Master's Project/Thesis Seminar (4005-893-01)

Department of Computer Science, RIT
Spring 2012-2013
Classes: Mondays, 4-5:50pm
Room: GOL-2500 (Golisano College)
Instructor: Richard Zanibbi, Email: rlaz@cs.rit.edu, Phone: (585) 475-5023
Office: GOL-3551 (Golisano College), Office hours: Mon/Thurs. 2-4:00pm or by appointment

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Proposals and Pre-Proposals

In the RIT Computer Science MSc program, a project or thesis proposal is a 10-15 page document (including references), that details a plan for completing a project or thesis. Often, it identifies a specific task (project) or hypothesis (thesis), along with background information and literature, methods and tools to be used, and the evaluation to be carried out; a proposed timeline for completion (with major milestones) is also required. A pre-proposal is a proposal 'sketch,' designed to be small enough to write and read quickly, identifying just the essential components of a project or thesis.

A LaTeX pre-proposal template is available here. Headings are used to identify key requirements, but are not required for the final pre-proposal submission.

By their nature, research projects involve uncertainty. A pre-proposal is a tool for identifying and thinking about the key elements of your project or thesis. This will allow you to identify underspecified or overly complex topics, identify challenges and uncertainties associated with a project, and ultimately help you complete your capstone in a timely fashion. You will refine a number of versions of your pre-proposal over the quarter.

A pre-proposal briefly identifies the following in no more than 2 pages:

  1. A research problem or task, including a hypothesis (testable assertion) for theses. This needs to include key references (3-5) on current work related to the project/thesis, which establish the context and foundation for the proposed project.
  2. The intended approach (i.e. methodology) to be used in devising a solution. For a project, this may detail the libraries and/or tools to be used, and the high-level architecture of the system. For theses, this also commonly involves algorithm(s) to be modified or developed.
  3. The means by which the outcome of the research project will be evaluated. For projects, what are the inputs and outputs for the system, and how will quality be measured (e.g. correctness, integration, time, space)? For theses, the evaluation will be an experiment (empirical) or proofs (theoretical) comparing existing and devised solutions, with the ultimate goal of testing the hypothesis.
  4. An analysis of the potential outcomes: under what evaluation outcomes are the project aims achieved, or the hypothesis confirmed or rejected? Under what conditions might other things be observed and/or learnt?