This

is CS50. Harvard University Fall 2012

Final Project
Overview. The climax of this course is its final project. The final project is your opportunity to take your newfound savvy with programming out for a spin and develop your very own piece of software. So long as your project draws upon this courses lessons, the nature of your project is entirely up to you, albeit subject to the staffs approval. You may implement your project in any language(s) as long as the staff approves. You are welcome to utilize infrastructure other than the CS50 Appliance, provided the staff ultimately has access to any hardware and software that your project requires. All that we ask is that you build something of interest to you, that you solve an actual problem, that you impact campus, or that you change the world. Strive to create something that outlives this course. Inasmuch as software development is rarely a one-person effort, you are allowed an opportunity to collaborate with one or two classmates for this final project. Needless to say, it is expected that every student in any such group contribute equally to the design and implementation of that groups project. Moreover, it is expected that the scope of a two- or three-person groups project be, respectively, twice or thrice that of a typical one-person project. A one-person project, mind you, should entail more time and effort than is required by each of the courses problem sets. If at a loss for ideas, turn to the below (and your teaching fellow) for inspiration! APIs
https://manual.cs50.net/APIs

CS50 Discuss (final projects) CS50 Fair 2011's Directory

https://apps.cs50.net/discuss/threads/172/all/1

http://fair.cs50.net/2011/fall/?kiosk

Programming Projects (proposed by the Harvard community)

Seminars
https://manual.cs50.net/Seminars

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Academic Honesty.

All work that you do toward fulfillment of this courses expectations must be your own unless collaboration is explicitly allowed in writing by the courses instructor. Collaboration in the completion of problem sets is not permitted unless otherwise stated by some problem sets specification. Viewing or copying another individuals work (even if left by a printer, stored in an executable directory, or posted online) or lifting material from a book, website, or other sourceeven in partand presenting it as your own constitutes academic dishonesty, as does showing or giving your work, even in part, to another student or soliciting the work of another individual. Similarly is dual submission academic dishonesty: you may not submit the same or similar work to this course that you have submitted or will submit to another. Nor may you provide or make available solutions to problem sets to individuals who take or may take this course in the future. Moreover, submission of any work that you intend to use outside of the course (e.g., for a job) must be approved by the courses instructor or preceptor. You are welcome to discuss the courses material with others in order to better understand it. You may even discuss problem sets with classmates, but you may not share code. In other words, you may communicate with classmates in English, but you may not communicate in, say, C. If in doubt as to the appropriateness of some discussion, contact the courses instructor or preceptor. You may turn to the Web for instruction beyond the courses lectures and sections, for references, and for solutions to technical difficulties, but not for outright solutions to problems on problem sets or your own final project. However, failure to cite (as with comments) the origin of any code or technique that you do discover outside of the courses lectures and sections (even while respecting these constraints) and then integrate into your own work may be considered academic dishonesty. All forms of academic dishonesty are dealt with harshly. If the course refers some matter to the Administrative Board and the outcome for some student is Admonish, Probation, Requirement to Withdraw, or Recommendation to Dismiss, the course reserves the right to impose local sanctions on top of that outcome for that student that may include, but not be limited to, a failing grade for work submitted or for the course itself. Fine Print. Your pre-proposal, proposal, and status report will be evaluated on the bases of, at least, clarity and thoroughness. Your implementation will be evaluated along four axes primarily: Scope. To what extent does your code implement the features required by our specification? Correctness. To what extent is your code consistent with our specifications and free of bugs? Design. To what extent is your code written well (i.e., clearly, efficiently, elegantly, and/or logically)? Style. To what extent is your code readable (i.e., commented and indented with variables aptly named)? All students, whether taking the course Pass/Fail or for a letter grade, must ordinarily submit this final project to be eligible for a passing grade (i.e., Pass or A to D) unless granted an exception in writing by the courses instructor or preceptor. No late days may be spent on this final project.
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This is CS50. Harvard University Fall 2012

Schedule. A schedule appears below. The pages that follow elaborate on these dates. Pre-Proposal due by noon on Mon 11/5

Proposal due by noon on Mon 11/12

Status Report due by noon on Fri 11/30

CS50 Hackathon from 8:00pm on Wed 12/5 until 7:00am on Thu 12/6

Implementation due by noon on Sun 12/9

CS50 Fair from 11:00am until 4:30pm on Mon 12/10 Extensions on the final project are not granted, except in cases of emergency. Technical difficulties are not considered emergencies. Problem sets late days cannot be spent on the final project. Lateness of submissions is determined down to the minute by submissions timestamps. Submitting more than seven minutes late is equivalent to not submitting at all. Pre-Proposal Intended to promote early thought, the pre-proposal is your opportunity to bounce one or more ideas off of your teaching fellow. Quite simply, by this pre-proposals deadline, send an email to your teaching fellow, CCing [email protected], describing one or more ideas that you have for your final project. Short, casual emails are fine, but do explain the motivation behind each of your ideas (i.e., why it interests you). Treat this requirement as an opportunity for counsel. Certainly include any questions or concerns that you have in this email. The subject line of your email should be Pre-Proposal. If, incidentally, you have an idea for a final project that you think someone should do (if not you), post it at https://apps.cs50.net/discuss/threads/172/all/1! And if youd like to solicit one or two collaborators, do post there as well.

