Graduation Project Guidelines

* This document is inspired from Arab Academy for science, Technology and Maritime Transport
Graduation Project Guidelines, for internal use only (www.aastm.edu).
 Important Warning

All the written text in this report MUST be produced by the student(s) working on this
project, with the only exception of referenced material*.

Any copied, unoriginal or reproduced material will be considered an act of

plagiarism and the case will be taken to the full extent of the disciplinary
system of the academy.

Referenced material: The students may need to recite a copied sentence like a finding, a
statistic or a fact, in which case the authors must include the copied material between
quotation marks, entailed by the surname of the authors of the document were the
sentence was originally mentioned altogether with the year of publishing. The name of
the authors and the year of publishing should be between brackets.
 Graduation Project Guidelines

The graduation project should adhere as much as possible to the following template and
format.

Organization

Title Page
Dedication (optional)
Acknowledgments
Declaration
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Acronyms/Abbreviations
Main Body
References
Appendices (as needed)

The main body of the thesis or project report should be organized according to the
following general outline:

 Chapter I: Introduction. A general introduction provides an overview of the

topic, problem statement, and project description followed by an adequate
scholarly context for subsequent chapters. This chapter should be ended with a
section that states verbally without numbering or bullet points the contents of the
following chapters (The rest of this report is organized as follows … chapter 1
consists of …).

 Chapter II: Literature Review. A state of the literature that relates to the
subject should be reviewed and its involved research should be summarized
(Research aim and research achievement). . This chapter should be ended
with a section where the project description is given in theory.

 Chapter III: Methodology. This chapter describes in depth how every aspect
of the project was done, compiled, or created. Techniques, questionnaires,
interviews, study sites, and material used to accomplish the study should be
described here.

 Chapter IV: Experiment and Results. Details of experiment or experiments

conducted are given in this chapter. Results of experiments are summarized
and elaborated on. In addition to functional evaluation, this chapter must also
include evaluation of the project in terms of

 Cost
 Environmental impact
 Manufacturability
 Ethics
  Social and Political Impact (if any)
 Health and Safety
 Sustainability
 Etc.

 Chapter V: Conclusion/Discussion. Conclusions are presented to validate both

the need for the study and explain how the present study solved the problem
stated.

Remark: The structure and the contents of the main chapters may vary depending on
the nature of the project but should always be agreed upon with the supervisor.

Format

The following pages show a format template for the project report.
 Emirates College of technology

Department of ……..

Graduation Project
PROJECT TITLE
By:

Student Name

Supervised By:

Supervisor(s) Date of examination

DEDICATION
 (Optional)

You may dedicate your work to a member of your family

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

(Optional)

Use this section to acknowledge the contribution of different people to your work; these
may include your supervisor(s), industry partners, sponsors, financial support, specific
faculty members in your department, and even your family.
 DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme
of study leading to the award of Bachelor of Science in (insert title of degree for which
registered) is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that
the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of
copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that
such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work.

Signed: _____________________________

Registration No.: ___________

Date: Day, xx Month Year.

 ABSTRACT

The report must begin with a one- to two-paragraph abstract (max 350 words) that
orients the reader as to the content as well as to the major sections of the report. The
abstract, by itself, must provide enough information about the project so that the reader
can judge simply by reading this portion if he or she wants to read further.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................................II

LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................................................III

LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................IV

1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................

2 FORMATTING DESCRIPTION..........................................................................................................

2.1 Title Page..........................................................................................................................

2.2 General Project Layout..................................................................................................
2.3 Page and Text Setting.....................................................................................................
2.3.1 Sub-Heading Level 1................................................................................................................
2.4 Figures and Tables..........................................................................................................
2.4.1 Figure Captions and Table Titles..............................................................................................
2.4.2 Numbering of Figures and Tables............................................................................................
2.4.3 Referring to Figures and Tables in Text...................................................................................
2.5 General Recommendations.............................................................................................
2.5.1 Units..........................................................................................................................................
2.5.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms...................................................................................................
2.5.3 Equations..................................................................................................................................
2.5.4 Other Recommendations..........................................................................................................

