CS 480, "Senior Project in Computer Science"

RATIONALE: 

Industry feedback indicates a need for our students to have some 
experience with significant, long-term programming projects.  It is
also clear that tomorrow's programmers must be creative, original,
and self-motivated to stay on top of, and define, the network programming
environments of the future.  CS 480 provides an opportunity for students
to work independently on a large implementation of their choice and
of their design, outside of the constraints of a class assignment, 
semester project, or structured course.  It is expected that students
will complete much of the work on their senior project prior to enrolling
in the course.  

To ensure quality work, steady progress, and consistent scope and 
evaluation across projects, the following steps are proposed:

-  Advisors, rather than an instructor, will provide overall supervision, 
   before and during the actual course semester of CS 480.  

-  A student and his or her advisor must reach agreement on a project
   proposal, or "contract", which specifically lays out the goals, scope, 
   limitations, requirements, and grading criteria for the project.

-  Students will be encouraged to begin designing and implementing their
   projects early in their curricula, but will not be expected to enroll
   in CS 480 until they are in their fourth year.

-  An evaluation committee, consisting of CS faculty, will act as "jury"
   to a final presentation by the student, and will collectively decide
   on a final grade for the project.
   
The nature of this course will evolve, as we build up a legacy of successful
and interesting projects to inspire future students, and as we bring in 
possible projects from industry, community and campus requirements, and from
our own research.



EXTRA VERBAGE FOR BULLETIN DESCRIPTION (for that little paragraph to be published):

This course involves a significant software development and implementation
project.  Since this project constitutes more than two credit hours of work,
students are expected to begin the project prior to registering for CS 480.
Enrollment in CS 480 allows the student to wrap up the project, including
testing, documentation, and a demonstration and presentation to an 
evaluation committee of CS faculty, for feedback and grading.  Students will
be supervised 
by their advisors, rather than a course instructor.  Students are expected to
define a project of interest to them, and then to work out an agreement with
the advisor on the goals, scope, and grading criteria for the final product.
Students are expected to work individually on projects.  (Under certain 
circumstances, small teams of students can be assigned to a single, larger
project.)