The project is an important part of this course, and the purpose behind it is to gain experience in applying the concepts and technologies presented in this course to real-life situations, or build on the concepts presented to research a particular topic further and propose a novel solution to a challenging problem. Each project group should have between 2 and 3 members (1-person projects might be allowed...see below). Your group should choose a significant, innovative, application (or research topic) of interest to you. The design and implementation (or simulation) of the application utilizes several of the concepts presented in class. Students should form their own groups, but if this can not be done, groups will be assigned. Any programming language or simulation tool is acceptable for this project!

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Note: I prefer that projects be done in groups -- they would be more interesting and may provide very valuable experience. However, if a student wishes to do an individual project possibly for the reason that the work will be the foundation for their thesis, then that might be acceptable but please talk to me about it first.

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The final mark (40%) for the project will be based on the following grading criteria:

• Idea and initial design of the system (or research topic) and the extent of it: 5%
  Submit a three-page document (between 1000 - 1500 words) that describes the idea of your project. It is important that your project be of a complexity and scale that does not exceed the intentions of this course. For this reason, get approval for your project before you start. In grading this, I will be looking at: how compelling is your project idea? How much impact will service-oriented computing make on cost, quality, functionality, etc.? How innovative is the idea of your project? Is it significantly different from existing commercial applications? How is the quality of your architectural design? What technologies will be used and why?
• Implementation/Coding/Performance Evaluation: 13%
  This all depends on the project: if you implemented a system then how well the system is implemented, what is the level of functionality, creativity in developing the system, and its usability. If you worked on a research-oriented project, then are the assumptions technically sound, are the ideas feasible, have you validated them, have you compared the performance with similar systems that implement closely-related ideas?
• Presentation: 7%
  The group will demonstrate and defend their work. You must prepare PowerPoint Slides for a 20-minute presentation. Each presentation will be followed by 5-minutes for questions. Here are some hints on making successful presentations.
• Final paper: 15%
  This is a conference quality paper. 6 - 10 pages (~5000 words), Times 10 Font, double column. Paper includes: an abstract, keywords, introduction, relation to other work, the main body of work, conclusions with contributions made, thoughts about any future work, references. Please use this template.

Project Milestones

• Jan. 21: Form a group, designate a group leader, and e-mail me the group info (names and student numbers).
• For the following two weeks, discuss what you want to do for a project, and get my approval for the project.
• Feb. 15: E-mail me your group's project idea and initial design.
• March 31: Presentations and Demos. A CD containing your final paper, source code, and any instructions to run your system must be handed in on the day of presentations.