Topic outline

  • Instructions for project deliverables

    Project Plan

    General

    The project plans should be structured under the headings:

    1) Background
    2) Objectives
    3) Tasks
    4) Schedule
    5) Resources
    6) Risks.

    When preparing your plan, please make sure that it fulfills basic quality requirements (e.g., the plan is dated; the course title is provided correctly; team members and the project manager are listed (without student registration numbers); all pages are numbered; references are complete and written consistently). Moreover, the tasks should be explicitly named and listed; and in the section on risks, you should elaborate how likely the different risks are, what consequences they might have, and in what ways do you plan to mitigate them.  You may look at examples from previous years under the tab "Deliverables of previous seminars".

    Presentation

    The project plans will be presented on 05.03.2021, during the excursion to SEB. Each project team will have 15 minutes for the presentation of its project plan and approximately 10 minutes for discussion.



    Interim Report

    General

    The written interim reports should be about about 3 written pages long, covering the following topics:

    1) Changes in the objectives and the scope of the project, if there have been any.
    2) Brief desciption of the project status in relation to the initial project plan (incl. summary of the actions that have been taken).
    3) Possible changes to the initial project plan for the remainder of the project.
    4) The updated risk management plan.

    You may look at examples from previous years under the tab "Deliverables of previous seminars". 

    Presentation

    The project plans will be presented on 09.04.2021, during the excursion to FMI. Each project team will have 15 minutes for their presentation and approximately 10 minutes for discussion.

    The emphasis in these presentations should be on how the teams have been worked on their respective project topics, with an emphasis on (i) the insights gained from the literature survey, and (ii) the methodological approaches that the team has worked with in order to attain the objectives of its project. 

    Try to provide an educational presentation which helps the other students learn as much as possible from what you have done thus far; tentative results, if any, can also be shown. Overlaps with the presentation you gave previously is to be avoided (i.e., no lengthy repetitions of project objectives). 

    Final Report

    General

    Ensure that the reports are professional and meet the requisite standards, including the following:

    - The final report is of adequate length (some 20-35 pages or about 8 pages / team member) and firmly rooted in the scientific literature with a sufficient number (at least 10-15) of appropriate references
    - The references are complete (e.g., volume, issue and page numbers for journal articles) and written consistently
    - The key results are highlighted and their validity is discussed 
    - The report is dated and all its pages are numbered
    - All figures and tables are duly numbered and have captions (and only one caption for each)
    - In figures portraying functions or bar charts, the variables on the horizontal and vertical axes are identified and the units in which they are measured are indicated; scales are chosen appropriately to that comparisons between figures can be easily made.
    - No use of contractions (i.e., thus ‘does not’ instead of  ‘doesn't’ ; and ‘will not’ instead of ‘won’t’ )

    Please also read some of the materials on the webpage for "Literature on scientific writing":

    Suggested structure (can be adapted, please benchmark with examples from previous years):

    1) Table of contents 
    2) Introduction
    2.1) Background
    2.2) Motivation
    2.3) Objectives
    3) Literature Review
    4) Data & Methods
    5) Results
    6) Discussion
    6.1) Reflection on literature
    6.2) Assessment of the results
    7) Conclusions
    8) Appendix
    9) References
    10) Self Assessment

    At the very end, the final report should contain an informative two-page self-assessment of the project, addressing topics such as:

    1) Review your assessment of the project plan and compare it to how the project actually progressed. Pay attention to at least the following:
    1.1) Scope
    1.2) Risks
    1.3) Schedule
    1.4) Project execution
    1.5) The amount of work
    2) In what regard was the project successful?
    3) In what regard was it less so? 
    4) What could have been done better, in hindsight? Analyze the question from at least these perspectives:
    4.1) Team
    4.2) Teaching staff
    4.3) Client organization

    Presentation

    The project plans will be presented on 21.05.2021, during the excursion to UPM. 

    The final presentations should have a strong focus on the results of your project, with mention of their likely significance for the client. You may also demonstrate computational models your that you've developed. 

    Don't spend much time (max 1-2 minutes) on the reflective self-assessment (this is largely a mechanism for the teaching staff to obtain useful feedback). Still, you might wish to state a few words about how successful you think your project has been, and what you might have done otherwise, in hindsight.

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Deliverables of previous seminars