Transcript College of Computing Sciences Report to Board of Overseers
College of Computing Sciences
STEP Program The Survivors Course
A real world team-based problem solving experience!
Prepared by Osama Eljabiri
Director of Senior Project Capstone Courses
Presented to Introduction Class Session (Spring 2006)
Electing our Class Secretary
Nominees
Introductions
Voting time
Introducing Class Talents
Full Name
High School
Academic Interests
How did you end up in this course?
What do you expect from this course?
More about you personally (optional)
Introductory Clip
One success story in a minute
Your Course
This course introduces strategies, principles, techniques, and skills essential in solving real world problems using computer technology. In this course, technology is viewed as a handy tool (black box) that can be utilized by anyone regardless of their technical background. Students will have weekly hands-on training in project management, software economics, customer requirements investigation, object-oriented design, CASE tools, plug and play programming, web development and more. Students will create a virtual collaborative learning organization with one mission: forming small rescue teams to solve real world problems, compete, and survive obstacles along the way.
Your Course - Continued
Teams will be presented with mock-up and real world scenarios in which they will participate in a semester long competition. High-scoring survivors will be rewarded by the end of the semester. Scenarios are drawn from a broad array of business, health, communications, sports, and entertainment arenas. A broad array of games, group-based competitions, movies, visits from industrial and academic experts, and hands-on training are used to engage students in a live, vivid, interactive and dynamic learning experience. The ultimate goal is for each participant to develop a portfolio of interdisciplinary skills that would help him or her become a true problem solver in real world projects. A strong desire to learn, collaborate, overcome challenges is expected.
Background
In 2002 the College of Computing Sciences the basis for team-oriented projects. at NJIT introduced a completely new designed senior project Capstone course, utilizing projects from industry, faculty and students as In these projects, student teams analyze, diagnose and model system requirements to produce well-engineered and well documented software products. The regular 491 or 492 course is offered as a one semester and may be extended to two-semester program during the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. This course is intended to provide senior Computer Science, Information systems and information technology majors real world experience in software engineering and interdisciplinary problem solving prior to graduation. This course is team-based in which project mangers and team members are carefully and collaboratively selected to suit the task at hand. Course director/instructor solicit a revised selection of industry and real world projects from a broad array of sponsors.
Your Schedule
Class meetings every week except for the Spring break (as scheduled).
(training and presentations)
Teams to present after each two-week Sprint
(5 sprints including the final presentation)
Review Master Calendar in excel format at our course homepage at:
www.eljabiri.com
Our online calendar is available at :
http://calendar.yahoo.com/eljabiri2
Date 1/28/2006 2/4/2006 2/11/2006 2/18/2006 2/25/2006 3/4/2006 3/25/2006 4/1/2006 4/8/2006 4/15/2006 4/22/2006 4/29/2006 Topic / Objective Introduction to course (roadmap and interactive party) Effective techniques to manage your project and study its feasibility? & Teams Formations Methods to capture stakeholders’ requirements?
Present your team progress (1) ( Competition Panel) Strategies to design and visualize your solution Present your team progress (2) ( Competition Panel) Presentation Skills Present your team progress (3) ( Competition Panel) Plug and Play technology deployment (CASE tools/Object Oriented development / RAD tools) – Part 1 Present your team progress (4) ( Competition Panel) Plug and Play technology deployment (CASE tools/Object Oriented development / RAD tools)- Part 2 Final Presentations (5) & Celebration Party (Appreciation certificates & Rewards) ( Competition Panel)
Your Resources
Course Information: www.eljabiri.com
Course Communication and Evaluation: http://webboard.njit.edu
FAQ’s: http://www.eljabiri.com/id32.html
Samples and Examples: http://www.eljabiri.com/id24.html
Software Engineering Lectures: http://www.cis.njit.edu/~osama/generallecture_notes.htm
Your Textbook
None and Every thing No special book is required to buy Use all previous books from other courses relevant to the task at hand For the software engineering process, recommended references are:
Modern Systems Analysis and Design by Jeffrey A. Hoffer, Joey F. George and Joseph S. Valacich, Third edition, Addison Wesley (ISBN: 0-13-033990-3).
More good books and references in software engineering can be found at the following URL: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~tomg/seyp/books/index.html
Course Tools
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Visio
SPSS (for research track)
PhP/Mysql
ASP.NET
Camtesia (for presentations)
Course Events
Five Teams Presentations
(including final presentation with a panel of judges)
Jan 30 th OWASP J&J Tours NJIT Open House CCS Career Day Capstone Showcase Thursday April 27 th
Course Additional Training
Project Managers Workshop
(Optional Feb 1 st 4-6 PM)
Jan 30 th Open University Opening
(including a mini career fair)
J&J Tours Open University Every Wednesday from 4-6PM starting from Feb 8 th
(First Three meetings: Php/MySQL covered in three sessions)
Hands-On training in our laps (TBA)
Your Evaluation
Teams will compete for
1000 points.
