GUIDELINES FOR HONOR PROJECTS
EVANGELOS KRANAKIS
  1. Honors Students/Projects
  2. SCS Guidelines for Honors' Projects
  3. Scholarships for Students with High Academic Standing
  4. RULES AND REGULATIONS
    SCS Guidelines for Honors Project COMP 4905
  5. PROJECT-PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
      Before you select the topic:
    • You can propose your own topic, or
    • You can ask me for a topic.
    • It is a good idea to base your honors project on a very recent research paper.
    • In either case, you must make an appointment and come to my office during my office hours.
    • I would also need to know your GPA (both CS and overall).
      After you select the topic:
    • You must conduct preliminary research,
    • You must write a short proposal (about two pages long) in which you include
      • Title
      • Abstract
      • Sources to be used
      • Completion Timeline
      After you write the project-proposal:
    • Your project proposal must be approved and signed by me,
    • You must hand in the approved and signed project-proposal to the SCS main office on time.
      Graduation Deadlines:
    • You are responsible for progress on the project and for keeping in touch with me.
    • I do not mind in which term you want to graduate: You decide!
    • Do not delay! You have a tight schedule on a very fast moving field. If completion takes too long your topic may become obsolete!
      Timely Graduation:
    • You are responsible for maintaining deadlines in order to guarantee your graduation. I do not keep track of submission deadlines.
    • By the specified date submit to me all necessary material (project, diskette with program, etc).
  6. WHAT IS A PROJECT
    • A typical project consists of about 40 to 60 pages.
    • It may well describe a single research theme of current interest, be a survey on a single theme, an implementation, or a combination of the above.
    • Emphasis is not on length but rather on quality of the final "product".
    • Some type of programming related to the topic will strengthen your grade; in addition, you must demo this part of your work to me.
  7. PROJECT CONTENTS
    Your final project report must include the following
    • Title
    • Abstract (Usually a page or two)
    • Acknowledgements
    • Introduction (Background material, position your project in existing literature, discuss scope and limitations).
    • Main Body (Discussion, Results, Experiments, Proofs, Theorems, Methodology, Figures, Tables, Diagrams, etc)
    • Conclusions (Recommendations, Future work, Unsolved Problems).
    • References (Author(s), Conference, Journal, Year, Page Numbers, http address, etc).
    • In case of programming, diskette with software written as well as documentation.
    In addition, include sufficient information (e-mail could be sufficient) in case I need to contact you.
  8. WHERE TO HAND-IN THE FINAL PROJECT
    When done
    • Hand in the required number of identical copies to the main SCS office.
    • E-mail submissions will not be acceptet!
  9. GRADE
    The grade for the project will depend on a combination of the following factors:
    • Originality of research topic.
    • Difficulty in executing and completing the chosen task.
    • Quality of the writing and resulting synthesis.
    • Proper citing and acknowledging of sources used.
    • Some programming is desirable.
    • It would be wonderful if the project provided original, publishable research! But this is not necessary!
  10. PLAGIARISM IS A CRIME ! ! ! ! !
    • What is plagiarism and how to avoid it.
    • You are not allowed to copy somebody else's work without proper acknowledgement.
    • You must acknowledge your sources for all library material and/or software sources used.
    • You must write the project and perform the experiments on your own.
    • Plagiarizing will have very severe reprecussions for the student!
  11. RESEARCH SOURCES
    There are numerous sources ranging from libraries to the web.