GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
CS 490 - Design Exhibition
Fall 2010
M 4:30-7:10 pm, IN 136
Description
The objective of this course is to provide senior CS majors an
opportunity to work on a semester-long project that is more
substantial than the projects typically assigned in a course.
Prerequisites
Grade of C or better in CS 310, CS 330 and CS 367. Senior status.
NOTE: Prerequisites will be
enforced strictly.
Logistics
It is expected that students will work in teams (with 3 to 5 students
per team) on a software development project. However, this rule may be
relaxed depending on the enrollment in the class and the interests of
the students. Thus, for example, a student could work on a
research-oriented project where the focus is less on software
development and more on solving the research issue under consideration.
The topic of the project will decided by each student team in
consultation with the course instructor. Students are free to propose a
project in their area of interest, as long as the topic is approved by
the course instructor.
While the course instructor is responsible for monitoring the progress
of each project, students can do their project under the supervision of
any faculty member in the CS department. Thus, for example, students
interested in doing a project in robotics would need to find a faculty
member who works in robotics to guide their project. For the
research interests and expertise of CS faculty members, see
http://www.cs.gmu.edu/research/ and http://www.cs.gmu.edu/faculty/
Course Schedule
8/30: Course Introduction & Team Formation
9/13: Project Proposals Due
9/20: Class Presentations (Project Description & Goals)
9/27: Design Documents Due
10/4: Class Presentations (Project Design)
11/8: Midterm Demos
12/6: Final Project Reports Due
12/13: Class Presentations & Demos
During the implementation phase of the project (after 9/27), each team
will be required to submit bi-weekly progress reports.
Grading
The grade for the course will be based on the following components:
Project Deliverables: 65% for the following components (i) Design
document (20%) (ii) Final project report, documented software
and/or project-generated artifacts, and project demo (45%)
Project Presentations: 15%
for three presentations (project description, design and final report).
Midterm Demo & Bi-weekly
Progress Reports: 20%
Office Hours
Office hours will be on MW 3 - 4 pm in my
office (Room 5305, Engineering Building), or by appointment.
Class Home Page
All handouts and other course material will be available at URL http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~setia/cs490/