Project
Students will create a project in small groups. The project must be connected to the subject matter of the course. The mark for the project will count for 35% of the overall course mark, as described on the grading pane.
Your project team will consist of two to four students. Larger teams are to produce a more substantial project.
Please identify your team early in the course, and use the Slack channel to help yourself find teammates, if you know what topic you want to explore.
The project must be connected to the course material. Teams must submit a very brief email proposal to the instructor by 27 February. Please take instructor feedback to this proposal seriously; if you are advised to consider a different approach or topic and then do not, your project grade may suffer!
You may present your project in the class on 4 April; doing so will count for participation marks, and will also be fun. We will have a sign up for these presentations in March.
The final submission for the projects, which is due on 10 Aprilat 11:59 PM consists of:
- A one-page description of the project, including the group members’ names, what question is being addressed, what form the project took, and summarizing the findings. This may also include a link to code repositories, or other specific items you want to have marked.
- A five-minute video tour of the project and its findings. This should focus on results and demonstrating any system built. For a podcast project, identify the articles you discussed, how you found them, and the technology you used in the preparation of the podcast.
- The actual project: a usable website, a finished podcast, a functional chatbot, a playable game, or whatever the final form takes. This is submitted via the course's LEARN dropbox, with the due date of 10 April at 11:59 PM.
Two strong suggestions about the project:
- Don't wait until the last minute. A poor project mark can really sink your grade in CS 492!
- We urge you not to do a podcast for this project unless you have something novel to say or a particularly unique style to present the topic; it is too easy to just make a chatty conversation with not much content, which will not garner a good grade. If you do a podcast, please focus on a small number of topics, find articles to discuss that are not in the course readings, keep a tight thematic focus, and find a very creative way to present the material.