PROJECT WORK - SOME ISSUES

PROJECT WORK - SOME ISSUES

Prof. D. K. Subramanian
Foundation for Advancement of Education and Research, Bangalore

1. INTRODUCTION
Students have a large number of questions and doubts about their project work.
Everyone understands the importance of project work in the curriculum of our
undergraduate engineering programs. Students and faculty need to understand the
objectives of doing project work, to have mechanisms for selection of topics, focus and
scope of work, estimation of efforts required and facilities needed, etc. Students want to
know the best practices also.
Normally students get information about project work from their friends and
seniors. Faculty also have been supervising and evaluating project work based on
experience. There is no formal set of mechanisms. True that project work is based on
innovation and a straight jacketed approach is not desirable. But it is desirable to atleast
prepare some guidelines so that there is better understanding of project work amongst
the academic community. This will increase the success rates of project work in our
colleges and help in producing more problem solvers, innovators and entrepreneurs. We
may help in coming out with more products.
This article looks at some of the issues in conducting project work and provides
guidelines on project topic / area selection, components of a project work, best practices
and report writing.
2. OBJECTIVES OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION
What is the focus of engineering educations is an important question that needs to be
asked and introspected upon frequently by all of us. An engineer is a technical problem
solver - designing large systems like road / power / gas / water / communications
networks or large industries / utilities; building large systems like power plants, dams,
server banks, etc.; operating large engineering systems like communications services,
wide area networks, power systems, etc.; or managing systems and services.
So an engineer should be a designer, thinker, innovator and systems integrator.
Hence, the educational system should inculcate into a student various aspects like
engineering principles, standards and practices, design methodologies, modelling and
optimization capabilities, systems analysis and integration techniques. An engineer can
become a thinker, creative person or innovator only if he is allowed to independently put
together all aspects of learning to solve a practical problem and look at alternatives.
While internship allows them to learn engineering practices that are executed in
the technical world, tutorials and laboratories allow them to conduct engineering in the
small, only project work gives them the opportunity to become a problem solver or an
innovator. Hence, project work is a very important constituent of our engineering
curriculum. It is necessary to understand the role and importance of project work in the
professional world.
3. OBJECTIVES OF PROJECT WORK
Project work provides several opportunities to students to learn several aspects of
importance to an engineer that cannot be taught in a class room or laboratory. To
become a full fledged engineer one should have, in addition to subject knowledge,
analytical skills and graphics capabilities, the following experiences:
a. Capability to work independently - to think, to conceptualize, to design, to
operationalize, to diagnose on failures and to innovate.

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b. Learn to work as a team - sharing work amongst a group, learning human

behaviour, etc.
c. Learn leadership qualities.
d. Learn to solve a problem through all its stages by understanding and applying
project management skills.
e. Learn to do various implementations, and learn problems of system
integration, fabrication, testing and trouble shooting.
f. Learn about some specific technology that is under development (like mobile
communications, blue tooth, etc).
g. Learn about issues and problems in prototyping and applications of
technologies.
h. Learn communication skills.
i. Learn report writing skills.
While lab work may help a student in learning some of the aspects mentioned
above, it is the project work that provides opportunities to learn several qualities needed
by an engineer in practice.
At this point, we should remember that most students do not become technology
generators or users throughout their life. Most become project managers after some
years of experience. While technology inputs are important, project management skills
and capabilities cannot be ignored in our curriculum. Today we have only the students
project work which can be used as a vehicle to learn and apply problem solving and
project management capabilities. (Here we use the word “Project work” to refer to the
project work done by students as a part of their curriculum and “project” means project
activities like setting up an airport / power plants / communications networks or
computerization of a bank / organization, etc., conducted in real life).
Currently project work by students normally focuses on only a few aspects. It has
become more an academic ritual. We do find several students very much excited about
their project work and they go through current engineering areas to come up with good
ideas. These need to be nurtured and encouraged by institutions, universities and
governments. This will trigger many innovations, new products and applications.
The Motorola Scholar Program has been started with these objectives of
encouraging and inducing students to conduct experimental projects and in particular
projects that looks at applications to rural areas and disadvantaged selections of the
society. It encourages innovative ideas and concepts. It is focussed towards
communications technologies.
So it is desirable for students to keep in mind the various advantages and
opportunities that they can get through proper selection of project topics and systematic
and planned execution of the project work in the specified time frame.
It is also desirable to start the process of selection of topic of interest in the third
year (pre final) itself. Institutions should facilitate this. Faculty members should support
this. Students may be encouraged to spend the summer vacation at the end of their third
year in doing preliminary feasibility analysis work on their project. They can also plan the
various steps required in doing a project work.
4. STAGES IN A PROJECT WORK ACTIVITY
We can define several steps in a project work activity. Many stages are listed. Some may
not be needed for some types of project work.
a. Project topic selection. This has been discussed in detail in section 5.
b. Literature survey and analysis.

