CS 492 - Social Implications of Computing

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 50% of the overall course mark, between the three separate project milestones. The grading is 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. Students may do their projects with classmates from either of Sections 001 or 002 (but not Section 003).

The project must be connected to the course material. The first milestone for the project is a proposal due February 16. Please take instructor feedback to this proposal seriously; if you are advised to consider a different approach or topic and then do not, your overall project grade may suffer!

You may present your project in the class on 2 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 three milestones for the project are:
  1. A one-page project proposal, identifying your group membership, providing the topic under consideration, and the form of your project with as much detail or specificity as possible. Tell us why the topic is interesting, why it is relevant to this course, and how you will explore this topic in your project.

    This milestone will be worth 5% of the final grade and is due on February 16 at 11:59 PM by email to the course instructors. The course instructors will mark these proposals largely to confirm their suitability as small-group projects and that the described scope is consistent with the goals and objectives of the course project and to satisfy the grade requirement.

  2. A three-page project milestone, due on March 15 at 11:59 PM by email to the course instructors. In this milestone, students will provide a progress report: what are the goals of the project, what questions are the team trying to answer, why is the form of the project appropriate to answer those questions, what research has the team undertaken this far, and what has the team has learned thus far. If any problems or challenges have been encountered, they should be raised in this milestone.

    A key component of this milestone is to describe the current research the group has done, how they have identified appropriate sources, and what challenges exist with finding good data and content for the project.

    This milestone will be worth 15% of the final grade. The course instructors will mark these proposals to identify the level of seriousness of the research and to identify gaps or deficits in the project proposal, including around the research itself or its suitability to the course.

  3. The final submission for the projects, which is due on 8 April at 11:59 PM.

    This will be worth 30% of the final grade. This milestone has three parts:

    • A one-page description of the project, including the group members’ names, what question was being addressed, what form the project took, and a summary of the findings. This may also include a link to code repositories, or other specific items you want to have considered in your mark.
    • 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 of the project takes.

    All three components should be submitted in one file via the course's LEARN dropbox, no later than the due date. There will be no extensions for late projects; we need to submit course grades on time!

Two strong suggestions about the project: