Debre Tabor University

Faculty of Technology
Department of Computer Science

Project Guideline for Computer Science BSc.

[Debre Tabor University
Faculty of Technology
Department of Computer Science]
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 Debre Tabor University
Faculty of Technology
Department of Computer Science

1. Introduction

The graduation project is a requirement for the BSc. degree in Computer Science. Working in
concert with an academic advisor, a student will develop and complete a project of educational
significance.
Students are eligible to register for the graduation project after successful completion of (a) the
fourth year in Computer Science and (b) 240 ECTS. Graduation project consists of two phases,
Industrial Project I (Project Documentation) and Industrial Project II (Project Implementation),
each worth three credit hours and are generally conducted over two consecutive semesters. In
most cases, students will conduct their graduation projects in group and under the close guidance
of a advisor/advisor. A co-advisor can be nominated if needed.

Graduation project constitutes an important phase of the student’s future career. In preparing
and defending this document, a student tries to apply their knowledge comprehensively in
solving a complex and realistic problem. He/she proves that he/she has gained essential skills of
research and implementation as well as the ability to effectively communicate the results to an
audience.

Although various forms of assistance will be made available, the primary initiative for
completion of the project lies with each student. These guidelines are designed to acquaint
students with the Computer Science regulations regarding graduation projects. The goal here is
to
help the student prepare a report that looks professional and renders his/her findings easily
accessible to the readers.

2. General Guidelines

2.1 Project Topics

A Graduation project challenges the student to go beyond those learnings that occur as the result
of his/her prescribed educational program; it intends to provide the student with a setting to
express or demonstrate his/her intellectual, physical and creative abilities based upon research
and knowledge of the chosen subject area.

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Personal growth and satisfaction are additional goals associated with the Graduation Project.
The student will derive a sense of accomplishment through the completion and ownership of a
body of work that is a reflection of his/her interests and abilities. Opportunities to expand his/her
personal knowledge, explore career paths, and apply learning to real-life situations will serve to
benefit the student’s growth and promote lifelong learning.

Selection of a project topic will be derived from the advisor and/or student based on such
factors as interest and knowledge. There are certain qualifications that must be met if the project
is to be accepted.

The project must:

 Be independent of class related projects

 Involve some type of research and creativity
 Demonstrate the ability to analyze, synthesize, and apply information
 Demonstrate the ability to present information effectively
 Be a learning activity
 Benefit the student and/or society

The subject areas of a graduation project might be in one or more of the following forms:

1. Designing an experiment and/or implementing some experimental research.

2. Developing a computer program to simulate or solve an engineering or management
problem.
3. Developing a management system to solve an engineering or management problem,
such as, Quality Management Systems, Warehouse Management Systems, Inventory
Management Systems, etc.
4. Designing and/or manufacturing a system, machine, and/or component(s), to solve an
engineering problem.
5. Design and implement one’s organizational network infrastructure (campus, hospital,
smart city… network simulation);
6. Design and implement mobile based business application (IoT based in health,
agriculture, education, ….)

2.2 Responsibilities of the Graduation Project

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2.2.1 Student

The student is responsible for the successful completion of the Graduation Project under the
guidelines established by the department.

The student is responsible for preparing a graduation project report and a presentation.
Preparation of a paper or poster derived from that project is considered as a bonus and this may
be presented on a conference where the university, faculty or department arranges.

2.2.2 Academic advisor/advisor

The Academic Advisor is responsible for providing the necessary guidelines for the student to
successfully choose and complete the project. The advisor will meet with the student during
academic advisement to provide the appropriate assistance and motivation as necessary. Also,
the advisor has duties for asking individual questions to differentiate team members if any,
taking attendances for each meeting and evaluating students according to their performance with
no partiality.

2.2.3 Examiners

The Assessment Committee (Examiners), chaired by the chairman, is responsible for reviewing
and evaluating the graduation project progress, report, and oral presentation of the student based
on the form they will get. The assessment committees consist of three members, at least two
from the concerned faculty.

2.2.4 Graduation project coordinator

A staff member is nominated by the department to serve as a Graduation Project Coordinator,

who is responsible for the overall mechanics, scheduling, and will provide support to the
academic advisors and students. Graduation Project Coordinator, in cooperation with the
concerned department head, has the following tasks:

1. Collect and organize suggested project titles and submit them to the DAC for
approval.
2. Assign and announce the approved projects titles to the students.

