Dissertation- Computer science

doddsy105 · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:25

Start university again in a couple of weeks, just going into my 3rd year at chester university, but i have no idea what im going to do for my dissertation, anybody ever done one or can suggest an idea for me. My subject is computer science and im quite interested in web design and management. Any help, cheers guys

Hatter The Mad · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:30

Good dissertations are ones that combine some novel academic/theoretical study (whether developing algorithms or methods or implementing theory in previously published papers for testing) with some practical.

So, while 'making a website' wouldn't be enough for anything above a 2:2, creating a website service that did something like automatically tests your tastes for X, or implements a novel way for searching for Y on the web would get a good mark.

Peruse other University's third year pages to steal some ideas

doddsy105 · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:31

thanks man

triggerthat · 18 Sep 2011 at 12:34

Review semantic search engines?

aldo1234 · 18 Sep 2011 at 13:32

I created a helpdesk system after spending my year out working on a helpdesk.

They really like that I had based it on real life experiences, it also gave me loads of ideas based on issues the users had with the system I had used.

My tutor also said he only needed one example of each idea, for example input form validation once you have done it once you dont need to repeat it for every page. When we did our software demo I had a list of each idea and demonstrated it.

Try and demo the app before the final demo, your tutor will know the system by then and you can let him drive this impressed the other tutors

Backups backups backups few people in my year had issues dont be one of them.

Hatter The Mad · 18 Sep 2011 at 14:13

aldo1234 said:
I created a helpdesk system after spending my year out working on a helpdesk.

My tutor also said he only needed one example of each idea, for example input form validation once you have done it once you dont need to repeat it for every page. When we did our software demo I had a list of each idea and demonstrated it.

Was this for Computer Science or IT/Computing?

mp3duck · 18 Sep 2011 at 15:22

I created an e-commence website for my Dads business!
Got around 90% IRC!

Looking back at the "code" now makes me want to cry mind you! Was done in classic ASP, but I've been working with .NET for 8 years now!

D.P. · 18 Sep 2011 at 15:25

doddsy105 said:
Start university again in a couple of weeks, just going into my 3rd year at chester university, but i have no idea what im going to do for my dissertation, anybody ever done one or can suggest an idea for me. My subject is computer science and im quite interested in web design and management. Any help, cheers guys

NP=P?

Perhaps not so easy for an undergrad

Foxxy · 18 Sep 2011 at 15:59

Lol I did computer science at chester uni

I did it on the OCZ NIA mind control headset

http://www.ocztechnology.com/nia-game-controller.html

and how accurate it was, how different things like the type of person and experience changed the accuracy

Shicky · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:01

I did mine last year, just did a website for a customer with a custom content management system I built. My idea was to do something simple and do it well, was disappointed to only get 72% for it.

Though it was simple, I thought it was done really well, especially compared to the current implementation. Had a look at their stream also (as it was a radio station) and cleaned it up a good bit to make it sound better.

My friend did a data mining one, the only had part was getting his head around the algorithm he needed to use. Whereas I spent a lot of hours on mine with design/code etc. But he got ~85% and published.

Hatter The Mad · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:03

Shicky said:
I did mine last year, just did a website for a customer with a custom content management system I built. My idea was to do something simple and do it well, was disappointed to only get 72% for it.

Did you do a straight Computer Science degree?

I'm amazed at the number of very practical (computing/IT) projects people seem to have done for their dissertation.

Shicky · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:07

Yup, I do understand in the sense its nothing groundbreaking, but I did put a lot of work in and produce something pretty slick as well as customisable (click a button to change the colour scheme of the entire website etc). The client was extremely impressed also.

I had friends who did more complex stuff for professors but they didn't hit close to the hours I put in

Hatter The Mad · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:11

Shicky said:
Yup, I do understand in the sense its nothing groundbreaking, but I did put a lot of work in and produce something pretty slick as well as customisable (click a button to change the colour scheme of the entire website etc). The client was extremely impressed also.

I had friends who did more complex stuff for professors but they didn't hit close to the hours I put in

Which Uni did you go to if you don't mind me asking?

therandom · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:13

Hatter The Mad · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:19

therandom said:
To echo Hatter the Mad, I'm surprised by the number of people who did computing/IT style dissertations for a Computer Science degree. I only know of one person who did similar at my uni and it didn't go down too well!

Yeah, I know someone who made some kind of e-learning website (which was essentially a simple CMS). It was well produced and he spent an awful lot of time coding it, but I don't think he scraped even 50% for it.

Shicky · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:21

Hatter The Mad said:
Which Uni did you go to if you don't mind me asking?

Queen's Uni in Belfast

RDM · 18 Sep 2011 at 16:48

doddsy105 said:
Start university again in a couple of weeks, just going into my 3rd year at chester university, but i have no idea what im going to do for my dissertation, anybody ever done one or can suggest an idea for me. My subject is computer science and im quite interested in web design and management. Any help, cheers guys

I am starting my second year there also doing CompSci and already starting to think about my dissertation, I was thinkning about doing something with Kinect, maybe gesture control for classroom software.

rogan · 18 Sep 2011 at 17:01

RDM said:
I am starting my second year there also doing CompSci and already starting to think about my dissertation, I was thinkning about doing something with Kinect, maybe gesture control for classroom software.

similar to mine, mines about power management and energy saving using spacial awareness and going to be using the kinect as a an example (ie walk out a room lights turn off, tv turns off, even a differant section of the room un needed lighting for a certain part of the room turns off etc etc etc)

UK-AL05 · 18 Sep 2011 at 18:18

Designed a programming language, with Communicating Sequential Processes like threading. I then designed the parser, lexer, ast, optimiser(Crap) and code emitter without any automated tools. Some times the assembly had few bugs in it for certain situations, but generally worked =P I would have polished it, if I had more time. All in straight ansi c, it was hell but enjoyed it

It also lacked heap memory allocation, everything was statically allocated, just didn't have the time.

I was going to build a vm, and make it emit byte code for the vm to run, but that was a bit much.

I went to a ex-poly

Seems more like computer science project rather than a I.T like projects I'm hearing about here.

Moved more into A.I and Machine Learning for masters.

Randomface74 · 18 Sep 2011 at 18:23

I did AJAX Accessibility - made an example of how an AJAX chat should work if accessibility was the primary objective. Got involved with a local silver-surfer prize winner at the blind centre, very interesting. Ended up creating ways to fake different types of disability to prove my stuff helped. Got about 70%, but I basically had a guaranteed 1st by then so didn't much care.