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c. Problem definition, including inputs, analysis, hardware / software / testing

components required, functions, requirements, responses, outputs and
deliverables, diagnostics, constraints, scope limitations, types of users, etc.
d. Rapid prototyping initiated.
e. Design - preliminary, logical, physical and detailed. Design approaches.
f. Rapid prototype seen.
g. Implementation - fabrication, programming, system integration.
h. Testing
i. Operationalization
j. Field testing
k. Experimentation - performance measurements, diagnostics, etc.
l. Project report preparation.
Reviews, discussions, documentations run throughout the entire process at appropriate
and necessary places. Similarly, seminars can be included at some timelines.
Though a team is expected to go from one stage to another after completing the
activities at that stage in a linear fashion (like a waterfall model), this does not always
happen. Some amount of backtracking, iterations and stepwise refinements are
sometimes necessary. Formal reviews are useful in identifying these needs. Rapid
prototyping, wherever possible, is desirable. Internal seminars - one after problem
definition, another after design and a third after testing - are also desirable.
5.1 SELECTION OF A TOPIC FOR PROJECT WORK
This is a very important and crucial step. The success of a project work depends on the
motivation and interest of students in their project work. If they find their topic
uninteresting and they do not see any value to be gained from the project work, then the
project work becomes a ritual (just like laboratory work now). But fortunately, several
teams of students want to do a “good” project. They want to use this as a step towards
good employment. Some come up with good ideas. Many students are really excited and
thrilled about their project. Many faculty members also encourage students in going in
for exciting project work. But this is only a small section of the student population. More
and more students should be brought into this stream. The first step is a proper selection
of a topic of interest to the students. There is a wide variety of topics that can be chosen.
Before looking at the selection of an area, let us see the different classifications or
groupings of product types.
5.2 GROUPING OF PROJECT TYPES
To understand the kind of problems available, one approach is to go through a list of
project titles. KSCST library has more than 4000 project reports of projects conducted
under its sponsored projects scheme being run for more than 28 years.
The second approach is to identify broad topics / areas of interest like solar
thermal energy, RFID applications, rural communications, medical electronics, irrigation
pump sets, energy conservation, alternative building strategies and materials,
agricultural implements, etc. Then we look at different classifications to identify the type
of project work one want to do.
Let us look at the ways of classifying projects. The following are the groups.
1) Theoretical project - Work is mostly theoretical based on mathematical models
and solution techniques. It may focus more on mathematical aspects than
engineering aspects.
2) Experimental project - It can be either design and fabrication of a device for a
specific application or purpose like Braille printers, point of sale terminals, video

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set top boxes, measuring instruments like blood pressure monitors, etc; or it can
be experiments on materials, like composites for building, to meet certain
requirements like strength, density, etc. There can be a large variety of such
projects.
Experimental projects can further be subdivided into those projects which focus
on an application needed by the society (like water lifting pumps, measurement of
depletion of ground water through sensors and adhoc networks, wifi applications
to local area networks, computer control of industrial processes etc.) or projects
which look at concepts, laws or basic aspects of engineering (use of enzymes for
biodegradation, catalysts for biogas digesters, new types of UPS / inverters, flow
measurements, study of turbulence of fluids etc).
3) Problem solving type - These type of projects look at system integration approach
and deal with systems theory, analysis, simulation, control and operations. The
topics chosen here deal with a major system and not a device. It may use existing
devices, software, instruments and other modules like power supply to put up a
system. Projects may be either computer and software based or simulation based
or actual implementation based. Some examples are:

i. Rural communications systems

ii. Community radio networks

iii. Wimax applications for a campus

iv. Computerization of hotels / banks / transport systems / hospitals etc., at

enterprise level.

v. RFID systems in an industry

4) Intricate technology oriented projects - These projects look at a specific

technology, analyze their performances or make changes to improve them. Some
examples are compiler design, kernels for Unix / Linux, distributed oprating
systems, communications protocols, stability of control systems, signals
processing, reverse engineering, tools development, etc.

