Groups: check if your group is online!

The project is an important part of this course, and the purpose behind it is to gain experience in applying the concepts and technologies presented in this course to real-life situations. Each project group will have at least 3 members and at most 5. Your project group will choose a significant, innovative, application of interest to you. The design and implementation of the application utilizes several of the concepts presented in class. Students will be allowed to put together their own groups, if this can not be done, groups will be assigned.

The final mark (50%) for the project will be based on the following grading criteria:

• Idea of the project and the extent of it: 5%
  Submit a one-page document that describes the idea of your application. It is important that your application be of a complexity and scale that does not exceed the intentions of this project. For this reason, get approval for your application from the instructor. In grading this, I will be looking at: how compelling is your application? How much impact will network computing make on cost, quality, functionality, etc.? How innovative is your application? Is it significantly different from existing commercial applications?
• Quality of the design: 10%
  Submit a four to six page document that describes your design. Make sure you include the architecture of your application and what technologies you will be using for this application and why.
• Implementation and functionality: 15%
  Make sure your code is commented, readable, and functional.
• Presentation: 10%
  The group will demonstrate and defend their work. You must prepare PowerPoint Slides for a 15-minute presentation. Each presentation will be followed by 5-minutes for questions. Here are a few pointers on making a good presentation:
  • ppt presentation tips
  • Hints for Making effective presentations
  • power point hints and tips
  • more ppt hints
• Final paper: 10%
  This is a conference quality paper. 6 - 10 pages (~5000 words), Times 10 Font, double column. Paper includes: an abstract, keywords, introduction, relation to other work, the main body of work, conclusions with contribution made, thoughts about any future work, references. Please use this template.

Project items submission dates?

• Jan. 11: form a group and e-mail me the group info (names and student numbers).
• Jan. 30: e-mail me one-page description of your project.
• Mar. 27 - Apr. 5: presentations. Your design document (hard copy) must be handed in on the day of your presentation.
• Apr. 5: a floppy disk containing your source code and a description of how to run the application. Also, the final paper (hard copy) is due on that day.