Progress reports by project managers
(100 points).
Introduce yourself assignment (on-time)
(30 points)
Capstone Showcase
(100 extra credit points)
Sponsor evaluation form
(200 points)
Class attendance
[Total 200 points]
100 if very poor attendance occurred.
but deductions may exceed
[INCLUDING (-20 POINTS for every class you missed without a documented permission, -50 points for missing last class)]
Class participation
(100 points)
All thee presentations/deliverables (including 100 points for Final presentation)
(370 points) Sponsor evaluation form , final deliverables/presentations , final progress reports and attendance are CRUCIAL VARIABLES that can give extra push UP/DOWN.
The Winners (Survivors)
Certificates signed by both the college and the industry for the surviving teams (75% and above)
Recommendation letters to outstanding individuals
Gifts (TBA)
Course Rules and Policies
Only project managers can reserve a project. They have Deductions start to apply after missing deadlines Attendance is expected in all classes. You are responsible for signing the attendance sheet every time.
Attendance is expected for the entire class. Listening in class is required for any team, guest, student or instructor. You are responsible for all the information and instructions posted on our class website.
Your Instructor
Biographical Sketch
Publications
How to contact me?
Osama Eljabiri
Lecturer and Director of Capstone Courses Room 2315 A - GITC Building College of Computing Sciences @ NJIT University Heights - Newark , NJ 07102 Tel: (973) 642-7123 Cell: (973) 981-1049 Email : [email protected]
URL: Calendar: http://www.eljabiri.com
http://calendar.yahoo.com/eljabiri2 Instant Messenger: eljabiri2 (Yahoo)
Office Hours
Normal Office Hours
updated below ) (unless otherwise
Spring 2006 Regular Office Hours Thursdays 3:30 -5:30 PM Class-based extended help hours: 15 Minutes before most classes and up to one hour after most night classes (when available).
Walk-ins are welcome
availability.
any time based on
Online and in-class help
available hours are always
Online office hours:
Online assistance and orientation are available via email , webct , chatting, etc. (whenever possible)
Course Procedures
This semester teams are 4-5 people each What projects are available?
How to reserve a project?
How to be a PM?
How to form a team?
How to join a team?
How to declare a team?
What to submit? What to present?
When to submit? When to present?
We are looking for good PM’s?
Deadline is this Friday Interviews are Thursday 3:30-5:30 and Friday 2-5PM (please confirm if you have applied).
We need (6-7) in 002, (8-10) in 102 and (7-8) in 104.
It is an extra responsibility but also an extra reward You need to apply online You need to be a leader not only an administrator Background, knowledge and experience are very helpful but dedication is more important.
You need to respect and help your team members You need to be an excellent communicator You need to respect your project stakeholders and work closely and intensively with them You need to communicate with your instructor frequently You need to read instructions carefully and apply them precisely You need to be a role model in your team, the first who attend and the last who leaves! You need to manage risk, change and be patient You need to be available PM workshop On Feb 1 st 4-6PM in GITC 1100
Sample Projects
From the Spring 2006 Senior Project Capstone Course
NO Sponsor 1 Department of Army (3 Projects) C4ISR - SEC – ITED 2 Edentify, Inc. (Project 1) Contact Name
• • •
Project Title Suspense Tracking System Software Quality Assurance Tool Assessment Software Quality Assessment Video Presentation Dominic Motolla Terrence Defranco Advanced Reporting Module 3 Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater, Inc.
Edward Dlugosz Electronic Traveling Environmental Festival (eTEF) 4 Morphos Financial LLC (Project 1) Enrique Nunez 5 Career Development Services @NJIT 6 Johnson and Johnson Greg Mass Ketul Patel 7 IMS Health Gail Pecota Test Environment Infrastructure Online Career Development System Global Supply Chain Management System Data Variation Tag Database 8 Homeland Security Technology Center @ NJIT 9 10 Orthotic Enterprises, LLC.
Rational Solutions Corp (R.I.M.S) Bill Marshall Frank Ferrari Milind Shah Emergency Preparedness System Reinventing Orthotics Brand Recognition Solution
Our Selected Projects for Spring 2006?
Why our project courses?