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 3. Develop, update, and keep the project guidelines, evaluation forms, and any related
documents.
4. Form the project examination committees in consultation with project advisor and the
department members.
5. Organize the presentation sessions.
6. Collect the evaluation forms from the advisors and examiners, and work out the final
grades.
7. Maintain a project database, which may include hard and soft copies of the project’
reports, samples of logbooks, posters and presentations.
8. Administer the Best Graduation Project Award.

2.3 Project Assignment

By the end of the first week of the semester (first or second), suggested project titles will be
announced to students. By the end of the second week of the new semester, Graduation Project I
students should form groups consisting of 3-4 students each, and select a graduation project title
in coordination with the Graduation Project Coordinator, otherwise a graduation project title will
be given by the project coordinators. The coordinators will assign advisor/s for each of the
project proposed, and the advisor/s shall be an academic staff member.

2.4 Instructions and Deadlines

Graduation project students should adhere to the following regulation and deadlines. Failure to
respected deadlines and rules will result in grade reduction or possible withdrawal from the
Graduation Project.

2.4.1 Graduation Project I students

Students should submit the selected graduation project title and group members’ names to the
Graduation Project Coordinator by the end of the 2nd week.

 Final graduation project groups and title will be announced by the end of the 3rd week.
 Students should submit and defend a project for evaluation by week 15 of the semester.
 The examiners will evaluate each student individually.

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  The overall grade of a student in project documentation will be calculated based on the
marks received from the advisor and examiners (100 marks).

2.4.2 Graduation Project II students

The students should follow the following schedule:

 12th week: submit a full draft implementation to the advisor for reviewing.
 14th week: submit a revised draft report to the Graduation Project Coordinator as a soft
copy with CD.
 15th week: presentation and oral examination. The duration of the presentation should not
exceed 20 minutes and oral examination (question and answering) should take 30 – 40
minutes. Both the advisor and the examiners will evaluate the students. The overall grade
of a student in project implementation will be calculated based on the marks received
from the advisor (30 marks) and from the examiners (70 marks) as indicated in Appendix
IV.
 16th week: submit a revised final implementation to the Graduation Project Coordinator
after updating it according to examination committee comments and requests. A soft copy,
and any related programs of the `final implementation are submitted to be kept in
department's database. The number of hard copies the students will submit is three copies:
one for the department/coordinator, one for advisor, and one for their own.

3. Project Evaluation

The evaluators try to evaluate student’s high-level learning outcomes by means of a set of
predefined criteria. In all phases of evaluation, student’s ability of communication (report and
presentation) and team work (professionalism, cooperation and ethical behavior) will be taken
into consideration. However, the scientific and technical aspects and achievements of the project
will play the key role in evaluation.

3.1 Graduation Project I

The project advisor will evaluate the students work in Graduation Project I based on the required
outcomes (see section 2.4.1), make the total result, and then the advisor and examiners will send
it to the project coordinators.

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It is strongly recommended that students carefully note all the comments made by the
examiners(s) during the final proposal defense and try to incorporate them accordingly in the
Project Implementation phase.

3.1 Graduation Project II

The evaluation process of the Graduation Project II is based on the students’ work,
implementation, and presentation. The student should show that he/she applied, implemented and
tested the system, and then communicate significant knowledge and understanding. He/she must
defend his/her project in front of the examining committee and he/she must answer all questions
accordingly. Perhaps questions may come from audience and the student should be able to
answer accordingly as well. Therefore, he/she must be thoroughly prepared to defend any and
every aspect of the project material perhaps any material closely related to the project topic.

The grade is assigned based on the grades given by the individual examiners (70%) and
advisor (30%) per each student. The final grade is assigned based on the weights provided in
Appendix IV.

4. Report Format

Reports and Presentations for Graduation Project I phase of evaluation should be organized
logically and prepared professionally using correct spelling, grammar, format and style. Students
should follow the recommended formatting and style in preparing their reports and presentations.
The technical contents should be presented clearly, precisely and comprehensively to highlight
their contributions and achievements. The report should include:

4.1 Preliminary Matter

Preliminary pages are paginated separately from the rest of the text. Use lower-case Roman
numerals at the bottom of pages. Title page is not numbered and should not be included in the
Table of Contents. Begin numbering with the Table of Contents, page ii. Continue using the
lower-case Roman numerals up to the first page of the Text (page 1 of Chapter 1 or Introduction).
Specific requirements and examples for each part of the preliminary matter follow.

