Sponsoring a Senior Project

The Computer Science Department at the University of Colorado is once again offering the Senior Software Engineering Project class (CSCI 4308 - CSCI 4318), a two-semester course intended to give senior Computer Science majors experience in real-world software development prior to graduation.

I am currently soliciting software development project proposals for projects to be completed during the coming academic year. Students will work in teams, typically four students each, for both the Fall and Spring semesters (September through May) on the design, implementation, testing and documentation of the software. Not only does this class provide valuable experience for the students and useful software for the sponsors, it also provides an ideal way for sponsors and students to become familiar with one another. I would like to encourage you to participate.

We have had a wide variety of project sponsors over the years: from very large to very small; sponsors from industry, government agencies, research institutions and non-profit organizations; and sponsors from Colorado as well as from other states and from other countries. We have also completed projects from a wide variety of problem domains, including business, artificial intelligence, medicine, imaging, networking, science, entertainment, aviation, publishing, education, hardware design, communications, security and many others. Some of the many projects completed in the class include

• a web-based freehand drawing tool
• a postal bar code processing library
• a Java-based piano tutor
• a Nordic event timing system
• a plot package for display of geologic information
• a remote aircraft icing sensing system
• a graphical control system for parabolic dish antennas
• a tool for testing security of web applications
• a virtual chemical library design workbench
• a web-based, interactive meteorological display system
• a location-based reminder system
• a Java-based data graphing package
• a graphical platform for manipulating biological regulatory pathways
• a voice user interface for multi-function devices
• spacecraft status visualization
• the card game Euchre

Several factors should be considered when developing a proposal:

• Each student is expected to spend about 15-20 hours per week on the project in general, although of course they may at times spend somewhat more or less.

• The course encompasses much more than just programming; the students are expected to develop their writing skills (via development documents and user documentation) and to develop their speaking skills (via various presentations in class and at the sponsor site).

• Thus, the projects should be of "medium" scope. As a very general guideline, a project that could be done by a single "moderately experienced" person working full time in a similar time frame is probably of an appropriate size.

The sponsoring organization retains the rights to the resulting software. Also, sponsors may require students to sign non-disclosure agreements, as long as the agreements

• allow faculty and staff responsible for evaluating the students adequate access to the software to perform that evaluation;

• allow faculty and staff running the class and students participating in the class to discuss the project appropriately within the classroom setting;

• allow students to use documents and code listings as part of their portfolio when interviewing for jobs.

There is no fee to sponsor a project. However, we incur significant costs in running the course that are well beyond the funding provided by university budgets. The Computer Science Department must seek private funding to help offset these costs. Therefore, we ask for a voluntary donation from satisfied project sponsors at the end of the academic year.

I want to stress the word "voluntary" -- we understand that not every project can be supported with a private donation and that not every sponsor can provide support at the same level; however, it is our sincere hope that the aggregate support we receive will be enough to allow us to continue this valuable program into future years.

I invite you to participate in this program. To do so, please submit the following information for each project you would like to propose:

• name and address of the sponsoring organization
• name, phone number, and email address of a technical contact
• title of the project
• brief (one half to one page) description of the project
• any additional comments, restrictions, or special instructions

I will then be in touch with the technical contact for any further discussion of the project.

See the Senior Project website for more on the Senior Project course itself, including summaries of previous projects. If you have any further questions about the class, please don't hesitate to contact me.

If you are unable to participate at this time, please forward this request to anyone in your organization who may be interested. Also, if you know anyone who would like to be added to the mailing list for these requests for proposals, please send me appropriate names and email addresses.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Bruce Sanders
Director, Software Engineering Projects
Department of Computer Science