Please carefully go through the Capstone Project Agreement (CPA) (MSSI Capstone Project Agreement (CPA)) and the recently revised Capstone Project Requirements (MSSI Capstone Project Requirements). We will strictly enforce the policy that two or three students should work together.

Pay attention to the three deadlines of submitting the proposal, mid-project update, and final report. Each team must submit an electronic copy in PDF through email to the MSSI Program Director for each deliverable. All team members including the project mentor(s) must be included (by cc’ing) in the email submission.

• (1) February 13th: a project proposal of 2 pages and the CPA filled out

  – To submit your CPA, please fill out its first page and sign the top section of the second page. Please include information of the project faculty mentor and other personnel (external mentors and/or research assistants) as applicable.

  – The project proposal should have descriptions of the problem/challenge, any potential solutions in consideration, and a plan to execute the project. Please find one example (Capstone Proposal Example) that serves only as a reference for organization and format.

  – An optional equipment request may be submitted as applicable.

  – Each team will be required to have an advising session on report writing and literature search.

• (2) March 20th: a mid-project progress summary of 2 pages and an annotated report outline

  – Each team will be required to have an advising meeting on the report outline for approval.

  – The briefing session of all teams is at 10 AM on March 30th, Wednesday.

  For mid-project progress update, each team must turn in two documents, a progress summary and an annotated project report outline. I attach two different past reports [Example 1][Example 2]so you know what they should look like (it can always be improved!).

  • The progress summary should describe what has been completed, what still needs to be done, and any significant changes to the project proposal.
  • The annotated outline is the first draft of your project report including all the sections according to “MSSI Capstone Project Requirements”. Each section has a concise description of the content to be included, specific to the project topic and tasks.
  • The outline must include a review of at least five literature items. The references and citations should follow the “Reference Style” specified in “MSSI Capstone Project Requirements”.
  • The outline should have 500-1000 words, excluding the reference list, illustrations, figures, tables, etc.
  • The submitted outline will be reviewed and approved through an advising meeting as needed.

• (3) May 1st (New Deadline): a complete project report

  – Revisions are allowed afterward until the faculty mentor approves the project.

  – Final project presentations will be held on May 5th, Thursday, 10 AM-2:00 PM at Malone 107.

More information will be provided for later deadlines and deliverables. For graduation, in addition to the above submissions, you need to submit the final report, the revised CPA, and all other project deliverables to your faculty mentor; and submit a Qualifying Project Form (QPF) signed by the project faculty mentor to the program, per the specified due date.

Updated January 2022