CS 410 Applied Project
Final year Capstone projects may be run as individual projects or as group projects with individuals working on specific aspects of the projects. In the case of group projects, each is accessed individually, and each must prepare an independent report. Capstone projects may be executed as the design and build of some software or hardware system, research, evaluation or improvement of some algorithm/methodology. It provides a platform for students to carry projects similar to what may be encounter in the real world, as well as serves a medium for students to demonstrate what they have learnt in the preceding years in an applied, practical way, or to explore an open ended problem. Students will document the procedure they have followed in creating a software product or information systems, or their work may involve the design and construction of some IT related systems.
Be able to integrate knowledge acquired in different classes, Have learnt to write a technical report appropriate to the discipline. It will be a written documentation of product description, design, methodology and analysis of results obtained. Gained experience making a presentation of their work to a team of faculty and experts, as well as to a cohort of their peers (and typically includes an oral presentation) Be encouraged to explore additional fields in this subject area that may not have been taught specifically in any one class.
Ashesi Learning Goals:
- Communications Students will make frequent oral presentations of their work, as well as present a formal written document formatted according to the style of the discipline. They will thus acquire the skill needed to communication appropriately with professionals and peers in this domain.
- Technological Competence Students will be expected to integrate the skills they have acquired from previous classes as well as gain mastery over even additional technology that they may learn on their own.
- Innovation and Action Students will be expected to identify a problem in industry, society or an open ended question of value. They will further be expected to propose, implement and evaluate their proposals. Solutions will no doubt need to be innovative to address the existing challenge.
- Curiosity and Skill Students will be expected to explore topics that may never have been taught in class. Students will build sufficient skill to identify relevant information that helps them carry out their tasks.
- Leadership and Teamwork Students may work in groups with others on the same project. They will thus learn to collaborate with others on common aspects of projects while yet carrying out their specific tasks independently.
- Ethics and Civic Engagement Projects identified may deal with societal problems. Students may create a product or service that makes a social impact.
- Critical Thinking and Quantitative Reasoning Students will typically obtain results from their experiments, the evaluation of the products they create, or feedback from users of their systems. Students will demonstrate quantitative reasoning and critical thinking when they interpret the observations obtained in the context of their work an the real world.
- Capstone Seminar Topics: Capstone types and defining a topic
- Fleshing out & motivating topic
- How to create/what is an annotated bibliography
- Logistics for CS literature review (library, ACM & IEEE paper issues)
- Writing workshop
- Writing up related work / literature review
- Formulating your CS Research
- Methodology Writing workshop
Deliverables: Indicate Capstone type (thesis/applied project), Advisor Topic and Summary Paragraph Personal Learning Goals Preliminary Draft of Chapter 1: Background context of the topic/problem, motivation to reader (significance of the problem/why this is an important problem) Procedure/plan & schedule for requirements analysis Completed requirements analysis Revised Chapter 1: Introduction High-Level Architecture of system to be implemented Evidence of resources & set-up for implementation Schedule for Spring Semester 1-page Reflection on learning goals so far