CSC 400

Course Description

Senior Capstone is a project-based course for computer science majors in their senior year. Students synthesize knowledge from across the major while developing a substantial software system and strengthening their skills in teamwork, documentation, presentation, critique, project management, and professional software development.

Reference Notes & Platforms

Students use LaTeX for proposals and technical reports, source control for collaborative development, and appropriate project-management, development, database, web, and deployment technologies selected for their projects. Docker is introduced as projects move toward reproducible delivery.

Course Goals

• Synthesize knowledge from computer science courses to solve a larger and more complex problem.
• Develop professional skills in team coordination, documentation, presentation, source control, feasibility research, pitching, agile development, and project management.
• Research and learn unfamiliar technologies and software-development platforms independently.
• Communicate a project’s motivation, design, implementation, results, limitations, and future work through professional reports, demonstrations, and presentations.

Assignments

Students submit fifteen weekly reports describing detailed progress, difficulties encountered, and plans for the following week. Major milestones include proposal drafts, a final proposal, technical-report drafts, the final technical report, a minimum viable product, a demonstration video, and a final presentation.

Grading

This is a project-based course using the standard plus/minus grading scheme. Work includes both individual and group components, and group grades may include separate evaluations of each student’s contribution.

Class Rules

The classroom must remain respectful and free of discrimination, bullying, and other harmful conduct. Violations are addressed through course and college procedures.

4th Hour

Each of the fifteen weekly progress reports requires more than one hour of work. Together, these reports account for fifteen structured fourth-hour sessions outside regular class meetings.

About AI

AI can be a useful assistant when used reasonably, but it must not replace a student’s thinking. Assignments must be completed independently. Students should understand and be able to reproduce and explain all submitted work; significant inconsistencies may require an in-person demonstration and may be reported under academic-integrity procedures.