GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

CS 490 - Design Exhibition

Fall 2010

 M 4:30-7:10 pm,  IN 136

Prof. Sanjeev Setia
setia at cs dot gmu dot edu
703-993-4098

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/