1. Cover page

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The cover page –not numbered- should always include the following information: University
logo (and company logo if project carried out in a company), University, School, Department,
Project title, Students names, Advisor/s name/s, date as (semester, year), and the following
statement: (see Appendix I)
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Bachelor’s Degree in
Computer Science.

2. Abstract
A single page describing the introduction, problem statement, scope, methodology and a
result of the project outcomes and findings.
3. Dedication (optional)
On a separate page(s), dedication is used to acknowledge those who have supported you
during your graduate studies. This is not typically the place to recognize those who
assisted you in your academic project, which is done on the required acknowledgements
page.
4. Acknowledgment
This section, on a separate page(s), is completely devoted to showing appreciation and
acknowledging the colleagues, advisors, funding organizations, or other people who
helped make your project and course of study possible.
5. Table of contents
In this section, on a separate page(s), list all report content with respective page numbers.
6. List of Figures
In this section, on a separate page(s), list all figures with respective page numbers.
7. List of Tables
In this section, on a separate page(s), list all tables with respective page numbers.
8. List of abbreviations and variables
On a separate page(s). Should be written in alphabetical order.

4.2 Text Chapters / body of the text

The text of the project report should be organized logically according to the nature and range of
the project work being reported; suggested chapters (depending on context) include:

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 1. Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Background (the organization and the project)
1.2. Motivation
1.3. Statement of the problem
1.4. Objectives
1.4.1. General Objectives
1.4.2. Specific Objectives
1.5. Scope of the project
1.6. Significance of the Project
1.7. Feasibility Study
1.8. Methodology
1.8.1. Data Collection method (if required)
1.8.2. Software Process Model
1.8.3. Tools and Techniques
1.9. Roles and Responsibilities
1.10. Work breakdown Structure
1.11. Schedule
2. Chapter 2: Study of Existing System
2.1. Introduction
3. 2.2. Existing System
2.2. Organization Structure
2.3. Services provided
(you can use activity diagram to show the flow of events)
2.4. Users
2.5. Business rule identification
2.6. Existing infrastructure
2.7. Proposed System

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 Chapter 3: Software Requirement Specification
3.1. Introduction
3.2. General constraints
3.3. Specific Requirements
3.3.1. External Interface Requirements
3.3.1.1. User Interfaces
3.3.1.2. Hardware Interfaces
3.3.1.3. Software Interfaces
3.3.1.4. Communications Interfaces
3.4. Functional Requirements
3.4.1. <Functional Requirement or Feature #1>
3.4.2. <Functional Requirement or Feature #2>
3.5. Use case Design
3.5.1. Actor Identification
3.5.2. Use case Identification
3.5.3. Use Case #1
3.5.4. Use Case #2
3.5.5. Use case Description
3.6. Sequence Diagram
3.7. Activity Diagram
3.8. Classes / Objects
3.8.1. Class Diagram
3.8.2. <Class / Object #1>
3.8.3. <Class / Object #2>
3.9. Data Structural Model
3.9.1. Entity-Relationship (ER) Model
3.10. Non-Functional Requirements
3.10.1. Performance
3.10.2. Reliability

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 3.10.3. Availability
3.10.4. Security
3.10.5. Maintainability
3.10.6. Portability
Chapter 4: System Design
3.1. Design Overview
3.2. System Architectural Design (include Component and Deployment Diagram)
3.2.1. Chosen System Architecture
3.2.2. System Interface Description
3.3. Detailed Description of Components
3.3.1. Component-1
3.4. User Interface Design
3.4.1. Description of the User Interface
3.4.2. Screen shoot Images
3.5. Database Design
3.5.1. Persistent database design
4. Chapter 5: Testing
4.1. System Overview
4.2. Test Approach
4.3. Test Plan
4.3.1. Features to be Tested
4.3.2. Features not to be Tested
4.3.3. Testing Tools and Environment
4.4. Test Cases
4.4.1. Case-n
4.4.2. Purpose
4.4.3. Inputs
4.4.4. Expected Outputs & Pass/Fail criteria

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 4.4.5. Test Procedure
4.4.6. Test result
5. Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendation
5.1. Conclusion
5.2. Recommendation
5.3. Future Work
4.3 Back Matter

