CGS 4914 -- Senior Design
Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering Department
University of Florida, Spring 2006
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Mark Schmalz
E-MAIL: mssz@cise.ufl.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/SeniorProject/senior-S05.html
OFFICE HOURS: posted on Dr. Schmalz' Web page http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/
CLASS PERIODS: Class will meet irregularly, as follows:
CLASSROOM: CSE/E121 (Meetings 1 and 2), CSE/E404 or E305 (Presentations 1-3)
- Meeting #1 - Mid Jan., Date/Time TBA
- Meeting #2 - Early Feb., Date/Time TBA
- Presntn.#1 - Late Feb., Date/Time TBA
- Presntn.#2 - Late Mar., Date/Time TBA
- Presntn.#3 - Late Apr., Date/Time TBA
PREREQUISITES: Senior Status, last 1 or 2 semesters recommended
DESCRIPTION: This course is the culmination of your study in computer science and/or computer engineering, where you complete an individual or group project under the guidance of a faculty member or outside advisor. The semester prior to registering for this course, you will have completed a project outline, which is approved by your project advisor and the course coordinator (Dr. Schmalz, in this case). This semester, you will attend the scheduled meetings, and present your work at scheduled times, as well as prepare a final report. The purpose of these requirements is to help you develop skills in the written and spoken communication of your work to others. If you are working in a group of two or more students under direction of an advisor (e.g., a large software development project), then you can use this course to develop skills in workgroup communication, interaction, and cooperation.
The course will begin with two meetings - the first organizational, and the second emphasizing time management and presentation skills. There will be three presentations, whose requirements are outlined in detail on the class Web site. In summary, the first presentation (approx. five minutes duration per student) is a concept review, in which you present an outline of your project, as well as approaches and literature sources that you plan to use. The second presentation (approx. ten minutes duration per student) is a design review, in which you present a summary of the design and rationale or analysis that you are using to guide the coding of a software project or construction of a hardware project. At the third and final presentation (approx. 12-15 minutes duration), you will provide the Course Coordinator with an advisor-graded copy of your Final Report (formatted per Web site directions), and present the results of your research or development effort for critical review by the instructor and your fellow students. Following each presentation, there will be time for questions, which you must be prepared to answer.
TEXTBOOKS:
There is no formal textbook for this class, however, you will find information from the literature (including the Web) that is useful for your research.
OTHER MATERIAL: You will need TWO CD-ROMs for your presentations, each of which must be in PowerPoint format (industry standard). You are also encouraged to post your PowerPoint presentations on the Web, so you can access them in case your CD-ROM is corrupted.
EVALUATION: Advisor: 50% -- Instructor/Coordinator: 50%
ADVISOR GRADE will count 50% toward your final grade, and assesses the Complexity, Completeness, and Quality of Results produced during the course of your project, as well as the Quality of your Final Report. The advisor should provide this grade in conjunction with corrections to your final report. A grading form is accessible from the class Web site, which the advisors are encouraged to use.
COURSE COORDINATOR/INSTRUCTOR GRADE will count 50% toward your final grade, and assesses the coherence and quality of your written and spoken communications, as well as your apparent understanding of your project, in terms of your written report, presentations and viewgraphs, and the question and answer sessions at the end of your presentations. The first presentation is undgraded, and serves as a way for the Coordinator to evaluate your presentation skills, with constructive suggestions for remediation. The second presentation counts 5 percent of final grade, and the third presentation, 30 percent of final grade. Additionally, the Coordinator evaluates each student's Final Report for quality of communication, including English usage, coherence, and completeness, thereby yielding a score that counts 15 percent of your final grade.
All reports and presentations are due at the scheduled times. You will be notified via email and the class web site (where emails are also archived) concerning the dates and times of presentations, as well as the location of presentation signup sheets. Make-ups may be allowed only for documented, unavoidable conflicts REPORTED IN ADVANCE AND ALLOWED BY THE INSTRUCTOR. Only DOCUMENTED emergency medical excuses can be accepted after a presentation or the final report is due.
FINAL REPORT will summarize your project, and is to be no more than 11 pages, space-and-a-half text, including the cover page. The format of the Final Report is described in detail, section by section, on the class Web site. You must have an advisor-graded copy of your Final Report ready to give to the Course Coordinator/Instructor at your final presentation.
ABET-Compliant Materials The Advisor Grading Form that you turn in with your Final Report has seven questions about your performance during the semester. These questions map directly to outcomes that are specified in our ABET accreditation system. Similarly, there are four questions that you answer on a separate questionnaire, which is also turned in with your Final Report. These questions map directly to ABET outcomes. At this time, neither of these sets of ABET-compliant questions is used to determine your grade.
SCHEDULE: The course will not be a regular, classroom-style course of instruction. Instead, there will be two initial meetings, which will be held at a mutually convenient evening hour. These meetings are designed to acquaint you with the purpose and format of the course, and to provide instruction in time management and presentation skills. The presentations will be scheduled approximately one month apart. For example:
Week 1 - First Meeting (required) Topic: CIS4914 Purpose and Format Week 3 - Second Meeting (required) Topic: Time Mgmt, Presentation Skills Week 5 - First Presentation Topic: Concept Review ( 5 min.) Week 9 - Second Presentation Topic: Design Review (10 min.) Week 13 - Final Presentation & Report Topic: Project Results (15 min.)GRADING: Standard with NO CURVING OF ANY SCORES, as follows:
Project Advisor Grade: 50 pts max Course Coordinator Grade: 50 pts max ----------------------------------------- TOTAL SCORE 100 pts max Grade Assignment by Standard Scale: 90 - 100 : A 85 - 89 : B+ 80 - 84 : B 75 - 79 : C+ 70 - 74 : C 65 - 69 : D+ 60 - 64 : D 0 - 59 : EDISHONESTY: In this course, academic dishonesty is defined as copying another's presentation, final report, or work, or claiming to have completed work that has not been done. Plagiarism of published sources (i.e, without appropriate attribution) is also a form of academic dishonesty. Note that there is a not-so-subtle distinction between working together on a group project or helping fellow students, versus directly copying another's work. This implies that your presentation viewgraphs are to be unique, even if you are working with other students on the same project. In such cases, each person should present his or her own work, i.e., the research or development that you have done as a part of that project, together with a brief project overview that includes a summary of your part in the project, as well as how your work interacts with the designs or results produced by other project members.
Under no circumstances will acts of academic dishonesty be tolerated. Any suspected incidents of dishonesty will be promptly referred to the Director for Student Judicial Affairs and the Student Honor Court. Refer to the pamphlet entitled Academic Honesty, Student Judicial Process, Guide for Students, from the Office for Student Services.
ACCOMODATIONS: Students with disabilities requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.