5) Educational and teaching aids for use in the institutions. Some have built cut
sections of IC engines mechanisms (gears and levers) for teaching about IC
engine, etc. Today with the availability of animation, it is possible to produce
innovative and imaginative ways of illustrating the complete working of the engine
for the students. It improves their understanding of the concepts. Courses like
fluid mechanics, magnetism, electricity, power electronics, hydraulics, field theory,
etc., can be taught through contents developed using animation. Such
developments are very helpful in education.

6) Projects on studies and analysis of existing systems - workflow in an industry or

bank, logistics in an industry, supply chain analysis, energy analysis in an
organization / building, resources mapping in an area, water supply in a city etc.,
are some examples of study projects.

7) A project can be broadbased like a problem solving type (design of a

communications network or drainage system for a village) or it can be a focussed
one like development of an audiometer / BP monitor.

8) A project may have application focus or technology focus or business focus.

9) A project may depend on using existing theories / algorithms / devices or it may

be innovative, looking for new ones.

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10) A project may look at existing technologies and find improvements in them or look
at applications of new technologies (like optical MEMS, RFID, Nanodevices,
Wimax, etc).

5.3 SELECTION OF PROJECT AREA

Students need to pickup a project topic. So, initially they have to collect several topics
based on their interest. This is the first decision point.
Select the type of project you are interested in doing from the following list:
i) Experimental; Devices;

ii) Theory; Mathematical;

iii) Research;

iv) Technology Focus;

v) Problem solving - application focus;

vi) Experimental - instruments

vii) Educational Aids

viii) Application to rural areas;

ix) Medical Applications;

x) Computer simulation based;

xi) System integration based;

xii) Computer Applications;

xiii) Innovative technologies or applications.

xiv) Design aspects;

One should look at the above groups and identify the particular small set of groups in
which the team is interested. Such a decision should be based on (a) the interests of the
team and (b) matching requirements of a group with the strengths of a team. If a team
is good in experimental work, and is not strong in mathematical, analytical aspects, then
it is desirable for the team to avoid theory based projects.
After selecting the type of project one is interested to pursue, the second step is
to identify the project areas. Before we zero in on a project topic, we should identify
areas of interest. Remember that an undergraduate student studies a broad discipline
like communications engineering. Such disciplines have several areas of activity - like
communications theory, devices like transmitters, antennas, etc., coding theory, signal
processing, microwaves, radar, wireless technologies, exchanges, optical
communications, etc.
So a student team should identify an area like wifi, wimax, hypertext, FFT
algorithms, antennas, etc. One should not choose many project areas of interest. How
does one zero in on an area of interest? What will be the methodology for selecting the
area> The approaches are:
i) While doing a course, one may be attracted to a particular area.
ii) The institution has excellent facilities / opportunities in some areas. So
students are attracted to these areas.
iii) Many students feel an area as a fashionable one. So others also go in for that
area. This can be seen from many students opting for a technology like Java
as an area of interest. This is a bandwagon approach.

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iv) There may be lectures by industry persons. This might influence some
students to choose an area.
v) Students have contacts (friends, relatives, etc) in the industry or academics
and they can discuss with them to find an area.
vi) Browsing allows one to look at a lot of developments taking place today. It is
possible to obtain information from various websites with keywords search in
popular search engines. This is a very good approach. Searching the websites
and looking at information on several areas will be an informed way of
selecting an area. This will reduce the need for changing the area at a later
time (when you find the area, you have chosen is not suitable).
vii) We have identified the type of projects that we are interested in. Now, we
should match this with the probable areas of interest to select a list of suitable
areas. Some areas may not match our interests on the type of projects we
want to do. For example, we are interested in theoretical projects; selection of
an area like digital exchanges will make it difficult to find theory based topics,
Hence we should not choose such areas. If the area is more appealing, then
we have to change the type (say move from theory to experimentation).
This is an iterative approach. If, initially, one looks at these components for selection of a
project topic and map one’s interests to the characteristics, time available for doing the
project will be more. So based on browsing and discussions, select a few topics in the
area / type of interest.
5.4 SOME FACTERS TO BE CONSIDERED DURING THE SELECTION OF A PROJECT
TOPIC
Selection of a project topic not only depends on the interests of the student, but also on
other factors like time constraints, physical facilities, knowledge levels and requirements,
etc. Hence, in order to define the project topic as a problem at the initial stage, we need
to consider the following factors and then define the boundaries of the problem / topic.
1. Decice based on the scope of work.
Consider a project topic. Then ask the following question:
Can the scope of the work and depth of activities be determined such that the
project work be completed in the given time frame? Is it possible or difficult to
complete work in the time frame based on a reasonable estimation?
2. Decide based on physical facilities available: Does the project topic to be selected
need facilities, instruments, tools, testing equipments, computers, etc., which
may not be available in the institute? Can we find them in a neighbouring
institution which permits their usage for our work?
3. Knowledge requirements:
Does the problem need a large amount of focussed and deep knowledge in a
particular area or need a substantive amount of analytical, mathematical, logical
and programming capabilities?
The problem should not be a major research problem. It also should not be too
abstract. We need to match known knowledge levels with requirements. It is
always good to learn more, but it should not demand a large amount of learning.
Faculty in the institute will be able to help students in assessing the requirements.
4. If the topic chosen is experimental, we need to know whether the necessary
facilities are available for building a device in the institution or neighbourhood.
Similarly, it is desirable to assess the availability of testing facilities.
5. If the topic is an application, it is desirable to see whether there exist a possibility
for field level experimentation and testing.