3 CITATION AND REFERENCING.....................................................................................................10

3.1 References Format........................................................................................................10

3.2 References to Electronic Sources.................................................................................12

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: Page settings..............................................................................................................4

Figure 1-2: Paragraph settings......................................................................................................5
Figure 1-3: Setting caption numbering to include chapter number...............................................7
Figure 1-4: Using Cross-reference...............................................................................................8

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1-1: List of headings and their formatting..........................................................................5

iii
 LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS

ACRONYM Definition of Acronym

iv
LIST OF UTILIZED STANDARDS

v
LIST OF REALISTIC CONSTAINTS

vi
 Chapter One

1 INTRODUCTION

This document was developed in order to standardize the method of writing final
graduation projects and to fulfill the requirements for the accreditation by the UAE
Ministry of Education and the basic criteria required for the preparation of the projects
are as listed below:
1. The projects should not be dependent on internet information.
2. Images/figures … etc. should be referenced.
3. The experimentation, if any, should be subject to review of the work done, results
obtained, implications, conclusions, reflections … etc.
4. The text format should be consistent between chapters and the standard of English
used in the text should not be varied.
5. The project should contain strong elements of Design and Analysis activity,
experimental work where appropriate, manufacturing elements as appropriate and
include some business decisions such costing … etc.
6. The literature review should not be more than an account of the work undertaken by
students.
7. The conclusions should not be very short.

The details of how to format your document correctly and how to include your citations
and references are given in the following chapters of this document.

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 Chapter Two

2 FORMATTING DESCRIPTION

The physical layout and formatting of your final graduation project report is highly
important, yet is very often neglected. A tidy, well laid-out and consistently formatted
document makes for easier reading and is suggestive of a careful and professional
attitude towards its preparation.

In effect, this document has been developed to give you the guidelines for preparing
reports for your final year project. Use this document as a template if you are using
Microsoft Word 6.0 or later. Otherwise, use this document as an instruction set.

2.1 TITLE PAGE

Please set up your cover page so that the information listed below is visible through the
window of the front cover page of your project and in the correct format. The title page
should contain the following:

 The Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport
(AASTMT) logo: a black and white logo should be centred and on top of the page
with a size of 3.25 cm x 3.25 cm.

 The AASTMT title: this should be in Times New Roman, bold, 18 pt., title case,
centred, single line spacing, with 18 pt. spacing before and 72 pt. spacing after.

 College title: this should be in Times New Roman, bold, 16 pt., title case, centred,
single line spacing, with 0 pt. spacing before and 0 pt. spacing after.

 Your department title: this should be in Times New Roman, bold, 16 pt., title case,
centred, single line spacing, with 18 pt. spacing before and 48 pt. spacing after.

 Project degree: this should be in Times New Roman, regular, 14 pt., title case,
centred, single line spacing, and no paragraph spacing.

 Project title: this should be in Times New Roman, bold, 16 pt., all caps, centred,
single line spacing, with 72 pt. spacing before and 18 pt. spacing after.

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 Project subtitle: this should be in Times New Roman, bold, 16 pt., title case,
centred, single line spacing, and 48 pt. spacing after.

 Presented by, student name, supervised by, and supervisor(s) name: this should
be in Times New Roman, regular (names in italic), 14 pt., title case, centred, single
line spacing, and 24 pt. spacing after.

 Month – Year: this should be in Times New Roman, regular, 10 pt., Title case,
centered, footer text with no spacing before or after.

It should be noted that setting the line spacing and the spacing between different
paragraphs is accessed from the format menu, in MS Word, by selecting “Paragraph…”.

2.2 GENERAL PROJECT LAYOUT

The report should contain the following components:

 Title or Cover Page.

 Dedication (Optional).

 Acknowledgements (Optional).

