2.9.14. Project Reports

Each project phase requires an accompanying report submitted as a post to the 16-223 student site. An outline of specific prompt questions will be provided for each assignment, with a denotation of specific required and optional elements. The content itself should generally follow the Project Report Template.

The primary purpose of the report is to present the project as a completed artifact, with an emphasis on explaining how it reflects the museum context. Overall, it should document how the context spurred questions, the specific choices made in response, whether they were successful, and how future work could improve the result.

The report should focus on inquiry and outcome more than development narrative. Please don’t just write the story of everything that happened; please carefully consider whether any mistakes and diversions would be enlightening to the reader.

Please adhere closely to the following submission rules:

1. Report documents must be submitted within a single WordPress post on the 16-223 student site, with supportive code and engineering files attached as uploads.
2. Each group must submit one joint report. If a group member fails to fulfill their documentation role, the other group members should submit what they can on time and ask for an extension with an explanation.
3. Please set the post category to ‘Reports’. Posts may be public or private at your discretion. Please add all contributing students as post authors so the post will show up on each student’s index. Some hints on using site features can be found on the Site Help page.
4. Each report should clearly attribute the contribution of each group member. Individual grades may be adjusted from group grades if it becomes apparent that contribution is not equitable. A separate confidential peer evaluation may be requested individually from each group member at the instructor’s discretion.
5. Reports must generally include a statement of objectives, general description, results, photos, technical documentation, and citations of related work.
6. The post should include inline project photos.
7. Project videos must be uploaded to the hosting service of your choice and an active, clickable link provided in the post.
8. Project videos are encouraged to include a title and credits.
9. Project videos must adhere to the minimum and maximum duration limits (including titles and credits).
10. In general, enough technical documentation must be provided that a person skilled in the art could replicate the construction of the project.
11. All program source code is required and must be provided as uploads. Source code should be provided in original format. Short explanatory fragments can also be included inline. Please don’t just paste the code into a post unless it is tagged for proper code indentation and formatting. A dump of unformatted code is unreadable and useless for evaluation.
12. Electronic schematics must be provided as inline images or as a PDF upload. Schematics must reflect the as-built state. Schematics must use conventional symbols and notation. Hand-drawn or illustrated schematics are acceptable, but the use of schematic capture software such as EAGLE is recommended as it will help reduce errors. Breadboard diagrams are not acceptable substitutes.
13. Mechanical drawings or sketches are encouraged and may be provided as inline images or as a PDF upload. Mechanical drawings should clearly specify the scale and units.

2.9.15. Project Report Template

Careful documentation of projects and meaningful reflection on outcomes and process is an important part of the course. The technical specifications for projects reports are in the Project Reports section. Following are the general prompts for expected content for the main report text in outline form.

1. Project Title

   1. Author 1, Author 2
   2. Submission Date
   3. URL of project video (not to exceed specified limit, generally one or two minutes)

2. Abstract

   Provide a brief paragraph summarizing the overall goals and results.

3. Objectives

   State your goals, and discuss what specific features are within scope for the project.

4. Implementation

   Discuss your design choices.

5. Outcomes

   Discuss the successes and failures of your choices.

6. Contribution

   Please provide a clear statement of each author’s individual contribution to the outcomes.

7. Photo Documentation.

   Provide captioned photos which support your discussion. Please consider the purpose of each photo and write a caption which helps the reader understand your intent.

8. Citations

   Please provide references or links to related work.

2.9.15.1. Required Supporting Material

As detailed in Project Reports, the following additional elements must be included separately from the main report text:

1. electronic schematics
2. mechanical drawings
3. source code