Semester Project Information

Objectives

Part of the work in this course will involve a semester project. The major learning goals/objectives for the semester project are:

Encourage independent, creative, and innovative thinking
Provide an opportunity to implement concepts and technologies learned in the course
Promote teamwork and shared solution-finding
Synthesize concepts learned in the course and apply them to real-world problems
Opportunity to present work to others and practice professional communication skills

Topics

Students will choose a civil, environmental, hydrology, or water resources problem to study for the semester. Topics will be approved by the instructor, and students are encouraged to discuss potential topics with the instructor early in the course. Students are strongly encouraged to select a topic that is relevant to their area of professional interest or research, but there must be a clear GIS component to the project.

Groups

Groups will consist of 4-5 students. Graduate students will be expected to work with other graduate students, and, likewise, undergraduate students will work with other undergraduates. Expectations, requirements, and grading for final projects will be different for graduate students versus undergraduates.

Activities

As part of the project, students will identify and obtain the data required to solve the problem and develop appropriate data structures/databases to organize the data. Students will use querying and data transformation activities within an analysis that uses the data. GIS software will be used to develop appropriate visualizations, maps, and results. Students may investigate and use advanced GIS tools relevant to their chosen topic. Students will report on their project and make recommendations based on their results.

Outcomes

The outcomes for the project will take two primary forms:

Project Oral Presentation: Students will be expected to do a final oral presentation in class to report their project results. This will be a group presentation. The amount of time available for the presentation will depend on the number of project groups that must present.

Project Final Report: Students will be expected to complete and submit a final project report that details the application of GIS for the topic they chose. Expectations of the final project report for graduate students will be different than those for undergraduates. These expectations will be clearly laid out in the Canvas Assignment that describes the final report.

In addition to these primary outcomes, students will also be expected to submit an initial problem statement and a written progress report. The requirements for these deliverables will be described in individual Canvas assignments. Graduate students will also be required to submit an initial version of their final project report to the instructor and to one of their peers. Each graduate student will complete and submit a peer review of the initial draft of the final report submitted by a classmate.

Schedule

The following is the tentative schedule for the final report deliverables. Assignments will be created in Canvas for all of the following items. Please check the specific Assignments for the description of each item and the official due date.

January 29 – Group Formation
February 3 – Development of problem Statement (Lab)
February 5 – Problem Statement Due
March 9 – Laboratory time for project work
March 11 – Progress report due
April 6 – Laboratory time for project work
April 8 - Graduate students only - Initial submission of final project report
April 15 - Graduate students only - Peer Review Due
April 20 Class and Lab – Final Oral presentations
April 29 (Finals Week) – Final reports due (at time of Final Exam)

Grading

The final project will be worth 30% of the overall course grade. The following is a breakdown of how the project components will be graded:

10 Points – Problem Statement
10 Points – Progress Report
10 Points – Initial submission of draft report (grad students only)
20 Points – Peer Review (grad students only)
50 Points – Oral Presentation
100 Points – Final Report

Examples

Examples of projects from previous students can be found at the following locations:

These examples may give you some ideas for relevant topics and the scope of projects that have been done in the past. However, be careful as not all of these projects may have earned an "A" grade. If you have questions about a potential topic or the scope for your project, please visit with the instructor.