Integrated Project (EIE360)

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Integrated Project (EIE360)

Dr Daniel Lun

Department of Electronic and Information EngineeringTel: 27666255 Office: DE637

Email: [email protected]: www.eie.polyu.edu.hk/~enpklun/EIE360/EIE360.html

THE HONG KONG

POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITYDepartment of Electronic and Information Engineering

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Lecture 1

Introduction

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Objectives of the Subject Apply knowledge acquired in other subjects in an integrated

manner Experience different stages of project development Many factors lead to the success of a project

Technical competence of the workers Programming skill Hardware integration skill Computer knowledge, etc.

Soft skills Resource management Problem solving Communications and teamwork Creativity

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Should have been covered in other subjects

One of the major objectives of this subject is to create an environment for students to practice these soft skills

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Objectives of the Subject Resource management

To practice managing resources, e.g. time, manpower & equipment as they are always limited

Should identify the constraints of the project and make good plan to use them

Problem solving No matter how good you plan in managing resource, problems

will still arise due to many unexpected reasons Need to practice dealing with problems

Communications To practice working with your partners, your boss and your

customers Creativity

To practice generating new and feasible ideas

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Topic this year

Interactive Virtual Aquarium

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Picture extracted from www.dreamaquarium.com

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Topic this year (cont)

Interactive Virtual Aquarium

ABC Software Company would like to develop a new software called – Interactive Virtual Aquarium Use 3D graphics to reproduce an aquarium on a

computer The swimming fishes and other inhabitants are

rendered in real time Although those creatures are not real, they should

do everything that real ones do Pecking at objects in the tank, eating food, chasing each other,

swimming amongst the plants, or even fighting with each others! Department of ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

1. Introduction by Dr Daniel Lun

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Topic this year (cont)

My Virtual Aquarium

Different from the current virtual aquarium in the market, ABC Company would like to introduce the following two features: The growth and behavior of the living creatures in the virtual

aquarium should follow a time function (just like tamagotchi!) E.g. the fishes will grow-up, change size and shape, and die as time

goes by E.g. the tank will get dirty if not cleaned regularly in time

The virtual aquarium will interact with the user based on his/her body motion Achieve by using a Kinect sensor device – a motion sensing input

device created by Microsoft

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Architecture of the Interactive Virtual Aquarium System

USB port

3D GraphicsSystem

3D GraphicsDepartment of ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

1. Introduction by Dr Daniel Lun

Your program

Your program

Network

Computer A

Computer B

Kinect Sensor Device

Tasks to be achieved in this project Each team is provided with

a Kinect Sensor Device Carry out the following tasks

Collect the information of real fishes and other inhabitants of an aquarium

Based on such information, develop their graphics and animation

Design the interaction between them and the player Implement such interaction by making use of the

Kinect Sensor Device to detect the body motion of the player

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Kinect Sensor Device

Tasks to be achieved in this project (cont)

Not only technical tasks, but also non-technical task Each group needs to make a study on the behavior of fishes and

other inhabitants in aquarium

Nowadays, the success of an IT application is not only due to its technical excellence, but also if they are “liked” by the users – very often due to non-technical reasons

E.g. Apple’s iPhone vs Nokia N9000 smartphone

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Which one is more success? Why?

Tasks to be achieved in this project (cont) More example: The success of the XBox car racing game

Project Gotham Racing is not only due to its graphics or interactivity, but also the incorporation of the real scenes of over 12 car racing tracks in 4 cities in the world

Nowadays, software designers, particularly those in the IT area, put great effort in contents design, which often determines if their software is successful or not

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Things to do in this subject Learn the features, working principle and implementation methods of different

sub-systems required in this project A series of tutorial and lab exercises will guide you to achieve the minimum of the

project requirement Need to make demonstration for each tutorial and submit report for the lab

Find a partner to form a group Each member will be responsible for one part of the project Work of the members should be combined to form the whole system

Make the first demonstration of the design Summarize the experience and design your software

Make a background study of the behavior of fishes and other inhabitants of aquarium

Prepare a proposal to indicate your plan of designing the system To record the progress of the project, each student needs to keep a logbook

