Individual Project
A major component of this course will be the execution of a term
project.
Students
may choose a project from a
list of suggested projects
or propose one of their own ideas.
Projects can be done singly or in pairs.
Projects
will naturally be expected to require an
effort proportional to the number of team members. All members of a project
team will receive the same grade on the project, except in extraordinary
circumstances.
Phases
Projects will be structured as a sequence of phases. Completion of one
phase is not required for initiation of the next. In many cases, it will
benefit you to be working on multiple phases at the same time. For instance,
you might be working on the implementation of an initial prototype concurrently
with searching and reviewing the relevant literature.
Initial Proposal
Describe your plans to meet these requirements in a proposal of approximately
a page.
Your proposal should describe:
-
the motivation for your project (a paragraph or so)
-
your approach to the problem. Include as much information about specific representations, user interface design, and code design as you can.
-
exactly what you expect to produce (ie, your deliverables).
-
planned extensions if time permits. Mark these clearly as extensions and prioritize them.
Annotated Bibliography
Review the literature describing other approaches to problems similar to
yours. Summarize each relevant article in a paragraph or so.
Describe how the approach taken in related work is similar to and
different from yours. Include complete references for all papers cited.
Your annotated bibliography will be converted into a literature review to
become part of your final paper.
Correct spelling and grammar count, so check them before you hand anything
in.
Revised Proposal
Revise your proposal to respond to instructor comments. Also, use
what you've learned in your literature survey to fine-tune your
approach. Give a 5 minute presentation to the class about your plans.
Progress Report
Summarize progress to date (including images) in a report of
approximately a page. Give a 5-10 minute summary to the class. Feel
free to ask the class for feedback on how to approach remaining
problems.
Presentation
Prepare and present a 20 minute presentation of your project. Your
presentation should be professional enough to give at a technical
conference (e.g. organized approach, prepared slides, a short demo or
video if appropriate).
Final Release
Package all code and supporting documentation into a final release.
Your
final release should include:
-
all code produced
-
description of how the completed project corresponds to the proposal
-
a user's guide describing how to use your project
Paper
Write a 3000 word technical paper describing your project in the
style of a (very short) SIGGRAPH paper (other
formats may be acceptable with pre-approval). Sections you should plan
to include are: abstract, introduction, related work (adapt your annotated
bibliography for this), implementation, results, future directions, and references.
Your paper should include figures and images as appropriate.
Correct spelling and grammar count in all submitted work, so
check them before you hand anything in.
Deadlines
Each phase of the project has a due date. In this way, as in others, this
project mimics work in the real world. Phases may be turned in
up to one week after the due date with a 20% grade penalty. Phases
will not be accepted more than a week late.
| Phase | Due Date
| | Initial Proposal | Feb. 12
|
| Annotated Bibliography | Feb. 26
|
| Revised Proposal | Feb. 26
|
| Progress Report | April 1
|
| Paper Draft | April 21
|
| Presentation | May 4
|
| Final Release | May 10
|
| Final Paper | May 10
|