CMP 161 -- Final Project Guidelines

Important Dates:

Jan 20, 2009, midnight -- Preliminary project proposals due.
Feb 3, 2009, midnight -- Final project approval and proposal.
Feb 17, 2009, in class -- Presentation on project related work.
Mar 3, 2009, in class -- Presentation on project work-in-progress.
Mar 18, 2009, 12-3pm -- Final Project demo and writeup.

NOTE: There will be a 2% LATE PENALTY for EACH item that is late. The 2% is based on your course grade, not just the project grade! For the two project update presentations, sufficient progress must be demonstrated to avoid any penalty points. March 18 is the final deadline. Nothing will be accepted beyond that date. Don't wait till the last minute -- allow for machine down-time, running out of disk space, power failures, etc. Don't expect to get immediate response to your proposals if you submit at the last minute!

Final Project:

This is an individual project meant to be developed and completed over the course of the quarter. You get to decide what project you want to do -- after we review it. The main considerations are:

it's a reasonable size project that can be completed within the given time,
there's enough animation and/or visualization content in it,
there's enough variation from other students' project.

Projects are first come, first serve. It's to your advantage to get your project approved early. You'll also get a head start and have more time to do a better project.

Preliminary Project Proposal:

Submit 3 project ideas that you would like to work on. Rank them in the order of your preference. Provide enough detail to explain each of your idea. You can submit the list to me, preferably by email (or by hardcopy, only if you have drawings). I will respond to you by email, so be sure to include your email address in the hardcopy.

You will get a response within 24 hours. If not, that means your message got trapped by spam filter. Be sure to send from your ucsc account. If you are including attachments, send me a separate email (without any attachments, no html tags, etc.) to alert me so that I can look for your email in case it gets trapped by spam filter.

Since students should preferably work on different project topics, those getting the proposals in early and finalized get 1st dibs on the topic.

Don't wait till the last minute to submit your proposals since it may take more than 1 iteration to arrive at your final project.

Final Project Proposal:

This is a 1-2 page writeup describing your final project in more detail. It also serves as your 1st draft of the Project Report. Include your project goals (list of different project components/features) and a time line on when you plan to complete different pieces of the project. Create a final project folder or directory and put all related items in there. You should set up your report as an html file. All url should be local to your final project folder or directory. Place the materials for your final project proposal in a folder called finalproposal and submit this to proj. That is:
submit cmps161-ap.w09 proj finalproposal.tar

Project Update 1:

This update should include at least the following items: (i) references and examples of related work, and (ii) gui or mock up of user interface for your project. In-class presentation is about 5 minutes per project. You can do this with 2-3 powerpoint/pdf slides.

Project Update 2:

This update should include at least the following items: (i) data structures, (ii) partial functionality, and (iii) pseudo-code for other items. In-class presentation is about 5 minutes per project. You can do this with 2-3 powerpoint/pdf slides; or possibly a partial demo.

Project Requirements:

Project Demonstration. Each student will have 5-10 minutes to present their final project to the class. Be sure to allow your window to be resized to the entire screen so folks can see your output. The demo will be in one of the labs with hookups to a projector. Most students prefer to run demos from their own laptops. If you are a Mac user, be sure to bring a video adaptor for a VGA cable.
Project Report. This is in the form of a web page and should contain the following information. Also note that links should be relative (not absolute paths), and that you should submit the html and all necessary image and animation files in the same directory. Create a zip or tar file of all the items in your final project folder or directory.
- your name, which class and quarter,
- title and description of your project,
- images and/or video clips of your project (links to you-tube are NOT acceptable; watch your file size and know your disk quota -- 100mb),
- a user's guide,
- links to your source code and executable.
Project Submission. Create a zip or tar file of your final project folder or directory. Name this proj.zip or proj.tar respectively. From unix.ic.ucsc.edu, type: submit cmps161-ap.w09 proj proj.tar or submit cmps161-ap.w09 proj proj.zip
- Include the following:
  - your project report (html file and contents)
  - an image to be used as thumbnail for your project -- name this file thumb.jpg (even if it's not jpg)
  - source code, makefile, etc. to compile your code,
  - any *new* data sets, if any,
  - README file for information on platform, compilation, etc.,
  - at least two favorite images of your project, "xv" or "snapshot" can be used on the suns; on the macs, < shift >< apple ><3> keys held down together will produces a .pict image file of the whole screen, crop this with your favorite image tool; on windows, try < control >< printscreen >.
  - a short movie clip of your program in action , say about 5-10 seconds, and not to exceed 2 mb. Save movie as quicktime or mpeg.
- VERY IMPORTANT: I will be checking to make sure you have all the required components on March 18. Each of you will receive an email from me confirming that either everything is okay, or you are still missing something -- on March 19. Missing items should be turned in by midnight of March 19. Failure to do so will mean that you did not complete this class. Check your email on March 19.
Project Grading.
- There will be no early bonus points, nor will late programs be accepted.
- However, there will be bonus points for more challenging projects; and likewise, less points for less challenging projects. Range is expected to be around +/- 10 points.
- Breakdown of points
  - Project Report requirements -- 10%
  - Project Demonstration requirements -- 10%
  - Project Functionality (meets the proposal goals) -- 80%

CONTEST!

As an added incentive, we'll be running a competition among your projects. Winners get a chance to select some goodies. Here's a sample voting/entry form .