CSC 4630-001 Software Development and System

Spring, 2013 Course Project


The purpose of this component of the course is for you to extend your understanding of software tool development. You'll be working on teams on this project. There's a list of topics attached, most of which probably entail analysis and implementation of such tools. However, some of them are pure "research" topics, should that be of greater interest or convenience. And the list isn't exhaustive: you're welcome to suggest other ideas.

What you will deliver consists of a group and topic, a draft, a paper and a presentation.

April 8: Your team and topic must be submitted by now. Each team must consist of two or three individuals. If you don't have any team lined up by this point, you can still get full credit for this stage by sending me a message to that effect and tell me a little about your interests and preferences. I'll then assign you to a team. Some of the topics are broad enough to accommodate different approaches. However, in principle, only one group is permitted per topic. The topics will be approved on a first-come first-served basis. To reserve yours, send me email with the names in your group and your chosen topic (sorry, without the group members' names I can't reserve the topic). Only one person from the team should send me this. Click here for current assignments of topics to groups.

April 24: Your drafts are due. These must also be mailed to me (again just one per team - it's a joint effort), and they should include just a brief outline of your paper and presentation, a description of how labor has been/will be divided, and a confirmation that the equipment in the room is sufficient for your presentation. You may use the instructor's system in our classroom or hook up your own laptop to the projector.

Final exam period (May 9, 8:30-11:00 AM): The presentations themselves will be made during the scheduled time for our final exam. Figure on 12 minutes per presentation by the two-person groups, 15 by the three-person ones. Hard copy of the slides and hard copy of the papers will also be submitted at this time.

It's hard to tell you an appropriate length for the paper. I'd say around seven double-spaced pages. If there's code, include it, plus a few sample runs. There should be an outline, an introduction, and a bibliography. If you implement some useful tool, it would be nice to make it available to your classmates (and instructor). There are differences between the paper and the presentation, of course. The paper is mostly for me and can be more detailed and technical. The presentation is mostly for your classmates. It is given under more limited time constraints, so it is more descriptive and much shorter.

Criteria for the grade: Strong and explicit correlation with course labs and lectures; organization, clarity, and contents of paper and presentation; presentation's engagement of classmates; challenge of topic; timely ending of presentation; adherence to deadlines. Of course your presence and attention during classmates' presentations will be recognized in the "class participation" component of your final grade.

Topics: This page has a list by general category. Some of the approaches you might take are

- comparisons (different ways attacking the same problem)

- system programming in a new environment (e.g., Perl)

Overlap with other courses: Although work that's related to other courses is always welcome, don't do a project which you've actually learned or done in another course, such as Computer Networks or Web Programming or Senior Projects.

References: If you wish, you can sign one out for a while from my office. I've got copies of pretty much all of the references mentioned in the syllabus.


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