Graduation Project:

Guidelines for Selection, Preparation and Defense

This document provides guidelines for the selection, preparation and presentation of the
graduation project in the Department of Computer and Internet Engineering at Jordan
University of Science and Technology. These documents include guidelines, rules,
regulations and recommendations regarding the general conduct of the graduation
projects in the phases; CIE 591 and CIE 592. The appendix includes sample pages for
the standard layout of the final report and evaluation forms. A seminar covering the
related issues will be given by a project committee member in the fourth week of every
semester.

Timeline

Professors willing to supervise graduation projects announce lists of project ideas in the
second semester. The student should select a project that best matches his vision for the
future as well as his resources, or else come up one of his own. In all cases, the
supervisor’s acceptance to pursue a specific project with a specific student is required.

The actual work on the first phase (CIE 591) starts on the summer semester of the
fourth year. During this semester, the student should execute the search and information
gathering, and make a write up proposing a plan for the second phase (CIE 592).
During this semester, the student is assumed working in an institution for practical
training credit, but he should arrange enough meetings with his advisor.

During the first semester of the fifth year, the actual design, implementation,
construction, programming and testing should be performed. Students are encouraged
to meet more often with their advisors, to guarantee a hassle free management, and to
meet the deadlines. Writing the final report should be taken seriously, and hence must
be started early enough. Four copies of the report should be submitted (to the advisor,
two members and department) at lease two weeks before the presentation.

Group projects

Group projects are encouraged as long as the obtained results of the group members do
not duplicate each other; rather they should complement each other. The group
members accomplish clearly identifiable parts of the project. It should be noted that
each member of the group is supposed to defend his/her part independently. The group
members should submit separate progress reports and final reports. The project advisor
ensures that the workload (project parts) is evenly distributed and the group members
are progressing equally. Groups should not exceed four students per group.

Project selection

Project selection should be completed before the end the first week of the semester in
which CIE 591 is registered for. The list of projects will be available to students during
the second semester of each year. Students may select from this list, or may propose a
project of their own. In either case the student should obtain the agreement of a faculty
member to supervise the selected project.

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Project outline

The ongoing projects should be submitted to the project committee by the end of the 4th
week of the semester in which CIE 591 is registered for. This outline consists of two
pages describing the project and its target results. The project outline is used by the
projects committee to keep records of the currently running graduation projects.

Progress reports

Progress reports are submitted to and evaluated by the project advisor in a biweekly
basis. These reports represent an official record on the project progress status. The
progress records consist of the project objectives, problem specification, solution
methods, tools and environments to be used with appropriate justification, the progress
to date, and a timetable for achieving the remaining work.

Final report

Final reports should be submitted by the last day of classes in the semester in which
CIE 592 is registered for (three copies must be submitted). The final report is a full
document describing in detail the project's objectives, background, problems
encountered and their solutions, approaches used, results obtained, conclusions, further
work, references, and appendices if necessary (see the attached sample pages). The
report should be typed in accordance with the attached samples and should be of
appropriate size. Avoid excess verbosity, long proofs, program listings, etc. that would
disrupt the flow of the main text, should be placed in appendices.

Presentation

Presentation will take place during the last week of classes in the semester in which
CIE 592 is registered for. The presentation is limited to 30 minutes and should include
a brief outline of the project objectives, difficulties encountered and their solutions,
approaches used, obtained results, etc.

The students are recommended to have a look at the examination forms, supplied in the
appendix, before the presentation time. This will give them an idea on how the
presentation as well as the whole project will be evaluated by the examining committee.
If the project involves implementing a piece of software this may be demonstrated after
or during the presentation as appropriate. The students are encouraged to use state-of-
the-art illustrations preparation tools for the presentations and demonstrations.

General

Progress and final reports should be written in English on A4 paper. The use of fonts
should be consistent throughout the report. Section headings and page numbering
should follow the attached samples. The cover page should follow the exact wording as
in the sample cover page. Avoid inserting clip arts, icons, or irrelevant pictures and
drawings in your report. Give considerable attention to the logical presentation of the
material, the spelling, and the grammar throughout the report.

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Recommendations

ƒ Students are advised to meet with their advisors regularly once a week, at least.
ƒ Students are recommended to keep a “project progress file” containing records
of work achieved and work in progress.
ƒ Advisors should ensure that the proposed schedule is achievable. The project
committee should be consulted before diverting the project objectives if they
appear to be impossible to complete on time. The project committee (in co-
ordination with the advisor) decides if there was a shortcoming of any kind.
ƒ Reports must be reviewed by the advisor as early as possible. It is expected that
the students need at least 6 weeks to write a satisfactory report. The process of
report writing, revising and rewriting is an essential part of the course. The
student should benefit to the maximum extent from the advisor’s experience in
writing decent reports and papers.
ƒ To avoid possible delays, it is important that the student completes the
background work during the semester in which he/she registers for CIE 591. As
much work as possible should be completed during this semester, to avoid
delays and unexpected difficulties later.