Implement your design and show in the final demonstration You are also required to make a presentation and a final report to elaborate

your work and the result

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Schedule and Arrangement Lectures + tutorial (CF504)

Week 1 to 3 (twice per week), week 4 to 6 (once per week) Lab exercise (CF504)

Week 7 to 9 Two students form a group. Each team member will do a different lab

Miniproject (CF504) Week 10 to 14

Submissions Lab report and demonstrations x 2 (Note the submission deadlines) Proposal – Mar 20 Final report – Apr 14 Logbook – check and sign by assessor on Mar 12 and submit on Apr 14 First Mini-project Demo – Mar 12 Final Demo – Apr 10 Presentation – Apr 14

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Assessment WeightingAssessment Type Weighting

Tutorial exercises (Demo) 15%

Lab exercise (Demo + report) 10%

Logbook / Proposal / Final report / Presentation

25%

Results in the First and Final Miniproject Demos

15% &

25%

Project Management 10%

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Assessment Criteria

Lab exercise Finish the open-ended exercise as given in the

lab sheet Each team member will do a different lab Each student needs to submit

a lab report (the computer program of the open-ended exercise) and

make a demonstration of the result

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Assessment Criteria

Logbook Individually keep a logbook (a diary) on the

tutorial, lab and project work performed Check by the assessor on Mar 12 Submit the logbook on Apr 14 Assessment will be made based on the

completeness of the contents for recording the findings, results and the discussions made in the project

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Assessment Criteria Proposal

Submit a proposal on or before Mar 20 Should include the following:

An abstract The topic and objective of the system The background study The proposed functional and technical specifications The proposed methodology to achieve the specifications Preliminary results obtained References

The general criteria for assessing a proposal include: Completeness of the above items Feasibility of the plan Presentation of the report

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Assessment Criteria Final report and Presentation

Submit a final report on or before Apr 14 Based on the report, make a presentation on Apr 14 (in English) The contents of the report and presentation should include:

Description of the background study Description of the operation of the software system developed Actual techniques adopted to implement each sub-systems Difficulties encountered (both technical and non-technical) and

the solutions used to solve the problems Results achieved by using those techniques The ways to manage the resources and how teamwork is

implemented in the project

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Assessment Criteria First and Final Miniproject Demonstration

All teams are required to attend the First and the Final Miniproject Demonstration held on Mar 12 and Apr 10

The objective is to ensure all teams have reached the defined milestones

Assessment: divide into two parts Performance in achieving the common objective

E.g., the background study and the game flow Performance of the sub-systems responsible by each

member E.g. the graphics, the interaction between player and the system Individually assess

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Assessment Criteria Project Management

A total of 10 marks are allocated to this item To encourage teamwork To encourage the teams using good approaches

for managing resources of the project: Manpower, Time, Lab facilities

Need to specify the approach in resource management and teamwork in the final report and presentation

Need to give evidence!Department of ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

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Project Competition Project development is not the same as doing an

assignment, it is open-ended To reward those students who spend great effort in

continuously enhancing the result of the project, a project competition will be held along with this subject for them to showcase their achievement

Award: The Best Project Award

For the team that gives the best design (graphics and features) Robustness in implementation is another important assessment

criterion Cash prizes and certificates will be awarded to the winners of the

competitionDepartment of ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

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Why project management?

A project involves the interaction of different parties

A project will be successful only if all parties do their job right

By having good project management, we can Achieve the project goal on time and within the budget Keep your boss and your customers happy Keep the team focus on the goal and work well Everyone shares the load

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Project Management

Project Planning and Implementation• Define objectives / requirements• Define work/tasks• Identify resources• Plan schedule• Iterate• Plan modification

Execution Management• Get objective signed-off• Track plan progress• Communicate within team• Customer communications• Secure resources• Project discipline

Technical People

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Project Planning

The process of project development is full of uncertainties

The more uncertainties you have, the less possible that the project can be successful

Uncertainties can be reduced by having a good feasibility study before the project Background research Understand the resource required and acquired Risk analysis

The feasibility study has been prepared for you in the lab exercises

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Requirement Analysis The purpose is to identify and document the exact

requirements for the project Much interaction must take place between the

customer (e.g. Professor) and the developer (e.g. students)

