CSCI 4970: Computer Science Capstone Project

Spring 2011

Meeting time: TR 1:30-2:45

Classroom: TBD

Instructor: Dr. Harvey Siy

Office: PKI 281B

Phone: (402)554-2834

Email: hsiy at unomaha dot edu

Office Hours: By appointment (call or email ahead)

Textbook:
(optional) Program Development in Java: Abstraction, Specification, and Object-Oriented Design by Liskov and Guttag, Addison-Wesley, 2000.

Overview

The Capstone Project represents the crowning achievement of a Computer Science student's undergraduate experience, enabling him or her to apply fundamental computer science principles to the solution of real-world problems. Students will employ software engineering techniques to develop the project in a systematic manner.

Prerequisites

Software engineering (CSCI 4830)
Senior standing in CS
Ability to work in a team

Learning Objectives

Students who complete this course will:

Recognize and appreciate how fundamental computer science principles apply to real-world problems.
Improve their communication skills through interaction with an actual client.
Gain proficiency in modeling, implementing and testing nontrivial software applications.
Gain more experience in working in teams.

How it works

Students will form teams.
Students will find and work with a client to develop a project proposal.
Once the proposed project has been approved by the instructor and client, students will consult with the instructor and develop a project plan for delivering a final product acceptable to the client.
Students will be accountable for meeting the planned milestones and reporting progress to the instructor and/or the client.
Upon completion of the project, students will publicly present and demonstrate their work.

In parallel, we will have lectures for the first few weeks. Topics covered include:

Team collaboration
Review of requirements analysis and design models
Test-first development
Version control
Software analysis and testing
Additional lectures specific to a project may also be provided

Suitable Projects

While there are lots of possibilities to choose from, projects are expected to have a challenging algorithmic component requiring the nontrivial application of computer science principles. Example application types include scheduling, simulation, data mining, cyber-physical systems, and scientific computing. Projects will usually involve sophisticated algorithms manipulating complex structures, and may involve overlapping areas such as language processing, networks, embedded systems, real-time systems, parallel computation, databases, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, etc.

Evaluation

There are no exams or graded homeworks in this course. Students will be evaluated based on the quality of the project at the end of the semester. Evaluation rubrics will be provided at the start of the semester.

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Meeting time:	TR 1:30-2:45
Classroom:	TBD
Instructor:	Dr. Harvey Siy
Office:	PKI 281B
Phone:	(402)554-2834
Email:	hsiy at unomaha dot edu
Office Hours:	By appointment (call or email ahead)
Textbook: (optional)	Program Development in Java: Abstraction, Specification, and Object-Oriented Design by Liskov and Guttag, Addison-Wesley, 2000.