K268 Projects

1
Notes on Project , Presentation, and Delivery
2
Sources of Advice

• Guidelines for Professional Project at
• http//www.comp.dit.ie/pbrowne/DT249-projects2007-
  8/DT249-projects-2007-8.htm
• Technical Writing Tips of the Masters -
• http//www.comp.dit.ie/rfitzpatrick/courses2.htmR
  onan Fitzpatrick Courses
• Conquering Your Undergraduate Thesis by Nataly
  Kogan, Publisher Natavi Guides ISBN 0971939209
• http//www.studentshelpingstudents.com/thesis_thes
  is.html

3
Sources of Advice

• Common Errors in English Usage (Paperback) by
  Paul Brians. It focuses on American English but
  should still be useful. See online version at
• http//www.wsu.edu/brians/errors/errors.htmlerro
  rs
• Paul Brians home page at
• http//www.wsu.edu8080/brians/

4
Library

• There will be a guided tour of the library in the
  first few weeks of term.

5
Project topics

• Choose a topic you like.
• Choose a topic that suits your knowledge and
  skill set.
• Talk to lecturers.
• Look at the project web page

6
Getting Started

• Get started straight away
• hound your supervisor for advice and reading
  material
• get the necessary running as soon as possible
• Make progress in 1st half of the 1st
  semester!!!!!
• assignments in other modules, and exams, make it
  difficult to be very productive in 2nd half of
  semesters 1 2.
• have all software ready early for to be able to
  go flat out testing and writing
• plan for an April or September delivery.

7
Ordinary Degree or Honours?

• To graduate with an honours or an ordinary degree
  you are required to pass the project module for
  each.
• Ordinary degree topics should be more technical
  in nature. They should involve the analysis,
  design and implementation of a working system.
• An element of reflection is expected on the
  degree.

8
Structure

• Spend some time structuring your work by dividing
  it into sections and subsections with a brief
  narrative describing what will be found in them.

9
Study Time

• The thesis project is probably the most
  challenging part of your course.
• You should invest at least as much time as you
  would for any other module (at least 100 hours).
  
• It can be HELL, or it can be FUN
• HELL, if you are not organised
• FUN, if you get stuck in

10
Delivery Dates

• You can deliver the project report and make your
  presentation in April or September.

11
Criteria

• Often it is difficult to provide yes/no answers
  to research topics. So a set of criteria has to
  be applied to a given situation.
• When you have to evaluate a particular technology
  or method, you should draw up a list of criteria.
  
• A table is often quite useful for presenting
  these criteria or comparing two or more
  technologies /methods.

12
Flow

• Try to make your writing flow from its initial
  paragraph to the final paragraph. For example,
  you might want to describe how a particular
  technology would be used in a particular
  application. The flow here might be from a brief
  description of the technology, to its advantages
  and disadvantages, to a description of an
  application which can use the technology because
  of the advantages that the technology has over
  other technologies.

13
Paragraphs

• A paragraph should contain a single idea. A
  paragraph might describe
•  a broad statement of the scope of the project
• one criterion used to evaluate a technology
• a brief description of the criteria that are to
  be used to judge a technology with following
  paragraphs containing more detailed material on
  each criterion

14
Paragraphs

• A paragraph might describe
• an exception to a statement made in a previous
  paragraph
• one of a number of conclusions that the report
  comes to
• a description as to why a particular technology
  should be used in an application.

15
Substantiated statements

• You should avoid unsubstantiated statements.
• A substantiated statement can be made based on
• 1) an authoritative reference (by an acknowledged
  expert in the area)
• 2) an informed reasoned argument
• 3) a critical interpretation of a less reliable
  source (e.g. a web page or a newspaper article)
• 4) a self evident truth e.g. no system is
  perfect.

16
Conclusions

• You should state some conclusions and/or
  summaries at the end of chapters and at the end
  of your report. You might be attempting to
  predict the impact of a technology or how a
  technology would be employed in certain types of
  application. A conclusion should be a short,
  succinct statement of your views. It should, of
  course, be backed up with detail in the body of
  the chapter or report.

17
Summary

• You should distinguish between a summary and a
  conclusion.
• It is always a good idea to summarise the
  contents of your project in the first two or
  three paragraphs. State the scope of your project
  and the main conclusions that you came too. The
  material that is used in the summary should be
  built around a concise list of essential points,
  statements, or facts. Chapter summaries are
  useful.

18
Writing too much

• Dont pad out your work with information that is
  not pertinent to your topic, even if the material
  that you are using as padding is interesting.
  This does not stop you from using asides that are
  indirectly relevant however, they are best
  placed in the footnotes.

19
Keep to the point

• Always keep to the point. Read each paragraph
  before you submit the project, and ask yourself
  how it contributes to the overall aim of the
  project. This is were a high level framework is
  important.

20
Negative Findings

• An undergraduate thesis is a body of academic
  work. You may find a major problem with your
  basic premise and indeed you may find late in the
  day that there are some serious limitations in
  your ideas. This does not mean disaster! Your
  project can still be of value if you can
  articulate those limitations.

21
Cut and Paste

• Do not cut and paste large screeds of text from
  Web sites. Small fragments of text are fine if
  they support some argument that you are making
  (and they are acknowledged).
• You can reference a URL as follows The Microsoft
  XML2 site differentiates between three types of
  parser. Where 2 is an index to your reference
  section.
• See Chapter 10 of general regulations at
• http//romulus.dit.ie/DIT/registrar/regs/gen_asses
  s_reg/index.html

22
References

• Record your references early. When you find an
  interesting article/chapter you should write a
  few sentences about it and create a reference
  immediately.
• References are useful for students who come after
  you and may want to pursue your particular topic,
  perhaps taking a different approach.

23
References

• Your reference section should store the full
  details of your references. These details could
  include
• authors,
• year,
• conference,
• journal,
• URL of web-site and date visited,
• type of reference e.g. peer reviewed paper,
  professional journal, report, un-reviewed paper.

24
References

• At present, we do not mandate any particular
  style of referencing. You could use author year
  (e.g. Jones98, Jones98a, IBM06). If it you
  are referencing a web site then in your reference
  section you should include the date you visited
  the site, the title and author of the document
  (or page) that you are citing.

25
Sign posting

• You need good 'sign posting.
• You should tell the reader what you are going to
  say and why you are going to say it. Example
• In order to develop accessible Web content, the
  Web Software Quality Framework will be derived in
  section 2.3 using software usability factors as
  researched by Fitzpatrick and Higgins 1 and
  quality factors for the World Wide Web as
  researched by Fitzpatrick2.

26
Code

• Code extracts in the body of the report should be
  used to illustrate or support some concept that
  your are describing. The full code should be
  included in an appendix.

27
Fonts

• Use a different font (such as Courier New) when
  referring to software or modelled entities. This
  helps to distinguish between a real-world concept
  such an employee and the software realization of
  the concept which could be called Employee.

28
Study groups

• Joining/forming study groups. Collaboration and
  study groups are encouraged. While the exchange
  of ideas is part of the learning experience, your
  project must be as a result of your own efforts.

29
Complexity V Simplicity

• When writing on advanced topics there are often
  too many 'real world' issues to tackle at once.
  Simplification may be required.
• You should maximize your study effort by
  focusing on the core points (stated at the start
  of each paragraph).

30
Complexity V Simplicity

• Try to apply a simplification to potentially
  complex topics.
• The advice on simplification must be balanced
  against the need to address the relevant issues
  in your report.

31
Terminology

• You must use technical terminology and TLAs
  sensibly.
• Try to use the standard terminology of your
  research area.
• A glossary will be required to assist the
  reader.
• These terms express the core concepts in a
  precise and concise manner.

32
Terminology

• Although the terminology can require a bit of
  work to develop and master it is well worth the
  effort.
• Using the standard terminology actually makes
  the report easier to write.

33
Illustrate and explain your work.

• Diagrams, tables, and a glossary can all help
  make you finished work more concise, precise and
  understandable.

34
A good project report

• A good report has something to say!
• Comprehensive and accurate coverage of the
  subject. (coverageno gaps or overlaps).
• Independent critical evaluation of your own work
  and your methods.
• Clear arguments, well expressed.
• Integration of diverse material.
• Clear focus on subject.
• Knowledge of the wider context of the work.

35
A good project report

• Depth of insight into selected aspects.
• Well organised chapters and sections.
• Clearly defined project boundaries.
• Diversity presented as a coherent whole.
• Critical and reflective evaluation of work.
• Good supporting literature and evidence of broad
  reading using different sources.

36
A good project report

• A final year report requires an intelligent
  reporting and interpretation of referenced
  material. This interpretation should relate the
  goals or aims of the report.

37
Think about

• Ambitious projects?
• Scope?
• Boundaries?
• Using (or re-using) information.
• Type of project
• Software implementation.
• Pure research (must have focus/makes a point).
• A mixture of research and implementation.

38
General Advice

• Think marks.
• Think reader.
• Keep as simple as possible.
• Stick to the plan.
• Listen to your supervisor.

39
Sample reports.

• There are some sample projects on my web site. If
  you want a few example projects please send me an
  email preferably through your DIT mail.

40
The Presentation

• The presentation will allow you to present and
  demonstrate your work. You should
• explain the objectives of your project
• describe how you went about achieving those
  objectives.
• emphasize your main achievements
• present your conclusions
• summarise and reflect on your work
• The presentation should be about 15-20 minutes
  with 5-10 minutes for questions.

41
The Presentation

• You can use PowerPoint or conventional slides.
  Try to keep to 15-20 slides.
• If there is a software component you should
  include appropriate screen dumps in your
  presentation (just in case there are issues in
  running or setting up the actual S/W).

42
The Presentation

• If you wish you can set up your S/W before the
  presentation. Please let me know if you require
  set up time.
• If your S/W is too difficult to set up then
  include screen dumps of the running system in
  your presentation.
• To avoid difficulties in setting up your software
  in the labs, we would encourage your to use your
  own laptop computer.
• Please let me know if you require further
  clarification.

43
The Presentation

• The project presentations will take place over a
  one week period during the day and early evening.
  The details of presentation schedule (such as
  location, time table) will be emailed to you
  beforehand.

44
The Delivery of the Project

• The electronic version (PDF or WORD) of your
  project should be emailed to me on an given date
  and time (check your DIT email and the project
  web page for details).
• Three copies of the paper version should be
  delivered at the actual project presentation. The
  paper copies should use a 'perfect bind' with a
  clear plastic front cover and a blue back cover,
  it is relatively inexpensive. There is no need
  for expensive binding.

45
The Delivery of the Project

• Details of the expected format of the project
  document can be found on the project page.
• Guidelines for Honours Degree Project
• Guidelines for the Ordinary Degree Project
• The Honours Degree project should be about 15,000
  words (or 70 pages).
• The Ordinary Degree project should be about
  10,000 words (or 50 pages).