Fourth Year Meng Project

Comp 591 and Comp 592

Whilst each project is unique and will be driven by you, every project has four key elements. You should be aiming to produce more than just a piece of software, so you need to show a deeper understanding of the wider context and justify what you're doing.

1) Research & Background - This provides the context for your project. You will need to identify and absorb related and parallel work, identify the key ideas you will build on in your project, and identify and acquire any new skills and techniques you will need. You will also begin to formalise the criteria you'll use in the evaluation of the project.

2) Planning & Design - Your project requires planning, to identify what needs to be done and what will be produced, when this will be produced, and to give a feasible strategy for carrying out the project. The software that you produce should have a formal design and a plan for its testing and evaluation.

3) Realisation & Implementation - Having a plan is no good unless it's carried out. So the plan must be realised, in accordance with the milestones you identified in it. The literature must be surveyed and the design must be implemented and tested. Experiments, testing and evaluation must be performed. All of this will need to be documented in the final report.

4) Evaluation & Testing - You should be able to look critically at what you've done. Evaluation needs to cover what was produced. How well does the software perform? Did you make the right design choices? Does your solution meet the needs of its potential users? Generally you should consider how well your project meets its objectives.

Development of Skills

You should always keep in mind that you need to demonstrate an awareness and understanding of these key elements. It's a good idea to keep some kind of written record of your thoughts and progress, even things that don't work or lead you down the wrong path. This will give you something to refer back to when you produce your final report, and during the other assessed activities.

1) Planning & Scoping - If you are going to carry out a long term piece of work successfully, you will need to have a plan. You will need to analyse what you have to do, identify stages in the work, decide what should be produced from each stage, identify what can be done in parallel and what depends on other stages, and estimate how long each stage will take. This will give you a set of milestones (completion dates for significant project goals) by which you and your supervisor can monitor your progress.

2) Surveying Literature - In a successful project you will need to place your work in context. This means that you will need to be aware of what else has already been done in the immediate area and cognate areas of your project. You'll need to identify, read and evaluate relevant background literature.

3) Finding Information - You will probably need to extend your technical skills in the course of the project. To do this you will need to discover where you can get the information you need, locate it, and use this information to teach yourself the new skills.

4) Time Management - Following a plan requires discipline and effective use of time. The project represents a quarter of the module credits for the year, so you should expect to spend around one day per week working on it. It's important that this time is used effectively. Keep a progress diary, as mentioned above. This will help you to stick to your project plan and identify areas that are taking longer than expected.

5) Evaluation & Reflection - An important part of the project is the evaluation of what you have done. Naturally this means testing your software and getting feedback from potential users, but it also means being able to look critically and objectively at your work and the progess you've made.

In the project you will be using skills you've learned in other modules, but you will also need to develop and demonstrate new skills. Some of these will be technical skills, but there's a wide range of other skills that are just as important.

Fourth Year Meng Project

Comp 591 and Comp 592