Last Updated on 11 February 2011

FYP Proposal

The FYP proposal is due in  It does not need to be long, and it can be single spaced. For more information, see Table of Contents for the FYP Proposal. For individual advisor preferences regarding the number of pages, see FYP Advisor Preferences.

Your proposal is the foundation for your progress report.  Thus, it is important at the beginning to do a lot of brainstorming, researching, reading, thinking and planning and before you write your proposal. Some groups procrastinate and wait until September to get started, but smart groups usually do a lot of their foundational work during the summer, write a draft proposal for their CT to copy edit or proof-read in September and then make changes before submitting their proposal.

Proposal Format

Since your CT will probably make a lot of marks and notes on a hard copy of your report, please submit your proposal in MS Word format, and please use a 12pt font with double spacing or 1.5 lines (click Format, Paragraph, Line Spacing.) Before you submit your proposal to the FYP management system, you can change back to single spacing.

Proposal Structure

Cover Page 2. Methodology 4. Required Hardware & Software
Title Page     2.1 Design     4.1 Hardware
Table of Contents     2.2 Implementation     4.2 Software
      2.3 Testing  
1. Introduction     2.4 Evaluation 5. References
    1.1 Overview    
    1.2 Objectives 3. Project Planning Appendix A: Minutes
    1.3 Literature Survey     3.1 Division of Work  
    1.4 Feasibility Study     3.2 GANTT Chart Appendix B, C, D, etc.: Domain model diagram, sequence diagrams, use case models, conceptual system design, layered software architecture, screen images, miscellaneous figures, theories, illustrations, user manual, etc.

A Possible Plan

  1. Meet initially in June to brainstorm and assign reading.  One person should be responsible to record the minutes and send a Word document ASAP to the other members by e-mail. These minutes are not only required for your FYP report, but they can also be very helpful when you finally sit down to type up your proposal.
  2. Individually read all you can about your topic and browse the Internet to look for similar research projects.  Take notes and bring your findings to your second group meeting.
  3. At the second meeting compare notes, brainstorm further, and decide which information you've gathered may be useful and which information is not.  Begin to keep a file of useful information, and begin compiling your references.  At the end of the meeting assign more reading and research topics.  Again, one member should also prepare minutes for the meeting ASAP afterwards.
  4. Individually read and research again, taking more notes for your third meeting.
  5. Read the questions you may be asked at the end of the project during your presentation to see if you are forgetting anything important.
  6. At your third meeting compare notes again and decide on the best models and/or algorithms for your project.  Assign one person to write your literature survey to summarize these methods and/or algorithms.  (For more information, see Writing Your Literature Survey.)  Assign another person to write your introduction's overview and objectives.  Assign another person to compile your division of Work chart and GANTT chart.  Assign another person to begin the other sections of the proposal.

Caution!

The sooner you start each phase, the better!  Keep in mind that some employers and grad schools might want to look at your FYP to see what kind of work you can produce, so it could affect your future studies or career.

 

 

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