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Proposal The proposal is your opportunity to receive approval and counsel from your teaching fellow before you proceed to design. Submitting a proposal amounts to answering a few questions about your idea. Once you have a project in mind, submit your proposal at the URL below.1
http://www.cs50.net/projects/proposal/

Your teaching fellow will either approve your proposal or require modifications on your part for subsequent approval. Your proposal, even if approved, is not binding; you may alter your plan at any point, provided you obtain the staffs approval for any modifications. Projects submitted without approval may not receive credit. After submitting your proposal, a teaching fellow other than your own may be appointed your advisor and grader for the remainder of the final project, depending on your proposals nature. Status Report Not only is the status report intended to keep the staff apprised of your progress, it is an opportunity to keep yourself on track. Submitting a status report amounts to answering a few questions about your project. Your answers will also influence the setup of the CS50 Fair. Submit your status report at the URL below.2
http://www.cs50.net/projects/report/

CS50 Hackathon From 8:00pm on Wed 12/5 until 7:00am on Thu 12/6 is the CS50 Hackathon, an epic all-nighter during which you can dive into your final projects implementation alongside classmates and staff. If you choose to partake, youll be asked to propose three milestones for yourself that evening: a good one that you intend to achieve no matter what; a better one that you think you can achieve; and a best one that you hope to achieve. Dinner will be served at 8:00pm, second dinner will be served at 1:00am, and those still standing at 5:00am will be treated to breakfast at IHOP. Additional details on the Hackathons logistics will be announced via email and the course's home page the week before the Hackathon.

If collaborating with one or two classmates, only one of you needs to submit a proposal. If you are not the one submitting, though, let your teaching fellow know via email the name and email of the collaborator who submitted on your behalf. 2 If collaborating with one or two classmates, you each should submit a status report.

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This is CS50. Harvard University Fall 2012

Implementation Ultimately due are implementation and documentation of your final project.3 Your submission thereof must include all of the below. i. Documentation for your project in the form of a file called documentation.html, documentation.pdf, documentation.php, or documentation.txt. This documentation is to be a users manual for your project. Though the structure of your documentation is entirely up to you, it should be incredibly clear to the staff how and where, if applicable, to compile, configure, and use your project. Your documentation should be at least several paragraphs in length. It should not be necessary for us to contact you with questions regarding your project after its submission. Hold our hand with this documentation; be sure to answer in your documentation any questions that you think we might have while testing your work. ii. A design document for your project in the form of a file called design.html, design.pdf, design.php, or design.txt that discusses, technically, how you implemented your project and why you made the design decisions you did. Your design document should be at least several paragraphs in length. Whereas your documentation is meant to be a users manual, consider your design document your opportunity to give the staff a technical tour of your project underneath its hood. iii. Any and all files required to run your software (even if intended for some machine other than the CS50 Appliance), including source code as well as, if applicable, configuration files, Makefiles, sample inputs, and so forth.4 Needless to say, all source code should be thoroughly commented. If your project uses a MySQL database, be sure to export it to a file (e.g., project.sql), as with phpMyAdmins Export tab, and include that file in the directory that you submit. iv. A short video (that's no more than 2 minutes in length) in which you present your project to the world, as with slides, screenshots, voiceover, and/or live action. Your video should somehow include your projects title, your name and year, your dorm/house and concentration, and any other details that youd like to convey to viewers. See http://cs171.org/projects/presentations.html for CS171's tips on how to make a "screencast," though you're welcome to use an actual camera. Upload your video to YouTube and take note of its URL. In order to submit your implementation, you must first execute a command in the appliance and then submit a (brief) form online. Open a terminal window (as via Menu > Programming > Terminal or within gedit) then execute
update50

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If you have collaborated with one or two other students, each of you should submit via this same process. If your project requires (for execution and testing) hardware or software other than that offered by the CS50 Appliance, be sure that the TF advising you is aware of and has approved your projects needs well in advance of your submission.

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to ensure you have the latest release of the appliance. Then execute
submit50 /path/to/project

where /path/to/project is the path to your project's directory, and then follow the on-screen instructions. You may re-submit as many times as youd like; well grade your most recent submission. But take care not to submit after the implementation's deadline, lest you risk rejection entirely. Finally, head to the URL below where a form awaits.
https://www.cs50.net/projects/implementation/

Note that you'll be asked for your video's URL. CS50 Fair The CS50 Fair is an epic display of final projects, your opportunity to showcase your work not only to us but also to others on campus. You will be expected to bring to the Fair a laptop with which to demonstrate your project.5 Plan to tell attendees what you have done and why you have done it. And perhaps have in mind a few anecdotes about lessons you learned, roadblocks you hit, or the like. The Fair will take place in the atrium of Northwest Science Labs at 52 Oxford Street. Additional details on the Fairs logistics will be announced via email and the course's home page the week before the Fair.

If you don't own a laptop, not a problem; just see if you can borrow a friends or share a classmates.

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