2009/2010 BIT Year III Final Projects

Guidelines
Ernest Mwebaze1

1- Department of Information Technology

Faculty of Computing & IT
Makerere University

Abstract. Information Technology students in the Faculty of Computing

& IT are required at the end of their third year to undertake a project in
partial fulfilment for an award of a degree of Bachelor of Information Tech-
nology from Makerere University. This document highlights the general
guidelines for students and supervisors on how to choose a project area
and execute the project. It also highlights generic timelines. Students
are encouraged to look out for changes in the timelines from the project
website. http://cit3.mak.ac.ug/projects/2010/

1 Background
University regulations demand that for any student to graduate, he/she needs
to participate in a non-trivial project in his/her area of study in the final year
of the course. Previously students have been undertaking individual projects
under the guidance of staff members from the faculty.
However over time the intake numbers of students has grown hence justifying
revision of the models of administration, supervision and implementation of final
year projects. The field of IT and computer science specifically is dynamic and
is moving towards a more team-based science more than an individual science.
The current numbers of 3rd year BIT students in the Faculty of Computing
and IT are approximately 800 students for the Bachelor of Information Tech-
nology programme. For reasons including avoidance of duplication of work, en-
hancing teamwork and optimizing resources, CIT is adopting a model of group
projects, where students will be required to do projects in groups.

2 Project Categories
The group projects will fall under predefined categories that will be specified
by each of the departments depending on the trends of computing disciplines
at that particular time. For the year 2009/2010, the project categories for the
different departments will be :

• Business Systems
This focuses on the use of computers and information systems to under-
stand, model and solve complex problems in the world of business. It will
include the use of computers to aid the problem solving process itself plus
development and management of organization systems.
• Multimedia Applications
This deals with development of multimedia applications. It will involve
development of digital and interactive systems, content building for CD-
ROM/DVDs, animation and 3D concepts. Aspects of multimedia imaging,
interactive web sites, education multimedia and sound and video are also
included herewith.
• Internet Systems
This will deal with construction of computer systems that exploit the in-
ternets capabilities. It will involve the use of internet applications such as
XHTML, CSS, XML, XML Schema language, XSLT, browser side script-
ing, WAP2 development, PHP, and ASP.Net(including mobile).
• Information Management
Here focus will be on the use of IT to manage information content, re-
sources and services in business, government, or community sectors to meet
the needs of individuals, organizations and society. It will include Informa-
tion Management, Knowledge Management and web content management
systems, information organization and access, information architecture and
project management.
• Information Systems
This will involve the development, implementation and management of in-
formation systems to meet the challenges of the business community. It
will involve development of intra and inter-organizational e-business sys-
tems and the development of web-based systems to support large-scale
organizations.
• Applications Development and Networks
This deals with building new systems and applications from the ground
up using current technologies and tools. It will also focus on network and
internet technologies, their use and management, the design and develop-
ment of networked systems, and networked applications in industry and
government.

• Net-Centric Computing
This deals with a range of specialties within computing including com-
puter communication, network concepts and protocols, web standards and
technologies, network security, wireless and mobile computing, distributed
system development and web-based systems.

• Systems Development
This deals with development of systems to meet the computer process-
ing needs of those in business, commerce and government. It will involve
software development and computer technologies that support systems de-
velopment including UNIX, Java, J2EE, XML, SQL, C++ and the range
of .NET technologies.
 • Security
This will focus on development of schemes for securing and managing com-
puter systems and networks. It will include the development of man-
agement techniques/applications to aid in the development, planning and
management of information, network and software application security sys-
tems.

3 Project Selection - Students

Students will form their groups according to the research tracks that have been
defined above. Each group will not exceed six persons. The project will be
defined by the supervisor and this should essentially in line with the research
interest of the supervisor.

4 Grouping
Group membership numbers will be the same for the BIT program. Each group
will consist of 6 members from the BIT only. Members in the group will have
clearly defined roles depending on the project they undertake. These roles will
be dynamic and change as the goals of the group change during the various steps
of project implementation. The roles of the different members will be assigned
following consultations between the group members and the group supervisor.

