Starting your GP?

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

This post is about the graduation project in FCIS...How will you start? 

The team, the idea, the supervisors & some general tips.

The Team

The whole GP journey begins with choosing your team. This phase is really important.

You need to choose those whom you'll be compatible with.

For a team to be formed, it usually goes through 3 stages:

1.     Getting together

2.     Struggling 

3.     Synergy

Maybe we'll talk about these in a separate post later isA.

Next comes the idea & the supervisors

The idea

• Research WELL
• Don’t just do anything, choose something that u'll be motivated to finish.
• Ask around a lot!

Remember: The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away.

The supervisors

Practically these are the TAs

There are 2 types...which to choose will depend upon the team.

If your team has a good leader, both will be fine. If not, go for the first type (leaders) you'll need that.

1-Leaders

Those actually lead the project. They help in everything; reading papers, debugging errors, dividing tasks, motivating the team...

Well known in our college :)

2-Supervisors

They help you technically more than anything else...They support you with information & helps with ideas & solutions for problems

The one thing you really need to learn -if you don't have it already- is to think positively :)

There is nothing that is 100% bad!

Remember: The cup is half full :)

During this -some how- long journey, you'll go through many situations where nothing but +ve thinking would help you out.

Now that you have a team, an idea & a supervisor...you're all set...Begin your 1 year marathon and have lots and lots of fun :)

Some Random Tips

• Begin early & do your BEST to stick to your deadlines.
• It helps a lot to work on prototypes...i.e.: do the whole job & enhance/update it later.
• A time plan may sometimes be ruined...don't give up! things don't always go as expected so give yourself some extra time for the job (just in case things didn't go as planned)
• When a certain road seems to lead to nowhere, don't just stick to it...try something different..Think outside the box! Based on personal experience...it may save you months not just days! We lost about 3 months in a task that was done in 2 weeks.
• Document your work from the beginning...It helps later...especially when no time is left.
• Presenting your work -generally- is really important...learn how to present it in a nice way (either it's the documentation or the presentations you regularly do in seminars). Remember: people don't see except what you allow them to see.
• Understand every single step you do (during the whole project)...when you use an algorithm, make sure that you know why you're using it, what are the other options and why not the other options.
• Sometimes it helps to imagine the whole thing...I mean the output of the project...how it will look like...How things will communicate...And so on. If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.

Last but not least

Link your work to your beliefs. It's what makes the whole thing worth it.

Remember your intentions & share them with your team...It helps a lot if you all have the same goal.

a more useful topic :)

http://alaashaker.wordpress.com/2008/07/13/the-graduation-project-rhapsody/

Enjoooy :)

Best wishes everyone :) 

May Allah help you :)