CISC 4900 Frequently Asked Questions
Independent and Group Projects

This is an independent and group project course. You as the student enrolled in the course will be responsible to put forth best faith effort to initiate the process of seeking out a project to work on independently, whether it be a solo or group project. You will be seeking out a project, figuring out acceptable tasks to complete, and reporting on your progress.

Students may use projects at work for their CISC 4900 project.

The class requires that you to allocate roughly 15 hours per week* for the duration of the semester (10-20 hours a week for the duration of a typical regular session semester) to work on your project. Since you are creating the project proposal, you are designing your schedule.

Throughout the semester there are important deadlines to submit documents in order to meet term requirements. You are to create and maintain project documentation.

Students who wish to receive permission to register for CISC 4900 may access the "enroll" link from the top menu. Contact Professor Chuang (email: chuang [at] sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu) if you have further questions.

Please do not wait until the end of registration to contact Professor Chuang as the available seats fill out quickly. The chair cannot give permission for this class.

Students who have already taken CISC 4900 may take CISC 4905 to continue their project or do an additional project. Please contact Professor Chuang for permission.

The deadline is posted on the course calendar. Please log into the course site (see login menu link at the top of the page) to see the dates for the semester you are enrolled in.

There are no restrictions with using a programming language covered in the courses from this department. The suitability of the overall project completed is what matters, such as explaining the rationale for why you selected that language to complete your project.

The easiest way to think of this is to think of all the languages, platforms and interfaces you’ve learned during your time in the program. Additionally, you can also think of what languages, platforms and interfaces you’d like to work with as an entry-level professional. Once you’ve identified those, you can use that baseline to develop your project.

Another strategy you may employ in selecting a project topic is to consider career interests, perhaps scan some possible job listings for examples of qualifications and skills and see where you can fill gaps in your resume. Other avenues to consider could be a current place of employment, or with a faculty member who has active research projects. You might consider contacting a faculty member with whom you took a course; many faculty prefer students who come with their own project in mind, others assign projects.

The characteristics of an acceptable project (i.e., one that will be likely to be most fitting for the class) are:

• [ ] It should be related to your major; or at the very least one of the three CIS majors.
• [ ] It should be of substantial nature, requiring approximately 15 hours per week* of a well-defined time commitment
• [ ] The sophistication level should be that of a student past the introductory sequence. The suitability of the project completed can impact the final grade. It is possible to complete a project satisfactorily and receive a grade below A if the project is a simple and straightforward application of elementary programming techniques.
• [ ] It has an acceptable supervisor

We highly encourage using internships as a project source for this course. The details of your role must meet the rigor required for this course and detailed in your project proposal, and your supervisor at the internship must provide a report of your performance at the end of the semester using the supervisor evaluation forms. See also the list of characteristics of an acceptable project above.

You will have an opportunity to describe in detail in your project proposal your responsibilities with the internship over the course of the semester. Your job title for the internship is not the focal point, but rather the types of technical solutions you will be designing and/or implementing throughout the semester.

The sophistication level should be that of a student past the introductory sequence.

The suitability of the project completed can impact the final grade possible. It is possible to complete a project satisfactorily and receive a grade below A if the project is a simple and straightforward application of elementary programming techniques.

Err on the side of caution by providing as much detail as possible at the time of writing, and update as more details become available throughout the semester. For example you can go into details about the intended user interface, options the program can perform, and a written development guide.

Instead of creating your own project, students are encouraged to find an internship or similar experience to have the experience of working on a real world based project.

Starting your search for a project early can maximize your chances of finding a project you are interested in with your top choice supervisor. Starting early opens up the possibility of devoting the initial part of the semester towards creating a detailed project proposal. The more you plan and spec out your project early on, the easier it is to implement your plan to achieve your project goals. During the first week of the semester we’ll share a list of faculty who have reached out to us, it is a short list of limited possibilities.

