Faculty Advisor:   All senior projects must have a faculty advisor from the Department of Computer Science. Interested students should make arrangements with an advisor during the Spring semester of their Junior year and should plan to meet regularly with this advisor throughout their senior year. For more details, see the advisor page.

Registration:   Students electing to take the senior project should register for CS/DATA 396 for the fall semester of their senior year, and for CS/DATA 398 for the spring semester of their senior year. Students must choose a faculty advisor before registering; the advisor will arrange the registration with the registrar's office.

Schedule:   During the fall semester, the student should typically focus on any necessary library research, design and prototyping. During the spring semester, they can move to implementation and writing. See the course schedule for more scheduling details. Alternate schedules, e.g., Spring-Fall or Summer-Fall are possible, but rare and accepted only when an advisor who agrees to the change can be identified well in advance of the project start date.

Team Projects:   The department will consider either individual projects or team projects, but reserves the right to make the final team placements. General expectations for teams and team members are:

• Teams will meet with each other at least weekly, and with their advisor at least fortnightly.
• Team members will spend around six hours per week on team work, throughout both semesters, and are expected to show rather more self-discipline and leadership in the project management than has typically been required in previous courses.

The Department will consider supporting computing student members on Engineering senior design project teams (see ENGR 339/340).

Grading:   The CS/DATA 396/398 course coordinator and the faculty advisor will work together to assign grades for both semesters of the project according to the following rubric:

• CS/DATA 396
  • 20% - Participation in sessions and activities required by the CS/DATA 396 coordinator and/or the project advisor
  • 20% - Project proposal
  • 10% - Draft project website
  • 10% - Project status presentation
  • 40% - Final project materials
  Students making unsatisfactory progress in the fall semester will be given either: an incomplete (I) with the expectation that they catch up by the beginning of the next semester; or a fail (F) with the expectation that they drop CS/DATA 398 and, probably, switch to the CS-plus program.
  
  
• CS/DATA 398
  • 20% - Participation in sessions and activities required by the CS/DATA 398 coordinator and/or the project advisor
  • 10% - Final project presentation
  • 10% - Final project report
  • 10% - Final project website
  • 50% - Final project materials
  Students making unsatisfactory progress in the spring semester will be given an incomplete (I) with expectation that they finish their work soon after the end of the semester.

See the course schedule for more details on the course deliverables and deadlines.

Rhetoric Center: You will complete significant writing and/or speaking projects in this course, and the Rhetoric Center assists all students as they plan, compose, and revise writing, speaking, design, and research projects. You can work with a trained peer consultant to develop ideas, to work on organization, to receive feedback from an attentive audience, and to work on polishing final products. For details on the Rhetoric Center, its hours, and how to schedule appointments, see: https://calvin.edu/offices-services/rhetoric-center/.

Disabilities: Calvin University has a continuing commitment to providing reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Like so many things this fall, the need for accommodations and the process for arranging them may be altered by the COVID-19 changes we are experiencing and the safety protocols currently in place. Students with disabilities who may need some accommodation in order to fully participate in this class are urged to contact Disability Services in the Center for Student Success, as soon as possible, to explore what arrangements need to be made to assure access. disabilityservices@calvin.edu.

Incompletes:  We will give an incomplete grade (I) only in unusual circumstances, and only if those circumstances have been confirmed by the Student Life office.

Diversity and Inclusion: It is our intent that students from all backgrounds and perspectives are well served in this course. God delights in diversity; so will we in this course. If you or someone else is hurt by anything said or done in class, let us know so we can work toward a remedy.

Etiquette: We expect you to treat students and instructors for this course with respect by adopting courteous communication practices throughout the semester in all venues, including online forums. No personal attacks, trolling, or other kinds of bad language will be tolerated.