Computer Science Senior Seminar and Project, Fall 1998
Computer Science Senior Seminar and Project, Fall 1998
October 28, 1998
Overview
Here is a copy of the framework which was approved by the CS deparment this past spring for
the senior seminar:
- Senior seminar will be a small group or individual research, design, and implementation
project chosen by each student or self-selected group of students.
- Projects would be approved by the faculty member leading the senior seminar.
The expectation is that this would be a significant project acting as a "cap-stone" for
their CS education. Depending on the student's (or sub-group's) interest there may be
more of a research and writing aspect to the work or possibly more design and implementation
of software.
- The projects would be structured with various deliverables during the semester culminating
with either a colloquium or defense at the end of the semester. This would be agreed upon
in advance by each student (or sub-group) and the professor.
- The professor will arrange for each of the students taking the senior seminar to give
informal presentations (3 minimum) during the semester to the senior seminar group and any
other interested faculty and students.
Things I'm planning to add to this fall's seminar:
At minimum I plan to remind you regularly (nag?) about preparing to take the CS GRE test.
Most of you will be taking it in December. The faculty spoke at length about tailoring
the senior seminar towards GRE prep and decided that it wasn't the right place for it.
Instead we committed ourselves to facilitating review sessions on particular topics
as requested by students. Since we'll be seeing each other as a group regularly each
week I imagine it will be easiest to discuss this during the seminar.
I'm hoping we can find 1 1/2 or 2 hour slots on Tuesday and Friday to meet. On some days
there will be presentations, others will be discussion of the readings and related topics.
I'll want to check-in with you on your projects as well during the course of the semester.
Since we can all learn from this I plan to do it during our regular meeting times.
What to Turn-in When
- End of September
- 1) Outline of your research paper
- 2) Outline of your design & development or implementation plan
- End of October
- 1) Draft of your research paper
- 2) Draft of your design & development or implementation plan
- 3) Initial release of software or environment
- End of November
- 1) Completed research paper
- 2) Completed design & development or implementation plan
- 3) Completed software or environment
- December
How the Projects will be Graded
The highest grade possible is an A, the lowest an F. Printed copies of the documents
will be due in class on the days listed above unless we agree to change a particular
item as a group. Each day a particular item is late will cost about 1/2 a grade.
Through-out the project your
logs should be available and up-to-date. I'll add links to them on this page when they
are available. A text file in a location that's visable to a web server is as complex
as the log needs to be. The important issue is using it as a tool to guide your work.
I'll average the three grades for the paper (weighted towards the final version) and
do the same for the code and your log. Then I'll average those three together (equal
weights) for a final grade for the project.
Project Logs
Project Descriptions, Writings, and Software
Final Presentation Schedule
These should be about 45 minutes each including time for a question and answer session.
- December 2nd - Ian, Duff
- December 4th - Bryan, Jim
- December 9th - ChrisH, Jeremiah, Dusko (1:30p - 4p)
- December 11th - ChrisP, Josh
Unsolicited Advice
This space available.
Work hard, learn lots, have fun. (Ray Ontko, early 1990's.)