Thesis Projects: A Guide for Students in Computer Science and Information Systems

Any B. Sc. or M. Sc. study programme in the computing discipline typically ends with a capstone project. A capstone project builds and tests the skills and the knowledge acquired during the education and is an essential part of the training towards becoming a professional. There is a large number of different terms for these types of projects: capstone project, senior project, final year project, B. Sc. / M. Sc. thesis project, etc. In this book we will use the term ‘thesis project’, and in some cases, for the sake of simplicity, just ‘project’. This book focuses on thesis projects within the computing discipline. Thus, the type of project discussed in this book is in line with the capstone format described in the ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula 2001 Computer Science (p. 53): … an alternative capstone format is a research experience that includes some original work, a review of the scientific literature, and an investigation of a proposed solution, f- lowed by a scientific paper and/or an oral presentation of the results. It is important to remember that these are undergraduates and be realistic about the amount and quality of research expected. Even so, it may be more worthwhile to expose outstanding students to the challenges of research than to have them design and build yet another program In this book, we present a process for conducting thesis projects with the resear- orientation described in the quote above.

This second edition guides the reader through successful planning and implementation of a thesis project and provides students in computer science and information systems with all the advice they need. The reader-friendly text offers a simple step-by-step guide to the key processes involved using an approach that has been tried and tested by the authors over a number of years.

A new chapter on Information-seeking and use and a subsection entitled Improve your learning (and grade) have been added to strengthen the material on how to search for relevant literature and also how to validate it. In addition, this comprehensive and easy-to-follow text has been fine tuned and updated wherever appropriate.

Features and topics:

• Developing your project proposal

• Developing the problem description

• Following objectives

• Presenting and analysing your data

• Drawing conclusions

• Presenting and defending your work

• Preparing the final version of your report

As well as being an essential purchase for students in computer science and information systems, this clear and concise aid also contains lots of useful information for supervisors and examiners, including guidelines on how to review a thesis project.

"…mandatory reading for all students embarking on their final year project. Easy to read, loaded with good advice and filled with to-the-point examples, it covers in a step-by-step fashion each and every aspect that readers might be looking for. Whether you have a bachelor, master or Ph.D thesis ahead of you, I strongly recommend you first study this excellent text."

Prof. Dr. Klaus Dittrich, Department of Information Technology, University of Zurich, Switzerland

" This book… presents a very clear exposition of basic research concepts that are often taken forgranted and assumed to be part of common knowledge. It will be very useful reading for anyone undertaking research."

Prof. Brian Fitzgerald, University of Limerick, Ireland