Course Description

This is a two semester Computer Science capstone course culminating in a significant software project.

Bulletin Description: Planning, design, and construction of the capstone project; economic analysis of the project; application of software engineering principles, including software requirements, specification, requirements engineering, reuse, documentation, verification/validation, testing, configuration management. Includes a significant engagement in writing as a form of critical inquiry and scholarly expression to satisfy the WID requirement.

Learning Outcomes

  • Learn industry best practices, tools, and key elements in the software development process through a year-long computer science project: research and discovery, planning and design, development and launch.
  • Apply concepts from software engineering to the project: requirements, specifications, reuse, documentation, verification and validation, testing, configuration management.
  • Learn to communicate (written and oral) your work to stakeholders of the project: the case for launching the project, status reports, design, implementation plan, and demos.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts that you’ve learned in your Computer Science curriculum, and how knowledge and skill in Computer Science courses played a role in the project.
  • Explore local and global impact of computing, as well as social impact issues.
  • Demonstrate a working project.

Announcements

  • This website is under construction - all content subject to change!

Getting Started: Class Resources

You should have received an email with a survey about project topics and teams. If you have not then contact the instructors immediately.

  • Course Syllabus for the complete syllabus, requirements including grading policies, submission policies, and explanations.
  • 2022-23 Projects and Teams - these are the project teams for 2022-2023.
  • Project Criteria Read this document very carefully as you develop and propose your project ideas. Your project must meet the criteria specified in the Criteria document. Please read that carefully and make sure you can describe how your project proposal meets the requirements. You should also include what each team member will be responsible for.
    • Samples of Past Projects - examples of past senior design projects (some from waay back!). Browse through them to get an idea of the types of projects students have completed in the past (but these are all single person projects, so expect a larger scope for your projects since you are doing team projects).
    • Promotional Video of Class2021 Projects
  • 2022-23 Project Ideas from faculty If you are looking for project ideas/topics, this is a list of ideas proposed by faculty.
  • Blackboard Your place for major announcements. We will use this space for announcements that would change the outcomes, syllabus, or deadlines of the course, and to post your grades. Individual writing assignments will need to be submitted on blackboard.
  • Slack - Join here Your place for adhoc and daily communication. We will use this space for communication between team members, teams, mentors and instructors. We will use the same public channel (the general channel) for any classwide communication/discussion but you will have a team channel to use for your team and mentor communications.
  • Trello Your place for task management. We will use this space for managing project tasks and details. Each team will have their own Workspace to manage their project. Project mentors will have access to the project workspace. Sign up right away for your Trello account and provide this in the Class Logistics survey (due first week).
  • Github Your place for code management. We will use this to manage your deployments, store your code, and monitor your commit progress
  • Trello and Github Quickstart tutorial
  • Git Instructions & Video Demo (provided by Ethan Baron, Cat Meadows).
  • Visual Studio Code Instructions & Video Demo (provided by Ethan Baron, Cat Meadows)
  • Project Mentors (Technical Mentors): Each team will have a technical mentor assigned to them, and is required to meet regularly with their mentor. We recommend a weekly meeting but bi-weekly meetings, and sprint planning meetings, are required. The mentors are a valuable resource and they will help teams develop, evaluate, design, implement and test the projects. Mentor feedback will be an important part of your assessment.
  • Project Webpage You must have a webpage for your project. We are using Github Pages - see the syllabus page for details on webpage and final package contents.

Meeting Types

The class will have several types of meetings: lectures (in-person and online), standup meetings, sprint planning meeting, panel discussions, project presentations, mock interviews, tutorials, guest lectures (in-person and online), and demos.

  • Lecture/Presentation/Demo/Interviews will be held primarily during the regularly scheduled Wednesday (lab) classes.
  • What is a standup meeting? A Standup Meeting (Agile methodology) is a weekly high level project status meeting between the team and the project instructor/mentor. Each team will meet with their technical mentor and/or course instructor for their standup meeting; the meeting will be scheduled either during the class times or at a time arranged between the mentors and the team. During this meeting, we ask our team members, in order to most efficiently make progress on the project:
    – 1. What have you done since we last met ?
    – 2. What will you do until we meet again ?
    – 3. Anything blocking your progress ?
  • What is a Sprint Planning Meeting (SPM)? A Sprint Planning Meeting (Agile methodology) is a monthly meeting in which the team sets the goals and tasks they choose to commit to for the next month. The group determines which Backlog items will be handled in the next sprint.

Topics

Some of the topics covered in the course include:

  • SW Development Methdologies and Processes – tooling walkthrough
  • Project planning: Discovery and Research
  • Project Planning: planning in Practice
  • Developer tools
  • Development and delivery
  • Design and User Experience
  • Communication skills
    – a. Written reports (CS4243) is a WID course.
    – b. Oral presentation skills – presenting to different audiences
  • Teams: Roles, Communication and Collaboration
  • Career planning, career paths, Mock interviews

Schedule

Lecture notes, when made available, are linked from the schedule below.