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Students experience with traditional courses: Boring classes
-
Lack of engagement
-
Lack of motivation Lack of variety
-
Exam and traditional homework pressure Ineffective education
-
No connection to real world
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No practice One source for information Limited timeframes
-
12 weeks are too short with all other parallel responsibilities
-
Learning opportunities are limited to class meetings and text book
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No opportunity to jump start No post course follow up A huge investment with unpredictable return
-
No matter what you accomplish, no one knows about you
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You cannot grow after class because it is over
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No job opportunities You cannot form your own business
Why this course is different?
Students are very engaged!
-
They are producers of real value and NOT only audience and exam takers (Project Deliverables).
They are teachers of collective knowledge. They act as live résumés throughout the semester (Presentations and Showcases). Classes are interactive and they offer a variety of learning methods.
All of this is in real world projects, with real world stakeholders and within real world environments
!
Why this course is different?
Students learn by more than just listening
They learn by doing They learn by collaborating They learn by communicating They learn by market-driven training
Why this course is different?
This is not an internship program!
Students view sponsors as educators (not employers).
sponsors view students as partners and collaborators (not employees).
Why this course is different?
-
Students are in charge!
Students select their projects Students select their teams Students become project managers and lead their teams and projects Students fire free riders even if they were their project managers Students administer many activities and roles
Why this course is different?
Students learn how to be global (not a single project) problem solvers!
They learn problem solving strategies in class sessions.
They use their projects as tools to learn about problem solving in general so they can solve other kinds of problems.
Simply put, we bring a “problem solving package” to our sponsors not a “number” of “interns”.
Why this course is different?
-
Students are trained on what they need to know not what they have to know
Class sessions are about today and tomorrow not about out-dated techniques and strategies.
Open university sessions and hands-on laps provide on-demand training free of charge for you, your family, friends and sponsors. You can even be a teacher!
Why this course is different?
-
Our course opportunities start very early and never stop during class, after class or graduation.
Early bird and Pioneers. I love to hear your questions, I love to see you in my office, I love to hear your voice, I love to be able to help you in every way possible. Open help any time any where.
Virtual Web-based collaboration.
Continuous collaboration after class in various ways Job opportunities (part time, full time and fully-paid internships).
We will always support our good students
Why this course is different?
-
Course that can be customized and personalized!
Project work progresses in an evolutionary prototyping fashion
(Time Boxing).
Teams are adaptive to customer requirements, responsive to change, dynamic and flexible.
You select your project, your role and your team You select to do technical development, research or even become an entrepreneur.
Why this course is different?
Collective Intelligence
Interdisciplinary teams from five university colleges Undergraduate /Graduate collaboration High school / College collaboration Large advisory community among sponsors, faculty, administrators and students.
Why this course is different?
-
Classes can be fun!
We creating friendly collaborative environments Do what you like to do most Learn from friends what you cannot do Interactive classes Competitions boast motivation Movies, games, music, off-campus activities, presentation parties, showcases, press, rewards and more!
The Triple Win
Multi-Stakeholder Satisfaction Triangle
STUDENTS Senior Project Capstone Course SPONSORS COLLEGE
Position Cod e 01 Position
Project manager
02 03 04 05 Job Description/responsibilities Qualifications
System Analyst Back-end designer
0301
Data Base Designer
0302
Network Designer Front-end designer Programmer In addition to managing the team, project managers will be responsible for project management deliverables including feasibility study.
Should use project management tool (Microsoft Project Manager) to plan project tasks, allocate and mange resources, assign team members to complete tasks, compile team members' weekly time sheets, report task completion and actual hours worked on tasks, prepare periodic reports on project progress. Receives extra credit when successful.
In addition to the criteria stated in the previous section, background in software economics, process life cycle models and project management techniques is essential.
System analysts will be responsible for requirements gathering and documentation (Problem definition, requirements report, DFD’s, process specifications, data dictionary , etc) and coordinating with other team members.
Responsible for designing the backend of the system including data structures, entity relation ship models normalization, SQL, normalization, system structure and other architectural models (repository , client server, abstract machine model , object oriented design in UML ,etc.) Responsible for designing the user interface for users (including GUI components , forms , reports , navigation , etc.
Implementing the system at the unit level and system level. Testing and Maintaining the system Writing user manual .
Experience/ background in requirements analysis, requirements elicitation techniques, and project documentation. Experience/ background in DBMS, CASE tools and modeling techniques in software engineering.
