You will complete a substantial, individual capstone project which should tie together multiple things you have learned throughout your time at Hendrix. The capstone project could take many forms. Some ideas include:
Developing a substantial piece of software, either on your own or for a client
Writing an expository paper summarizing and synthesizing an area of research
Making significant contributions to an open-source project
Writing a tutorial or other documentation for a technology or piece of software
Undertaking an independent research project
There are three components to this project, the Work, the Writing, and the Presentation.
During the first two weeks of the semester, we will develop project proposals and work plans. Thereafter, most Tuesdays will be devoted to in-class peer progress reports. These structures are designed to help support your progress on the work and provide timely feedback.
Your project proposal should be about 1-2 pages, and should answer these questions:
During class, after receiving peer feedback, each student will revise their project proposal, and submit a final project proposal by the end of the class period.
After receiving professor feedback on your initial proposal, you should turn in a revised version that takes this feedback into account.
Along with your revised proposal, you should turn in a work plan, up to 1 page explaining how you will make time to work on your capstone project. Be as specific as possible, and be creative in coming up with very specific ways to help yourself succeed. Some examples:
Horrible: “I will work on my project 6 hours per week.”
Bad: “I will work on my project from 2-4pm every Tuesday and from 1-5 pm every Sunday.”
Better: “Every Tuesday from 2-4pm, I will go to the park near my house which is a good distraction-free place for me to work. If it is raining I will sit at my desk instead. I will turn off my phone and put Teams in “Do Not Disturb” mode. For the first 4 weeks of the semester I will spend those two hours doing background reading; I will print papers I want to read ahead of time and write notes in the margins as I read. On Sundays, …” and so on.
During class, after receiving peer feedback, each student will revise their project work plan, and submit a final project work plan by the end of the class period.
Most Tuesdays, the class will be divided into groups of 3-4 students. Each student will give a 5-slide presentation to their group using their own computer. The 5 slides will be as follows:
A discussion of the presentation ensues, along the following lines:
After every student has presented and discussed their progress, they will examine the notes and write a one-page summation of their plans for the next week, taking the discussion into account. Each student will submit this summation by the end of the class period.
Each student will complete a lengthy paper (approxmiately 25 pages) describing their capstone project.
The paper should be organized as follows:
Abstract: This is a summary of the project, including results. It should be about one to three paragraphs in length.
Introduction: This is an overview of the paper. It should explain why the project is interesting to undertake. It should also explain what the reader should expect in the forthcoming sections of the paper. It should be 2-5 pages in length.
Background: This discusses the context in which the project is occurring. It should discuss prior computing work that is similar or inspirational. It should discuss enabling technologies (such as libraries) that the project relies upon. It should also discuss the non-computing context of the work, especially when applying computing to solve a non-computing problem. It should be 5-10 pages in length.
Body: This describes the project in detail.
For an implementation project, the body describes the implementation in detail, including a discussion of design trade-offs. It will also include an assessment of how well the implemented work met its goals.
For an expository paper, the background section explains the work it is built upon, while the body contains a detailed analysis of that work. But for an expository paper, differentiating the background from the body is not especially important. It should be 8-16 pages in length.
Conclusion: This reminds the reader of the major findings and outcomes of the work as explained throughout. It also discusses what could be done next to build upon the work presented therein. It should be 2-5 pages in length.
You must write your capstone paper using LaTeX on the overleaf site, using this template.
Some helpful LaTeX resources are linked below:
Detexify
To approach a paper of this size, we will approach it in increments.
On each due date, students will be expected to submit the current draft of their paper. The draft should be completed up to the specified point.
After the drafts are submitted, the instructor will provide feedback on it.
For one of your last three drafts, you should visit the writing center for advice and feedback.
Each student will give a 12-minute oral presentation of their project outcome.
Your presentation should be guided by the presentation rubric linked here.