Final Year Project
The FYP is as it sounds; a year-long project that evolves
through three written phases:
the Proposal
the Progress Report
the Final Report
At the end of the cycle, you are also required to give a
presentation of your work and to construct a poster.
The proposal should be typed using Times New Roman
font (size 12) with double spacing on one side of A4 sized
paper. Allow 1.5in (38mm) margin on the left and 1.0in
margin elsewhere. 1
• For the three written phases of the project, it is important to
realize that each is derived from the phase before it. Thus,
there is a lot of thinking, planning, and writing involved in
putting together the Proposal.
• The Progress Report evolves from the Proposal -- it should
not be a completely new document. Far too many students
spend an exorbitant amount of time reinventing the wheel,
drafting completely new introductions for their Progress
Report and their FYP.
• Work smart -- put time and effort into thinking and reading
about your topic at the Proposal phase. Then, when coming to
the Progress Report and the FYP, break the information down
into three subgroups:
2
• information that is > 50% new
• information that is < 50% new
• information that can be recycled
• This will provide a logical plan regarding how your
team should prioritize writing time
3
Proposal
• Structure
– Title Page
– Table of Contents
– Introduction
– Methodology
– Project Planning
– Hardware and Software Requirements
– References
– Appendices
4
Title Page
5
Table of Contents
6
Introduction
• gives the project a context
• explains why the project is important
• states what the FYP aims to accomplish and how
• provides objectives
• identifies possible problems or complications
• is written for a non-specialist
7
• Example:
• Gaming, as both a cultural phenomenon and a lucrative global business [why the
project is important], has enjoyed enormous success over the past five years. With
this increase in popularityhas come a demand for more sophisticated 3D modeling.
[context] The push in the industry is for smoother, seamless graphics. [problem] For
this project, we will design a software program intended to greatly enhance the
capabilities of 3D Studio Max to produce more realistic graphics. [state what the
proposal aims to accomplish and how]
• Think of your objectives as what you want to accomplish and
what you need to learn [software packages, algorithms]
– What is your project objective?
– Describe the scope of your project
– Describe how you are going to achieve your objective
• What are the problems that you will address and why?
• What are your goals? What can you deliver?
• What are the technical challenges and how do you plan to
overcome these?
8
• Example:
• For all its strengths, GPS has two related weaknesses:
signal reception and the accuracy of local information.
Overcoming these weaknesses would greatly enhance
its performance, thereby stimulating a new generation in
GPS technology and design [1]. We will create an
algorithm that addresses the problem of local positioning
[1] while...
• In this project, we will achieve the following goals: X, Y
and Z [2].To achieve the first goal, we will review the
literature on algorithm design and....[3] The technical
challenges involved in reaching this first goal are...[3]
9
Methodology
• Begin your methodology with a clear description of what
you were doing during the summer: literature survey/
feasibility study and/or a critical review. You do not
need to address all the questions below, just the ones
that are relevant to your project.
• What is the history of your project topic?
• What are experts in the field discussing that relates to
your topic?
• What are the trade-offs?
• What is the latest research?
• What is the state-of-the-art in your project area?
10
Example
• Design - Figure out what the sub-problems are and what approach to take or what
theory to investigate.
• theory based
• conceptual
• Implementation - Build it
• tools?
• technical skills based
• Testing - How are you going to ensure that it [the program/ game/ etc.] works
correctly? [black box/ white box/ regression testing]
• look at the project from a micro level
• include experiments
• look at system results
• test each part of the system
• make sure that design and implementation work
• Evaluation - Evaluate your results relative to your stated objective:
• look at the project from a macro level
• measure performance
• compare your system/model with one or more (a) baseline systems/models, and/or (b)
similar competing systems/models
11
Project Planning
• All projects require planning including an outline
of who in the team is doing what and when; thus,
you will need to include a Gantt chart.
• A Gantt chart is constructed with a horizontal axis representing the total time span of the
project, broken down into increments (for example, days, weeks, or months) and a vertical
axis representing the tasks that make up the project (for example, if the project is
outfitting your computer with new software, the major tasks involved might be: conduct
research, choose software, install software). Horizontal bars of varying lengths represent
the sequences, timing, and time span for each task. Using the same example, you would
put "conduct research" at the top of the verticle axis and draw a bar on the graph that
represents the amount of time you expect to spend on the research, and then enter the
other tasks below the first one and representative bars at the points in time when you
expect to undertake them. The bar spans may overlap, as, for example, you may conduct
research and choose software during the same time span. As the project progresses,
secondary bars, arrowheads, or darkened bars may be added to indicate completed tasks,
or the portions of tasks that have been completed. A vertical line is used to represent the
report date.
12
13
Citations and References
• Throughout the paper, you must provide citations
whenever you paraphrase and/or summarize someone
else's ideas and when you use a direct quote. The
citation style preferred by the COMP department is the
number system.
• Not providing citations hurts your team and your work in
several ways. First, it makes your team look like a bunch
of amateurs. Second, it discredits your work. Third,
providing no citations equals plagiarism-the academic
equivalent to robbery. Examples of what constitutes
plagiarism.
14
References
• Under the Harvard System, references are made by
giving the author's surname together with the year of
publication. In the text, the year of publication appears
within parentheses after the author's surname if the latter
forms part of a sentence; for examples, Ch'ng (1986) or
Saleh and Zainuddin (1987) or, where there are more
than two authors, Nagendran et.al (1990).
• In contrast, both the author's surname and the year of
publication appear within parentheses if the author's
surname does not form aprt of a sentence; for example:
(Omar & Tan, 1989).
15
• At the end of the thesis, all the references cited are listed in
alphabetical order.
• There is no necessity to number the references. References
to periodicals should be listed as follows:
• aauthors' surnames and initials (instead of first author et.al),
year of publication in parentheses, exact title of paper,
contracted title of periodical in italics (or underlined), volume
number in Arabic figures double underline (or in bold print),
initial and final page numbers of article. For example:
• Kalotas, T.M. & Lee, A.R. (1990). A simple device to
illustrate angular momentum conservation and instability.
Am. J. Phys. 58(1), 80-81.
16
• In the Harvard System, the titles of books are in italics
followed by the town and publisher. For example:
• Conn, E.E., Stumpf, P.K., Bruening, G. & Doi, R.H.
(1987). Outlines ofBiochemistry, 3th edn.New York: John
Wiley & Sons.
• Reference from an edited book may be written thus:
• Hocking, A.D. (1988). Moulds and yeasts associated with
foods of reduced water activity:ecological interactions.
In Food Preservation by Moisture Control (Seow,
C.C., ed.), p. 57-72. London: Elsevier Applied Sci. Publ.
17
