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Final Year Projects

Final Year Projects. Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy Director of CS Senior Design Program University of Texas at Dallas, USA jeyv@utdallas.edu. Agenda. Final year industry projects in CS & Engg @ UT Dallas What can you do in your college? Preparing students for final year projects.

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Final Year Projects

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  1. Final Year Projects Dr. Jeyakesavan Veerasamy Director of CS Senior Design Program University of Texas at Dallas, USA jeyv@utdallas.edu

  2. Agenda • Final year industry projects in CS & Engg@ UT Dallas • What can you do in your college? • Preparing students for final year projects

  3. Why industry projects? • Real-world experience for students • University colloboration opportunity for industry • It is like 3 month interview process to hire new employees!

  4. EE/ME projects • 2 semester projects since students need to identify parts, order and assemble etc. • Bit slower pace compared to 1 semester CS projects. • We are finding it bit harder to find EE projects compared to CS – ME is reasonably new program doing capstone projects 1st time. • Project cost: $13K

  5. CS final year projects @ UT Dallas • Almost all projects are industry sponsored. • We had ~18 industry projects in Spring 2012 term. • Typically 4 students/team. • Industry pays $8000/project, so they expect results! • Industry mentor is actively involved • conducts weekly or biweekly meetings • Faculty mentor has limited project manager role. • Companies of all sizes: 1 person business to MNCs. • Lot of repeat customers & students get jobs too. • Final grade is decided by faculty mentor based on the project’s success and each student’s effort.

  6. Industry projects: Process 2 or 3 months before each term: • Soliciting projects from industry First 2 weeks of the term: • Presentation of projects to students • Students form the teams & indicate “favourite” projects. • Project assignments  teams • Kickoff meeting with industry • NDA and IP agreements (paperwork similar to part-time employment)

  7. Industry projects: Process … Remaining term: • Students write “Project Proposal / Contract” • typically use 3 milestones (~1 month each) • Weekly meetings or conference calls End of term: Senior Design Day Celebration: • Presentations & Poster session • All local industry folks are invited (50 to 100 attendees) • Awards to best projects

  8. Misc. notes • Hard to do remote projects with 100% effectiveness. • Official warning (mid-term grades) given to lethargic teams  • Almost all projects are successful due to weekly tracking & mentoring. Since students selected the projects, we do not need to push them! • Students cannot graduate without a good grade in the project course  • Hire an intern vs. sponsor a final year project

  9. More notes… • We have a team of 4 people who work on soliciting projects in addition to our teaching duties. • I attend all local technical meetings and promote UTDesign projects – I never thought I will work as a salesman in my life! • Trust between colleges & industry is very high.

  10. Observations… • We have completed ~65 projects so far in the past 2 ½ years. • When companies pay money, they are serious about projects – they push students! Students respond better too. • Even average students perform better in project course! • 4 credit hour course  we expect students to work 10 – 12 hours per week.

  11. Exception scenarios … • Pushy industry mentor – considers students as “cheap labor”? • Too soft industry mentor • Big companies – weak/no technical mentor • Too big or too small projects • What if no one wants to do the project? • What if a student wants to build on a brilliant idea on his/her own? • Do not accept “critical path” projects

  12. What can you do in your college? • Start with simple industry projects • Direct solicitation of projects from industry/businesses • Service projects for college and local community • Tackling “Trust factor”: Use your alumni to get started • Track progress & ensure “reasonable” success? • Encourage a mix of superstars & average students in each team • Project success & students’ work  course grade • Charge companies for projects? • Use latest technologies: • Smart phone applications & games • Use the cloud as the backend

  13. Making students ready for final year projects • Create passion for programming right from the start. Need to free them from “Memorization” habit quickly! • Use the latest free tools in labs & make it exciting to learn: • TurboC++, NotePad  Alice, NetBeans/Visual Studio/Code::Blocks… • Have programming contents • Suggest a few extra projects in each course and encourage more students to do them.

  14. Making students ready for final year projects … • Showcase a few successful projects for incoming students • Highlight team-effort – every one may not know all the latest technologies. • Encourage more students to work with industry (internships?) during breaks. • needs additional passionate staff /resources

  15. Questions & Answersjeyv@utdallas.eduwww.utdallas.edu/~jeyvI am ready for India visit 

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