Oxford Brookes University

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Oxford Brookes University

• U08096 Project
• Note 1

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Supervisor

• Vincent Ching
• Email
• vincent_at_6838.info
• vincent_at_hkucs.org

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Note 1

• Project Briefing Topics Selection Proposal

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Class Schedule

• 1. Project Briefing Topics Selection Proposal
• 2. Project Management, Log Deliverables
• 3. Literature Search
• 4. Report Writing
• 5. Plagiarism Referencing
• 6 7. Consultation
• 8. Preparation for Presentation
• 9 10. Presentation

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What does a Project involve?

• A suitable area relate to your study.
• Some unique features.
• Research!!! You CANNOT just write something you
  think useful!!!
• Solution of problem in computing, involve design
  implementation or something else?

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• Academic projects allow you to study in depth
  some aspect of computing and in doing so you will
  demonstrate a deep level of knowledge,
  understanding and skill.

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Selecting Topics

• Project Type
• Research Based Projects
• Development Projects
• Evaluation Projects
• Industry-based Projects
• Problem Solving Projects
• Games
• etc

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Research Based Projects

• A thorough investigation of a particular area or
  idea.
• E.g., one might investigate some aspect of the
  relationships between communication technologies
  and society to prove that information
  technologies have a negative effect on society.

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Development Projects

• Building system.
• Such projects usually consist of the design (in
  UML) and implementation of some information
  systems or a computing artefact such as a piece
  of software.
• It does not have to be the construction of a new
  system instead it could be to substantially
  adapt an existing system provide that the
  improvement is good enough as an academic project.

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Evaluation Projects

• A project of this type does not normally involve
  the construction of an artefact, but may include
  elements of review and analysis and will probably
  involve significant academic elements.
• Usually such projects start with a literature
  survey, which finds out what has been researched
  and written about the subject so far, and then
  proceeds with a critique or re-interpretation of
  the material or perhaps an evaluation of it using
  a different perspective or theoretical framework.
  

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Industry-based Projects

• Solving a known application problem.
• These projects will be similar in nature to
  either development or evaluative projects but
  they will tend to be more narrowly focused on a
  locally identified problem.

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Problem Solving Projects

• The problem is of a general kind and its solution
  would be applicable in several areas.

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• Which type of project to select???

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General Requirements for Projects

• It is not sufficient just to have a problem to
  solve or a question to answer to form a project.
  Some problems are so simple that they would not
  make an interesting or academically worthwhile
  piece of work.
• What is required is what is sometimes referred to
  as a wicked problem one for which solutions
  are not well known or obvious. This doesn't
  necessarily mean that the problem has never been
  solved before but projects that simply set out to
  simply repeat someone else's work are weak unless
  they incorporate some new aspect or adopt a
  different approach.

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General Requirements for Projects

• E.g., suppose you set out to replicate some of
  the functionality of a common software package
  such as Microsoft Word. You would have to select
  what functionality to incorporate in your system,
  what constraints are there on the time available
  to you, what development tools available to you
  and so on.
• All these would be engineering problems unique to
  the problem that you had to solve. Looking at a
  project idea from that point of view would make
  what would appear on the surface to be a
  well-known problem into quite a challenging one.

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General Requirements for Projects

• A project must be 'big' enough to fill your time.
  On the other hand, it must also be small enough
  for you to have a reasonable chance of completing
  it within that timeframe. Finally, a project is
  an individual piece of work, though there is no
  bar on students doing related projects.

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Selecting Topics

• Consider
• Where information can be found?
• How up-to-date must it be?
• Local, International or Global?
• Limited to publications in English?
• How to begin?
• Where to get help?

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Selecting Topics

• Develop ideas and look for some (not details)
  information before making decision.
• You should choose an appropriate project that
  matches your knowledge, understanding and skills.

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Where to look for information?

• Public Library
• School Online Library
• Internet
• and .

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Some important aspects

• Can complete the task in the time available.
• Are technically capable of completing the task.
• Can develop any skills needed to complete the
  project.
• Are interested in the project topic.
• Are able to define clear outcomes that might
  benefit someone.
• Are able to relate the project to your degree
  course.
• Are able to define a project of sufficient scope
  and quality to meet the requirements of your
  course.

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Testing a Project Idea

• Usefulness - is the topic worth pursuing in the
  sense that someone will find it of value and it
  adds something to the useful knowledge base?
• Focus - can you explain your project ideas simply
  and clearly in a few sentences or paragraphs?
• Numeration - can you estimate how much you
  already know about the topic. If you cannot do
  this you may have no idea of the topics depth
  and breadth.

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Testing A Project Idea

• Availability - are the elements you need to carry
  out the projects available - this might be
  contacts, tools, equipment, methodologies and so
  on.
• Timeliness - is it a good time to do the work for
  this project in the sense that there is current
  work to which it relates, or it continues a line
  of enquiry which is topical, or finally because
  the work is urgently needed.
• Novelty - is the work original or innovative in
  some way.
• Promise - is the work relevant in the sense that
  it might lead to further research or have a wide
  application.

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Some Past Project Titles

• Flight Simulators
• Inventory Control System for a manufacturing
  company
• Decision Support System for a small firm
• Automation of a publishing company
• Flood simulation
• Automated analysis of signals
• Neural network implementation

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Some Past Project Titles

• Interactive SQL tutor
• Computerizing a primary school library
• German grammar revision package
• Satellites in computer communications
• Demonstration software for data structures
• Wall street simulation game
• Natural language processing in Prolog

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Some Past Project Titles

• Investigation of computer security to mainframe
  environments
• Identification of minerals with expert system
• Speech driven application
• Adaptive help system
• Intelligent advice on questionnaire data analysis
• Expert system for personal tax assessment

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Proposal Format

• Cover Sheet
• Table of Contents
• Abstract
• Proposal Narrative
• Appendices

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Cover Sheet (1 page)

• Include
• Candidate name
• Student number
• Module number
• Project title
• E-mail address
• Contact phone number

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Table of Contents (1 page)

• Different parts of your proposal with page number
  on which each part begins.

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Abstract

• 50-200 words
• Projects definition of problem solving in IT
• Goals of the project
• Contribution to IT world or society

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Proposal Narrative (no more than 4 pages)

• Project title
• Brief description of the project
• Type category of the project
• e.g. AI, networking, web-application, Database
  System, Tools, Utility, Administration, Security,
  Control System, CAD (Computer-aided design),
  Multi-media, CASE (Computer-Aided Software
  Engineering)
• Project Objectives
• (what you want to achieved at the end of the
  project)

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Proposal Narrative (Cont.)

• Initial ideas about how to meet the objective
• Problems Justification
• System Architecture
• Major Functions
• Methodology
• Resources Required
• Hardware
• Software
• Programming Language
• Project Plan with Gannt Chart

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Project Plan

• You must present a project plan with your project
  specification. There are many ways to do this
• The most common is a Gantt chart (using MS
  Project or a similar tool) showing the following
  information
• Events (dates) - such as meeting clients,
  visiting or contacting your supervisor, first
  draft etc.
• Time-Box Activities - decide exactly what you
  intend to achieve in a given time period.
• Milestones - the idea here is to set review
  points where a particular part of the project is
  completed.

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Gannt Chart
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Common Pitfalls

• Missing contact with supervisor
• Fail to manage time
• Overemphasis in one area, missing others
• Poor documentation
• Poor referencing