Phase 1: Due Tuesday, September 28, 2004 by MIDNIGHT

• Name of your project
• Names of all group members (preferred group size is 3 members). Groups of 2 or 4 members MUST be approved in advance by the professor.
• A brief description of the program you plan to enhance or create. You have a choice here.
  1. You may select some Open Source program (sourceforge.net is a good place to look around) and enhance it in some significant way. The enhancement MUST in some way improve its performance or add to its capabilities through changes you make to its data structures and the functions that manipulate them. We are looking here for real enhancement, not just taking a non-GUI application and putting a GUI face on it.
  2. You may create your own application from scratch. It must be an application that in some way makes significant use of data structures and algorithms we have studied this semester. A GUI of some kind is required on a new application. An Ncurses style interface may be acceptable if it makes use of special keys, mouse and color.
• Identify the data structures and algorithms that are key to the modification or creation of the software you are tackling.
• Give some reference(s) and/or source(s) of information relevant to your project. Web or print sources are acceptable at this stage.

Phase 2: Due Tuesday, October 26, 2004 by MIDNIGHT

If you have decided to make a change between the first phase and now, approval must be obtained from the professor.

Submit a one page project plan that identifies the central application for your program and the key functionality that this application will require. Outline the framework of your program in a separate UML diagram. Explain the interaction of the modules and the basic functionality of each (you will develop this into a set of formal ADT APIs which will be submitted with your final project). Identify the GUI utilities which you will use and your program’s target platform.

Identify new or standard data structures which you will implement (if you are not working on an Open Source project you must identify two). Identify how you will test the efficiency of your selected data structures. If you implement structures already in the STL you may test them against the standard. For structures used but not implemented you must compare their efficiency against that of another structure. For example: MyVector vs stlVector, List vs Tree, Hash vs ....

Phase 3: Final Written Materials due Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - by MIDNIGHT

Project in-class presentations will be on

• Tuesday, November 30th
• Thursday, December 2nd
• Tuesday, December 7th

Each presentation will last a MAXIMUM of 20 minutes (including questions and any demonstration). You should have the following PowerPoint slides, overhead transparencies, or similar visual aids, and must discuss each item below briefly. If you include additional topics, MAKE SURE you have time to cover them. Remember, each group will have approximately 15 minutes for talk and software demo, plus a few minute (3-5 max) for any questions.

All class members are expected to attend all presentations.

The in-class presentation must include: UPDATED 11/24/2004

• A title slide with project name and group member names
• Motivation and goals of the project
  (Single sentence motivation & succinct list of goals)
• A brief list of program capabilities, target platform and potential users
• A list of key data structures and algorithms (keep this to the point)
• Identify any comparisons performed between different data structures or algorithms and summarize results
• Conclusions (level of completion, most useful thing learned, etc)
• A brief demonstration of the program

The final project submission will include:

1. A short (min 3 page, max 5 page) paper covering the topics listed below. Be concise.
2. A separate UML diagram showing high level overview of program structure
3. You source code
4. An executable program
5. A file containing APIs for each key data structure (class, ADT, ...) you create
6. README files, one for each group member (named README.<your_asfid> - for example README.jstewman). Each file details your individual activities and contributions. Keep it in the form of a daily diary, giving date, time worked, activity, etc.)

The final paper format includes:

• Title and authors
• Abstract (scope and motivation)
• Key terms
• General description of project, background, motivation and goals. This may repeat some of the abstract. Should also include references to sources (personal, literature, on-line) used in development of the software.
• An explanation of the desired program functionality, platform and potential users
• A UML based overview of the program framework
• Description of key data structures and algorithms used, including reasons for your choices, and descriptions of how each data structure supports program functionality
• Hypotheses regarding performance/efficiency of the data structures
• Rationale for selection of the data structure comparison scenarios
• Experimental efficiency data based on time, iteration, or space measurements
• Discussion of experimental results versus original hypotheses
• Mention of error handling mechanisms implemented
• Conclusions
• References
• Brief biographies of each group member (50 words max). Include a picture of each person.

General allocation of points will be according to these percentages.

Phase 1 document 5%
Phase 2 document 5%
Presentation 15%
Program Demo 10%
Paper 35%
UML diagram 5%
APIs for data structures, classes, ADTs, etc 10%
Source Code & executable 10%
Individual diaries 5%

BONUS: If (by the Dec 7th submission deadline) you decide to post your program in an Open Source development forum, I will award 5% extra to your final project grade. Make sure your program is ND quality; you don’t want to publish your name globally with a “sub-par” project.