Final Project: Deliverables and Guidelines

Project Due Date: December 6, 2006 (2PM)

Draft of this Document: September 29, 2006

Goal

The goal of the final project is to construct a comprehensive simulation of a physical scenario of complexity sufficient to show that you have created a significant implementation. You must develop your own code to represent the dynamics of the simulation. Keyframe animation may be used only as a complement to code. "Code" is defined by a script-based or compiled language in some part(s) of the implementation.

The simulation models that are used must be clearly identified by referring to them by type (or where they appear in the book).

Projects can be created by individuals, or teams of a maximum of 3 students. Each team project must have a designated team leader, who takes responsibility for tasks being scheduled and performed.

Grading

In general, the grade will reflect the quality of the overall project, and how many perceived hours were put into it. Ultimately, significance of a project is defined relative to what other students in the class turn in. In almost all cases, perceived effort (after viewing all implementation aspects) corresponds well with the grade. Grading, as in the exams, will be separate for each class (CAP 4800 and CAP 5805). Specific grading criteria include:

Overall quality of work
Perceived effort (time, resources) for project
Completeness and functionality of work
Complexity of the project (i.e., difficulty)
Quality of final report
Creativity

The approximate number of "A"s in Projects is 20-25%. Plus grades (B+,C+,D+) will be given if projects fall in the boundaries. Bonus grades of +15 points will be given to the top 6 projects for CAP 4800 and the top 2 projects for CAP 5805.

Due Date

The deliverable is due on December 6, 2006 (last day of class) in class. No projects will be accepted after the end of class (2:45PM).

Deliverable

(on one DVD or CD)

FILES: All files (including source code)
REPORT: Your report should be from 10-16 pages, containing the following:
1. project title
2. list of team members and the specified team leader
3. list of responsibilities (if this is a team project)
4. schedule of work performed (Gantt chart)
5. a half-page abstract overviewing the project
6. body of the report including text, math, figures (with captions), and tables. Include:
  - a narrative on what was accomplished
  - clear specification of dynamic models used
  - sample executions for the project
  - explanation of the user interface
  - citations to the literature (listed in the reference section)
7. postmortem section: what went right and wrong.
8. reference section
VIDEO: a video (MPEG2, AVI, WMV, MOV, or DIVX) showing your work in action of between 5 to 8 minutes in length - no .exe files. Use camstudio wink, or related software. Use your voice, or pop-up text windows, for explanations. We will use the demo video to grade the interaction and input/output of your project.
We will not run executables. Make sure to test your CD or DVD on another machine, as a test for portability.

Ideas for Projects

[Game] Create a computer game that is driven in part by discrete event or continuous models. Consider using OGRE or the Blender Game Engine.
[MMORPG] Insert simulation models within the context of a massively multiplayer game. Consider using either Multiverse or Second Life. For example, allow multiple players to collaborate on a 3D dynamic model.
[Physics] Use ODE to build a rigid-body simulation.
[Sci/Eng] Take an example from science or engineering Discourse Area (Alpha) and Discourse Area (Beta) for ideas.
[SimPack Education] Produce narrated slides to create educational material for how to use SimPack. Consider using wink software.
[SimPack Extensions] Extend simpack functionality to include functions for continuous and hybrid discrete event/continuous simulation.
[Processing flow interface] Produce a data flow capability for the Processing language along the lines of the sort of graphical user interface in Filter Forge or SynthMaker.
[Design/Art] Create a series of artwork using either discrete event or continuous simulation models from the book. See the Processing "Exhibition" pages.
[Biochemistry] Model gene regulated metabolism. See Example paper based on Petri nets
[Horticulture] Using Processing examples of plants, extend these examples (possibly with the addition of sound) to create more complex structures and a library.
[Audio/Music] Show an innovative use of complex Jsyn-based sounds (such as Jlooch or Jnissa) within computer simulation and model environments, as driven by models such as timed FSMs, event graphs, or Petri nets.
[Jsyn API] simplify the Jsyn API. Look at JMusic for comparison, and apply to an example simulation model.
[Eng/Finite Elements] Build a finite element modeling library for use in Processing.
[ODE interface] Use the Java ODE interface to create a physically-based simulation.
[Physical Control] Use physical computing and Fry's Serial library to allow a set of novel inputs to feed simulation model inputs, initial conditions, or parameters.