Preferential Theme Matrix for Minor Project

Abstract

We propose a preferential theme matrix for selecting a problem in carrying out the minor project for 6th semester Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) students. The matrix comprises of emerging technologies, research areas and the application domains as the parameters. It included Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Mobility and Web Technology as emerging technologies. The focused research areas were on big data & analytics and image processing. The application domains were focused on social relevance such as environment monitoring, health care, safety and security, agriculture. And an additional open choice (others) was mentioned which gave an opportunity for students to explore other new technologies and research areas. Broadly the phases of conducting minor project are classified as team formation, problem identification/selection and project execution which in turn has several sub phases. In team formation students were given freedom to choose their partners with a team size of 4/5 within the same division. This phase was analyzed with respect to Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) grades of team members, which showed a good distribution of grades within the teams and across the entire teams. In problem identification the teams discussed about theme matrix with the assigned guides and presented the project synopsis to the evaluators. After these phases the project execution which in turn included requirement specifications, design, implementation, testing and deployment. To meet some of the pre-requisites for carrying out the projects, workshops on IoT, Cloud computing and open source design tools were organized. For promoting self learning in students, MOOC on the relevant technologies of their projects was introduced as part of minor project. The Continuous Internal Evaluation (CIE) of minor project focused on the processes of software engineering and Semester End Exam (SEE) was focused on product/prototype development, technical skills and external recognition. The entire process of conducting minor project met the expected goals with five prizes in SRISHTI state level project exhibition 2016 and five projects accepted for E-poster presentation in international conference.