Should be well documented since very often it serves as an agreement of the functions that will be provided by the system developed The document is sometimes called user specifications or

functional specifications May form the basis for project commissioning

Your proposal should contain the above items

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System design and specification Split into two sub-phases: architectural and detailed design Architectural design

Define the overall organization of the system in terms of high-level components and their interaction

Detailed design Lower level modules in each component and their interfaces

Example: In software development Architectural design – the function and relationship of classes Detailed design – the internal modules and interfaces of each

class Should be well documented

The document is sometimes called technical specifications Your proposal should contain the above items

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Implementation – Work breakdown

Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task

Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce

Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete

Should be detailed in the proposal and final report

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Example – Activity Timeline and Job Allocation

1/6/06 1/7 1/8 1/9 1/10 1/11 1/12 1/1/07

Lun

Hsung

Cheung

EO

T1: Define objectives and requirementsT2: Room renovationT3: Hiring staffT4: Purchase equipmentT5: Installation of equipmentM1: Milestone 1 - Demo room equipment T6: Testing motion tracking systemT7: Testing game engine

T8: Testing other hardware and software T9: Prepare preliminary demoM2: Milestone 2 - Preliminary demo T10: Integrating all sub-systemsT11: Develop final demo programT12: Prepare documentsM3: Milestone 3 - Final demo

T2

T3T4

T5

T5

M1

T6T7

T8

T9

M2T3

T10 T11

T12

M3

T1

Teamwork Teamwork means

Concerted effort All team members work towards the same goal

and direction Interdependent collaboration

Contribution of team members is inter-related and used to achieve the goal of the project

Shared decision making All team members take part in the decision

making process 29Department of

ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION ENGINEERING

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Need to give evidence in the final report to prove your team has followed them when implementing your project

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Wrong Concepts and Bad Practices

For students who are new in doing projects, they often have the following wrong concepts and bad practices:

“We will not be able to finish the project since all techniques required are new to me.”

It is exactly the kind of training we need you to go thru. Learning to learn is one of the most important parts of a project. In reality, it is very often you are asked to do something you don’t know. Only those who can learn faster than the others can win in the society

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Wrong Concepts and Bad Practices (cont)

“We didn’t allocate task to members since we work together all the time.”

A very bad practice. It means that there is no teamwork among members. To avoid you doing this, each member of the team will be given a different task. The results of all team members should be combined to accomplish the project objective.

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Wrong Concepts and Bad Practices (cont)

“My team member didn’t do anything. I decided to leave him alone. The work submitted was done by me.”

See, finding suitable partner is very important. That team member certainly will fail, since team members will be individually assessed. The marks of the team in project management (in particular teamwork) will also be deducted.

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Wrong Concepts and Bad Practices (cont)

“Our team was very busy in many different things so we skipped all the tutorials, lab works and demos. But we managed to use the last few days to finish everything and made a good demo of our game in the Final Demo.”

Assume that you are doing this project for your customer. If I were the customer of your project, I would never hire your team to do project again! All customers want to see both progress and result. So your marks in project management will be deducted.

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Wrong Concepts and Bad Practices (cont)

“Time is limited in doing this project. If I have more time, I can do it much better.”

It is exactly the objective of the subject to provide training to students on time management. Bear in mind that the subject does not ask you to achieve a perfect result, but a satisfactory result within a time limit. Only those who have good time management skill can get good grade in this subject.

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Some Advices on Problem Solving People like to solve problem based on its

symptom and try to remove the symptom Following the philosophy of western medicine, if you

have headache, you will be given a Panadol to remove the headache

It works sometimes but not always. Sometimes removing the symptom may just let the real problem (can be big problem) unable to be discovered

Have we ever taken time to think of the reason behind the problem and try to really solve it? Sometimes you can find out the reason, sometimes you

cannot But it is still worth a try

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Some Advices on Problem Solving (cont)

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When finding the reasons of a problem, don’t ignore any small abnormality in the course of project development Particularly in software development, even a small

bug can bite you hardly, and perhaps at the most crucial time!

Of course, if there is no hope to solve the problems, looking for tricks to get around them is still a good solution