Master Project (Thesis) Proposal Guidelines
A project (or thesis) proposal should have six components: title page, abstract, objectives of proposed work, summary and conclusion, proposed schedule, and references. In addition, a signature page should be attached to the front of the proposal, which will be reviewed and approved by the Graduate Committee. Guidelines for preparing these components are presented below. A sample proposal is attached to demonstrate how these guidelines are applied.The proposal is written in 3rd person. Often this results in passive voice. It should not contain “I”, “we”, “me”, “mine”, “ours” or other first person words. The
proposal is a statement of future work, and the parts to be done should be in future tense. Those items discovered in the state of the art can be in present or past tense, while those items in the literature are typically in past tense.
The Project Proposal follows IEEE format for a paper or submission.
1 Signature
Page
List the title of the proposal, your name, the supervising professor's name, your advisor's name, the name of the co-advisor, and the names of the Graduate Committee members. At the bottom of the page, list your address, student number, phone number, and email address.
2 Title
Page
List the title of the proposal, your name, and the supervising professor's name. Often combined with the signature page on a proposal.
3 Abstract
The abstract should not exceed 150 words. Write one or two sentences on each of these points: the motivation, tasks, and significance of the project.
The abstract provides the reader with a quick summary of the proposed project. It may contain the hypothesis and a quick statement of work. An abstract allows the reader to quickly determine if they should read the rest of the paper. These are often read quickly by people performing research. A simple example is below:
This paper proposes a new channel model for pedestrian mobile data devices allowing improved digital video reception. The project will measure channel conditions around SJSU in the downtown San Jose area, and develop a model that matches the observed conditions. The project will compare 2X4 MIMO and 4X4 MIMO OFDM using the new channel model.
4 Objectives of Proposed Work
Present what the proposed work plans to accomplish. Explain the outcome expected and its significance if your hypothesis is validated by experimental work.
5 Introduction
Discuss the motivation and the need for the proposed work. Present background information on the proposed work and describe current work in the subject area. The introduction explains the project in quick simple terms. It allows introduction of terms used in the rest of the proposal. The introduction typically exposes the benefit that will be mentioned in the hypothesis. It can also set the position of the project in a social or related to the state of the art. The introduction should state what is unique or different in this project from all other projects. The introduction is the first part of the process of:
• Tell them what you are going to say • Say it
• Tell them you said it
5.1 Hypothesis
The hypothesis provides the reader with an understanding of what will be done, and the expected benefit. It is normally in the form of “if X, then Y” or “Y results if X”. Some simple examples of the Hypothesis are below.
VOIP spam can be reduced using a time of day call map
If an algorithmic ADC is changed from switched voltage to switched current, the costs will be reduced
Asynchronous design can reduce clock tree power and be a benefit in low power designs.
Four level logic can result in faster multiplier implementation
5.2 Literature Survey / State of the Art
The literature survey shows you have a grasp of the state of the art in your topic area. It provides an explanation of what others have done. This provides a contrasting background as you explain the approach later in the document. Summaries of what was learned are often useful to the reader. It also shows the author understood the literature in the survey.
5.3 Motivation and application
Explain your motivation and how the project will benefit society and the
engineering community. Explain how the resulting project would be better than existing solutions discovered in the state of the art.
6 Proposed
Work
Present specifics on the proposed work and the approaches you plan to
investigate or implement. Give sufficient technical details to demonstrate the fact that the proposed project is well thought out.
6.1 Method
Describe the methods that will be used to achieve the objective, what tools and resources will be required, and how the hypothesis will be tested. The method section includes block diagrams, flow charts, and other aids to enable the reader to quickly understand how things will be accomplished and how measurements will be taken.
6.2 Scope of work
Explain the scope of the project. Often, a project will be focused on a portion of a large problem. Students may describe an entire router in the “state of the art” discussion, but will be working on improving a lookup algorithm. The scope section allows explaining to advisors and peers what will be the work performed by the student.
In the scope, the student should explain what special “nugget” of original work will be performed, and where it will fit in the larger picture.
It is helpful to include a highlighted block or system diagram when possible. It is then easy for others to see the project scope quickly.
If the project will use design elements from others, that should be indicated in the scope statement.
Project scope
Project block diagram implementation areas
6.3 Specification
The specification section has two major elements. The first of these are environmental assumptions. The second are measurement methods. The measurable results will be used to determine if the hypothesis was validated. Examples of environmental assumptions:
• 0.13u process • Synthesis library • AWGN channel models • Single fault model
• Limited set of network attacks • FPGA type and speed
• Data converter specifications for DSP algorithms • Compatible with 802.11n
Examples of measurement methods:
• reduction of Bit Error Rate using MAC error reporting hardware • smaller die area by measuring layout
• reduction in Cycles per Instruction measured by Verilog test bench code • packets per second filtered as measured with two network sniffers
6.4 Statement of Work
Explain what will be done in the project. This should include both activities and results. The results should bring together the items in the scope and
environment. The results should include all things “delivered” at the end of the project. All delivered items should have a numeric value. All deliverables should be placed in a table for quick reference.
This project will develop a urban communications channel model for the downtown San Jose area by taking measurements of signal strength,
Not used in this project
and OFDM bit error and bits/second rates. A channel model will be developed, and the resulting model will use a previously developed MIMO OFDM system model to validate the data. Major activities shown below:
Activity Deliverable Measurement Comment
Set up transmitter on roof of building
Working setup
Finished/unfinished May need a FCC license (Could get help from ham radio club)
Measure Line of sight signal strength
Measurement db signal strength Calibrates transmitter power at a distance, and compensates for antennas and other variables. Measure signal in downtown SJ locations Signal strength values 300 db signal strength values. 50 MIMO BPS/BER measurements. (25 4X2 and 25 4X4)
Will assume fair weather conditions
Create channel Model
Mathlab code Standard deviation within 10% of measured results Apply channel model to 4X2 MIMO OFDM models Bit rate prediction Bits/second differences from 25 measured BPS/BER Apply channel model to 4X4 MIMO OFDM models Bit rate prediction Bits/second differences from 25 measured BPS/BER Write report Report Approved by
advisors
7 Summary and Conclusion
Summarize the need for the proposed work and tasks for the proposed work. Discuss the significance and impact of the proposed work. Also helpful is the discussion on the possible extension of the proposed work.
8 Proposed
Schedule
Break your proposed work into several tasks. Give a time line for completion of each task. Indicate who will perform each task in a multi-person project. The final task for the project is the master project presentation and report, which is due on the Friday before the last week of the class.
9 References
List sources cited in the body of the proposal. In the report, number your references consecutively and enclose the reference number in brackets, e.g. "Pekmestzi [14] suggested the use of complex binary digit." The reference sources cited in this section should be in IEEE reference format, e.g. K. Z. Pekmestzi and G. D. Papadopoulos, "Cellular Two's Complement Serial-parallel Pipeline Multiplier," Radio and Electronic Engineering, Vol. 49, pp. 575-580, 1979.
