Here are some things to think about for a proposal. Title. Project members. 1) The Problem Statement, Idea or Hypothesis. What problem is being studied or addressed. It doesn't necessarily have to be a new idea. 2) Motivation. Why is this problem, idea, or hypothesis interesting? Who cares? Why? What impact will it have? 3) Goals/Objectives What is it you are going to do? How can you or anyone else tell if you've reached your goals? 4) Apparatus What hardware/software is required? Do you have access to the facilities that are required? 5) Methodology How will you evaluate your idea or hypthesis? What will be the performance metric(s)? Will you do any statistical analysis of your results? What type? How long do you think it will take to conduct your experiments. 5) Milestones. a) Short Term Things that will definitely get done. b) Medium Term Things you'd like to get done if things go well. c) Long Term Things that will get done if everything goes really well. Think about a proposal for which you can get all of a) and possibly some of b) done.