Course Project

Instead of in-class final exam, the students have to do a course project. The students will have a choice with respect to the final project. They can choose a default project assigned by the instructor, or choose a project of their own. If the student decides not to do the default project, a list of possible projects will be provided, which can provide some guidance. Most of the projects listed are an indication of what might be done; the exact project will be decided after some discussion with the instructor. You are welcome to suggest a project yourself, possibly related to an application arising in your research area. More projects may be added, but don't wait too long to decide, as you will need to start in time to complete your project by the end of the term. If you are unsure what project to propose or what sort of project would be acceptable, feel free to consult the instructor. In most cases, a student will read a journal paper, and either implement the algorithm presented in the paper or critic the paper. 

It should be noted that the grade will be given merely based on the merit of the project, and how well you meet the project criteria outlined below. If you are doing a project related to your research, please talk to your advisor. It is also your responsibility to know the university rules related to conflict of interest. If you not sure about these rules, you can always talk to me. 

To ensure that a given project is appropriate in scope and content, students must submit a brief description of the proposed project to the instructor for approval before beginning implementation of the project. The instructor may suggest modifications or alternatives if appropriate. Projects will be evaluated for both correctness and creativity. Please read the rules for the final project below. 

• The project should be related to the Finite Element Method. Deriving analytical solutions (say using Green's function techniques or semi-inverse method), developing a constitutive model with no significant numerical computations, etc., (however good they may be) are not valid final projects for this course.  

• The project report should be well-written. Figures should be of good quality with appropriate captions. 

• Under any circumstances, the deadline for the project will not be altered.

• Plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade. 

Each student must hand in a project report. This report should be nicely formatted. Handwritten papers are not acceptable. All data generated in your project investigation must be presented in an appropriate graphical or tabular format. If you are unsure of what constitutes acceptable presentation of data, please ask. Source code supporting the project must be included and documented in an appendix of the report. The report (excluding the appendices) should not exceed 20 pages. I strongly encourage students to use LaTex (which is a high-quality typesetting software).

• • Technical execution (65%): Have you conquered the technical aspects of your topic well? Are your equations correct? Do you have a strategy for deciding if your conclusions / answers are right?

    • • • Formulation (15%)

        • Computation / Programming (35%)

        • Verification (15%) 

  • Technical insight (20%): Have you gone beyond calculating something to actually pondering the outcome of your calculations? Can you shed an interesting light on any computed results? 

• 1. • • Interest of features considered (10%)

       • Insight about results (10%)

• Communication (15%): Have you described what you did and what you found in a manner that I can appreciate by simply reading your paper? Do you use words well? Have you organized the paper well? Do you use graphical presentation of data effectively? Does the paper actually have a point? Does it have conclusions?

  1. • • Style of presentation (5%)

       • Organization (5%)

       • English usage (5%)

The final product (report, code, results, discussion, etc.) must be your work. You are encouraged to discuss general issues about understanding your project with other students in the class within reasonable and customary bounds. You must write your report and own code (if needed), and your discussion of results should be completely independent. You should be able to divide your development into understanding and execution. Getting to an understanding of a given topic is generally acceptable for collaboration, but execution steps generally are not. One cannot share electronic files. If you are unsure of what constitutes acceptable collaboration, please ask. For information on academic integrity, please consult the academic honesty policy.