Submission

Electronic submission of the project products is required. This includes the final report
and any software that was developed as a part of the project. All graduation projects
will be electronically stored in the department web site. The report files and the
program files should be stored in separate directories and then compressed in one file
for archiving. Submit the compressed file to the project committee (email, CD or
Floppies).

Examination

A committee of two examiners or more professors chaired by the project advisor will
be formed to evaluate the written report, the presentation, and the project attainments.
The advisor will resolve the major part of the project assessment. The assessment will
be based on the student's ability to best make use of the time, meet deadlines and
achieve progress, perform literature surveys, carry out practical/theoretical work, and
contribute to the decision making process. The advisor alone assigns a grade for the
first phase of the project. The committee assigns grade for the second phase of the
projects according to the following system:

Advisor:

ƒ Problem Definition 10
ƒ Project Management 10
ƒ General assessment 20

Committee:

ƒ Report 10
ƒ Presentation 10
ƒ Achievement 40

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Sample Pages and Formatting

Sample pages include: the cover page, the table of contents, the reference list and the
appendices. Samples of graphics, plots, tables and equations are also included. An
abstract of at most 400 words is required and an acknowledgement of nearly 200 words
is optional. Figure captions should be located beneath the figure and table captions
above the table. Figures, Tables and captions should be centered. Equations should be
left justified and their numbers should be right justified. Figures, tables, and equations
are numbered sequentially qualified with the chapter number to which they belong. For
instance, “Figure 3.4” would mean the 4th figure in the 3rd chapter.

Preferred parameters are: A4 for the page size, 1 inch margin for all sides, and 12-point
font size for the normal text and Times New Roman for the font type, single for line
spacing and uppercase for main titles.

Report Structure

The final report should have the following basic structure:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Acknowledge the support of the advisors, professors, friends, families and people who
contributed to the project during the design, development and testing.

ABSTRACT
Describe in 300 words the objective, methodologies and achievements.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
List chapters and sections along with page numbers

INTRODUCTION
Introduce the problem to be solved or simulated in one or two pages, stating objective
of the project, methodology and significance of the project.

OVERVIEW
Related work and discussion of issues

MAIN CHAPTERS
The main work is detailed in one to three chapters, with as many sections as the project
nature requires. Typically, design, implementation and testing can form three chapters.

CONCLUSION
Summarize the work, results and problems encountered. You may also suggest future
projects that build on yours.

LIST OF REFERENCES
List the books, tutorials, reports, articles, and white papers used in the project.

APPENDICES
Artworks, flowcharts, programs, and other related material.

4
 JORDAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND INTERNET ENGINEERING

CONCURRENT SOLUTION OF LINEAR SYSTEMS ON

CLUSTERS OF WORKSTATIONS

B.Sc. Graduation Project

Submitted to the Department of Computer and Internet Engineering at
Jordan University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
graduation project

Prepared by

[Student Name and Number]

Supervised by

[Advisor Name]

[February 2002]

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 SAMPLE PAGE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Scope of the project 2
1.2 Objectives 4

OVERVIEW OF … 6
2.1 Literature Survey 8

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS … 15

3.1 Prototype 18

IMPLEMENTATION … 25
4.1 Development Platform 28

TESTING … 32
5.1 Performance Metrics 36

CONCLUSION 38

LIST OF REFERENCES 39

APPENDICES 40
A Programs and … 41
B Artworks and … 44
C Related … 46

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 SAMPLE PAGE

LIST OF REFERENCES

[1] S. Krakowiak, A. Freyssinet, and S. Lacourte."A Generic Object-Oriented Virtual

Machine." Proceedings International Workshop on Object Orientation in Operating
Systems, pages 73-77. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1991.
[2] "FORTH Chips", http://www.ultratechnology.com/chips.htm
[3] Anthony S.Fong. "HISC: A High-level Instruction Set Computer". In 7th European
Simulation Symposium, pages: 406-410. The Society for Computer Simulation, Oct
1995
[4] Vincent Heuring and Harry Jordan. “Computer Systems Design and Architecture,”
Addison Wesley Longman, 1997.
[5] Kai Hwang and Zhiwei Xu.“Scalable Parallel Computing," McGraw-Hill, 1998.