The back matter of the report consists of the References (Bibliography or Literature Cited) and
Appendices. The back matter is paginated consecutively from the last page of the text.

a) References

It is very important to note that every work cited in the text, whether it is a book, Journal Article,
Thesis, project, seminar notes, or even personal communication, must be referenced. Also, and
most important, any work used which is not the actual work of the student, must be cited within
text, and referenced. A list of references should be provided at the end of the report before the
Appendices. Any work done by others, and presented in a project report as though it is the work
of the authors of the report, may be treated as plagiarism, and is liable to punishment in the rules
and laws of the University or department. Therefore, the students must pay utmost attention to
this matter. Referencing should be done according to IEEE Citation Reference (Appendix II).

b) Appendices

Discuss with your Advisor the need for appendices, carefully considering the value of the
material you proposed to include. How does the material relate to the rest of your text? Does
including the material violate any copyright? Some material often included in the appendices,
such as computer printouts, may be so lengthy that placing it in the text would disrupt the
reader's attention to your material. It may include special figures and tables, process detailed
flow charts, detailed calculations, etc.

Pay attention that, any appendix you place in your report must be cited in the text of your
report. Appendices must be designated with a letter (Appendix A, Appendix B, etc.) each starting
on a fresh page, and a title. Each appendix must be listed in the Table of Contents.

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  Source Code (important sections)
 Test Logs
 Log for test n
 Test Results
In report writing, student should follow the instruction below:

1) The report should be typewritten in English.

2) Text font should be Times New Roman, Arial, or Cambria
3) Text font size is 12 pts for the body and 12 pts and bold for titles.
4) Heading one all capital letter, heading two first letter capital except prepositions, prepositions
shall be in small letter. Only the first letter of third and lower level headings must be written
in capital and connectors such as and/or, with must be written in lower case, all headings
must be written in bold.
5) All text must be justified.
6) Line spacing should be 1.5 in the entire text.
7) All margins (top, bottom, left and right) should be 2.0 cm.
8) Pages of Front Matter are numbered using Roman Numerals as (i, ii, iii, iv, …)
9) The text, beginning with the first chapter should be numbered consecutively using Arabic
Numerals as ( 1, 2, 3, 4, …)
10) Page number should be placed at the bottom center of the page.
11) Chapter and section titles should be bold and numbered sequentially.
12) Figures and tables should have a referral caption numbers and short description. Caption size
is 10 pts, bold, and single line spacing. Figure captions are placed below the figure and
centered, while table captions are placed above the table and centered. (See Appendix III).
13) Numbering of Tables and Figures must be done sequentially, including the Chapter number
in which it is placed (for example, Figure 2.1 is first figure of chapter two, 3.2 is second
figure of chapter three, etc.).
14) Diagrams and figures must be plotted using any of the available UML software tools.
15) If the table, figure or illustration is too wide for the page, Landscape may be used, the caption
appearing at the bottom of the table, figure, or illustration (at the right of the page).

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16) If your report includes equations, each equation must be written using a proper, standard
scientific notation. Each equation must be centered on a separate line of text and numbered
on the right, using Chapter number and equation number, separated by a dot, as in the
following example:
�� + �� + � = 0 (1.1)
17) Tables, figures, illustrations and equations should be referenced and discussed within the text,
abbreviation can be used as: Fig. 2.2; Table 2.1; Eq. 2.3

5. Presentation Format for Project Proposal

Presentation must be supported by slides which will be reflected by data show projectors. The
presentation should include, but is not restricted to, the following basic topics:

1. Introduction
2. Project problem statement
3. Project objective(s)
4. Scope
5. Methodology
6. Conclusion

6. Presentation Format for Project Phase I

Presentation must be supported by slides which will be reflected by data show projectors. The
presentation should include, but is not restricted to, the following basic topics:

1. Introduction
2. Project problem statement
3. Project objective(s)
4. Scope
5. Methodology
6. Existing system (better to express in graphically)
7. Proposed system ((better to express in graphically)
8. Functional and Non function requirements
9. Use case diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
10. Sequence diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
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 11. Class Diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
12. System decomposition

7. Presentation Format for Project Phase II

Presentation must be supported by slides which will be reflected by data show projectors. The
presentation should include, but is not restricted to, the following basic topics:

