Final year project/dissertation

I’ve successfully handed in my final year project/dissertation; I would have loved to read a blog about what is involved in creating an artefact/paper. I won’t be talking about the paper itself, more about the workload and how much time it takes.

I have 4 units each year, for us we only had 150/400% grades for the final year project (dissertation, viva, poster day and artefact itself). This meant that while I was doing the final year project I had exams and other assignments to be doing. Comparing to other universities that do the same course, it’s also sometimes 100% focus on 1 artefact in the final year. This makes it much more impressive for the portfolio as you have more time spent on it, but on the other hand there is a lot more pressure to pick the right topic.

That being said, even though it was less than half of the years mark, I would not under estimate the workload that is involved. I was very confident in the software and actually producing the artefact, but when it came to writing the dissertation I was basically on everyone else’s level.  My final paper was overall around 90 pages. It’s very daunting to think that you need to write that amount and keep good quality throughout the report. It’s not something you can do last minute. Generally when it came to assignments I did like to leave it late, but for this there is paper I had to make sure I was on schedule throughout the project. I was still working on it the day before it was due in, but only trivial. I’d say about 80% of people I knew where only starting the main thesis days/less than a week before it was due. I started months before but slowly started adding stuff as I went along. I would strongly recommend that you keep a personal blog post on your final year project. A few reasons for this:

•           It’s a perfect place to keep backups, access them wherever you are.
•           Good for informal notes and errors you encounter.
•           Easier to keep in contact with your supervisor, it’s an easy place to showcase your work.
•           Keeping a personal blog is fun in general; I’ve had a lot of success with my own with plenty of career opportunities out of it.

I personally had backups of my work on multiple cloud storage spaces, multiple hard drives and constant backups being made after every change in the project. I handed my final year project in last week.  

http://it-ca.net/blogsean/?page_id=1244

My final artefact can be found here, I may release my final year report too, depending on results.

Poster day

I personally had no idea what to expect when going in for poster day. All we was told to do is print / create a poster about our artefact and final year dissertation.

This was my final poster

The above is my final poster that I designed for my project. We was asked to print this poster in A1 both for the poster day and the final year project VIVA. The first recommendation would be set money aside for printing. Printing A1 and colour costs around £20 (if laminated) but really depends where you go. 

The day itself, it was a lot different to what I expected. Basically it was an informal event where people walked around and just asked questions about my project. There was also a film crew there that interviewed me.  

They generally asked trivial questions and nothing really specific and technical about the project. This was the same with everyone, the odd person wanted to know some specifics, but generally they all wanted the same overview of the project. We all had computers with the artefact loaded up on them. It made it easier to showcase the poster. I noticed the games students had a slimier thing and everyone had their project loaded up. Although I didn’t walk around every room, there was some people in which a computer wouldn’t help showcase the project.

Lastly I what would have been great information for me is that there is no audio on the computers you are showcasing your project on. Luckily the audio wasn’t really the main aspect of my final year project. That being said, I did have my video loaded on my tablet if anyone did want to hear the audio for it. I gave my mobile phone headphones to a student whose animation was a music video. He got much more use out of audio than what I would have done.

Back at uni

I’m still very busy doing university work at the moment, but I’m at the very tail end of the work. I’ve done 90% of my final year project now, the artefact is complete and the overall conclusion and evaluation of the project is that it’s a success. I’m happy with what I’ve done but still there a bit more writing for the report needed. Some last assignments left and 1 exam. But I’m nearly finished with all of my university assignments now! Around 3-4 weeks until I’m officially finished the workload and exams. 

Here is a link to my final year project for those who are interested.

http://it-ca.net/blogsean/?page_id=1244

I’ve applied for a university scholarship too, although I’ve planned to apply to some internships for the summer. It’s a great time to update my portfolio and CV. I’ve been in touch with lecturers and trying to get references complete for the application process of the universities I’ve applied for. Although this time, I’ve only applied for 1 program. Mostly because at this level funding is really available for students who want to study a master degree/PhD. Otherwise I’ll be looking for jobs in the field or internships in the near future if my application process isn’t successful.

We have poster day next on the 8^th of May, I will get some pictures and blog about how that went. I personally have no idea what’s involved with such an event, so hopefully I can inform others what to expect.