 Declaration.

 Abstract: a short summary of the project.

 Table of Contents, List of Figures, List of Tables, and List of Acronyms/

Abbreviations.

 Chapters
 Chapter 1, which would be an introduction to the work. A 'Funnel' approach
which begins broadly within the topic and concludes the chapter with; focus on
what this thesis delivers, and where to find it in the other Chapters.
 Chapter 2 is information gathering or literature review.
 Chapter 3, 4 and 5 (and more if needed) would be specific work carried out and
appropriately collated to read well.
 Chapter 6 would be overall Discussion and review/reflection on achievements.
 Chapter 7 would be Conclusions.
 Chapter 8 a small Chapter of Future Work, indicating a jumping off point for the
next investigator.
 References.

 Appendices (optional).

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2.3 PAGE AND TEXT SETTING

Your project report should be printed (single sided) on good quality A4 paper. Project
reports should be thermal-bound. Page should be set-up as shown in Figure 2 -1. The
minimum number of pages for final year project reports is 50 pages (main report
chapters only). Remember that quantity does not automatically guarantee quality; a 150
page report is not twice as good as a 75-page one.

Figure 2-1: Page settings.

Figure 2-2: Paragraph settings.

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The body text of the whole document should be in 12 pt Times New Roman font,
justified alignment, no indentation for first line in paragraphs, spacing before
paragraphs 12 pt, and line spacing set at 1.5 lines; as shown in Figure 2 -2.

2.3.1 Sub-Heading Level 1

There are different headings and sub-headings that you may find useful in organizing
your report; these are summarised in Table 2 -1.

Table 2-1: List of headings and their formatting.

Style Name in
Template Used for Format

Chapter Label Chapters labelling Times New Roman, Italic, 14 pt., expanded
by 3.5, centred, space after: 24 pt., and page
break before.

Heading 1 Chapter title Times New Roman, bold, 16 pt., all caps,
centred, space before: 12 pt., space after: 36
pt., and outline numbered at level 1.

Heading 2 Main headings Times New Roman, bold, 14 pt., all caps,
aligned to the left, space before: 18 pt., space
after: 12 pt., and outline numbered at level 2.

Heading 3 Sub-headings level Times New Roman, bold, 14 pt., title case,
1 aligned to the left, space before: 12 pt., space
after: 12 pt., and outline numbered at level 3.

Heading 4 Sub-headings level Times New Roman, bold, 13 pt., title case,
2 aligned to the left, space before: 12 pt. and
space after: 12 pt.

Heading 5 Sub-headings level Times New Roman, underlined, 12 pt., title

3 case, aligned to the left, space before: 12 pt.
and space after: 12 pt.

2.4 FIGURES AND TABLES

Use the word “Figure” (“Table”) even at the middle of a sentence when referring to a
figure (Table) in text and make sure that all figures and tables are referred to. If your
figure has two parts, include the labels “(a)” and “(b)” as part of the figure itself (do not

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use two different captions for each figure). Please verify that the figures and tables you
mention in the text actually exist.

Do not put borders around the outside of your figures. Do not use color unless it is
necessary for the proper interpretation of your figures. When re-sizing your figures,
make sure that you use the same percentage for your figures height and width.

Use Times New Roman, 12 pt., aligned to the left, single line spacing and with space
before: 6 pt. and space after: 6 pt. The style defined in this template for the text used in
tables is “Body Text (Tables)”.

2.4.1 Figure Captions and Table Titles

Place figure captions below the figures; place table titles above the tables. Figure labels
should be in Times New Roman, bold, 10 pt., and centered with 6 pt. spacing before and
24 pt. spacing after. Table titles should be in Times New Roman, bold, 12 pt., and left
aligned with 12 pt. spacing before and 12 pt. spacing after.

The style defined for figure captions in the template is “Caption” and for table titles is
“Table Caption”.

