Project Guidelines
This course requires a project to be performed by one or two students, requiring about 40 hours effort per person over the entire semester. A project includes the following phases: choosing a project topic, writing a project plan, conducting the project, writing a mid-term and final project report, and presenting the project in class.
Project Content:
A project usually consists of reading of papers in a chosen area, compare performances of different approaches, and perhaps propose your own algorithms/improvements, implement one or two of them.
Project plan:
Describe the problems to be explored, include a list of references already read, and what you plan to accomplish, 1-2 page). Due in-class meeting of the 4th week. You can discuss with me in the first three weeks of the semester about the possible topics, either in my office hour or through email.
The project plan should
include the following:
1.
Project title
and team members
2.
An abstract: in
one paragraph or two, describe briefly the project scope and what you hope to
accomplish (this should be a revised version of what you have written in your
project plan).
3. Project schedule: It should include a list of subtasks that you plan to accomplish, for each subtask, descries how do you plan to approach it, who in your team is primarily responsible for it and the deadline for completing it. You should allocate time for searching the project subject, initial literature search, preparing the midterm report, final report, and final presentation, in addition to the reading/simulation work you plan to do.
4. List of references: this includes papers and documents and possibly web links that you have found that are relevant to your project topic. Please include complete citation of each item: author, title of the article, journal or book name, and if appropriate the URL.
Project Midterm Report:
Describe the
accomplishment so far and remaining work to be completed, 3-5 page: Due first in-class
meeting of the 8th week
You should think of the mid-term project report as an on-going document that starts from your project plan and will evolve into the final report. Please include the following in your midterm report. The first three items are from the project plan, which you may revise based on your progress so far.
1. Project title and team members
2. An abstract
3. What you have accomplished so far: This can be
divided into multiple sections, each section describing one subtask that you
have worked on. For each subtask, describing what you have done so far, what
you have learnt.
4. Remaining work: This section should outline the remaining work to be done in each subtask and the revised schedule for them. (if different from the project plan).
5. Revised Project plan: you may want to revise the
original plan based on your progress so far. You may need to modify the
deadlines only, or you may even need to modify the sub-tasks. The later may be
true if after your study so far, you want to redirect your project in terms of
the technical content.
6. List of references: you may add new references and delete irrelevant ones that originally appeared in the project plan.
Final project report (5-10 page): Due on the date of the final project presentation.
The final report is an extension of your midterm report and should include the following. You may need to modify those items that were included in the midterm report.
1.
Project title
and team members
2.
An abstract
3.
Overview of the
project and schedule (describe the subtasks and completion schedule. Including
who is responsible for which subtask if you have multiple members on the team.)
4.
Project
accomplishment: This can be divided into multiple sections, each section
describing one subtask that you have worked on. For each subtask, describing
what you have done, what you have learnt. If your project includes the
comparison of different systems/techniques, you may have separate sections
describing each system/technique and another section comparing these systems/techniques
and summarizes the pros and cons of each. You may have another section
describing your proposed solution on how to modify each or combine them.
5.
Summary: This
section should briefly summarize your findings. It should also include a
discussion of future works that you think should be studied.
6.
List of
references: update from your midterm report as appropriate.
Final project presentation (a 10-15 minutes oral presentation, possibly with demonstration
of computer implementations. Time allocation depends on the number of projects
to be presented and the number of team members). On the date allocated for the
final exam for the class.
You should prepare a presentation file
using a computer software (e.g. powerpoint).
1.
You will be
giving the presentation using your laptop and a video projector. (If you
don’t have a laptop, please send the presentation file to the instructor
in advance in email)
2.
If you want to
include any demonstration in your presentation, please make sure it can be
presented directly from your computer. If you want to give the demonstration in
a particular lab, please contact the instructor before hand.
3.
The suggested
outline for your presentation:
a.
Project title
and team members
b.
Overview of your
project: the overall goal and subtasks, and who is responsible for what. (The
finalized schedule)
c.
Describe each
subtask: what you did and what you learnt/designed.
d.
Demos if
appropriate
e.
Summary
If you have more than one person
on the project team, please prepare the presentation in such a way so that each
person on your team can present different parts of it. A one-person team is
given 10 minutes, and a 2-person team 15 minutes.
Last updated: 1/23/2006, Yao Wang