General Information

The goal of the capstone project is to put into practice what you have learned and demonstrate the ability to expand your knowledge and skills. It should be taken in your last semester, possibly the semester before that if you are coordinating with other teammates.

By design, you have a lot of freedom to decide what to work on. Your faculty adviser is there to help you scope something reasonable, guide you to stay on track, and evaluate your effectiveness in executing the project.

The project provides experience working with a team to plan, manage, and deliver a project that is more substantial than what you get do in classes. You will also practice presenting your work.

Start by registering for CSCI 4390. It doesn't matter who is listed as the instructor of record on the section, as you'll be working with your adviser, not them. If you would prefer to meet and work in Brownsville, sign up for the Brownsville section. That doesn't commit you, but helps with organization.

Wait, do I have to attend class at that time? Read on...

The Details

• Every project must be a team of 2-4 students
• Every project must have a faculty adviser
  • The details of the project are up to you and your adviser to agree on
  • The faculty adviser will typically meet with you weekly and provide guidance to help you stay on track
  • The faculty adviser does not have to be an expert on the specific technology you work with (that's your job)
• Required deliverables for all projects
  • Proposal, midterm milestone (e.g. demo, poster, etc), written final report, oral final presentation, final product
• Types of projects
  • Most projects will design, mockup, develop, and test a software product
    • May include hardware integration
    • May extend an existing or ongoing project
  • Other projects will hypothesize, design, and run computational experiments
  • Any project that a faculty adviser approves is acceptable
• You can form teams with students from other CECS programs. It will be up to you as a team to ensure that you fulfill the requirements each program has for their students.
• You can form teams across campuses, as long as the team and adviser are on the same page. Many projects continue to use online meetings.

Getting Organized

We strongly recommend that you prepare for your project before the semester. Design work and setting up unfamiliar technologies are things that can easily stall out progress. It's much more relaxed, enjoyable, and effective to kick around ideas, explore new things, and hammer out details when the clock isn't running.

To that end, we have two preferred options for settling on your team, project, and adviser. It doesn't always work out that way, so we also have a backup plan.