1. Introduction
2. Project problem statement
3. Project objective(s)
4. Scope
5. Methodology
6. Existing system (better to express in graphically)
7. Proposed system ((better to express in graphically)
8. Functional and Non function requirements
9. Use case diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
10. Sequence diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
11. Class Diagram (recommended to show no more than 2)
12. System decomposition
13. Demonstration (Implementation)

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Appendix I: Cover Page

DEBRE TABOR UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF Computer Science

PROJECT TITLE

By

First Name Initial Last Name ID #

First Name Initial Last Name ID #
First Name Initial Last Name ID #

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Bachelor of Science in

Computer Science

Date (Month Year)

Debre Tabor, Ethiopia

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Appendix II: IEEE Citation Reference

IEEE Citation Reference

Citation standards in this IEEE citation reference are provided for:
 Books
 Reports
 Conference Technical Articles
 Online Sources
 Patents, Standards, Thesis’s
 Periodicals
Books
Basic Format:
[1] J. K. Author, Title of chapter in the book, in Title of His Published Book, xth ed. City of Publisher, Country if not
USA:
Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx.

NOTE: Use et al. when three or more names are given.

Examples:
[1] B. Klaus and P. Horn, Robot Vision. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.
[2] L. Stein, Random patterns, in Computers and You, J. S. Brake, Ed. New York: Wiley, 1994, pp. 55-70.
[3] R. L. Myer, Parametric oscillators and nonlinear materials, in Nonlinear Optics, vol. 4, P. G. Harper and B. S.
Wherret, Eds. San Francisco, CA: Academic, 1977, pp. 47-160.
[4] M. Abramowitz and I. A. Stegun, Eds., Handbook of Mathematical Functions (Applied Mathematics Series 55).
Washington, DC: NBS, 1964, pp. 32-33.
[5] E. F. Moore, Gedanken-experiments on sequential machines, in Automata Studies (Ann. of Mathematical
Studies, no. 1), C. E. Shannon and J. McCarthy, Eds. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1965, pp. 129-153.
Reports
The general form for citing technical reports is to place the name and location of the company or institution after the
author and title and to give the report number and date at the end of the reference.
Basic Format:
[1] J. K. Author, Title of report, Abbrev. Name of Co., City of Co., Abbrev. State, Rep. xxx, year.
Examples:
[1] E. E. Reber absorption in the earth’s atmosphere, Aerospace Corp., Los Angeles, CA, Tech. Rep. TR-0200
(4230-
46)-3, Nov. 1988.
[2] J. H. Davis and J. R. Cogdell, Calibration program for the 16-foot antenna, Elect. Eng. Res. Lab., Univ. Texas,
Austin, Tech. Memo. NGL-006-69-3, Nov. 15, 1987.

[3] R. E. Haskell and C. T. Case, Transient signal propagation in lossless isotropic plasmas, USAF Cambridge Res.
Labs., Cambridge, MA, Rep. ARCRL-66-234 (II), 1994, vol. 2.

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WWW
Basic Format:
[1] J. K. Author. (year, month day). Title (edition) [Type of medium]. Available: http://www.(URL)
Example:
[1] J. Jones. (1991, May 10). Networks (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available: http://www.atm.com

Patents, Standards, Thesis

Standards
Basic Format:
[1] Title of Standard, Standard number, date.
Examples:
[1] IEEE Criteria for Class IE Electric Systems, IEEE Standard 308, 1969.
[2] Letter Symbols for Quantities, ANSI Standard Y10.5-1968.

Appendix III: Figures and Tables Format

Figure

Figure 2.1: The caption should be placed after the figure centered

Table

Table 3.8: The caption should be placed before the table centered
A B C D
(1) 0.279 0.312 -
(2) 1.68 0.168 0.025

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 Faculty of Technology
Department of Computer Science
Anti-Plagiarism Declaration

This is to declare that the graduation project produced under the supervision
of_____________________________________________ having the title

“_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________”
is the sole contribution of the student(s) below and no part here of has been reproduced illegally
(in particular: some other’s work) which can be considered as Plagiarism. All referenced parts
have been used to support and argue the idea and have been cited properly. I/We certify that I/we
will not commit any plagiarism, cheating, or any other academic integrity
violation. I/We will be responsible and liable for any consequence if violation of this
declaration is proven.

Graduation project group's student(s):

Name: __________________________ Signature: _______________
Name: _________________________ Signature: _______________
Name: __________________________ Signature: _______________
Name: __________________________ Signature: _______________

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