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GUIDELINES FOR WRITING AN INDEPENDENT STUDY PROPOSAL

Introduction:  You can read about some suggested independent study topics in the Independent Study Topics Page.  I am willing to discuss other independent study ideas that you may have.  Please email me with the following PRELIMINARY description  to set up an appointment for further discussion.  If we mutually agree to go ahead with the project, then you will need to write a formal proposal which is described below.

PRELIMINARY PROJECT/RESEARCH TOPIC DESCRIPTION

1. Title of the topic - A title that best describes the research/project area.  Example:  "Design methods for Safety-Critical Systems"; "Design of an XML based system for creating use cases";  "Critical Evaluation of COTS e-commerce systems"; "Affect of Agile methods and CMMI Ratings"

2. Objectives - In about 200 words describe what you plan to achieve from this work.

3. Logistics - What resources will you need?  Will this be a project done at your work, home, or in a lab here at school?  WHat hardware or software will you need?

3. Your schedule - How many semesters before you are done?

FORMAL PROJECT/RESEARCH TOPIC DESCRIPTION

however, before I sign any forms I will need you to submit a written proposal prepared according to the guidelines given below.

Independent study does not have to include original work; you can even reproduce work done by others as a separate and independent effort. The important requirement is that the work should have academic merit. It should not be a mundane project involving ordinary methods for design and implementation of some software. There should be an element of academic adventure, i.e. investigation of alternatives, critical evaluations of existing work, and experimentation with observations.

THE GUIDELINES

1.0 FORMAT

The proposal should be typed or computer printed. Use 12 point font, double spaced. Number all figures and tables.

2.0 COVER PAGE

Name of the project.

Semester in which you plan to undertake the work.

Your name and student id

Sponsoring faculty

Names of any one else( at work or elsewhere) helping or guiding this work.

If this work will be in conjunction with a work assignment outside CSUN

Mention the project name

Names of co-workers

Name of supervisor

In all cases include phone numbers and email addresses

3.0 OBJECTIVE

Include a short statement describing the primary objective of the proposed work. This should be no longer than 10 lines.

4.0 INTRODUCTION

Introduce the reader to the area of the proposed work. Assume that the reader is a recent computer science graduate with no in-depth knowledge in your proposed area of work. Include a background of your proposed work, describe what has already been done and exactly what you propose to do. Indicate the technical importance and/or interest of your proposed work. In discussing previous work you should cite references gathered from literature search or trade study. Include critiques and summaries of the references read and cited. This should be take between one to one and a half pages.

If the independent study is primarily a development effort, then state why the software is being developed. You should do a trade study with an attempt at discovering what other products of a similar nature/capability exists. Briefly describe their capabilities. How will your design/implementation differ from the existing products?

5.0 TECHNICAL APPROACH

Describe the proposed approach to your independent study project. For example, describe any special tools you will be using, the design methods you plan to employ, insights you have into potential new algorithms, how will you evaluate and compare different techniques that already exists, etc.

You should not zero-in on a single method or approach. Leave room for investigating alternatives and choosing an optimum solution/approach. You are not expected to describe the solution/approach in detail at this stage (that happens in the final report), but you should include some hints on what they are likely to be.

Produce a work breakdown structure, listing the major tasks and sub-tasks of the proposed project or thesis. This should be between half a page to a page.

6.0 SCHEDULE

Provide a Gantt chart or similar notation showing the start and completion dates of the tasks and sub-tasks described in the work breakdown structure.

7.0 CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS

Write down a set of criteria that can be used to evaluate the degree of success of your proposed work. You may have to think hard and be quite creative in determining the success criteria. The success criteria often depend upon the nature of your work. Keep in mind that, saying "I have completed the project on time" is not an acceptable success criteria, nor is a claim stating that "I did it my way". The important point is to think about some factors that you can measure and compare. In deciding the success criteria, consider the value of your work. How does your work do compared to others. Here are some pointers that you may find helpful depending upon the nature of your independent study work:

  1. What new techniques have you been able to study and try out? How have you been able to determine what difference these new techniques make?
  2. What have you discovered in your literature survey that is not immediately obvious. Were you able to make any conclusions?
  3. What new ideas have been included in the work? How have you been able to verify their success?
  4. What process or method have you discovered/formulated to do things better? How can you determine the differences?
  5. How closely will your simulator model the item being simulated and how efficient will the simulation be?
  6. How much better is your new algorithm? How can you determine.
  7. In software implementation, how many requirements were you able to verify?

It should be possible to make an objective evaluation of your completed work using the criteria you set down. You should aim for three to four important success criteria- that is all. Additionally, keep in mind that the success criteria you list here should be in broad agreement with the objectives.

8.0 REFERENCES

A proposal must contain a set of references covering the related work. Each reference should be critiqued and summarized in the introduction. Include no more than 12 citations. References must be ordered alphabetically by first author and all listed references must be referred to in the text of the proposal.