Final Year Project Advice

RealistSpy

Hi all,

The start to my final year is just around the corner and I know boards has great member with great minds, so I am here for a little advice. This hopefully will be my final year before I get through into the big bad world. I hope to get a job as a software developer. I don't think i am great nor do I think I am awful at programming but I do try my best.

Background:

• I am confident with c#(.NET languages) and java as main language well I studied java in college and c# during my down time.
• 3rd year project was in java using Google App Engine and Google Web Toolkit.
• I like GUI development and creating my own libraries. I like clean, organized and reusable codes.
• I am a website moderator and I do a lot of data manipulation (breaking, finding security checksums etc)
• I also don't mind database
• I like coming up with my own idea and hopefully become a project manager. I might come off a bit bossy though.

Now that we have a little background covered, here are the questions:

• What language should I go for?
• Should I put passing before difficulty?
• Should I improve on my current strength e.g. a project in WPF and C# or Java & Something else :S?

Currently I plan to do something using:

• WPF and C# (Yes I know not cross platform)
• Create something involving data visualization or visual assistance,a bit of animation and graphics, some which I haven't studied in college just yet but currently learning them during my down time.
• Application would be directed towards college students 2nd year+

Some Past and Current Open Source Projects
code.google.com

Thank you all in advance

ermahgerd

I'm in a similar boat.

My project will be using spring/servlets/jsp with oracle db. Like yourself, I'm hoping to incorporate data visualization and statistics and there's some great stuff available to help with that. Biggest issue is I don't know what area to base the web app on i.e the subject of the web app.

I had more complex ideas however I've decided to utilize my strengths (have extensive development experience with those technologies) so that I can get a very high mark for the project along with not occupying so much time that I don't neglect the 8 academic modules I've to get through during the year too.

The most important thing is the final mark in the degree. The project will be good for securing the first position but after that the only thing they'll look at regarding your degree is the final mark achieved and everything else will be about the work you did in your first/previous role.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

when it comes to writing a thesis or developing a final year project, the more complex it is, or unique the idea, the easier it will be marked. A good way of looking at is once you think of an idea, see if there any source code online for something similar. if not, then you are onto a winner.


OP, you mentioned being a project manager. In a lot of cases, the project manager will not be writing any code at all.

RealistSpy

Jamir Slimy Lark wrote: »

when it comes to writing a thesis or developing a final year project, the more complex it is, or unique the idea, the easier it will be marked. A good way of looking at is once you think of an idea, see if there any source code online for something similar. if not, then you are onto a winner.


OP, you mentioned being a project manager. In a lot of cases, the project manager will not be writing any code at all.

Yes I know what you mean regarding the project manager, I think that's the down side but I believe I can live with that.

My idea is quiet unique especially now that the government seems to be heading towards that path, well the world. It always seems that every time I get an idea in my head someone from somewhere seems to announce it first. I refuse to let this one slip out of my fingers, I also hope to take this idea to the imagine cup. You never know, win or lose at least I will go for a one man team.

I think I will go for the marks, since I am still learning wpf and how to use blend. I am sure that counts as learning something new. I used java for my 3rd year project and I don't want to use it again for my final year project.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

RealistSpy wrote: »

My idea is quiet unique especially now that the government seems to be heading towards that path, well the world. It always seems that every time I get an idea in my head someone from somewhere seems to announce it first. I refuse to let this one slip out of my fingers, I also hope to take this idea to the imagine cup. You never know, win or lose at least I will go for a one man team.

I think I will go for the marks, since I am still learning wpf and how to use blend. I am sure that counts as learning something new. I used java for my 3rd year project and I don't want to use it again for my final year project.

good stuff. Just a heads up, once you submit your project, your college will own the project not you. just letting you know incase you want to develop the idea further.

RealistSpy

Jamir Slimy Lark wrote: »

good stuff. Just a heads up, once you submit your project, your college will own the project not you. just letting you know incase you want to develop the idea further.

Ah I totally forgot about that :S looks like things just got a wee bit complicated haha. Well when am back to college next week I will discuss it with a lecturer and see. Thanks Very much

RealistSpy

After few week of playing around with WPF and XAML I am very confident with it. I am now thinking of switching my project to using silverlight and windows azure.

What do you all think of this 2 combinations?
I know I will be losing some functions from switching to silverlight, but I also gain the ability to go cross platform. I will also have easier access to the application.

Colonel Panic

Windows Azure is pretty awesome and buzzword or not, a final year project using a cloud based platform would do you a lot of favours.

It's also more interesting than standard desktop application development IMO. The different data stores, queues and workers and of course, getting it all to scale depending on load, if that's something your app would benefit from.

RealistSpy

Colonel Panic wrote: »

Windows Azure is pretty awesome and buzzword or not, a final year project using a cloud based platform would do you a lot of favours.

It's also more interesting than standard desktop application development IMO. The different data stores, queues and workers and of course, getting it all to scale depending on load, if that's something your app would benefit from.

Thanks Colonel,

Once again you seem to be my big problem solver/motivator haha .

dnme

Jamir Slimy Lark wrote: »

good stuff. Just a heads up, once you submit your project, your college will own the project not you. just letting you know incase you want to develop the idea further.

Tell me about it Frank