SYLLABUS

CIS/CEN 4914 -- Senior Design
Computer & Information Sciences & Engineering Department
University of Florida, Fall 2017

CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Credits: 3; Prereq: Senior CISE standing and approved project proposal
This course involves completing a significant CISE- or CEN-related project. Student must coordinate with the instructor and a project adviser, prepare a detailed technical report, and deliver an oral presentation. (MR)

COURSE OBJECTIVES: 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.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Mark Schmalz
OFFICE HOURS: posted on Dr. Schmalz' Web page http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/
E-MAIL: mssz@cise.ufl.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~mssz/SeniorProject/senior-S16.html

CLASS PERIODS: Class will meet irregularly, as follows:

TEACHING ASSISTANT: There is no TA for this course.

CLASSROOM: CSE/E404 or A101 (Meetings 1 and 2), CSE/E404 or E440 (Presentations 1-3)

TEXTBOOK: There is no textbook for this course.

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  2 - First Meeting (required)       Topic: CIS4914 Purpose and Format 
    Week  4 - Second Meeting (required)      Topic: Time Mgmt, Presentation Skills
    Week  6 - First Presentation             Topic: Concept Review  ( 5 min.)
    Week 10 - Second Presentation            Topic: Design  Review  (10 min.)
    Week 14 - Final Presentation & Report    Topic: Project Results (15 min.)

ATTENDANCE Attendance at meetings and presentations is required. Presentation attendance will be determined by a sign-up sheet posted on the instructor's door. Students are expected to arrive on time. Cell phones must be turned off throughout the class period.

EVALUATION: Advisor: 50% -- Instructor/Coordinator: 50%

ADVISOR GRADE will count 50 percent 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, 27 percent of final grade. Additionally, the Coordinator evaluates each student's Final Report for quality of communication, including English usage and speaking habits, coherence, and completeness, thereby yielding a score that counts 18 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.

GRADING: NO CURVING OF ANY SCORES, as follows: 

             93 - 100 : A        4.00 Grade Points
             90 -  93 : A-      3.67 Grade Points
             87 -  89 : B+      3.33 Grade Points
             83 -  86 : B       3.00 Grade Points
             80 -  82 : B-      2.67 Grade Points
             77 -  79 : C+      2.33 Grade Points
             73 -  76 : C       2.00 Grade Points
             70 -  72 : C-      1.67 Grade Points
             67 -  69 : D+      1.33 Grade Points
             63 -  66 : D       1.00 Grade Points
             60 -  62 : D-      0.67 Grade Points
              0 -  59 : E       0    Grade Points

QUALIFYING GRADE: A C- will not be a qualifying grade for critical tracking courses. In order to graduate, students must have an overall GPA and an upper-division GPA of 2.0 of better (C or better). Note: a C- average is equivalent to a GPA of 1.67, and therefore, it does not satisfy this graduation requirement. For more information on grades and grading policies, please visit: http://www.registrar.ufl.edu/catalog/policies/regulationgrades.html

MAKE-UP POLICY:

  • Presentations may be made up only when the student has a permissible absence (e.g., court appearance, illness or hospitalization, death of immediate family) with documented excuse. The Final Report must be turned in on time.

    • HONESTY POLICY: All students admitted to the University of Florida have signed a statement of academic honesty committing threselves to be honest in all academic work and understanding that failure to comply with this committment will result in disciplinary action. This statement is a reminder to uphold your obligation as a UF student and to be honest in all work submitted and exams taken in this course and all others.

    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.

    UNIVERSITY POLICY ON ACCOMODATING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc/). The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation. You must submit this documentation prior to submitting assignments or taking the quizzes or exams. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contacdt the office as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations.

    UNIVERSITY POLICY ON ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT: Academic honesty and integrity are fundamental values of the University community. Students should be sure that they understand the UF Student Honor Code at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/students.php.

    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.

    GETTING HELP: For issues with technical difficulties for E-learning in Sakai, please contact the UF Help Desk at:

    Other resources are available at http://www.distance.ufl.edu/getting-help for: Should you have any complaints with your experience in this course please visit http://www.distance.ufl.edu/student-complaints to submit a complaint.

    NETIQUETTE: COMMUNICATION COURTESY: All members of the class are expected to follow rules of common courtesy in all email messages, threaded discussion and chats. Please refer to http://teach,ufl.edu/docs/NetiqutteGuildeforOnlineCourses.pdf .

    DISCLAIMER: This syllabus (and the course website) represents the current plans and objectives for our course. As we go through the semester, those plans may need to change to enhance the class learning opportunity. Such changes, communicated clearly, are not unusual and should be expected.