Your project should be more challenging than the topics covered in the introductory course sequence (CISC 1115, CISC 3115, CISC 3130). You may can consult the instructor of your section for further clarification of your project description.

Students will be provided a list after the semester has begun.

In the meantime, pay attention to emails or other announcements from the Magner Center, or CUNY 2X, TTP, and/or CUNY Tech Prep regarding internship offerings; these are all excellent opportunities for you to acquire a project for CISC 4900. In general, any project resulting from an offer originating from any of the above, or a BC faculty member, will be acceptable.

The instructors will aid you in sourcing a project by the end of the semester if you are unable to find one by the earlier on in the semester. However, due to the small number of projects available it is not guaranteed that instructors can source project. Plese keep in mind that in order to find the project you prefer, it will require agency of the student. For example, faculty-sourced projects will not necessarily be in alignment with your technical preference.

Your project supervisor will be providing an evaluation of your work.

The characteristics of an acceptable supervisor are:

• [ ] Someone who has had at least 1 full calendar year (12 months) of professional, full-time work experience
• [ ] Someone in a position to provide you with guidance and feedback
• [ ] Can provide the 4900 instructor with a fair and accurate evaluation of your work
• [ ] Ideally the supervisor should be in a position to evaluate your work from a technical as well as professional perspective. For example it should not be a family/friend who has no technical expertise in the area of your project

The 4900 instructor is separate from the project supervisor role. Generally the answer is no, you should find someone in your professional network. The only exception is when an instructor has a project.

It will take some effort on your part to ask around people you know in your professional network who might be suitable for this role. You can continue a project that is a continuation from an internship and ask your manager to be your supervisor. You might consider contacting a faculty member with whom you took a course; many faculty prefer students who come with their own project in mind, others assign projects. There is a list of supervisors that have projects linked from the resources page.

Anyone who has volunteered to be a supervisor is expecting students. Some prefer students who come with their own project, others assign projects. If you see their name on the list of supervisors, see if there is any additional information provided from them about what they’re looking for.

Yes. You need someone who will be able to evaluate your work from a professional lens. The supervisor is specific to a project that you’re working on who you give regular updates to. The instructor of 4900 is typically not your supervisor.

Though there are different instructors on record, CISC 4900 will be run as one large cohort. You can work as a team with members from different sections.

You can communicate with your classmates to find out who is interested in working as a group. There will be a class discussion board available to aid coordination.

Continuations of long term projects are encouraged, such as maintaining or enhancing an existing system or adding new features. You will only receive credit for new active work completed during the semester enrollment. The appropriateness of your group work is dependent on the timeline of the project, the rigor, and the degree of your contribution. Seek clarification from your instructor. The scope of work that will count towards the class must be new work that is completed during the course of the current semester. Previously completed work cannot be used towards credit for the semester.

Group members are working on a single project collaboratively, so it is ideal to work on the same document collaboratively. Your time logs would be different because each team member is working on a different aspect of the project. The project documentation must describe the contributions of each team member responsibilities and contributions. Each team member must individually submit a copy of documents for credit.

Please refer to the course calendar for due dates.

The advice handbook has a section on some of the elements to include with your project proposal. The list of term requirements is the minimal amount of information to submit to be considered submitted. The rubric is the additional information you can add to the description of your project in order to enhance your proposal document to be of higher quality. There is also a template that shows some sections you could include with your project proposal.

Please feel free to resubmit any documents. The most recent copy will be the one that the instructor looks at when reviewing submissions.

This course combines both technical proficiency and soft skills in completing your semester project. See the relevant sections in the advice handbook relating to the rubrics for each of the documents that you’ll be creating this semester.

Yes, you will be giving multiple updates on your project throughout the semester. You will be recording presentations in the middle of the semester (twice) and at the end of the semester at the completion of your project. You will also be giving a live presentation of your project goals and progress. Your final presentation will be a video recording of 10-15 minutes in length.

Log in using the link available from the menu. There you will see all the course materials including the forms and course calendar.