Lecture 12 - Final Year Project (FYP)

"ITS JUST ANOTHER GAME.. PLAY WITH YOUR TRUMPS.."
                                                                   

Figure 1: Trumps

A Final year project is the most important academic work in a BIT course. Not only does the final year project mark the end of the course, it also showcases a students technical knowledge that they had acquired over the duration of the whole course. A BIT final year project is more significant because it show cases both the theoretical and the practical knowledge of the student. For these reasons a final year project is also used as a bench mark by many companies for job placements.

Learning from Class:

Today the lecture was revolves around Final Year Project. Lecturer stated the lecture by explaining main consequences of the FYP such as weightage that contribute the final grade of the course, duration to complete (There is ticking clock back of every second during the 9 months), Possible ways to identify realistic problems and key people to interact with during the FYP. According to the lecturer supervisor is person that guides and advice students to achieve their proposed solution. Its a must to show students work progress in regular basis since there is no way that supervisor can evaluate students project progress unless they submit to them.  After define those basic consequences of the FYP, lecturer moved the discussion to another section where it explains the main theme characteristics of  FYP should be as stated below,

• Project should based on real business problem that seen in an organization and the end goal is to come with a solution through a system that address the artifacts of the problem.

• Beside looking for business problems, students can also look into market opportunities and can come with system solution to improve the organization performance as well as to gain competitive advantage in the industry that the organization currently operates.

After stating above factors lecturer added that documentation of an FYP should basically consist how we arrived at the solution, a literature review, critical evaluation, research etc.

Steps to initiate a final year project:     

1. Draft Proposal     
2. Specification Form     
3. Project Plan

To further explain the reality of those business solutions lecturer gave some examples such as car pooling system for Colombo city where it mainly considering the traffic problem in the city area and as a solution for cost, time and environmental pollution they came up with method that utilize the car space and route depending on the destination where most number of people can benefit from that. Beside to above example lecturer also mention examples about a Blood Supply Chain Management System that drives based on supply and demand domains to cater to the customer within a shortest period of time by integrating all the blood banks. Lecturer also stated BIT students look at various aspect of organization such as HR problems, supply chain problems, production related problems, scheduling problems and employee related problems. In library there are past student final year projects that covers wider aspect of organizations, as students anyone can get an idea how the final year project structured in order to conduct their research successfully in near future.

After stating above artifacts lecturer discussed about preliminary tasks to be done to check whether the selected project is,

• Feasibility - To check whether the selected project worthwhile in order to persuade further more based on operational, economical, technical and schedule feasibility evaluations. It should solve the practical problem at the end of the day.

• Useability - There cannot be any hypothetical solution that does not align with the actual problem scope. 

• Balanced - Should utilize the qualitative and quantitative materials. There should be a appropriate technical complexity align with solution.

After specifying above factors lecturer said how to come up with better ideas for project basically to find a theme and topic for project. Those criteria were mentioned as,

• Area of interest that the student most bond of in an organization or its activities.
• Focus on particular area of a problem that related and discussed in a Magazine or Journal.
• Focusing on modules that a particular student interested based on that scope come with theme for project.
• Considering areas that a student plane to involve after completing educational activities.
• The final year project grade that a particular student aiming for based on that a student can structure the required scope and the depth of analysis to complete project as they wish.
• Identify capabilities, strength and weaknesses by then self and depending on that scope up the dimensions of the project.

Then the lecturer move the discussion by saying important questions that students must ask from them in order to quantify and possibility of giving evidence relating to the identified problem before continue with their projects. Those questions are,

• Availability of information and accessibility for sources relating to the problem.
• Availability of time domain to complete the project.
• Finance requirements for expenses on the project research phase.
• Availability of knowledge, skill and time to grab the required information from the available sources.
• Availability of literature in selected area or subject.

Before concluding the lecture for the day, lecturer mention the basic required content that should include in the Final Year Project Proposal. Those requirements are,

• Importance of the selected problem discussion
• Specific objective (need to do according to SMART)
• Description of the Methodologies planing to use for research
• Identify values and the effectiveness of possible outcomes
• Identify a preliminary timetable for the project.   

Reality of the lecture:

From this lecture I got an overall impression about the final year project which will tend me to build up and sharpen my ideas that related to already decided final year project solution. Beside that I understood by sticking into basic theory what I have learn so far would be the foundation for all the elements of the FYP. During FYP Im planning to use my TRUMP cards that has never been used during my academic carrier in order to deliver quality, timely and realistic solution for the problem that I have identified.