CMP 161 -- Final Project Guidelines

Important Dates:

Feb 18, 2005, 12pm -- Preliminary project proposals due.
Feb 23, 2005, 12pm -- Final project approval and proposal.
Mar 15, 2005, 4pm -- 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! March 15 is the final deadline. Nothing will be accepted beyond that date. 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 completed in about 2 weeks. 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 preferable only if you have drawings). I will respond to you by email, so be sure to include your email address in the hardcopy.

Since students should preferably work on different project topics, those getting the proposals in early and finalized get 1st pick 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. You should set up your report as an html file.

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.
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.
- brief description of your project,
- a mini user's guide,
- sample output i.e. images and short animation clips
Project Submission. Create and submit a subdirectory called "proj". Use submit from unix.ic.
- To submit use: submit cmps161-ap.w05 proj files
- To verify submission use: peek cmps161-ap.w05 proj
Include the following:
- 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 favority screen grabs , "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.
Project Grading.
- There will be no early bonus points, nor will late programs be accepted.
- While arriving at your final project, they will be rated as either: Easy, Medium, Difficult. Successfully completed Easy projects get a maximum score of 90, Medium is 100, and Difficult is 110.
- Breakdown of points (in percentage of maximum 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 .