Experience/ background in HCI , cognitive psychology , user interface design, user manuals Experience in web programming and other programming such as C++ , Visual Basic , Java, and the like)
Projects Success Rate
Rated by Sponsors
In the last 70 projects we did:
81% were rated between good and excellent 40% were rated as outstanding 9 projects were rated average and only 4 were below average
Testimonials
(Silent Reading)
Testimonials
“We have 50 NJIT student interns who are studying information technology and computer science, working on eight projects. Having them work for us has allowed us to jump ahead in our work.” Larry Gardner CEO and Founder of Cyberextruder
Testimonials
This was a huge project and required much attention to detail. The team asked the right questions and we very helpful to Arc of Monmouth staff in deciphering what needed to be done. They provided many useful suggestions.
Sarah Logan Office Manager The Arc of Monmouth
Testimonials
I was so impressed with the whole process. I am amazed at how talented, professional and responsive the team was to the project. The group of students that worked on this project quickly understood the scope and was able to deliver the requested tool within a very short period of time. The entire experience was one that I am going to recommend to other managers at IMS.
Marilyn Mahon Group Manager, Quality Assurance IMS Health 100 Campus Road Totowa, NJ 07512 USA
Testimonials
“If I had to pay a consultant to do the work that the NJIT students did for CIT as part of the Capstone Program it would have cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars” “The program gives NJIT students a chance to integrate real world experience into their academic experience, which is invaluable to them and to us.” Harold Olmstead Vice president of Systems and Technology Services CIT
Testimonials
“The solution for Cocomats created by the group reflected a keen assessment of both the weaknesses of Cocomats and the needs of the Office of Constituent relations “ Ian Thomas Brennan New Jersey Office of the Governor, Office of Constituent Relations Aide to the Governor
Testimonials
This group was very prompt in implementing suggestions, very professional and timely. Based on the scope of work initially developed, we are very pleased with the results.
Juan Rosario Newark Housing Authority Acting I.T. Administrator
Testimonials
This group hung in there and were able to work around these problems and move steadfastly through the project. This group communicated well and worked very efficiently. They were always on time for the meetings and handled themselves in a very professional manner. I was very impressed with the work that they did. They fulfilled all of our needs and produced a product that is above and beyond what we expected. Overall all I was pleased and would look forward to participating in upcoming projects.
Jerri Drakes CEO The Workstation Inc.
Testimonials
Very well diverse group of dynamic individuals with many skills equipped to create a website, write a business plan, business marketing, hard working, and capable of delivering a complete product.
Henri Boll President Go2Museum.com Inc
Testimonials
As a whole the team preformed extremely well. The direction given by TMS was an outline. The team was able to understand what we were looking for and implement our needs into the finished program.
Sean P McShane President Transportation Made Simple
Testimonials
Jeremy (Jeremy Dela Rosa) has been very accommodating regarding my extremely busy schedule. He has demonstrated a strong ability to learn and adjust throughout this experience. Jeremy performed a terrific job in coordinating the efforts of the team, a task that is very difficult for any leader. He was also able to work well as a liaison between me and the team, ensuring that my requests were communicated properly to all the members. Additionally, as project manager, he was involved in nearly every aspect of the project, and demonstrated a solid understanding of every one of the team’s Jason Huang Project Leader Honeywell International Inc
New Statistics
Number of completed projects will reach at least [250] full-scale projects
A minimum of [300] products or sub-projects carried out by more than 300 teams after 10 semesters
This is an average of 30 products per semester plus CIS490 first phase teams.
Many of these projects have had multi-phases and some have involved multi-teams Up to 6 semesters /phases for some large-scale projects. up to 4 teams in some extremely complex or demanding industry-projects .
Key sponsors offer more than one project every semester
(CIT provided 14 projects in Spring 2004 alone and Cyberextruder offered 9 projects in Spring 2003 )
At least 1500 students have participated in the capstone program since Fall 2002 from CS , IS , IT and HCI.
More Facts
Sponsors and projects diversity demonstrate a broad array of interest
Examples : entertainment , finance , health , education , public sector entrepreneurships
Geographical Distribution :These projects came from all round NJ (North , Central and South) , NY or PA . We even had a project from Boston , MA . This expands our reach beyond short-distance businesses.
A number of companies have offered our students excellent support for their careers .
Examples : CIT, Saint Clair health system , Edu-Global , Cyberextruder , All fine-dining , IMS health Support forms : Full time employment , part-time employment , internships , rewards , financial support , research support , recommendation letters , direct support calls , software purchase , company resources , certified training , after graduation training.
Added-value Community Benefits
Sposnor-Sposnosr Collaboration Open-house Participation Collaboration across teams and across semesters Non-Profit and public service projects NJIT departments projects Commercialization of students ideas Students published empirical research EDC bi-directional support