CS 461, Senior Capstone

Welcome to CS Senior Design

Information for Industry and Project Partners

In Senior Design, students teams complete a substantial software development or research project over 30 weeks. They develop a professional demeanor and become more aware of what might be expected of them once they finish their undergraduate degrees.

General Course Schedule

Each quarter is ten weeks long. The following timeline is organized by week, as exact dates change year-to-year depending on when the quarter begins. Please note that during week 2, we’ll need experts to address the students on topics. During week 2 and 3, students will be assigned to projects and will be contacting you.
FALL TERM
Week 0 (SEPT 21-25)Student Orientation Week 1 (SEPT 28-OCT 2)Students view project videos and descriptions, research the problem/project domain, identify their skills and interest, and discern their preferences
Week 2 (OCT 5-9)Students complete MILESTONE 1, analyzing 3-5 projects of interest; students meet with subject matter experts (OCT 9th, 10-11:30 am); students rank their preferences, bid for projects, and are assigned to a team Week 3 (OCT 12-16)MILESTONE 1 PEER REVIEW 1 is completed; other required internal assignments are completed Week 4 (OCT 19-23)Teams begin work on MILESTONE 2 -- Scope & Vision Statement; teams should have reached out to project partners at this point and shared Git repos and other tools/platforms for managing details
Week 5/6 (OCT 26-NOV 6)Students meet with subject matter experts again to discuss Scope &Vision; students begin early prototyping and meet with project partners Week 7/8 (NOV 9-20)Students complete Design Reviews with other teams; project partners are welcome to attend any and all design reviews Week 9 (NOV 23-25, Thanksgiving break)Teams report on prototype 1 and Design revisions; students identify and work on prototype 2; students develop their plan of work (Gantt Chart) for Winter Term; students compile their dossiers for individual oral defenses Week 10/Finals Week (NOV 30-DEC 11)Students present their dossier to instructors and complete an individual oral defense; students evaluate their teammates; project partners receive report on project status and evaluate team progress

WINTER TERM

SPRING TERM

What's Expected from Project Partners

Senior Design is a project-based course. We expect you to mentor a team of students through a software development or research project.
In a nutshell, this means you will be:
• providing a project* similar to that which a 6-month intern might complete for you• dedicating about 1-hour per week or more to interact with teams and/or their work• finding a proxy mentor in the event you are away• alerting instructors when issues or problems arise in groups• evaluating the progress of students once the project is completed• providing the course facilitators with up-to-date contact information
We hope that you may be able to provide or loan specialized equipment or resources for students, such as hardware or other, depending on the scope, cost, and specificity of the project. That said, we have a few resources, too, that our students might use.
*please upload a short video recording of your project details, including the system requirements and any other information about what you're hoping to achieve with your team of students

What to Expect of Student Teams

For many students, Senior Design is an introduction to what it's like to work on a technical team. It may be their first exposure to working with a partner outside of normal academia. And we expect our students to develop a professional demeanor, while also completing the educational requirements of the course. This course is a writing intensive course, which is required for all students to graduate, and some requirements of the course are outside of technical implementation.
It's important, then, for us to be transparent about what you should and should not expect of your student team.
Students should: • be professional in their interactions with you• work toward designing and implementing a solution fitted to your project requirements• work about 12 hours per week on a combination of class assignments and your project• be on teams of 3-5 students• have a GitHub repo and a project management plan• own the rights to project IP unless they agree to sign an NDA• be working on written assignments for class credit in addition to implementing technical solutions for you
Students may not necessarily: • complete a project critical to the functioning of your organization• be completely independent or have all the skills necessary for completing your project• work outside of the 10-week academic quarter -- we cannot require them to work over their academic breaks in December and March
If you are new to Senior Design, you will find that there is uncertainty with regards to which students you will be working with and how they'll perform. Senior Design is an educational program, and our students are not able to perform as a paid employee might. We place all our students on a project, regardless of their skill level and experience. Therefore, we cannot guarantee you would get the same product or level of commitment from them as you would a paid employee. That said, many students thrive on their projects, and past project partners have been known to hire students they've worked with through our program.