2020 COMP4601 Project Reports (Updated: 22 Apr @16:40)

Change log:

• removed Week 7 progress update; added demo description (22 Apr)

This page outlines the expected contents of the 2020 COMP4601 Poject Reports.

For 2020, all project documentation and code is required to be posted to its own project-specific section of the COMP4601 wiki.

» We hope that requiring you to do so will contribute to the sharing of knowledge across year groups and contribute to the creation of a helpful learning community.

» The idea is to share the experiences you have learned in COMP4601 in the most effective (direct, concise) and transparent manner possible.

» Ask yourself: "What information would I have liked to have known before I investigated and discovered the answer to any particular question I had completing the labs, undertaking the project or preparing the seminar for COMP4601?" If you are able to answer this question now, but couldn't find the answer on the COMP4601 Wiki before you began your search, you should consider writing about it in the Wiki!

• Week 5 Project Plan
• Week 7 Progress Update Removed due to delayed and on-line Project Plan presentations
• Week 11 Final Presentations & Report

Week 5 Project Plan

Due: 9am Friday 20 March
Format: When printed from the wiki, equivalent to 2–3 page PDF of clear, succinct text & diagrams

The Project Plan is expected to include content addressing the following topics:

• Background
• Project objectives
• Algorithm to be investigated
  • Description
  • Pseudocode
  • Opportunities for acceleration
• Project plan including weekly milestones
• Roles of team members
• Risks/concerns

Please include the names of your group members on your report.

Your group is expected to give a 10 - 15 minute (approx. 5 slide) PowerPoint presentation on your project plan to your lab class in Week 5.

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Week 7 Progress Update CANCELLED

Due: 9am Friday 3 April
Format: When printed from the wiki, equivalent to 1–5 page PDF of clear, succinct text & diagrams

The Progress Update is expected to include content addressing the following topics:

• Progress to date (against Week 5 Plan)
• Changes to project objectives (if any)
• System design
  • including HW & SW details, block diagrams, pseudocode etc.
• Results to date
  • including profile results & preliminary acceleration results

Please include the names of your group members on your report.

A Progress Review (discussion on your progress) will be undertaken during the lab in Week 7. Please attend this lab session to support your team. Have the Progress Update ready on the wiki to discuss your progress.

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Week 11 Final Presentations & Report

Project Presentations
Due: 3pm Monday 27 April
Project Presentations will be held on Monday 27 April via Teams commencing at 3 pm.
Presentation slides should be uploaded to your project pages on the course wiki.

For each project team, these will involve a 20-25 minute (approx. 10 slide) PowerPoint presentation to the class.

Project presentations should include slides on the following topics:

• Project overview
  • Aims & results
• Problem statement
  • Challenges
• Design
  • Solution approach
  • HW/SW architecture
• Results
  • Performance evaluation
  • Discussion
• Conclusion
  • What worked; what didn't
  • Future work: what you would do, given more time

Presentations should involve speaking roles for all team members.

Project Demonstrations
Videos due: 9am Tuesday 28 April
Projects will be demonstrated to Oliver & Tony at 9 am on Tuesday 28 April in the Strings lab.
Meetings wth project teams will take place via Teams commencing at 1 pm on Tuesday 28 April.

The purpose of the "project demos" is to showcase the operation of your hardware/software solutions to your chosen algorithm. The visual demonstration of operation allows course staff to gain further insight into what has been achieved over the term and usually prompts further discussion of the attempted work. With the move to on-line teaching, project demos need to be undertaken differently. We will attempt a two-step demonstration process whereby (1) one or more videos of the system operation are recorded and provided, before (2) the team members meet on-line with course staff`to discuss their project.

Demo video requirements:

• Course staff are interested in seeing your (a) SW-only, and (b) accelerated, HW/SW solution in operation. For the sake of comparison, we want to be able to observe the performance and observe the results of both solutions.
• This means that we are mostly interested in verifying what is displayed in the terminal window of the SDK for both the software and hardware implementations. Profiling information and program run-time are of interest, as are demonstrations that verify correct output. To this end, you may wish to use screen-capturing software, such as Open Broadcaster Software (https://obsproject.com/).
• The focus of the video recording(s) should be on conveying useful information that would normally be acquired during a face-to-face demonstration. We do not need to observe the board itself during operation, unless this is relevant.
• The team is free to choose how many recordings are used to demonstrate their work.
• The production quality of the video won't be assessed. The team's marks will be determined by the capabilities and results of their solutions.
• This is a demo of system operation and performance, not a code walk-through.
• The demo recordings should be labelled and posted to the project wiki by 9 am, Tuesday 28 April.

On-line meeting requirements:

• On-line meetings with project teams will take place commencing at 1 pm on Tuesday 28 April.
• Each project team will meet privately with the course staff in the channel set up for their project within Teams.
• Project teams will meet with course staff in the order that teams are listed in the 2020 Projects listing in the wiki.
• Project demonstrations will be scheduled at 30-minute intervals per project team. Thus, the Blake 3 Hashing team will meet with staff at 1 pm, the K Nearest Neighbour team will meet at 1:30 pm, and so on until 3:30 pm, when staff will meet with the Matrix Multiplication team.
• Staff will have viewed the demonstration videos prior to the meeting, but there should be time for these to be presented and commented upon (compared) during the meeting. Teams should have their videos ready for presentation should they wish to show these.

Project Reports
Due: 9am Wednesday 29 April 12 NOON, MONDAY 4 MAY
Format: When printed from the wiki, equivalent to a 10 page PDF of clear, succinct text & diagrams

The Final Report is expected to include content addressing the following topics:

• Background
• Project objectives
• Investigation (about 5 pages)
  • algorithm
  • system design
  • SW design & performance
  • HW accelerator design & performance
  • results
• Discussion (about 1 page)
  • future work
• Project management (about 1 page)
  • project history
  • teamwork
  • reflection
• Conclusions
• References (if required)

Please include the names of your group members on your report.

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