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One may create a checklist of these factors, assess each of them and choose a
feasible, implementable project topic. Remember also that this should not result
in a trivial, easy problem.
Let us sum up the characteristics of project topic selection.
Choose a project type (theory, experimental, etc).
Choose a project area.
Select topics with the following desirable features:
1. It can be done within the time frame, does not demand a lot of additional
knowledge and is physically implementable, and technologically feasible.
2. It should preferably have an application focus.
3. It should deal with at least a few of the problem solving techniques like analysis,
design, implementation, testing, field trials, innovation, etc.
4. It may have some impact on the society or institution.
5. The depth of technology / solution etc., is sufficient, not low or high.
6. Effort required - technical, knowledge, computer, fabrication, testing, etc., is
reasonable.
7. The problem can be understood. That is, it should not deal with very difficult
theories, does not contradict existing laws, concepts and practises.
Based on the above, select a project topic. Discussions with friends, peers, faculty,
industry experts etc., will be very useful. Looking at old project reports also plays a role.
Web search provides a lot of ideas.
6. BEST PRACTICES IN DOING A PROJECT WORK BY A GROUP OF STUDENTS
A number of aspects are discussed briefly here.
1. Regular work culture: It is very important to have a regular time bound plan of
activities over the entire period of project work. (project work should not be
restricted to the last few days). Regular work culture means the following:
a. Define the steps of doing a project after identifying the topic.
b. Define targets and timelines for each step. (that is, treat your project work
as an industrial project)
c. Identify work divisions amongst members of the team.
d. Review the targets periodically (by the supervisor) and identify remedial
actions wherever necessary.
e. Have regular discussions within the team at frequent intervals.
f. Have periodic discussions with their supervisor.
g. Set aside a few hours / week for project work.
Hard work is a necessary condition for project work.
2. Documentation - currently, documentation is weak. Final report of project is
produced. Intermediate activities are not recorded fully. It is desirable to
document the following:
a. Literature survey;
b. Detailed problem definition;
c. Discussions with supervisor, peers, experts, etc.
d. Design documents;

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e. Implementation details
f. Dry runs;
g. Experimental details and results;
h. Programs;
i. Photographs of components and final system
j. Demos;
k. Any others.
Include a lot of diagrams for clarity and ease of understanding.
3. Problem solving:
a. Define steps of problem solving like problem definition, analysis, design,
estimation, detailed design, getting components, dry runs, systems
integration, implementation, simulation, testing and experimentation,
analysis of results, debugging, interpretation, etc.
b. Do not miss any of the steps.
c. Review the outputs of each step.
d. Conduct dry runs to understand
e. Analyze failures; find out reasons. Identify remedies.
f. Be systematic in the problem solving process.
g. Look for performance indicators like efficiency, effort required, throughput,
response time, etc., and calculate them.
h. Look at optimization.
4. Good team work, understanding and synergy amongst group members is
essential. Understand the strength and weaknesses of each member and divide
the work load accordingly. Meet regularly and discuss and review various aspects
of the project work and progress.
5. It is essential to plan each activity and step carefully and estimate time
requirements accordingly. The execution of all steps gives a student a practical
exposure to real life problem solving. Do not postpone all activities to the end of
semester. Do not crowd activities into a small time period.
6. Understand physical, institutional, market and industry constraints. This is
necessary particularly at the time of selection of a project topic. Several project
works end in a minimal version due to non-availability of components or
technology and this comes to light only at a late stage of work. Sometimes,
students have to change their topic.
7. Project work gives one a scope for innovations also. We see a lot of ideas coming
from students. This needs definitely a lot of encouragement. It is desirable to
think wildly without fear of stupidity, impossibility, infeasibility, etc. A project
work may have a main focus - application, innovation or detailed engineering.
But after getting ideas, don’t get excited about them. Go ahead and analyze these
ideas from various angles - like feasibility, complexity of the problem (can it be
brought to some shape in the given time frame?; does it demand a lot of
knowledge in areas not known to the team? Does it obey the given set of axioms
and physical laws? Etc.) Look at constraints on equipments, cooperation from the
institution and market etc., advisory / expert support. So, the crazy ideas need to
be tempered with realism.