Fall Semester CSCI 4243W

Week Lecture Session Lab(Wednesday) Work Deadlines (Sunday)  
Week 1
Aug.29th
Introductions, Project planning and Teams
Course Logistics
Introductions & Meet the Mentors
Methodologies, Tooling walkthrough
1.Complete the Logistics Survey - Sept.6 Noon
2. Form Team
3. Read Project Criteria
4. Create Trello Account
 
Sept.5th Meeting w/instructors:
project ideas
Project Planning: Discovery and Research
Standup meeting with mentors
1. Propose Project ideas
2. Submit Resume - by midnight, Sept.11
 
Sept.12th Presentation Tips & Practice
Meeting with instructors (project ideas)
Project Planning: Planning in Practice
Standup Meeting with mentors
Draft project proposal (One page) -Sept.18th (Post on team Slack channel )
discuss proposal draft with mentors & instructors
 
Sept.19th Instructor meeting:
Refined project ideas-components, HW equipment and SW needed
Mock Interviews
Standup meeting with mentors
1.Project Proposal (blackboard)
2. Hardware equipment and Software/data fees requests to instructors - Due Sept.25th
 
Sept.26th. Team presentation practice
Sprint Planning Meeting prep
Presentation Practice
SPM1 (Review Sprint plans) with mentors
1. Gantt Chart - Submit on your slack channel
2. Technical design discussions
3. Group feedback (optional) - email instructors
 
Oct.3rd Presentation feedback Project Development and delivery
Standup Meeting with mentors
1. Start draft (individual)
Writing 1: Executive Summary(Elevator pitch)- Individual Submission
2. Updated (if applicable) Gantt Chart
 
Oct.10th Presentations Presentation 1:
Project elevator pitch
Presentations-Rubric
Standup meeting with mentors
1. Teamwork Survey (Required)
2. Project Website (landing page)
3. Writing 1 Due Oct.16, Blackboard. Individual submission
 
Oct. 17th Feedback Feedback 1. Start draft of Writing 2: Technical summary
(Individual submissions)
2. Design review with mentors
 
Oct.24th Fall Break Presentation 2: Project Design
(Tech) Presentation 2 Rubric
Standup Meeting with mentors
Writing 2 Due Oct.30 Blackboard
Code Review
with mentors
 
Oct.31st Sprint Planning Meeting prep Project Design and User Experience
SPM with mentors
Discussion of User Interface  
Nov.7th Demo Review plans
UI Design

Presentation and PRDs
Standup meeting with mentors
Code Review 2  
Nov.14th Status report- teamwork Alumni talk: Lean Startups
Standup meeting with mentors
Writing 3 (Team) Due Nov.20, Blackboard
includes User Interface Design Document
2. Group Feedback (opt)
 
Nov.21st Status meeting:
prep for Alpha Prototype Demo
Thanksgiving Break    
Nov.28th Sprint Planning Meeting Sprint review with mentors
Demo Prep
Code Review 3  
Dec. 5 Status updates on Demo1 Presentation 3:
Demo 1: Alpha Prototype
Writing 4 draft  
Dec.12th   Team meetings if necessary Writing 4: Final Design Document (team) (Due Dec.14th)  
Winter Break end of CSCI 4243      

Spring Semester CSCI 4244

Week of Lecture Session Lab(Wednesday) Work Deadlines
Jan 17 Standup meeting:
project status review
Project review & Updates
Testing and Code Reviews
winter updates
Jan 24 Review course requirements
prepwork for Beta Demo
Preparing “promotional” (commercial) presentations
Project Status discussions (opt)
1. Code Review
2. Groupwork Feedback (Opt)
Jan. 31 Sprint Planning Meeting 4 Alumni Panel: The Startup World
Suraj Shah, Ben Fernandez (Class of 2020), Devin Kopp (Class of 2019)
Sprint Review
Final Project Webpage Design
Feb.7 Standup Meeting:
prep Demo
Demo 2: Beta Prototype Teamwork Survey (required)
Feb.14 Standup Meeting:
Planning your presentations
Course planning
Money management in the real world
1. Draft presentation videos
Code reviews
Feb.21 Presentation practice Presentation 4:
Final “promotional” presentation (elevator pitch)
3 minute presentation, rubric similar earlier presentations
 
Feb.28 Sprint Planning Meeting 5 Alumni Panel
Sprint Review
Code Review
Mar.7 Standup Meeting:
Demo 3
Demo 3: Prelim Prototype Group Feedback Survey (Reqd)
Mar.14 SPRING BREAK  
Mar.21 Mock 100% Demo Discussions/planning Alumni panel or Senior Focus Group Code reviews
Plan your mock 100% Demo
Mar.28 Sprint Planning Meeting 6 Senior Focus Group or Alumni Panel  
Apr. 4 Standup meeting Mock 100% Demo presentation and Final presentations practice Group Feedback (Opt)
Apr. 11 Standup meeting Alumni Panel:
Life after college
Final presentation slides
Complete promotional video and upload to website
Apr.18 Sprint Planning Meeting 7 Sprint review
Final presentation practice (Opt)
Code Review
Apr. 25 Final Demos Final Presentations and 100% Demos  
May 1 Makeup Makeup Demos Upload videos of demos
May 10   Final Package Due  
May 17   SEAS Senior Design Showcase
Details forthcoming
Commencement