Assignments

Team Selection Questionnaire (Individual assignment, 2.5% of total course grade)

All students must complete the Team Selection Questionnaire and submit a resume/CV before 5 pm, January 29, 2021 (Friday). A personalized link will be sent via email after the first day of class (1/25).

CV/Resume Submission Link: https://forms.gle/YM4ZnGMsyLBaQHXv9

Project Proposal (Due Feb 17, before class)

Each project group must submit a project proposal with the following sections:

  • Project summary and Goals (be specific) (1 page)

  • A project timeline with 3 milestones (each with a specific set of deliverables) (1 page, use diagrams, tables, or bullet points)

  • Preliminary market research summary (e.g., background, value proposition, market position, competitor analysis, etc.) (1-2 pages)

  • persona profile for at least one prototypical target user (1 -2 page, use diagram and illustration where appropriate)

  • A research plan to gain insights about how a prototypical user(s) would use the system (1-2 pages)

  • A rough description of the role of each team member (1 page, use a table if appropriate)

  • Upload the proposal to your project website and submit it via email to Dr. Mike Yao and your respective project lead.

Project Milestone 1

Team specific

Project Milestone 2

Team specific.

Project Milestone 3

Team specific, but I expect each team to submit the near-complete prototype/design for this milestone.

Final Report (Due May 7, before midnight)

There are a few required components and you can add other sections to your paper as you see fit. You are encouraged to use tables and figures in the paper. The completeness, consistency, and quality of the report are highly required.

Required sections:

  • Cover page

  • Table of contents

  • Executive summary (300 words)

  • Mission statement and goals (250 words)

    • a brief illustration of what goal(s) you try to achieve using your proposed technology

  • Problem statement (500 words)

    • What problems do you try to solve?

    • Why focusing on these problems (using data or citing references)?

  • Technological solution (1,500 words)

    • Background information and research on the technology you propose

    • a detailed description of the technology you developed including the technological aspect and the prototype.

    • Use real user data/feedback to show the feasibility of your product.

    • How and why your technology can solve the problems you stated?

    • How and why your technology can perform better than the current technology and/or other similar technologies on the market?

  • Evaluation (1500 words)

    • Looking at the mission statement and goals, how well did your product help achieve the goals? (be specific)

    • What worked and what didn't work in this project?

    • Provide suggestions for future directions

  • Team members

    • Picture and a brief introduction of each team member

    • Roles and contributions of each team member

  • Appendix

    • product presentation/promo video: the link and a brief description of the content (100 words)

    • The link to your website

  • References

Optional sections:

  • Other sections that you would like to include

The report must be submitted via Compass2g on or before the deadline in pdf or word format.


Product presentation/promo video (Due April 30, before midnight)

Each group should produce a 2-minute promotional video to introduce their product. There is no required format and style for this video. You can consult previous projects I shared for inspiration. The video should serve the following purpose:

  • encourage your team to present the project as if it is a real marketable product

  • present the project to a naive audience (e.g., someone with no previous knowledge about the class project) in a concise and interesting way

  • showcase your team's creativity


Self-Reflection/Learning Report (Due May 7, before midnight)

Each student must submit a self-reflection report. The report should include the following sections:

  • A brief summary of individual contribution to the group project and each of the milestones (be specific but concise, use bullet points) (1 page)

  • A reflection on how you applied your skills and knowledge gained from previous courses to solving problems of this project (250 words)

  • A reflection on the new insights, knowledge, and/or skills gained from working on this project (250 words)

  • A reflection on the professional skills (e.g., organization, project management, teamwork, etc.) you gained from the project (250 words)

  • A reflection on how the class can be further developed to enrich your learning experience. (250 words)

Final Presentation Instructions

Length: 10 minutes maximum, including your 2-minute product promo/demo video

Key questions to be covered in this presentation:

  1. What are goals you hope to achieve with this project?

  2. Why are they important goals?

  3. What essential steps did you take to achieve these goals?

  4. What are the final results/solutions? (this is where you can show your demo/promo video.

  5. How did your product/design help achieve your goals?

  6. What are some of the limitations and possible future directions?

  7. What did you learn, as a team, from this experience?

I suggest you prepare no more than 8 slides (1 minute/slide) for this presentation.