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8. Relationship with supervisor: It is desirable to have an open transparent

relationship. Frequent meetings and discussions are desirable. Students should
put down / document their problems, hurdles and possible alternate solutions
before a meeting. All assignments given by the supervisor should be completed
within a given time frame. Whenever they encounter problems, they should
approach their supervisor. A good working relationship is essential for the success
of a project work.
The supervisor should be interested in the project topic, should go through the
literature in the area, bring in his expertise and knowledge to define sharply the
problem and its scope, and monitor its progress closely resorting to course
corrections where necessary.
9. Awareness: Literature survey has become easier today. You don’t have to go to
library to access journals. Most of the happenings are available in the websites.
Search engines are powerful. Hence regular browsing of websites, searches will be
of immense benefit to students. A good practice is to abstract articles and
categorize them. One should not depend on Google Search only, but should read
papers of relevance to them, and analyze them. The activity is not a routine one,
but an important one which makes people think.
10. Project activities use several technologies like (.Net, Java, Oracle, etc) and tools
also. Technologies are important and essential mechanisms for implementation.
But the teams should not focus too much on technologies and forget the main
problem. Project work should not be technology driven. (Many students want the
project to be technology centric). Project work should be an application centric
problem solving activity. We should decide on technologies only after problem
analysis is done. Project teams should use tools and technologies effectively as a
major aid in problem solving.
11. Do not be afraid of failures. If an experiment fails, or if a device does not work,
don’t panic. Analyse the situation calmly, discuss all aspects and try modified
approaches. If the reasoning suggests that the experiment will not work, we
should look for alternatives. Failure analysis is a useful contribution. But one
should not stop there, but look for alternate methodologies.
7. PROJECT REPORT PREPARATION
Project report is an important document detailing the achievements of the team for
future references by other students and employers. Hence a lot of care and planning are
required in the preparation of the report. The desirable features are:
1) Clarity - use simple sentence structures. Avoid jargons. Definitions should be
precise and specific, not vague or too general. Do not use “general” words
(without any focus), omnibus statements.
2) Easy readability - Write the report keeping the reader in view. Understand that
the reader is not a specialist. Hence, explanations are required where ever
necessary. But, they should not be lengthy. Each chapter may start with an
introduction which states the following:
a. The purpose of the chapter
b. Area(s) to be covered
c. Brief overview of discussions in the chapter
d. Relationship to the project problem and other chapters
e. Relevance.
3) Continuity of ideas, concepts, problem solving techniques, implementation,
experimentation, analysis of results and conclusions. The chapters should be
connected and not discrete. Sections in chapters are also to be connected.

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Hence, the first activity is to create a framework - list how many chapters will be
required to represent the project work; describe the objective of each chapter;
identify a suitable and meaningful (not a general purpose) title for each chapter.
Review this frame work with your advisor. Make changes appropriately. Review
whether all major steps in your project work are covered (completeness). Review
also whether the chapters reflect your contributions.
Once the chapters frame work is finalised, one can move to the next step in the
preparation of the report - what are the sections in each chapter? Then a
description and a suitable name depicting the description of that section should be
prepared.
The names chosen for chapters and sections should be meaningful - may give a
picture / idea of what is contained in them. Each chapter should start with a
motivation and preview of what is contained in it.
The next step is to divide each section into subsections and also a brief description
of one or two sentences or terms - expressing what is contained in that
subsection.
This way we can get descriptors for each paragraph. One need not struggle with
language constructions in the beginning. It is easier to construct sentences for
each paragraph later on. This approach known as top down approach will give the
report both clarity and continuity. Additions of subsections / sections during the
process of preparing a project report is also easy. It is also possible to review the
report. So, do bullets before writing detailed descriptions.
4) Completeness - we need to look at whether all aspects of a team’s work are
represented in the report. The report should highlight the following:
a. Motivation - why this project work was taken up?
b. Applications - what are the areas where we can apply the solutions
obtained in this project work?
c. Problem definition in detail containing
i. What are the inputs required including components?
ii. What is the current status of the problem?
iii. What are the physical, economical constraints?
iv. What are the deliverables?
v. What are the existing solution algorithms? (literature survey - can be
done as a separate chapter).
vi. What are the problems / hurdles that occurred during the
implementation?
d. Literature survey and the comparisons with the approach taken by the
project work.
e. Methodology and approaches for solving the problem.
f. Feasibility analysis
g. Design aspects (Hardware, software, protocols)
h. Algorithms
i. System integration
j. Implementation details
k. Experimentation and results