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 SAMPLE PAGE

APPENDIX A

8
 SAMPLE PAGE

APPENDIX B

Program …

#include "pvm3.h" /* PVM library */

#define column 2 /* message tag for columns */
#define node_ids 3 /* message tag for process ids */
#define p_index 5 /* message tag for pivot index */
#define p 19 /* number of hosts in the cluster */
#define N 10000 /* maximum matrix order */
int n, C, Ck; /* matrix order, process index, and index of multipliers column */
float a[N][N]; /* the matrix A */
int P[p]; /* process ids of all processes */
int info, bufid; /* PVM return codes */
void Tkk(); /* pivoting process */
void swap_subrows(); /* sub-rows swapping */

main ()
{
int tid, k, i, j;
bufid= pvm_recv(pvm_parent(), node_ids); /* receive process ids */
if (bufid<0) printf("Can't receive tids");
info = pvm_upkint(P, p, 1);
if (info<0) printf("Can't unpack tids");
tid=pvm_mytid(); /* find the index of this process */
for (i=0; i<p; i++) if P[i]==tid { C=i; break; }
for (k=0; k<n-1; k++) /* start matrix factorization */
{ Ck=k%p; /* find index of a multipliers column */
Tkk(k); /* perform partial pivoting */
if (C==Ck) /* process holding multipliers column */
{ for (i=k+1;i<n;i++) /* should do the following: */
a[i][k]=a[i][k]/a[k][k]; /* 1. Compute multipliers */
bufid=pvm_initsend(PvmDataDefault); /* 2.broadcast multipliers */
if (bufid<0) printf("Can't initsend");
info =pvm_pkfloat(&a[0][k], n, n);
if (info<0) printf("Can't Unpack a column");
info = pvm_mcast(P, p, column);

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 SAMPLE ITEMS

8 2 processors
4 processors
7
8 processors
6 16 processors
Speedup ratio

0
16 32 64 128 256 512 1024
Matrix order

Figure 4.1: Estimated Speed Gain

Table 5.1: Speed Gain

Size N 2 processors 4 processors 8 processors

16 0.39273 0.45461 0.53382
32 1.41794 1.65785 1.95671
64 4.79603 5.69634 6.77878
128 4.18354 5.07436 6.10732
256 1.49257 1.85193 2.25728
512 0.72331 0.91513 1.12804
1024 0.5307 0.68074 0.84596

n−2 4 6 n−2
T = ∑ ∑ Φ(t ik ) + ∑ Φ(t in −1) + ∑ tk (4.3)
k =1 i =1 i =1 k =1

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 JORDAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND INTERNET ENGINEERING

Graduation Project II – Advisors Evaluation Form

Student Name : __________________________________________________

Student Number : __________________________________________________
Project Title : __________________________________________________

1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Marginally Agree, 4-Agreem and 5-Strongly Agree

Rating Aspect of Evaluation

The student was punctual in achieving the assigned tasks.

The student was capable in solving faced problems.
The student considerably contributed to the decision making process.
Analytical capabilities and/or other skills of the student are reliable.
The literature survey and the bibliography are sufficient.
The progress report was appropriate.
The final report was up to the standard.
The reports were handed to me on time.

Points earned

Comments:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Supervisor : _____________________ Date: _ _ - _ _ - _ _ _ _ Signature: ____________

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 JORDAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER AND INTERNET ENGINEERING

Graduation Project II - Committee Evaluation Form

Student Name : __________________________________________________

Student Number : __________________________________________________
Project Title : __________________________________________________

1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Marginally Agree, 4-Agreem and 5-Strongly Agree

Rating Aspect of Evaluation

Report
The report is submitted on time.
The abstract is an appropriate and adequate digest of the project.
The introduction clearly states the background of the project.
The problem is clearly stated in the report.
The literature survey and the bibliography are sufficient.
The report layout follows the standard format.
Presentation
The flow of ideas was logical.
Illustrations used were fit and well designed.
The student answered the questions satisfactorily.
Achievements and methodologies
Workload involved in this project was reasonable and objectives were met.
Tools or methodologies used were relevant and sufficient.
Analytical capabilities and/or other skills of the student are reliable.

Points earned

Comments:
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Supervisor : _____________________ Date: _ _ - _ _ - _ _ _ _ Signature: ____________

Member : _____________________ Date: _ _ - _ _ - _ _ _ _ Signature: ____________

Member : _____________________ Date: _ _ - _ _ - _ _ _ _ Signature: ____________

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