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Undergraduate Projects
How to Succeed
Kevin McManus
2007
Undergraduate Projects
What is a Project?
A software development project
where you are the consultant
Deliverables
product report presentation
2007
Undergraduate Projects
Undergraduate Projects
Professional approach
applying all those personal and professional skills
Demonstration of insight
show awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
your project's strengths and weaknesses
reflective practice
avoid metacognitive miscalibration
2007 the University of Greenwich 4
Undergraduate Projects
Report Sections
Preamble
title, abstract, contents
Beginning
approx 25%
Middle
approx 55%
Word count
End
approx 20%
Bibliography
only include references which are cited in the report
strict Harvard formatting
Appendices
lengthy technical material, test results, user guide, etc.
2007 the University of Greenwich 5
Undergraduate Projects
Beginning
Introduction
aims, justification
why are you doing this project?
Research
discovering information
your approach to finding information credible sources
conclusions
summary of what you have discovered
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Undergraduate Projects
Referenced Material
You must show that you have discovered information by reading books, papers, articles, etc.
written by other people and published somewhere
credible authors credible publications
Text that is copied from your sources must be formatted in "full quotation marks and italic font" and clearly identified [PXR94]
copied text is good
but not too much of it
Borrowed material such as pictures, figures, tables etc., must be similarly identified
graphical content must not float it must have a title and be referenced in the body of the text
... as can be seen in Figure 3.7 the upper stage of the reactor is...
2007
Middle
Requirements specification Technology
identify the technology you have chosen to use
avoid regurgitating superficial technical material justify your decisions
Undergraduate Projects
Methodology
describe your chosen approach
remember: this is a short timescale project and you are a team of one
Design
plan what you intend to implement
schemas, architectures, UML, and so on
Implementation
describe what you have done
Testing
discuss your approach to testing provide evidence of testing
test schedules
include test results in an appendix a good test finds errors, a bad test finds none
Undergraduate Projects
Reflection
Process the project
End
Person - you
how have you changed during the project? what skills did you bring? what skills did you develop?
Undergraduate Projects
Bibliography
The first thing I read
after reading the abstract
Undergraduate Projects
Appendices
The word count of your report is limited
if you exceed the word count push some content into an appendix
test results
Undergraduate Projects
include contingency have a flexible design deliver value at an early stage divide et impera
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Undergraduate Projects
A Suitable Topic
Projects should be...
narrow
well defined scope
deep
of academic interest
relevant
to your degree
current
techniques and technologies
novel
no re-inventing of wheels
achievable
within the limited timescale
2007
13
Undergraduate Projects
Unsuitable Topic
Projects should not be...
broad
wide scope cf. impractical
superficial
of no academic interest
irrelevant
to your degree
old hat
techniques and technologies
conventional
seen it all before
impractical
overambitious attempting far too much cf. broad
2007 the University of Greenwich 14
Undergraduate Projects
Web Application
"Every time a student says to me that they want to 'do a web application' a small part of me dies"
Kevin McManus
If your project is to simply 'do a web application' or 'do a web enabled database' it is most unlikely to achieve a good grade If you are going to attempt a web application then you really should be studying...
COMP1037 Web Application Technologies COMP1207 e-Technology COMP1295 Programming Distributed Components
2007 the University of Greenwich 15
Undergraduate Projects
Web Applications
Your project should identify a specific web application Something that is
unusual
rarely seen application built with emerging technology
novel
totally new application
Focus on what makes your web application different Are you attempting something that is less ambitious than a coursework?
2007 the University of Greenwich 16
Undergraduate Projects
Investigation of role based access in a web enabled database using a library system as an example
Creating a web enabled hair dresser Use of software design patterns in the booking system creation of a web application using a hair dresser booking exemplar A web enabled pizza ordering system An investigation into suggestive product composition using a web based pizza ordering system demonstrator Scheduling and load balancing for distributed JIT production using a web based pizza ordering system demonstrator
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2007
Undergraduate Projects
Undergraduate Projects
Less is More
Programmer productivity metrics are low
it is not easy to create lots of high quality code
Better to create a small quantity of good code than rafts of bad code
write less achieve more
API's
AWS, Google Maps, Flickr, 43 Things
SOA's
web services rise again
AJAX
still good, libs for VS, integration with API's, SOA's
Web2
whatever it may be
2007 the University of Greenwich 19
Undergraduate Projects
Case Study
Content Syndication
Student declares an interest in content syndication but is worried that it would involve lots of difficult coding Student is not wrong
this is an ambitious undertaking
Undergraduate Projects
Case Study
Content Syndication
A quick Google reveals several open source content syndication projects The Plan...
investigate current OS CS packages select and install 2 different packages
2 different servers
create content driven sites on both servers syndicate the content across both servers
Success!
with almost no coding time left to quickly write a Perl screen scraper
and syndicate the scapings
Undergraduate Projects
Your Supervisor
Your supervisor is not there to advise you in how to implement your project
they do not need to be an expert in your chosen field
other school staff can advise on technical matters
if you ask nicely database surgery
you need to be proactive in arranging meetings you should take an agenda to each meeting you must record the meeting - take minutes include evidence of these meetings in your report
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Undergraduate Projects
Blogging
Keep a record of everything that you do on your project
no matter how small
Undergraduate Projects
Summary
Learn the rules of the game Choose a suitable project Contact supervisor Gather sources Blog Deliver
Product Report
2007 the University of Greenwich 24