Sponsors

Every senior in the Computer Science Department at the University of Wyoming is required to do a senior capstone project. This project fulfills their degree graduation requirements. The goal is to give students an opportunity to:

• solve real world problems by applying the knowledge they have gain in the classroom
• experience the benefits and challenges of working in multidisciplinary teams
• actively engage with a company, community organization, or research sponsor prior to graduation

The process and timetable

Benefits for community partners

• You'll have a chance to see and evaluate 3-5 potential hires over an extended period of time on a project of your choice.
• Often the projects done by these student teams would not otherwise be developed due to lack of funding, time or other resources. Note that all results produced by students working on a project belong entirely to the community partner unless otherwise arranged. Students do not receive financial compensation for work on capstone projects.
• Community partners play an active role in the education and development of engineers who can help solve real world problems.

Responsiblity of community partners

• Provide a contact-person/coordinator who can provide a detailed description of the community partner's requirements, make arrangements for needed resources, and answer questions as they arise. Note that overall project supervision and grading will be done by a UWYO faculty advisor in coordination with the community partner.
• Actively participate in evaluation of the student’s work, providing feedback as necessary during the project and participating in assigning individual grades at the conclusion of the project.
• Provide the resources needed to successfully do the project. Depending on the specific project, the list of resources may include parts, materials, a cubicle space, a computer, software, building access, etc.

Proposing projects

The projects are typically real-world design projects undertaken by teams of 3-5 students working with a community partner and a faculty advisor. The objective is to give students an opportunity to apply knowledge gained in their earlier core engineering curriculum as well as design project methodology and skills learned in the lecture part of the senior capstone sequence. Emphasis is on successful project completion, adherence to a disciplined design methodology, and consideration of the full project life-cycle.

• The project should be substantial and needed but not part of a critical path required for continued success of the community partner. Every attempt will be made to produce a deliverable. While we have been very successful at this in the past, but we cannot guarantee success. Note that, if a particular project requires confidentiality, the students and the faculty advisor assigned to that project will be willing to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements and maintain confidentiality.
• The project should be able to be completed in about 5 months by a team consisting of 3-5 seniors aided by a faculty advisor and by a representative of the community partner. Each student is expected to spend 8-10 hours per week working on the project for the five months.
• The project should be able to be done with knowledge students already have and/or knowledge that they can reasonably acquire during the course of the project.
• The project should have a substantial design component so students gain practice in as much of the design process as possible.
• The project may be software-based, or software-hardware based. Projects with a substantial hardware component may use teams with both CS and ECE students. Projects with a strong component in some other field may use teams with other students from across campus.

What to expect from our students

In the Computer Science department the Senior Capston Project is a two semester sequence. To enter the capstone sequence, students must have achieved senior standing. Students take a lecture course in the fall semester which introduces them to engineering design project methodology, teams also develop and present their project plan. During the spring semester, students complete and document their projects. Student teams are responsible for finalizing, summarizing, and confirming the project requirements, creating a project plan and presenting it for approval, completing the design project and related documentation, testing, writing a final project report, and making a final project presentation to the community partner.
We expect our students to:

• Practice a systematic and thorough design methodology
  This is covered in class but, as you know, it will take a dedicated effort on our parts to help the students follow this methodology.
• Make a serious effort to complete the project
  To keep the projects moving, it will be necessary to help the students set intermediate goals and timelines for achieving those goals then hold the students responsible for meeting the timelines. Each student is expected to spend 8-10 hours per week on the project and give you an individual written weekly progress report (WPR).
• Do detailed and thorough documentation of all work
  Documentation will play an important part in the grading for the two capstone classes. Each group is required to produce a Product Design Specification (Project Proposal). Each individual student is required to keep a complete design log of his/her work. The log will contain all specifications, research, thoughts, design work, experiments, conclusions, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, email, reference information, etc. The CS Department capstone web site contains details on what we recommend students include in their logs and WPRs. Please feel free to add to this list as you see fit. The team is required to write a final report that contains all of the detailed design for the project and would allow someone to continue with the project as desired.
• Work at developing more effective oral/written communication
  Each student will be required to submit a written weekly progress report (WPR) to both the community partner and the faculty advisor. Also, each group is required to make an oral project proposal presentation, an oral intermediate progress report or design review as appropriate, and a final oral report. Ideally students should have the chance to individually make at least one oral weekly progress report. Our capstone web site includes forms for the evaluation of the capstone project presentations and the overall project. Please feel free to use/modify them as you wish.

Ensuring Project Success

Some things you can do to help ensure successful completion of the project:

• At the first meeting, have everyone sign any required NDA documents
  We have discussed NDAs in class, but please make sure the students understand that this is not just a formality. Also please sign the University Capstone agreement provided by the PSU Faculty Advisor. One purpose of this form is to indicate that we will try our best to produce a deliverable but we can't promise that we will succeed.
• Determine the environment where the project will be developed
  Most companies provide a cubicle or other workspace, computer accounts as needed, and appropriate access privileges. Some companies have put the teams through the entire new-hire process to help get them used to the company products, rules, culture, etc. If space at the company is not possible, we do have very strong windows XP and Unix based computer resources at UWYO, as well as state-of-the-art labs.
• Work with the students to start defining the goals of the project
  In most cases the projects are only loosely defined at this point. The understanding is that after some research and discussion, the team will actively help define the actual problem that will be solved. As part of the class, project groups will be developing a formal Product Design Specification (Project Proposals). Note: For a project covered by an NDA, only the community partner and the faculty advisor will see the PDS and the oral presentation.
• Actively and candidly participate in evaluation of the students’ work
  As indicated above, the students will only be working part-time on the projects, but it important that the quality of their work be evaluated on the same basis as that of any new hire, even though the expected rate of progress will, of course, be different.
• Maintain clear and constant communication with the UWYO Faculty Advisor
  This will make it possible to solve any problems quickly.
• Visit us!
  If you have not already done so, stop by the Computer Science Department at UWYO to meet us and to get a tour of our new Cybersecurity Lab in addition to our AI and Virtual Reality Labs. You can call or e-mail Mike or talk with your project’s faculty advisor to arrange a convenient time for a visit.

Grading

Individual grades are based upon:

• Successful completion of the project
• Adherence to a disciplined design methodology
• Project proposal (PDS) and presentation
• Effective communication throughout the project
• weekly written progress reports
• team meetings
• engineering logbooks
• project notebooks
• Final project report and oral presentation
• Individual contribution to the project’s success

While the final grade is assigned by the faculty advisor, the community partner’s recommendations are given particular weight so we ask you to complete a brief final project evaluation form for each student. There is also a form for evaluating the final project presentation which you can use.