show a list of
  contents (chapter headings plus major section
  headings with page numbers also titles of
  Appendices and a list of figures, each of which
  must be numbered)
• 4.the body of the report. Each chapter should
  start on a new page.

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3.6 Writing Up Project Documentation

• Final Project Format The following is an
  attempt to illustrate the "typical" structure
• 1.Chapter 1 Introduction
• 2.Chapter 2 My Theory, Solution, Program,
  Problem, etc.
• 3.Chapter 3 Description of Design, Formalism etc.
• 4.Chapter 4 Implementation
• 5.Chapter 5 Results and Evaluation
• 6.Chapter 6 Conclusions
• 7.References
• 8.Appendices

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4. Summary and Discussions

• 4.1 Summary
• 4.2 Discussions

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4.1 Summary

• 1. Discussions on Undergraduate Projects
• 2. Information Technology Needs Hands-on
• building-up abilities by doing minor projects
• 3. Getting Ready for Employment/Industries
• the first ever major project -- final year
  project
• 4. Some Case Studies

35
4.2 Discussions

• The project is the one area where the student
  must work completely independently
• Student has considerable flexibility in the
  choice of project topic
• Student gets the opportunity to demonstrate
  knowledge gained across the whole course
• A successful project calls for considerable
  creativity and independent thought
• The project has value beyond the marks awarded
  employers view it as an important measure of
  ability
• The project process is vital in creating and
  maintaining links with industry

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Practice Makes Perfect
Success in Undergraduate Projects
Any Questions?
Seminar in HIT, Harbin 12.01.2005
37
Practice Makes Perfect
Success in Undergraduate Projects

• Thanks for
• Your Attention

? ?
Go Raibh Maith Agat
Dr Bing Wu BSc MSc PhD Head, Department of
Computer Science School of Computing Dublin
Institute of Technology, Ireland