Schedule for 4991

The following checklist will guide you through the required deliverables for your capstone course. You can also find the semester calendar at the end of the page.

Weekly Responsibilities:


XXX4991Status1234.pdf
4991ProposalDraft1234.pdf
4991ChecklistDraft1234567.pdf
4991Proposal1234.pdf
4991Checklist1234567.pdf

Deliverable Details
Every student is expected to take this course seriously and work proactively towards maximizing the success of the project.
By the end of this course,
you need to demonstrate that you are ready to take the project on to the materialization phase in the next semester. That is, you have properly organized the team, planned the work that needs to be done in the following semester, and completed the first five steps of the design process (finalizing the presentation of the physical architecture). Please start with reading about the core concepts (use the above navigation menu), then make sure that your team works towards successfully completing the deliverables that are listed below.
Week 0
Register to the capstone course
and a note about early project allocation
Students will register to the department capstone coordinator (Section 1).
You will be added to your department’s itslearning course and to a faculty-wide itslearning course.
The normal process for selecting a project starts in Week 4; however, a team can be assigned to a project before registration if the project team and project advisers have completed all the necessary processes (a team has been formed, a full project description has been prepared, students are committed to the project) before registration.
Week 1
Attend the first lecture
Every student is responsible for understanding the capstone course – the objectives, core concepts, processes, and responsibilities.
Attend the first lecture; continue to attend and review all lectures. Keep in mind that the topics taught in the lectures should be expressed in your project execution and in your written reports and presentations. Your knowledge of these topics will also be tested in a midterm exam.
Week 4
Review the available projects
and form a sub-team
Every student is expected to be proactive in the process of reviewing available projects and forming a team.
Review the list of available projects and form a department sub-team with skills that match the requirements of the projects that you are interested in. If you are able to, form a full inter-department team.
Week 5
Submit the sub-team’s project preferences.
Every student is expected to be proactive in the process of choosing a project.
The members of the sub-team should visit the adviser of the project they are interested in and express their preferred project choice to the adviser of that project.
Week 6
Start working on the project
Every student is expected to be proactive in the process of planning, designing, and documentation.
The students assigned to Capstone Projects will be published on the website.
Teams have 8 weeks to complete the project proposal!
Organize your team, and start to plan and work on your design. The capstone lecture notes, and adviser, will guide you through the project planning and design process. You will also need to document your project; start writing your project proposal as soon as possible, updating it as your plans and design progress.
Week 9
MIDTERM EXAM
See here.
Every student is expected to understand the concepts taught in the lectures and express those concepts in their design and documentation.
The midterm exam will test your knowledge of lecture topics 1 to 5.
[This activity is worth up to 30 points]
Week 11
Status report and discussion.
(virtual office of your adviser(s)).
The sub-team adviser will be expecting each sub-team member to demonstrate that they are engaged with and have a significant contribution to the project.
This is a formal report in the form of the (preliminary)Project Proposal which will be discussed between the sub-team members and the sub-team adviser with the aim of determining the status of the project and documentation.
Download the report template and guide and prepare the project proposal up to your current status. You should make good progress on the following (note that Section 1 and 2 should be prepared by the whole team):
Section 1 “Overview”; complete all subsections, including also an overview of two or three alternative conceptual solutions with an argument for the final choice.
Section 2 “Work Plan”; at least the upper levels of the WBS, and the RM, and a basic PN and Gantt Chart (which should be the timeline for the work to be carried out next semester).
Section 3 “Design Process”; an overview of two or three alternative conceptual solutions for your sub-system. Also, alternatives for each key component should be compared with respect to cost and performance (this is best done using tables of pros. and cons.).
This will put you in a good position for the remaining weeks where you need to choose the best concept and components and start to describe the physical/software architecture in detail. Remember that you can share the document on the cloud (Google, OneDrive, ..), for online collaborative editing. The document should be in pdf format and the filename should be “XXX4991Status1234.pdf” (replace XXX with your department code, and 1234 with your project code).
Send the status report to your sub-team adviser and discuss it in your next meeting. If the team prefers, the team can prepare a single status report for the whole team.
[This activity is worth up to 10 points]
Week 12
Submit the draft of the final report and draft of the checklist.
Your advisers will be looking for a mature proposal that documents the design up to the physical architecture step and provides a plan for tasks to be performed during the materialization and verification steps in the following (4992) semester. Make sure that the WBS, RM, PN and Gantt chart represent only your future plans – work that will be conducted next semester in 4992.
Develop your status report into a draft proposal. Submit the draft to the Itslearning Draft Turnitin upload folder, the similarity score should be below 25%. You can repeat the submission up to three times. Send the draft and turnitin report to your advisers. Your advisers will provide feedback; you should then make corrections and develop the draft further. The document should be in pdf format with the filename “4991ProposalDraft1234.pdf” (replace 1234 with your project code).
Also submit the draft checklist. This will be an itslearning required assignment submission by every student, and must be pdf format with the filename “4991ChecklistDraft1234567.pdf” (replace 1234567 with your student id). Advisers will give feedback.
Week 13
Submit the final proposal and final checklist.
Your advisers will be looking for a full account of the work of each team member and a clear demonstration that the team is ready to go to the materialization step in the following semester.
The final proposal should be a single document prepared by the whole team. Develop your draft into a Final Proposal. Submit the Proposal to the Itslearning Final Turnitin upload folder, you can do this only once! Send the Proposal to your advisers with Turnitin report. Start to prepare for your final presentation. The document should be in pdf format with the filename “4991Proposal1234.pdf” (replace 1234 with your project code).
[This activity is worth up to 40 points]
Also submit the final checklist. This will be an itslearning required assignment submission by every student, and must be pdf format with the filename “4991Checklist1234567.pdf” (replace 1234567 with your student id).
[This activity is required and the final proposal will not be accepted until the adviser approves the checklist]
Week 14
Final presentations
In the final presentation, the team should present a convincing argument that they are ready to go on to the materialization and verification phase in the following semester. All team members must demonstrate that they have contributed significantly to the project planning, design and documentation.
See the final presentation schedule here.
[This activity is worth up to 20 points]
Missing the final presentation will result in an automatic fail!

The following calendar shows key dates related to the required deliverables for your capstone course.

Capstone I (4991) Weekly Highlights:

Week 3    : Capstone Projects will be published on the website.
Week 4    : Students will build their teams. 
Week 5    : Students will visit the advisers of the projects.
Week 6    : The students assigned to Capstone Projects will be published on the website. 
Week 9    : Midterm Exam 
Week 11   : Students will submit project status report.
Week 12   : Students will submit draft proposal and draft checklist.
Week 13   : Students will submit final proposal and final checklist.
Week 14   : Final presentations