2.4.2 Numbering of Figures and Tables

All figures and tables must be numbered in their order of appearance in text. Also, the
chapter number must be included in the numbering with a hyphen separating the chapter
number and the figure/table number in that chapter. This is set through the caption
dialogue box in MS Word as shown in Figure 2 -3.

Figure 2-3: Setting caption numbering to include chapter number.

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2.4.3 Referring to Figures and Tables in Text

When referring to figures and tables in your text you can use “Figure 1-1 shows…”, “as
shown in Figure 1-1”, “(Figure 1-1)”, or “Table 1-1”.

The Cross-reference feature in MS Word can be used to insert references to figures,

tables, and even different sections of your report. This feature is accessed through the
“Insert” menu – “Reference” – “Cross-reference…”; leading to the dialogue box shown
in Figure 2 -4.

Figure 2-4: Using Cross-reference.

2.5 GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

2.5.1 Units

Using SI units as primary units are strongly encouraged. English units may be used as
secondary units (in parentheses). An exception is when English units are used as
identifiers in trade, such as “3½ in disk drive.” Avoid combining SI and English units,
as this often leads to confusion because equations do not balance dimensionally. If you
must use mixed units, clearly state the units for each quantity in an equation.

2.5.2 Abbreviations and Acronyms

Define abbreviations and acronyms the first time they are used in the text, even after
they have already been defined in the abstract. Abbreviations such as SI, ac, and dc do
not have to be defined. Abbreviations that incorporate periods should not have spaces:

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write “C.N.R.S.,” not “C. N. R. S.” Do not use abbreviations in the title unless they are
unavoidable.

2.5.3 Equations

Number equations consecutively with equation numbers in parentheses flush with the
right margin, as in (1). First use the equation editor to create the equation. Then select
the “Equation” mark-up style. Press the tab key and write the equation number in
parentheses. Use parentheses to avoid ambiguities in denominators. Punctuate equations
when they are part of a sentence, as in

r2
∫0 F(r , ϕ ) dr dϕ=[ σr 2 ¿ (2 μ 0 )]
∞
⋅∫ 0 exp (−λ|z j− zi| ) λ−1 J 1 ( λ r 2 ) J 0 ( λ r i ) dλ .
(1)

Be sure that the symbols in your equation have been defined before the equation appears
or immediately following. Refer to equations as “Equation (1) is…”; even if it is in the
middle of a sentence.

2.5.4 Other Recommendations

Use one space after periods and colons. Hyphenate complex modifiers: “zero-field-
cooled magnetization.” Avoid dangling participles, such as, “Using (1), the potential
was calculated.” [It is not clear who or what used (1).] Write instead, “The potential was
calculated by using (1),”

Use a zero before decimal points: “0.25,” not “.25.” Use “cm 3,” not “cc.” Indicate
sample dimensions as “0.1 cm  0.2 cm,” not “0.1  0.2 cm2.”

Do not mix complete spellings and abbreviations of units: use “Wb/m 2” or “webers per
square meter,” not “webers/m2.”

When expressing a range of values, write “7 to 9” or “7-9,” not “7~9.”

A parenthetical statement at the end of a sentence is punctuated outside of the closing

parenthesis (like this). (A parenthetical sentence is punctuated within the parentheses.)
In American English, periods and commas are within quotation marks, like “this
period.” Other punctuation is “outside”!

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Avoid contractions; for example, write “do not” instead of “don’t.”

The serial comma is preferred: “A, B, and C” instead of “A, B and C.”

If you wish, you may write in the first person singular or plural and use the active voice
(“I observed that ...” or “We observed that ...” instead of “It was observed that ...”).
However, passive voice is preferred.

Remember to check spelling.

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 Chapter Three

3 CITATION AND REFERENCING

Presented By:-

1- Student name

2- Student name

The report should be based on the student’s own work and in case of using any parts or
copying any figures or diagrams from previous work this should be properly referenced
according to the format explained below.

