1. Project Description
Maximum Points: 30
Topic Selection Due Date: Friday November 8, 2024 at 11:55pm; submitted via email
PR Merge Date: If Applicable, At Least One Day Before the Presentation Date
Presentation Date: TBD
DUE: December 6, 2024 at 11:55pm (accept until December 8 at 11:55pm with no penalty); submitted on MOODLE.
Warning
Claiming that objectives/tasks/enhancements were complete within the report when in reality they were not is (a) a serious form of academic misconduct — falsifying results — and (b) against the student code of conduct.
These violations are subject to severe penalty. All violations will be reported and investigated fully.
1.1. Base Task
Select a topic for a project
Implement the project idea
Produce a report or give a presentation
Submit the final implementation
Groups of up to two are permitted
1.2. Marking Details
A total of 30 points may be obtained for the project. Although it is not required to complete all portions of the project (one may choose to only try to obtain, for example, 20 points), all portions must be completed correctly and effectively to receive all 30 points.
Below is a high-level overview of how points will be awarded. Details on each task are provided later in the assignment description.
A total of 10 points will be awarded for having a working implementation of the project topic
10 additional points may be awarded for enhancements/modifications, novelty, interesting-ness, analysis, etc.
A total of 10 additional points may be awarded for completing a project presentation or report
A project presentation will award up to 4 points
Including proper references/citations awards an additional 2 points
Including figures and tables awards an additional 2 points
Performing an effective statistical analysis will award an additional 2 points
A complete report will award up to 2 points
Using LaTeX to generate the report will award an additional 2 points
Including proper references/citations awards an additional 2 points
Including figures and tables awards an additional 2 points
Performing an effective statistical analysis will award an additional 2 points
Note
Points will be awarded for either a project presentation or a final report. In other words, it is only necessary to complete one of the two options (presentation or report).
1.3. Project Topics
It is the students’ responsibility to select a project topic and have it approved by the instructor. Once approved, the project direction is up to the students. Students are encouraged to be creative and ambitious. Further, marks will not be lost due to the quality of the final results.
Most project ideas fall under one of the following categories:
Application — Apply an algorithm to a particular problem of interest
Enhancements/Modifications — Implement a novel idea into an algorithm and analyze results
New Algorithm — Create a new algorithm tha follows the high-level idea of evolutionary computation
Do not be afraid to try something different. The instructor values creativity will make every attempt to be as accepting of project ideas as possible.
Topics will be selected on a first-come first-served basis, however, if multiple groups want to do the same project, the instructor will work the the groups to direct them such that the details differ between groups.
All topic choices, along with preferred presentation date (if choosing to give a presentation) are to be submitted to the instructor via email.
1.3.1. Modifications, Enhancements, Novelty , Etc.
How the points for the modifications, enhancements, etc. are awarded will depend heavily on the specific project. Thus it is difficult to be specific about how the points will be awarded. As a starting place, consider that the points will be awarded for a combination of modifications, enhancements, novelty, analysis, interesting-ness, etc.
Like with most aspects of the course, the instructor and marker will be looking for excuses to award points to students for their work. In other words, be creative, emphasize what is felt to be worth points, and make clear why it is felt that what was done is worth the points.
1.4. Project Presentation or Report
Points will only be awarded for either a final report or a project presentation.
1.4.1. Project Presentation
Groups may choose to give a 15 – 20 minute project presentation. The presentations will follow the same general format as a report (intro, literature review, problem description, etc.) but will be presented as a webpage on the course website.
1.4.1.1. Presentation Dates
It may be the case that it is natural for some topics to come before others, but in general, the date will be selected on a first-come first-served basis. Any groups unable to select a date will be assigned one by the instructor.
All project topic choices along with preferred presentation dates, if applicable, are to be submitted to the instructor via email.
Group Presentation Dates:
November 26: C
November 27: K
November 29: AJ
Note
No presentation dates need to be selected for those groups choosing not to give a project presentation.
1.4.1.2. Points
Giving a project presentation will provide up to 4 additional points; however, a total of 10 points may be obtained by effectively giving a presentation.
Including proper references/citations may award an additional 2 points
Including figures and tables may award an additional 2 points
Performing an effective statistical analysis may award an additional 2 points
1.4.1.3. Presentation Format
The format of the presentation is up to the groups, but they should be similar to the layout of the reports (discussed in detail in the following section). For a high-level idea of what to include, see the below list:
Intro
Related Works
Project Topic Description
Methodology
Results & Discussion
Conclusions and Future Work
It is up to the groups to decide how best to communicate their project idea and results. Like the lectures, be sure that the presentation is not boring. Points may be lost if the presentation does not effectively communicate what was done.
1.4.1.4. Submitting a Pull Request
Like the student lectures, project presentations are to be submitted via a pull request to the course GitHub repository. Refer to the Student Lecture Description page for more details. The only major difference is that the group will make a sub-directory for their project under the “student-projects” directory as opposed to the “student-lectures” directory.
Warning
Although the pull request merge date is required to be at least one day before the presentation date, note that pull requests will not be accepted unless deemed acceptable by the instructor. This means that submitting a pull should be done sufficiently early that any required changes can be adequately addressed before the merging deadline.
1.4.2. Report
Writing a simple report will award up to 2 additional points; however, a total of 10 points may be obtained by completing all portions of the report sufficiently.
The base report will consider spelling, grammar, prose, etc. for marking, thus, the marker will be analysing the report both quantitatively and qualitatively.
There is no right way to write a report, nor is there a definitive structure. The most correct way is to write a report that most effectively communicates what needs to be communicated.
Below is a list of things to consider including in the report. This list is a collection of suggested ideas to consider and is not intended to be the standard template.
Introduction
Related Works
What have others done that is related to the project idea
Problem description
Algorithm description
What enhancements/modifications were included?
Why were they done?
How were they done?
Explain how the results will be analysed
Explains the results and discuss
Conclusions and possible future directions
Bibliography
1.4.2.1. LaTeX
An additional 2 points may be obtained if the report is written in LaTeX.
If using LaTeX, it is recommended that the report be written with the IEEE conference template. Overleaf makes it simple to start using the template.
1.4.2.2. References and Citations
Including effective and proper references/citations may award an additional 2 points.
There is no correct number of references to include as that depends on the report itself.
LaTeX and BibTeX makes references and citations relatively simple. Further, with Google Scholar, getting references correct is trivial.
1.4.2.3. Figures and Tables
Effectively including figures, tables, etc. in the report may award an additional 2 points. Examples include an algorithm flow diagram, a table of parameter settings, tables of results, result visualization, learning curves, distributions of results, etc.
1.4.2.4. Statistical Analysis
Including proper statistical comparisons of results may award an additional 2 points.
Typically, different results will be obtained every time the algorithm is run. This is due to the stochastic nature of these algorithms. For this reason, it is not possible to run these algorithms once to compare the results. Instead, distributions of results need to be obtained and these distributions are then compared to one another.
In evolutionary computation, it is common to see 30 runs of each algorithm to obtain the distributions (30 runs of the same algorithm with the same setup and hyperparameters).
1.5. What to Submit to Moodle
Warning
Completing a requirement does not guarantee that the corresponding points will be awarded. Each requirement must be completed to the satisfaction of the marker.
Submit relevant implementations via Moodle by 11:55pm on the due date
Include the report is applicable
Include anything else the marker may need for effectively evaluating the work