CSE 403 project: Project proposal

Overview

Develop an exciting project idea with one other student.
Write a 1-2 page proposal document.
Prepare a 4-slide slideshow.
Submit 2 PDFs to Canvas.
Register your Project for Others to View.
Pitch your project idea to the whole class and listen to other pitches.
Submit Individual or Group Project Preferences.

Setup

You’ll be assigned to a random group of two students via Canvas (‘Project proposal’ group set).

Instructions

1. Develop an interesting project idea.

The project should be appropriate for a 6-person CSE 403 team to complete in 9 weeks.

2. Write a 1-2 page proposal document (PDF)

Proposal document requirements (taken from the Heilmeier Catechism):

Title: Start with a short and catchy project title (not “CSE 403 project”) and your full names.
Abstract: The first paragraph of your document must be an abstract (or executive summary, or TL;DR) that explains your project at a high level. If someone read nothing but that one paragraph, what do you want them to know?
Goal: What are you trying to do? For example, what task or problem will your system help users with?
Current practice: How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
Novelty: What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be more successful than other approaches? Do not reinvent the wheel or reimplement something that already exists, unless your approach is different.
Effects: Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
Technical approach: Briefly describe your proposed technical approach. This may include what system architecture, technologies, and tools you may use.
Risks: What is the single most serious challenge or risk you foresee with developing your project on time? How will you minimize or mitigate the risk? Don’t state generic risks that would be equally applicable to any project, like “we might run out of time”.

3. Create a 4-page slideshow presentation (PDF)

Present your project idea at a higher level, compared to your proposal document.
Start with your project name and your full names.
Focus on the essentials. You have very little time, so don’t dive into technical details.
You have two goals: (1) convince the CSE 403 staff to approve and staff the project and (2) convince other students to join the project. Don’t include details that do not pertain to those two goals.

Slide deck requirements:

Exactly 4 slides, including the title slide.
The title slide should list the project title and your full names. It may or may not contain other content.
Your slides must include at least one diagram or figure.

4. Submit to Canvas

Submit two PDF documents to Canvas:

Name your proposal document [last name]_[last name]_proposal.pdf.
Name your slide deck [last name]_[last name]_slides.pdf.

5. Register your Project for Others to View

Fill out the project intake form (one per group). All projects are put in a single spreadsheet and shared with the class to allow everyone to browse the projects and submit preferences.

Register your project by the due date of this assingment.

6. Pitch your project and listen to other pitches

All pitches will be presented in class (see the calendar).

You will have 2.5 minutes. The staff will cut you off at that time if you have not finished. Practice your presentation beforehand to ensure it fits the time!
Both group members must participate in your presentation.
Take notes on pitches that interest you, read the corresponding proposal document, and reach out to other members of the class for clarifications and/or to organize into a group.

7. Submit Individual or Group Project Preferences

Review proposal materials (list of all projects), reach out to the proposers with any questions, and then submit your project preferences.

If you do not have a group: fill out the individual project preference form.
If you already have a group: fill out the group project preference form (one per group).

If you submit preferences as a group, you do not need to submit individual preferences.

Submit your preferences by 2pm on Friday 04/11.

FAQ

Will my grade depend on whether my project is chosen?

No. Your grade is not based upon whether your project is chosen (by other students or by the 403 staff) to be implemented. Rather, your grade is based on the quality of your materials and your presentation. We will be evaluating whether you have addressed the identified project elements, made reasonable judgments concerning them, and organized and presented your pitch well.

Do I have to work on the project that I proposed?

No. Your ranking (submitted in week 2) does not have to include your own proposal, if you are more excited about other teams’ ideas. Also, you do not need to work with your proposal partner.

How many people can work together on a project?

We will aim for groups of 5-6 students per project. If a project proposal is particularly popular, it is possible that more than one group can work on the same project idea – with a different focus or technical approach.

How will you create the project groups?

We will try to give you your first project choice, based on your project ranking.
If a set of students submitted identical group members and project preferences, that group will not be split up.
We may reject some projects because they are poorly scoped for the class (too hard or too easy), require unavailable resources, or have other problems. Or, we may provide feedback to make it more appropriate.
We will avoid assigning you a project that we think suffers higher-than-average chances of failure in the class, based on our experience.

How should I describe current practice?

You should spend nearly as much time understanding what already exists as you do coming up with something new. For example, don’t propose to develop a web search engine without knowing that Google exists. You could propose, however, some search engine features that you believe would be useful and that Google doesn’t provide.

Clearly explain what differentiates your project from the alternatives. Differentiate the top-level objectives, target customers, scope, and technical approach of your product from existing, alternative products. Indicate what is novel about your proposed features. Don’t belabor features that are standard in existing packages.

Also, indicate how the proposed project poses interesting design (or other) challenges from a software engineering point of view.

Any advice regarding writing and presentation?

Excellent question! Here are some tips:

Be specific and give examples – whether you are explaining a problem or a solution.
Include mockups if you are proposing a system with a GUI.
Make your slides simple and readable. Make sure your fonts are large enough to be easily read from the back of the room; there is sufficient contrast between the text and background color; and the slides are free of distracting design elements (such as background images or slide template graphics).
Put the take-home points on the slides, in telegraphic form (no full sentences). You can use these as memory joggers during the presentation. Your live presentation should go beyond what’s on the slides – do not just read the text on your slides. Doing so is incredibly boring to the audience, and if you do so, it means there is too much text on your slides.
Use color effectively, but be aware that some people do not see the full color spectrum. Highlight the key points to draw the reader’s eye and indicate what really matters about the slide. Use similar colors for related things.