Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences) Direction

Capstone Project - Handbook[1]

CST Faculty

Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences) Direction

Pro-Dean Dean

Biljana Percinkova, PhD Zamir Dika, PhD

______

SEEU, 2005

Capstone Project - Handbook

1Introduction

This handbook is designed to help the final year students in the SEEU, Communication Sciences and Technologies (CST), Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences) direction, to choose, plan, start and complete a successful Capstone project.

The SEEU regulations require that students studying for CST, Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences), complete a CAPSTONE PROJECT worth 20 ECST credits (transferred students 10 ECTS credits).

Undertaking the capstone project requires the approval of the Dean’s office under the correspondent Pro-Deans coordination, who will take into account the student’s progress. If a student’s grade point average GPA module mark is less than 7 after completion of the taught modules the CST Faculty Council Committee may decide not to authorise progression to capstone project.

A capstone project is a large piece of work selected from a suitable area of computing to reflect your chosen subject programme and must contain original material.

Your capstone project is a useful tool to advertise your capabilities to prospective employers. You should think carefully about the skills you wish to demonstrate.

The selection of a capstone project is normally carried out during semester 7 and 8.

Your choice will be done according to your own professional interests and within the frames of the areas CST Department of Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences). The areas you can choose within the Communication Technologies and (Computer Sciences) Direction at the CST Faculty are depending from the staff specializm and in cooperation with the supervisor that you will choose. Please look at the Staff specialism, Appendix A of this handbook..

2What is a capstone project?

A capstone project is a scholarly work of at least 10000 words in length that reports the results of research and work in a particular area.

The capstone project you are planning to undertake is equivalent to three of the course modules (20 ECST) you have previously experienced. This reflects the amount of work expected.

The capstone project should incorporate knowledge from at least one of the course modules you have already studied and preferably more. In general the capstone project may take one of the following forms:

Investigative:research into a particular system with practical experiments

Evaluative:an evaluation of a particular system

Constructive: the design and implementation of a particular system

Practical: internship report

All of the above forms of capstone project will normally contain the following features:

An analysis of a practical problem
A review and critical analysis of the relevant literature
An evaluation of results

The capstone project should contain a balance between theoretical work and a practical project. Although there is no absolute necessity for the research to include application development, it would normally be expected that it would include at least a practical design exercise.

The capstone project work may be carried out as part of a larger research project, in co-operation with an industrial organisation or on an individual basis.

You are strongly encouraged to make contacts with the ICT business sector in the country and in the region and to search ideas and problems.

3Planning Your Capstone Project

Students will start to formalise their capstone project towards the start of semester 7. It is your responsibility to find a supervisor for your capstone project. Look at the CST, Communication Technologies (Computer Sciences) research pages on the Web (or in 305.19 Student Information Desk, and also at the back of this booklet) for the research interests of academic staff in the CST Faculty. A list of staff areas of interest is also given in Appendix A. When you have decided on your proposed area of study, you should approach a member of staff who has expertise in your area with a capstone project proposal which weights 10% of the marks.

The request form for CAPSTONE (Appendix B) should be submitted to the chosen Professor not latter than 09.11.2005. Each Professor will announce the schedule for submission (with the help of the appointed assistant) in front of their offices.

After the reviewing of the requests, each professor will announce the list of approved students (Capstone thesis) not later than 5 days after the submission period.

After approval each student will prepare the CAPSTONE project proposal (Appendix C) not later then one week after the announcement of approved thesis.

The Capstone project Proposal should be approximately 1500 - 2500 words long and include the following:

Working Title – You should have a working title for your capstone project

Abstract – normally 500 words long which briefly describes your capstone project proposal. You should include the proposed title of the capstone project and an overview of what you intend to do and how you intend to do it.

Objectives – You should state what the objectives are for your capstone project. These objectives may take the form of a list. If you are undertaking the capstone project work as part of a larger project or in conjunction with your employer you must separate your own personal objectives for the capstone project from those of the larger organisation.

Planning and Methods – you should explain how you intend to meet the objectives and what this will involve in terms of time and resources.

Internship details – If you are planning your work to be connected with some local, national or international company in any way.

The capstone project proposal will be submitted as part of the whole capstone project and will attract 10% of the marks.

