Final Year ProjectCOMP390/393/394/395

Irina Biktasheva – coordinator

http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~comp39x/2015-16

2015–2016

The Final Year Project

• The final year project is an important part of the course - it is a quarter of the final year’s work

• The project is a substantial piece of work for which you are responsible

• It is a chance to explore a topic in depth and to take the initiative in developing your ideas and finding out the information you need

2015–2016

Projects Provide

• An opportunity to show what you can do– the project is what you make of it

• A challenge– Projects are meant to stretch you– Projects are often “open ended”

• A chance to explore a specific area in depth

2015–2016

Types of Projects

• To meet these aims, we provide three types of project

• These types describe the scope of the project

• The aim is to provide a challenge – but one which can be met

2015–2016

Types of Projects

Projects are classified according to the qualities we expect from different degree classes

• Development Projects– Qualities expected from anyone with a computer related

degree

• Problem Solving Projects– Additionally, qualities expected from students with a second

class Honours degree

• Research Projects– Additionally, qualities expected from students with a first

class Honours degree

• Marks of 70+ are possible for all projects, but some offer more scope for the highest marks

2015–2016

Development Projects

• Are aimed at those with a second year mark less than 60– Straightforward projects– Implement a closely specified solution to a

problem– In this style of project both the problem and the

solution should be understood, so that the student contributes a realisation of this solution

– Evaluation will be primarily concerned with the quality of the product produced

2015–2016

Example Development Projects

• Implement a business to business e-commerce site in MySQL and PHP

• Implement a fully specified algorithm or system (e.g., a utility to perform file synchronisation across different PCs – different operating systems)

2015–2016

Problem Solving Projects

• Can be taken by any student– Less straightforward projects– Not as closely-defined as development projects– For this style of project the problem will be

formulated, but the student will need to contribute to the finding of a solution, and to choose between alternative solutions

– Evaluation will relate both to the choices made, as well as to the product produced

2015–2016

Example Problem Solving Project I

• Game Playing: Rush Hour– Rush Hour is a puzzle played by a single player

which is an extension of the well known 8-puzzle… – This project involves the design, implementation

and testing of software that plays the Rush Hour game. The primary focus of this project is to develop (search) algorithms that play the game well. A graphical user interface may also be implemented.

– This project can be extended to allow a larger board or to analyse which initial states can or cannot be solved.

2015–2016

Example Problem Solving Project II

• University Timetabling– Constructing University timetablings and while at

the same time making efficient use of the University's resources (i.e., lecture theatres and lecturers) is a non-trivial problem

– The aim of this project is to develop a tool which given information on the degree programmes, modules, students, lecture theatres, lecturers as well as some additional constraints (e.g. no Wednesday afternoon lectures) and preferences (e.g. practicals directly after lectures), constructs suitable timetables

2015–2016

Research Projects

• These are aimed at students who achieve more than 60 in the second year

• Those with more than 75 in the second year will be expected to undertake a project of this type

2015–2016

Research Projects

• Students attempting this style of project will be expected to contribute to the formulation of the problem as well as its solution and implementation

• Evaluation should play a key role, offering considerable scope for the exercise of critical judgement, placing the contribution fully in the context of related work, in addition to evaluating the choices made, and the quality of the product produced

2015–2016

Example Research Project I

Adaptive Binarisation of Scanned Documents• Before attempting to recognise the text, the

foreground (printed information) must be separated from the background (paper)

• In modern documents this is usually a case of separating black (printed information) from white (paper). In historical/rare documents, however,  the paper has decayed and its colour is not uniform, […]

• This project will require the review, implementation and comparison of two or three of the most prominent adaptive thresholding algorithms in the context of historical documents

2015–2016

Example Research Project II

Processor scheduling with energy concern• Energy is a precious resources which should be

scheduled for use carefully. However, energy reduction and performance are two conflicting goals; in general, the more available energy is the better the performance can be achieved

• The scheduling algorithm has to determine the speed at which the processor should run at every time unit

• The aim of the project is to evaluate some of these strategies. This includes implementing several strategies and compare their performance by carrying out some experiments

2015–2016

Specifying Your Own Project

• Some members of staff are prepared to supervise projects specified by students themselves (so called SSP projects)

• If you wish to do this you must obtain an agreement of such a member of staff

• The project must be classified as of the type appropriate to you (i.e., your programme, average mark, etc.)

2015–2016

Organisation

• You are expected to work on the project throughout the year

• Each project has an academic supervisor, who will give advice and direction, but you are expected to work largely independently

• There are a number of review points throughout the year

2015–2016

Phases of Projects

• Research & Specification– finding ideas to build on; related work to put your

project in context; fix specification

• Design– planning the project; designing the software;

planning evaluation

• Implementation– building the software; testing the software;

performing experiments

• Evaluation– critical assessment of strengths and weaknesses;

relation to other work

2015–2016

Assessment

• Written specification – week 4 worth 5%

• Design Documentation and Presentation – week 8 worth 15%

• Interim Report - week 15, not marked

• Demonstration of software – week 22 worth 15%

• Dissertation– week 24 worth 65%

2015–2016

Information About Projects

The projects information website:www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~comp39x/2015-16/

Your first port of call for:– Overview of project scheme– Guidelines on choosing a project– Projects offered by members of Staff– Announcements– Other useful information

2015–2016

Timetable

• Thu 30 April, 2015– Staff proposed projects available

• Mon 11 May – Fri 5 June, 2015 (Phase I)– Look at the projects proposed by staff– Staff available to discuss and allocate projects

• Mon 8 June – Fri 19 June, 2015 (Phase II)– List of 10 choices to be submitted, if a project not

allocated yet

• After exam results are out– If you have chosen projects for which you are

ineligible, you may substitute these choices

2015–2016

Making Your Selection - Phase I

• Period 11 May – 5 June, 2015• Use departmental electronic system E-project:

https://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~comp39x/E-project

• Own project (SSP) – find & contact supervisor– Check staff profiles first: web, offered projects in E-project

• Otherwise, find unassigned project, contact supervisor to assign it to you– Be fast: first-come-first-serve rule may apply– Browse through appropriate projects: use your

programme and appropriate project type in the filter Strongly recommended

2015–2016

Making Your Selection – Phase II• Period 8 – 19 June, 2015• Applies only if you do not have project

assigned in E-project• Mark TEN projects in E-project system

– There are no preferences: you should be prepared to do any of your choices

• No more than SIX may be of a given type• No more than TWO may be from a given

Supervisor• Arbitrary selection out of your 10 choices will be

done by the end of June

2015–2016

Remember

• Thu 30 April, 2015– Staff proposed projects available

• Mon 11 May – Fri 5 June, 2015 (Phase I)– Look at staff proposed projects– Staff available to discuss and allocate projects

• Mon 8 June – Fri 19 June, 2015 (Phase II)– List of choices to be submitted, if project not

allocated yet

• After exam results are out– If you have chosen projects for which you are

ineligible, you may substitute these choices

2015–2016

Any Questions?

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