University of British Columbia

Department of Computer Science

CPSC 530M

 Computational Sustainability

Winter Session 2013-14, Term 2

Course Project

Overview

• A short project proposal will be written initially, outlining the project scope.
  
• The projects will be presented in class as short talks.
  
• You will complete a project report based, in part, on the project talk you have given and the feedback you got on it. 

Proposal

The proposal should include the proposed topic of the project, with a brief list of relevant papers or other material. The scope of the project should be outlined with a brief work-plan and a sketch of the proposed final goals. There may be issues about the best approach to take to the topic, which should be mentioned. If you are undecided between two topics you could outline both of them.  Talk to Alan if you want to check on your ideas for a project.

A wide range of project types are possible, including:

• the specification and high-level design of a proposed new computational sustainability software/hardware system
• extensions to an existing computational sustainability system
• experiments with an existing computational sustainability system
• analysis of an existing computational sustainability dataset
• a research proposal for tacking a new sustainability topic or application domain
• a structured, comprehensive in-depth review of the state-of-the-art in an application domain
• a structured, comprehensive in-depth review of the role of a computational technique (e.g. machine learning) in sustainability
  
• a study of the impact of ICT development on some aspect of sustainability
  

The proposal should be at most 1 page, following the NSERC Formatting Standards. 

Deadline: February 24, 2014, 12:00 noon.

Talk

The initial results of the project will be presented as a 30 minute talk, in class, on March 25 or 27 or April 1 or 3.

Project Report

The final report on the project will be based, in part, on the project talk you have given, incorporating feedback on it. The report should be appropriately structured, including a review of related research. For example, if you are writing a research proposal you should use the relevant structure required for a NSERC Strategic Project Grant Proposal. All the reports should follow the NSERC Formatting Standards with a maximum of 11 pages,  including figures and references. Late projects are subject to a 10%/day penalty. Submit to Alan as an attached .pdf file. 

Deadline: April 22, 2014, 12:00 noon.