Your Capstone Project layout should be as folows:

Cover Page and Originality statement – Available from the Dean’s office

Capstone project Registration form – The signed form of the registration

Abstract – normally 500 words long which briefly describes your capstone project. It serves as summary description.

Acknowledgement – A chance to say something more about the project and its development

Table of Contents – The content of the project by page

Table of Figures – Table of all used figures

List of Tables – List of all tables used in the project

Disertation Proposal – you should include your signed capstone project proposal from your supervisor.

Content – Your capstone project content

Conclusion – What is your conclusion

Future Developments

Appendix – All the data used and gathered in the project

References – Reference all your work. Explain in detail were you got the ideas and at which pages of the book or articles and were they can be found. List of URL visited and used in the project.

Bibliography – List of all books used or recomended for similar projects

If you want to propose a project you have to follow these guidelines and suggestions:
A: What NOT to do:
- Do not propose a project that will be ambitious in a beginning and for
which you will not be able to give a complete solution / presentation (softwaree that does not work correctly, too simple or incomplete data bases etc.)
- Do not propose a subject for which it is not clear how much "ready" code you will use, and how much real implementation and programming you will do. The Computer Science aspect of your project must be strong part of the project. Projects that are designated to so called "state of the art" of a specific domain are not suitable for final project subjects. It is not enough just to present a specific area possibly not covered during your university curricula - you have to show the ability to develop applications and to develop in a engineering way: by stating clearly the problem, developing its model from the Computer Science perspective, proposing a solution, comparing your results with the known results and approaches.
- Do not put the accent of your work ONLY on the development of the application from the programming perspective. Good software is needed along with the correspondent documentation, but it is not a sufficient condition. You have to put your practical work in the framework of one complete Bachelor of Sciences perspective, showing the theoretical model of the work and explaining the approach that gave the software as it will be in your work.

B: Here are some elements that HAVE TO BE a part of your project:

Technological pertinence: For the projects that does not have a specific research orientation, a complete analysis of the space of solutions should be given, and an argument discussion on the specific choice that was followed in the project is a must.

Rigorous analysis: The project should contain a complete description of the problem, regardless of the specific approach that was chosen for its solution in your work. This is an important introductory part of the project and should be used as a guideline for the argumentation of the steps and decisions taken during the solution proposed by your project.

Document research: The documents that were used during the realization should be clearly referenced and commented in the places of your work where they were used.

Software engineering aspect: Your realizations should be completed with a correspondent set of texts and documents explaining the model, the practical realization, the limits of your realization, and a sort of user manual is necessary in order to complete the values of the software that you produced.

Portability: Your product should contain an analysis of its portability on systems different from the system on which it was developed. This should clearly define the conditions and constraints that are caused from the platform / Operating system / environment of software development of your project.
Ambition and contents: Your project has to contain technical and/or scientific aspects. In the ideal case you should work on original problems and propose your own solutions.
Evaluation: Your work will be evaluated from three main aspects: Quality of the work from the beginning till the end, Quality of the textual presentation, Quality of the oral presentation. Each of these aspects is equally important for the evaluation of your work. Your final project reports (the text of the final project) will be keep at the SEE University and its quality should be at the correspondent level.
The amount of work requested: Please note that your projects are normally with a load of 10 credits per a semester and consider the correspondent quantity of work load.

4.Supervision

With the guidance of your supervisor you will set up a structure for your capstone project. Your supervisor will be able to tell you the level of work required and what should be contained in a suitable capstone project.

Your supervisor is there to help you but the ultimate responsibility for the capstone project rests with you.

Each supervisor will announce a schedule of CAPSTONE classes (group meeting) which will be held in regular bases twice per month. Also, each supervisor will announce consultation hours with the CAPSTONE students.

5Capstone project Assessment

5.1 Procedure

Your capstone project will be assessed by your supervisor, together with two independent assessors, drawn from the academic staff. It is also subject to moderation by an external examiner.

The capstone project mark is finalised at the CST Faculty Examinations Committee.

