The goal of the class is to undertake real-world software projects in the context of the UrbanSim land use and transportation modeling system. Projects will draw on multiple areas of the CSE curriculum. Emphasis is placed on the development process rather than the end product - ideally, however, the projects will both demonstrate sound engineering practice, and result in useful additions to the UrbanSim system.
Capstone courses play a major role in the department's ABET accreditation, which places certain requirements on the course structure and deliverables. The capstone ABET outcomes are:
(b) an ability to design and
conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data
(c) an ability to design a computing system, component, or process to
meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic,
environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety,
manufacturability, and sustainability
(d) an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams
(e) an ability to identify, formulate, and solve computer engineering
problems
(f) an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility
(g) an ability to communicate effectively
(h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of computer
engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and
societal context
(i) a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in
life-long learning
(j) knowledge of contemporary issues
Much of the reading that you'll do for the course will be motivated by the project that you select. There are two background papers that you should read for the second week:
The first paper gives an overview of UrbanSim; for additional UrbanSim papers please see http://www.urbansim.org/papers. The second paper provides an accessible overview of transportation models, written from an environmental perspective. For those interested, there will be a substantial number of other papers, many more technical and from a variety of viewpoints, assigned in our companion class "Introduction to Urban Simulation".
The course deliverables are two warmup assignments, a midpoint project presentation, a final project presentation and report, and an email summarizing individual roles and contributions. In addition, once the project teams have been formed, teams will meet regularly with the instructor (at least weekly, and more often if helpful) . Each week we'll go over the progress from the previous week, identify goals for the following week, as well as tracking progress toward the final presentation and report.
The project report should describe the goals of the project; how the system was designed, tested, and deployed within the real-world constraints of UrbanSim and the social, political, and economic environment in which it is used; and the result. It should be in the form of a technical paper, including an introduction, discussion of methods and results, conclusion, and bibliography. Aim for 10 pages. In addition, to satisfy ABET requirements, each project report should address:
In addition, I would like to get an individual email from each student, describing that person's role was in the project and contribution. Even though not everyone will work on everything, all students on a team should thoroughly understand all CSE aspects of the project. (Ideally they will also understand all of the modeling and planning aspects, but realistically, in some cases this understanding may not be as deep.)
The course grade will be computed as follows:
In many cases, team members will all get the same grade on the project report and presentation; but in some cases, different team members may get different grades depending on individual contribution and effort.