Homework 6: Final Project Proposal

The goal for the final project is for you to make use of the skills you’ve learned in the course in an independent, open-ended context. The project should be a stand-alone application that interacts with data and shareable with a wider community. An ideal final project will be related to your research or main course of study. Ideally you will work with one partner, but it is also acceptable to work alone. Everyone should write a project proposal, but there will be a matchmaking phase later where you can join another project or merge your project with another student’s project.

Defining and implementing the project will be an iterative process which will include many rounds of feedback and conversation with the course staff. The goal of the proposal is to start those conversations.

Project templates

We are flexible about the project you propose, as long as it makes use of the skills you have learned in the class. You may find it helpful to consider one of the following project templates to help you develop your proposal:

• Start a new data analysis project for your research and develop it to the point that it is shareable. One good output could be a companion website for a research paper.
• Take a coding project you’ve completed and turn it into a shareable application that others can use on similar data.
• Develop a support utility for your lab, research group, or department.

Deadlines and deliverables

Your proposal should include a short project title and 2-3 paragraphs describing the purpose and scope of the project. The proposal is due on Thursday March 25 at 4pm EDT.

Your writeup should address the following questions:

• What is the audience for your project? Who might use it if you succeed? For what purpose?
• What are the set of features in your minimum-viable product?
• What other features will you include?
• How will you implement each feature? Which technologies will you use?