Table of contents
Final Project (CM3070)
In this module, you will undertake a substantial independent project that will allow you to demonstrate a wide range of skills such as project planning, management, research, software implementation, and written presentation. If you are enrolled on a specialist pathway, either as part of the BSc or a graduate diploma, you will be expected to undertake a project in your specialist area. You will integrate the knowledge gained throughout the programme and use skills acquired in other modules in the implementation of your final project which will be in computer science or your specialist area. The work will consist of a combination of research and software development in various proportions. You will be expected to make use of methodologies from various components of computer science, including your specialist pathway if appropriate.
Topics covered
- Project planning and management.
- Project-associated risk management.
- Project-specific research methodology and methods.
- Aims and objectives of your project.
- Project-specific literature review.
- Project-specific software design.
- Project-specific software development.
- Project-specific software testing.
- Evaluation of project results.
- Project-specific academic writing.
Assessment
One two-hour unseen written examination and coursework.
Project ideas: templates
Syllabus
Notes
- The project will focus on the skills learnt in one particular level 6 module. It is highly recommended to base your project on a module you have taken. You could be taking that module while doing the final project, although having taken the module already may give you a head start to produce an output earlier during the final project by having all the necessary background knowledge.
- This is an individual project, no exception.
- Contrary to the work done in the Agile Software Projects module, development and programming is much more involved. The outcome is not mostly a report: a solid presentation of a working piece of software is expected using advanced techniques learnt in the relevant module(s) of the degree.
- The marking rubric will be available from the beginning of the course, so make sure to have a look to get a good understanding about the expectations and the scope of work.
- Content of module: it includes interviews and give some guidance along the way to stay on track. There are weekly progress logs to make sure you are doing the right thing at the right time.
- The weekly logs go into the final report.
- There are peer-reviewed assignments: it’s recommended to do them.
- Key deadlines, including points in time at which feedback is received from tutors:
- Week 5: Submit a proposal from a template.
- It kind of becomes the “introduction” in final report.
- Includes a project concept, related work and video presentation for practice.
- Week 11: Preliminary project report, submit background research, more details about the plan and design and a first prototype.
- It becomes the literature review, background research, evaluation plan and design section of the final report. Have to have started programming substantially by then.
- Week 15: Receive marked preliminary report.
- Week 17: Draft of report (not counted but recommended to do).
- Becomes part of the “implementation” section in the report.
- Week 19: Receive feedback on draft report.
- Week 5: Submit a proposal from a template.
- Submit a final presentation, video demo of the work and the final report (final report is the majority of the marks).
- Final report and code: worth 60%.
- Deadline: week 25 (the usual length of other modules is 22 weeks).
- There’s an exam worth 20% (during weeks 21 and/or 22).
- For a detailed overview of the grading and learning outcomes, refer to the syllabus.
- For concrete examples of what project to work on, refer to the Final Project Ideas PDF (you can navigate the index of the document better by using a proper PDF viewer after downloading it from GitHub).