Information for Students

(updated June 2018) The information on this page may be out of date, as the Department of EECS has several major changes planned starting Fall 2018.  As of this writing, please contact Prof. Stuart Kleinfelder, the course coordinator for EECS-CSE senior projects, for the current policy.

Getting Started

Q: I want to start planning for senior projects. What do I do?

A: Here are the key steps:

1. Form a team
2. Approach potential faculty mentors
3. Enroll in the EECS 159A or CSE 181A lab section under their name.  You need to obtain an authorization code to add or drop a lab.  Contact the faculty whose name is listed for the lab.
4. In the subsequent quarter, enroll in the EECS 159B or CSE 181B course under their name.

Enrollment

Q: When is the deadline for enrolling in the lab?

A: The end of week 2.  

Q:  How do I sign up with a mentor after week 2?

A: You would have to enroll via Enrollment Exception (https://www.reg.uci.edu/enrollment/adc/exceptions.html) and pay a $3 late lab fee, and this fee cannot be waived.

Team Formation

Q: How do I form a team?

A: Teams should be about 3-4 people from Computer Engineering (CpE), Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), or Electrical Engineering (EE) majors.

Q:  Does a team have to have a mix of students from different majors?

A: It is strongly recommended, but not strictly enforced.

Q: Can a team have more or less than 3-4 people?

A:  In very rare circumstances in the past, we made exceptions and approved some teams of 5, but in our experience, they never worked out too well, because some people always made little or no contributions to the team.  A team of 2 has not been approved mainly because either the project is not substantial enough or the team members have too much to work on.  However, in some cases, a mentor may state in their project writeup that they are looking for more students.  In that case, we leave it up to the discretion of the mentor.

Q: Should there be some team organization?

A: Usually, you'd want to approach a mentor as a team, but there should be one person (sometimes called the "team captain") who serves as the contact window with the faculty.

Q:  Everybody else has already formed their teams.  I don't know who else is not part of a team.  What do I do?

A: Try using the Forum feature on this project portal website by posting a message to the forum.

Approaching a Mentor

Q:  Which faculty should we approach as potential mentors?

A: You should be able to approach any EECS or ICS faculty.

Q:  There is someone that I'd like to have as my mentor but they are not in EECS or ICS.  Can they still be my mentor for senior projects?

A:  If they are faculty affiliated with UCI and can also be officially registered as an instructor, then they can be your mentor.

Q: Can someone external from industry or another research institution (e.g., JPL) be a mentor?

A:  Yes, but they will need a UCI faculty person to team up with this external person

Q: I tried emailing this professor but never heard back.  What do I do?

A: Email is not always the best way to reach a professor.  Try knocking on their door or just show up in their office, whether it is their office hour. Or you an try email again.  Don't be shy in contacting faculty.   Be persistent.  You are entitled to having a faculty mentor, but you need to do some work.  The only valid reason they have to turn you down is if they already have a team.  In the past two years, just over 50% of faculty members in EECS and most ICS faculty did not mentor any students, so there are plenty of faculty available.

Q: What if a professor does not teach or do research in the area that I want to do my project on?

A: You should not let that stop you from talking to them.  Many of our faculty may know a lot about a particular subject that is totally unrelated to their research or teaching topics, possibly because they do it as a hobby, or they are always curious about something and have read a lot but just have not had time to do anything about it.  So, you may be surprised what somebody may know.

Q:  How do I know if a professor is still available to take students?

A:  Hopefully this project portal can provide the up-to-date information on this.  You can also check the websoc for a lab section under their name and see the enrollment number.

Q: What do I prepare before I go and talk to a professor?

A: Your team should discuss and make an initial plan of what you want to do based on what the faculty has posted (if any). You should also pitch your idea, if any.  Do some homework up front.  You should not just talk science fiction but you should have a fairly good idea about what it takes to build it.

Project Topics

Q: What are acceptable project topics?

A: It can be anything mutually agreed on between the faculty mentor and the student team.  
The project topic can be anything that is jointly agreed on by the faculty mentor and student team.

Q:  Should I work on my own ideas or should I work on one of the faculty's project ideas?

A:  Either way, as long as it is of mutual interest.  Usually mentors would want you to work on one of their projects, but some would be open to mentoring your ideas.

Q:  What if I really want to work on my own idea?

A:  You'll need to learn to be very persuasive and be articulate about why your project is worthwhile.  Then the mentor may end up buying it.

Funding

A: How much money are we expected to spend on a project?

Q: On average students spend around $200-300 per project.  Some could spend more or less, but the amount of money should not be an indicator for the quality of the project.

A: What are some funding sources that can help pay for our project?

Q: There are several sources:

• You may want to try UROP, for undergraduate research opportunity program. You write a proposal, usually due early November each year, and they give about $400-500 per team.  The funding rate is pretty good, and most projects get funded.   Your team will get an account, and the TEC staff will place purchase orders for you, or you can do a recharge if you purchase items from The Hill (university bookstore in the student center on campus).
• If you work on one of the projects that your mentor works on for research, then they may be able to charge expenses to their research grant.

Project Work

Q: What is involved in a projet?

A: There are several stages: you want to identify the problem, make a plan, and execute the plan.  The plan itself can be further divided into design (top-down, bottom-up), implementation (choose one of the options and build it), which itself entails building the components and integration, testing, evaluation, presentation, and writeup. 

Q: What is in a progress report?

A: It is a way to track your own progress by writing on a regular basis.  A weekly progress report is required by your mentor to show that you are doing productive work, rather than just busy work.  You will also need to assess your own approach, try to solve problems, and state the lessons you learned. 

Your progress report should be descriptive and informative.  Write it in a way that is understandable to your classmates who are not your team.  That can be helpful in sorting out your thinking process.

Avoid writing "indicative" but uninformative progress reports.  An example is "I worked on coding and debugging last week".  That is indicative but not informative, because it can apply to any project. Instead, be descriptive about not only what you did (e.g., converted polling loop into interrupt for the sensor,...) but also what you have learned -- is it a good idea? bad idea? trade-offs?  Even describing how something works in your own words can be informative.