5 Supervision - TOR
Each group will be assigned a supervisor. The supervisor will be responsible for
guiding the group right from the inception of the concept paper to the writing of
the final project report. The terms of Reference for the supervisors will generally
be :-
1. Supervisors will be responsible for availing academic guidance to the groups.
This will include helping them come up with an non-trivial project right
from the concept paper level to the final proposal level. It will also include
ensuring that faculty research standards are adhered to including but not
limited to those included in APPENDIX C.
2. The supervisor will be the link between the students and the faculty and
all communication will follow this line unless in VERY SPECIAL instances
where the students may interface directly with the faculty and vice versa.
3. Each group will keep a log book ( provided by the faculty to the supervisor
) in which recordings of all deliberations will be made. In this book group
members will record membership at every meeting they have with their
supervisor. A template of the log book is shown in APPENDIX A.
4. Each supervisor will be required to submit a progress report every two
weeks based on a standard format shown in APPENDIX B.
 5. A file will be opened up for every supervisor. This file will include all groups
supervised by the particular supervisor, progress reports and marks sheets.
If the supervisor is managing a group or groups in the BIT program, then
the file will be kept by the Administrative Assistant in-charge of IT and
likewise for BSC.
6. Supervisors will be responsible for meeting the delivery deadlines of the
faculties. These are shown in the Table 1.
7. The three main project deliverables, concept paper, proposal and final
project report will not be accepted by the faculty unless they bear the
signature of the supervisor.
8. A supervisor may be a member of staff (full-time or part-time), a PhD stu-
dent or an MSC student (upon approval from the faculty). The supervisor
will meet the group following a regular schedule that will be agreed upon
between him/her and the group members.
9. A supervisor may be responsible for up to 3 groups. The groups may
constitute groups from the BIT or CSC programmes, or both.
10. Supervisors will be charged with encouraging and guiding the students in
the writing of a proper journal paper following the specified formats.

6 Project Deliverables
Each group will have to submit the following deliverables at the times set by the
faculty. Each of these deliverables must bear the signature of the supervisor,
and must conform to the faculty standard format for it to be approved by the
faculty.
• Project Concept Paper
• Project Proposal
• Final Project Report.
• Journal Paper
The timelines for the above deliverables will be as shown in 1

6.1 Journal Paper

This is an especially meritorious deliverable that will not be graded formally by
the assessment committee. It will be graded specially with the best 10 journal
papers receiving special recognition by the faculty. This recognition will partly
be in monitory terms with the beneficiaries being the group members and their
supervisors and partly in non-monitory terms with the journal paper/s being
submitted as a special entry to the ICCIR conference and with possible inclusion
in an international journal.
 Deliverable (Task) Timeline (Due date)
Every fortnight Progress Reports to Departmen-
tal Admin Assistants
Group Registration 6th October 2009
Allocation of Supervisors to Groups 12th October 2009
Display of final groups and respective 13th October 2009
supervisors on - muele.mak.ac.ug
Supervisors guide groups to develop ap- 26th October 2009
propriate project topics
Project Concept Paper submission 26th October 2009
Project Proposal signed by supervisor 18th December 2009
Draft Project Reports ( 3 ) signed by 15th May 2010
supervisor
Final Project Presentations Starting 31st May 2010
Final Project Reports ( 3 ) Signed by 25th June 2010
Supervisor and Journal paper

Table 1: Project Timelines

These papers will form the basis for future third year research and possible
masters research as they will be put on an internationally accessible website for
ease of access to employers, fellow students and researchers.
The journal papers should be submitted in accordance with the availed jour-
nal paper format from the faculty.
The groups and their supervisor are especially challenged to see to it that
the papers they produce are amongst the best 20 in the whole of the class of
2009/2010.
These 20 papers will be submitted to an independent panel that will review
and select the best project, 1st runner up and second runner up respectively.
Awards will be presented at an appropriate forum organized by the Faculty to
recognize the winners.

7 Assessment
Project assessment will involve continuous assessments that will constitute 30 %
and 10% peer assessment by the group members. The final presentation of the
project results will constitute the remaining 60 %. Particular break down will
be as shown in 2
Assessor Marks Comments
Supervisor 30% # Marks awarded for INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION
leading up to the formulation of the concept, proposal and
final project implementation and report.
Peer Assessment 10% Group members will evaluate themselves on the level of in-
volvement, participation and contribution to the over all
project implementation.
Faculty 60% # Marks awarded to GROUP at presentation of final project
implementation.

Table 2: Project Assessment