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Semester Project Information

Hydroinformatics Term Project Requirements

Goals

The goals of the Hydroinformatics course term project include:

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

Teams

Students will be encouraged to form teams of 3-4 students to design and complete a project. Not every student will complete every task in the project, rather students will be encouraged to divide tasks among themselves and then follow up with each other to ensure the full project requirements are met. For example, you could assign one person to design and implement a database and write scripts and the second person could be responsible for developing an informational web site and interactive pages. Each project will be unique and hence the distribution of labor between members in different teams will also be unique. It is important to ensure the entire team works together to brainstorm the project topic and regularly meets to integrate individual work, discuss progress and issues, and chart a unified path towards completion. The project will be graded using a combination of group self-assessment together with the instructor assessment of the final project presentation and report.

Topic Selection

It is preferable to identify projects that are “complimentary” to the research needs and interests of all team members. I do not see this course project as a means for you to complete a specific part of your individual thesis/dissertation research, but rather as a means for you to practice and learn skills that will help you and your team members in your research or in developing skills for your future career. That said, if there is a topic related to your research that you want to use for your project, we can discuss and make sure it is appropriate.

Project Requirements

Your hydroinformatics project must include at a minimum the following elements:

  • Develop a clear problem statement related to the collection, management, analysis and application, and presentation of water related data. For more information on problem statements, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_statement Links to an external site..
  • “Collection” of data from sensor sources or web sites. For example, these can be data collected by you for this project or they can be data collected by others that you are reusing. This can also be other datasets related to your group research interests.
  • Design of a relational database schema or other appropriate data storage mechanism/technology to support and store the data and metadata collected. This design should include graphic representation of the data storage system or schema as well as a clear explanation of its elements.
  • Implementation of the designed database or data storage mechanism in a workstation or server environment. This includes creating the database or other system and “loading” your data into the system.
  • Manipulation or analysis of the data using an appropriate scripting language – targeted at addressing your problem statement.
  • Creation of appropriate data presentation materials (graphs, maps, interactive web pages).
  • Live presentation of your project to the class. This presentation should clearly describe the project problem statement, data collection, data storage design and implementation, any analysis or scripting, and final results.
  • Written project report (one per team) in the format of a technical or scientific paper following a template that will be provided.

These are the minimum requirements. Additional elements may be defined based on the project scope and the team members’ interest. Exceptions to these requirements will be considered by the instructor if the project team can provide sufficient justification.

Deadlines

The following deliverables will be associated with the final project. Please see the Canvas pages for these assignments for due dates.

  • Team formation
  • Topic selection and problem statement
  • Progress report
  • Final project report, peer review, and presentation

Example Projects from Previous Years

NOTE: While I've provided links to previous years' projects below, please keep in mind that not all projects in previous years earned an A grade. Still, glancing through other projects should give you some ideas about potential scope, deliverables, etc.