6Capstone project Marking Scheme

The amount of work completed should reflect the work of three taught modules for Computer Science direction students. The mark distribution below is given as a percentage and is a rough guide for an average capstone project. The proportion of marks can be adjusted by your supervisor. For example if your capstone project is more research based with little technical content the research mark (1) would be increased and the technical content mark (3) would be decreased. Some of the sub categories will not be appropriate for every capstone project.

(1) Evidence of research into the background to the topic:20%

- a demonstrated ability to absorb and evaluate an existing body of work

- a clear contribution of the references to the content of the capstone project

(2) Analytical content: 40%

- evidence of analysis of the nature of the problem

- evidence of analyse of the methods used in the capstone project

- evidence of analyse of the findings of the capstone project

- possible comparison of methods or technologies used

(3)Technical content:40%

- evidence of an ability to understand the nature of the technical problem and determine the tools necessary to solve it

- evidence of an ability to learn new techniques and technologies in order to solve a problem

- evidence of an ability to use techniques already learnt in the course

- evidence of an ability to tackle a technical problem and solve it with the necessary tools

7Examples of Past Capstone project Titles

Previous capstone project Capstone Projects can be found at 305.19

8 Guide to Carrying Out Research

8.1Before you begin

Whatever type of capstone project you are embarking on, you will need to research the background of the subject. However, before you even start to carry out your literature search there are a number of things you will need to consider:

Where might I find the information?

What time span am I thinking of. How up-to-date must it be?

Should I only consider what is happening in this country, or internationally?

What sources could I use to begin my search?

What help can I get (or shortcuts can I take)?

Having thought about these, you can now start to look for information. Remember, you don't have to make final decisions at this stage - you will develop your ideas, as your literature search and your research, develop.

8.2Resources

Beginning your search

Your capstone project is to a large extent a research capstone project and therefore needs up to date information. Current research, and even recent research, can be quite difficult to find out about. However, there are a number of ways to help make this easier:

Using the SEE University Max Van Der Shtul Library

Textual resources

If you need advice about how to conduct a search, or how to look for primary sources, ask at the enquiry desk. For more information about the related catalogues, please refer to the relevant pages and http://library.seeu.edu.mk

For the EBSCO-n if you are using it inside the library you don’t need user id and password. For the University library web page (http://library.seeu.edu.mk) you do not need user id, you can search or browse directly for the existing titles.

Browsing

If you are beginning your research, you may want to browse the shelves of the relevant section in the Library; material is arranged by subject and guides to the subject classification scheme are available. You may then want to search the online catalogue ( and http://library.seeu.edu.mk) for further references. If your area of study is more specific and you are looking for published sources, search the online catalogue to begin with.

Specific references and subject searching

If you are searching for a known item, or want to find the full extent of our published holdings, it is best to check the Online Catalogue first. Please note the collection, shelf mark and whether the item is on open or closed access. All closed access material needs to be ordered.

Archives and manuscripts

For all unpublished material, it is necessary to consult the librarian on duty. Readers are required to complete and sign an additional undertaking, and are advised that, particularly when using archival material, they should make an initial appointment to speak to, an archivist.

Reviews

A review covers the entire scope of a topic, outlining what has been done and what is known about it. If you are fortunate enough to find a recent review, then you can search back using the references it cites and find other papers on the same topic. This gives a historical perspective of what is known already.

Many subject areas have annual publications which review specific topics. Typical names include:

Advances in..., Annual Review of...., Current Topics in ... etc.

Journals

Most research is usually submitted for publication in journals.

Abstracts & Indexes

Most subject areas tend to be covered by a variety of journals. To find out what has been written in a subject area, abstracting and indexing journals are published.

An abstracting journal gives a short summary - or abstract - of the article as well as the bibliographic details given in an indexing journal. Frequently the abstract will give sufficient information to enable you to decide whether or not you need to see the original article. An abstracting journal usually has a broad subject arrangement and author and subject indexes.

Returning material

Return all closed-access material to the relevant enquiry desk at the end of prescription deadline. Please dont keep the materials longer than you need to.

Reserving material: closed-access material can be held on reserve for up to two weeks. Please tell the duty librarian. Please inform them as soon as you have finished with reserved materials.

Accessing information not held at SEE University Library

As you search for information, you will almost certainly encounter references which are not held in the SEEU Library, in such cases the research falls on you to find the needed materials.

9Submitting your capstone project