CS and IT Capstone Projects

2023 Fall Capstone Celebration

When: Dec. 1, 2pm

Where: Sierra Hall Lobby

Background

Capstone project-based courses are valuable ways for students to prepare for careers in their respective industries. Lainez et al. [1] state that capstone projects deliver important skills such as 1) a basic understanding of business processes, 2) a product development with high-quality concerns, 3) know-how to conceive, design, implement and operate medium-size complexity systems and 4) communicative, initiative/leadership teamwork, analytical and problem solving and personal abilities. Capstone projects, as identified in Clarke [2], help increase student confidence and allow students to explore areas of technology not covered in the academic curriculum.

Capstone Tagcloud

Instructions for Capstone Presenters

  • CI Keys Webpage (https://cikeys.com/) including pages for student biography / testimonial, project background and rationale, and poster uploaded as PDF. 
  • Printed posters must be submitted to Coast Copy Center (copycenter@coast-repro.com) 3 business days before the presentations. This is a hard deadline!
  • The poster should include an overview of the project, including its objectives, the methodology employed to undertake the project, the outcomes obtained, and conclusions.
  • Poster templates will be 36”x 48” and can be found on the following website: http://www.csuci.edu/tli/ats/posters/.
  • Students can have their posters printed at no charge on campus at the Coast Copy Center (Town Center) by providing their name and course number (COMP/IT 499).
  • Easels to support the posters and tables to support laptops and other demonstration materials will be provided.
  • Students should arrive 45 minutes prior to the start of the event (3:15 – 3:45) in order to setup posters and necessary equipment.
  • Students should come prepared to discuss their work.
  • Feel free to invite guests and take pictures. Computer Science and Information Technology will provide light food and drinks for the event.
  • If you have any questions, feel to discuss them with your capstone adviser.

Getting Started with Capstone Prep

  1. Prerequisites for Capstone Prep
    • Verify you have or will have Senior Standing before the enrollment period.  
  2. Finding a project topic
    • While it is not required to identify a topic prior to enrolling in Capstone Prep, it is beneficial to have a general area of computing that interests you. This will help you better identify a capstone adviser. 
  3. Finding a capstone adviser
    • Choosing a capstone advisor can be challenging and faculty are limited to enrolling a small number of students. This means you want to be strategic in your decision.
      • First, find an adviser with some background in the general area of your project or area of interest (see no. 2 above). Faculty expertise can be found in their faculty biographies (see https://compsci.csuci.edu/about/faculty.htm).
      • Second, reach out to the instructor prior to registration, either through email or their office hours. Emails can be found on the faculty webpage (see https://compsci.csuci.edu/about/faculty.htm). When communicating, include the rationale for enrolling in that instructor's section. If a section is full, consider another instructor. If you are still having trouble, reach out to the program adviser on how to best proceed. Sections are opened / expanded based on need.
      • Lastly, the following list of faculty are available for capstone sections: 
        • Prof. Abbasi
        • Prof. Abdolee
        • Prof. Feister
        • Prof. Isaacs
        • Prof. Soltys
        • Prof. Thoms
        • Prof. Vakilian

2015-16 First-Ever Capstone Celebration

Below are just a few of the memories from the 2015 and 2016 capstone celebrations!

Capstone Pic 1Capstone Pic 2Capstone Pic 3Capstone Pic 4

Spring 2017 Capstone: https://goo.gl/photos/S2mRXHu3mtcTnyif8

Fall 2016 Capstone: https://goo.gl/photos/aeoHmMfxGkkLpyZQ8

Spring 2016 Capstone: https://goo.gl/photos/CHKTatnS1kCCoZrf6

Fall 2015 Capstone: https://goo.gl/photos/teVjRd243fPFs3vv6

References

  1. Lainez, M., Deville, Y., Dessy, A., Dejemeppe, C., Mairy, J., & Van Cauwelaert, S. (2014). “A Project-Based Introduction to Agile Software Development.” In L. Alves, P. Ribeiro, & R. Machado, Project-Based Learning: An Environment to Prepare IT Students for an Industry Career, pp. 230-249, IGI Global.
  2. Clarke, N. (2005). “Evaluating student teams developing unique industry projects.” Proceedings of the 7th Australian Conference on Computing Education, pp. 21-30, Newcastle, Australia.
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