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INTRODUCTION
One amazing thing about final year projects is that it can boost or mar your
overall CGPA. So its best to endeavor to make your project earn you
nothing less than a B. This thread is dedicated to providing tips to assist
undergraduates offering the course of computer science in any of our higher
institutions of learning.
Obviously, this is the first thing that one should think of. But the problem is
how to go about it. Many students will search the web, libraries or other
sources looking for topics that they could use. Sadly, after a topic might
have been found, many students fail to fully understand the purpose for
which the project was intended for.
A good example:
A student I once knew went online and searched for topics to use. He finally
came up with the topic,
Genetic Algorithm Based Train Simulation Using Concurrent Engineering
I wished him good luck.
In the end, while defending his project, he was asked by the project
examiners to explain to them what his topic was all about. Turned out that
what he had researched on had no bearing whatsoever with the topic as the
examining panel pointed out to him that the explanation he gave, and the
actual meaning of the project topic, were two different things entirely!
The poor lad was told to rewrite his work under a week after which he was
awarded with a D for all his troubles. If he had taken a simple project
topic which he understood, he would have cleared his papers!
The thing about choosing a project title is that you should know what the
titles all about! Only then can you begin to research in the right direction!
Choose a title that is clear to you, that you understand. Do researches on the
project and confirm that the purpose of the project is in line with the notion
that you had about it. Do not wait until the eleventh-and-a-half hour before
you are told what your project really is!
My next post will guide us on the tips to take to choosing the best topic for
our project defense.
Okay, so youve picked a topic. You understand its aims and objectives
intuitively. Is there any thing else that you need to know that can help you
decide if the topic you have chosen is the best one for you?
Heres a tip. Choose a computer science project topic that will solve
something in your immediate environment. That way you will get more
marks as you are targeting real-life issues in your society and it will be
viewed that you are using your knowledge gained from your education to
contribute to the developmental uplifting of your environment.
Try not to choose a topic like:
It may sound good and all, but does it solve the immediate problems
experienced in a developing third world country like ours? Most of the
topics that we gather online come from sources which belong to the white
man. The white man has overcome the issues of constant electricity, cheap
and affordable internet services and a conducive environment for a human
being to live in. So the type of project that his students will be solving will
be research topics to discover new ways and algorithms for solving already
existing solved problems like the one in the topic I gave above: Already
there are many Adaptive Programming Models in existence but this project
seeks to create one that will over come the problems associated with the
already existing models. This project will be of use to the environment of the
white man, since almost every aspect of their society is based on the
computer, hence it makes sense to create models that will make them more
fault tolerant so that they can function more efficiently.
In country like ours, where not even 2% of our society is based on the
workings of the computer, of what real use will such a topic have for us?
Why seek to improve a model that is not even in operation in our society?
We have to think of this when choosing topics for our Final Year Projects.
Ever bought a drug and discovered that it did not work for you? Yet if you
checked for the NAFDAC number you would see one. How can you be sure
that the number wasnt just printed on the drugs container and is a fake
one? Is there any way you can be sure that the NAFDAC number you see is
real? How can you verify that claim? Is there an easily accessible medium
by which ordinary members of the public like you and I can check to see if a
drug has been registered? If the drug cannot be verified is there a way we
can report the fake drug to NAFDAC?
Now if you were a Nigerian Computer Science professor and two students
came up with their project titles, one the Model Improvement title and the
other, the NAFDAC Verification title, which of the two titles would you
believe if implemented would aid the Nigerian society more? Your guess is
as good as mine!
Lets imagine that we were actual real world problem solvers and we wanted
to solve real world problems encountered either by us or other members of
the society in a particular field, discipline or activity.
Now that weve imagined what we are, the next step is for us, the problem
solvers to look for problems encountered in our society that can be solved by
us!
I have one such problem that I encounter almost every other day and I intend
to make an example of this problem to demonstrate how we can create
project topics from everyday difficulties.