A numbered list of references must be provided at the end of the paper. The list should
be arranged in the order of citation in text, not in alphabetical order. List only one
reference per reference number.

Each reference number should be enclosed by square brackets. In text, citations of

references may be given simply as “in [1] . . .” rather than as “in reference [1] . . .”
Similarly, it is not necessary to mention the authors of a reference unless the mention is
relevant to the text. It is almost never useful to give dates of references in text. These
will usually be deleted by Staff Editors if included.

Footnotes or other words and phrases that are not part of the reference format do not
belong on the reference list. Phrases such as “For example,” should not introduce
references in the list, but should instead be given in parentheses in text, followed by the
reference number, i.e., “For example, see [5].”

3.1 REFERENCES FORMAT

Sample correct formats for various types of references are as follows.

Books:

[1] G. O. Young, “Synthetic structure of industrial plastics,” in Plastics, 2nd ed., vol.
3, J. Peters, Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964, pp. 15–64.

10
[2] W.-K. Chen, Linear Networks and Systems. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993, pp.
123–135.

Periodicals:

[3] J. U. Duncombe, “Infrared navigation—Part I: An assessment of feasibility,”

IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-11, pp. 34–39, Jan. 1959.

[4] E. P. Wigner, “Theory of travelling-wave optical laser,” Phys. Rev., vol. 134, pp.
A635–A646, Dec. 1965.

[5] E. H. Miller, “A note on reflector arrays,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., tobe
published.

Articles from Conference Proceedings (published):

[6] D. B. Payne and J. R. Stern, “Wavelength-switched passively coupled single-

mode optical network,” in Proc. IOOC-ECOC, 1985, pp. 585–590.

Papers Presented at Conferences (unpublished):

[7] D. Ebehard and E. Voges, “Digital single sideband detection for interferometric
sensors,” presented at the 2nd Int. Conf. Optical Fibre Sensors, Stuttgart,
Germany, 1984.

Standards/Patents:

[8] G. Brandli and M. Dick, “Alternating current fed power supply,” U.S. Patent 4
084 217, Nov. 4, 1978.

Technical Reports:

[9] E. E. Reber, R. L. Mitchell, and C. J. Carter, “Oxygen absorption in the Earth’s

atmosphere,” Aerospace Corp., Los Angeles, CA, Tech. Rep. TR-0200 (4230-46)-
3, Nov. 1968.

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3.2 REFERENCES TO ELECTRONIC SOURCES

The guidelines for citing electronic information as offered below are a modified
illustration of the adaptation by the International Standards Organization (ISO)
documentation system and the American Psychological Association (APA) style. Three
pieces of information are required to complete each reference: 1) protocol or service; 2)
location where the item is to be found; and 3) item to be retrieved. It is not necessary to
repeat the protocol (i.e., http) in Web addresses after “Available” since that is stated in
the URL.

Books:

[10] J. Jones. (1991, May 10). Networks. (2nd ed.) [Online]. Available:
http://www.atm.com

Journals:

[11] R. J. Vidmar. (1992, Aug.). On the use of atmospheric plasmas as electromagnetic

reflectors. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. [Online]. 21(3), pp. 876–880. Available:
http://www.halcyon.com/pub/journals/21ps03-vidmar

Papers Presented at Conferences:

[12] PROCESS Corp., MA. Intranets: Internet technologies deployed behind the
firewall for corporate productivity. Presented at INET96 Annu. Meeting. [Online].
Available: http://home.process.com/Intranets/wp2.htp

Reports and Handbooks:

[13] S. L. Talleen. (1996, Apr.). The Intranet Architecture: Managing

information in the new paradigm. Amdahl Corp., CA. [Online]. Available:
http://www.amdahl.com/doc/products/bsg/intra/infra/html

Computer Programs and Electronic Documents:

[14] A. Harriman. (1993, June). Compendium of genealogical software. Humanist.

[Online]. Available e-mail: HUMANIST@NYVM Message: get GENEALOGY
REPORT

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