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l. Analysis comparisons, expectations, shortcomings.

m. Conclusions - This should describe the findings, achievements, problems
faced and solved or not solved, scope for more work, etc.
n. References - All papers, books, manuals, technical reports, other project
reports, websites, blogs, etc., should be listed in the references properly
and fully with the names of authors, title of the paper / article / chapter /
book, volume number, page numbers, year, (name of the conference,
society organizing it in the case of conference publications).
5) Bring out clearly and unambiguously the contributions of the team. The team
might have developed a technique / methodology to handle local conditions and
constraints; it might have conducted several experiments with many failures to
produce desired results; it might have done detailed engineering practices and
processes in conducting the project work; it might have innovated in designs,
algorithms, applications, etc. So it is desirable to bring out the contributions
clearly and to compare them with existing practices, units, algorithms, concepts,
etc. This will make the reader understand and appreciate the contributions of the
team.
6) Correctness: The reporting done in the project report should be factual and not
observations based on conjecture. All important statements should be related to
the work. Do not make general statements and conclusions. Do not generalize
observations. Do not make policy statements. Conclusions should be based on the
team’s experimentations. Experimental results should not contradict general laws,
concepts, etc. Such contradictions need a lot of work, lot of analysis, etc., and
within the short span of time and knowledge level, it is not generally possible to
contradict known laws.
7) General observations:
a. Diagrams explain concepts better. Hence it will be good to introduce
diagrams.
b. Tables should be properly prepared with all parametric values listed in the
heading. Graphs should have the variables in x-axis and y-axis to be
properly defined and named along with units and scale. Multiple curves
should be properly labelled. Do not smoothen a functional curve to prove a
point. Use recursion or trend analysis for this purpose.
c. Check boundary values and conditions carefully.
d. Define input variables, output variables, clearly.
e. Define parameters clearly.
f. Number sections and subsections using standard practices.
g. Focus on your problem and do not write many chapters or pages on
existing technologies / tools.
h. Separate users manual, design document etc., from your project report.
Project report should not focus on users manual. The manual can be a
separate document.
i. One should be able to get an idea of your project work by reading the
initial pages or introduction chapter.
j. Acknowledgements should list all persons, institutions, labs etc., properly.
k. Summary or abstracts should describe in brief significant aspects including
results about the project work.

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l. Define all symbols. Define relevant technical terms properly. This will
improve readability also.
8. CONCLUSIONS
This is an attempt to create a process for project work. It exposes the student
community to the objectives of project work, selection methodologies, best practices and
report writing. Though it is aimed at students, it can be used by faculty and institutions
to generate checklists, pert charts for projects which will be helpful in completing
projects in given time frames and to desirable quality levels. It is hoped that this will help
students and faculty to explore new ideas and applications moving away from the current
technology focus. The various aspects described here contain inclusive information that
can be used for students of several disciplines - not only for computer science /
communications.
Feedbacks and comments are welcome.
9. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My active involvement with the students project program of Karnataka State Council for
Science and Technology for more than two decades since its inception allowed me to
understand the prevailing conditions. I have visited many engineering colleges in
Karnataka to evaluate projects under Student Projects Programme. This model was
refined over a time period and has been very successful leading to product development
activities.
My students at Indian Institute of Science for forty years have also revealed to
me problems of management of project work particularly on effort and depth.
Thousands of students from various engineering colleges have met me over the
years to discuss project topics. Some could produce a technical paper based on their
work.
Many faculty in engineering colleges - both senior and junior - have had serious
discussions on education and project work.
All these provided me with an opportunity to write this and I am thankful to
organisations - Indian Institute of Science, Karnataka State Council for Science and
Technology, engineering colleges and individuals - students and faculty. Motorola
Foundation allowed us to scale up these experiments and Motorola India supported us.
This deserves special mention.

Motorola Scholar Program: 2006-07

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