Note: Since we are computer scientists, it is assumed that the method of
solving the problems we encounter would be to replace or enhance the
existing mode of operation of the system, (It could be a banking system,
record keeping system, examination recording system, etc) within which the
problem exists, with a formidable and reliable computerized system. This
will involve designing computer software to work and interact with the
provided computer hardware, provided for the new computerized system.
Next, we shall take a look at a problematic system operating in my
environment.
In my town, the Post Office is still very useful, for something other than the
obvious purpose of a post office, which is to send and receive mails and
parcels. It is used by businesses and organizations in the town and its
environs to show vacancy notices to the public. Every week, job owners go
to the Post Office to pay for their job offers to be pasted on the notice board
and everyday job seekers troop to the Post Office to read the Notice Board
for information about the vacancies available.
THE PROBLEMS:
Now in the next posts, we shall take a look at each of these sections and for
each section, give an example of a how to write the contents of the section
using the topic: The Post Office Vacancy Notification System, as our
project.
The Introduction Section of the project proposal, as the sections title clearly
describes, introduces the reader (in this case, your project supervisor) to a
brief overview of the situation of the environment within which the
problematic system that is to be solved, exist.
First you talk about the main elements around which the current problematic
system operates and how they interact with the environment
For example;
If the system is a University Student Registration System for instance, the
obvious main elements of that system would be the university, the students
and the registration of the students.
Now you talk about the first element, the University and how it interacts
with the society. At least, a paragraph should focus on the usefulness of the
university to the environment.
Then take on the next element-the students. Another paragraph should
introduce the role of the student as regards the university and the
environment. Now another paragraph will talk about the other element, the
student registration process. The aim of each paragraph would be to explain
to the reader the role of each element of the system and how they operate
within their existing environment.
Notes:
*Try and write like a journalist writing an essay rather than a student
struggling for words to quickly complete and pass his proposal to his project
supervisor! Read lots of journals and newspaper publications so as to see the
use of words and increase your vocabulary.
*Make your paragraphs connect and flow together so that when one is
reading the whole introduction, he/she will be able to follow you with
understanding and clarity.
Now, we shall write the Introduction Section for the proposal of the topic:
The Post Office Vacancy Notification System.
Note: Words written in brackets () are comments made by me to you and not
a part of the Section Write up.
(First I will start with a paragraph about the current systems element-the
post office)
The Post office is responsible primarily for the collection and delivery of
mails and parcels to remote destinations usually separated by towns, cites or
countries. Until the late decade, the delivery of mails and packages to remote
locations was done through the post office service but since then, with the
advent of the internet, the role of the Post office as the primary means of
mail delivery, was replaced by the electronic mail or the email. Nowadays,
business cards of organizations and companies have long since replaced the
P.O. Box: label with the email address: label, making the delivery of
mails via the post office an obsolete practice. However, since physical
parcels cannot be transferred from one location to the next through the email
system, the Post office is still used as a means to send physical materials
from one place to another.
(Now I will introduce the second element of the system -Vacancy- in the next
paragraph)
As a result of the nature of the activities that go on there, the Post office is
seen as a public infrastructure open to all sections of public, as anybody and
everybody can go there to either send or receive mails. This makes the Post
office a convenient spot to place public notices such as awareness
campaigns, government public announcements, job vacancies and adverts
for members of the public to read. Of the lot, the most widely read notices
are those on job vacancies as every year, fresh graduates leave school and
look for employment into the countrys labor market. Hence, many Post
offices situated in cities and towns across the country are seen as a viable
and cheap source of information, especially for the unemployed youth, about
the employment opportunities available in the area of location of the post
offices.
(First I will use a paragraph to introduce the list of problems with their
outlines)
There however exist certain issues associated with getting information about
the availability of jobs by the job seekers. These problems are outlined and
discoursed in brief detail below:
3. Distance from the post office: For those living in locations far away
from the post office, the problem of distance comes into play as applicants
living beyond the close proximity of the post office would be at a major
disadvantage to get jobs as those living nearby will always have the
privilege of getting the jobs due to their faster access to vacancy information
from the post office.
~ Code4Me Team
team@code4me.info