During the last two semesters of her/his studies, each student undertakes an individual Diploma Project in accordance with regulations approved by the Departmental Board (Meeting of 19/7/95). These regulations have been revised by the Departmental Board (Meeting of 06/12/10) and can be found in Appendix A. The Diploma Projects are collected within the open access Digital Library (http://godigital.cs.ucy.ac.cy).
General Diploma Project Guidelines
1. GENERAL
A Diploma Project is prepared by a final-year student, usually during the seventh and eighth semesters of study in accordance with the Programme of Studies of the Department. The part of Diploma Project prepared in the first semester is called Diploma Project I and the part corresponding to the second semester Diploma Project II. These two parts are prepared and completed in EPL400 - Diploma Project I and EPL401 – Diploma Project II, respectively.
A Diploma Project corresponds to seventeen and a half (17.5) Credit Units ECTS, which are credited to the student upon successful completion.
The student registers for the Diploma Project with the approval of the Academic Advisor.
The Department Council appoints a member of the Faculty of the Department, who ensures and coordinates the entire process of developing and assessing the Diploma Projects. This Faculty member is known as the Diploma Projects Coordinator.
All the forms and guides mentioned in this section are digitally available on the website of the Department. The Department maintains a Digital Library for the Diploma Projects for archiving purposes.
2. SUBSTANCE, FORM AND EVALUATION CRITERIA
2.1 Substance
Each Diploma Project must contain sufficient information that reflects the student’s initiative, independent study and productivity (originality, in the broad sense).
The Diploma Project may be of theoretical or practical nature or a combination of both. A Diploma Project may include, for example, an application of existing techniques, extension of known methods in the theory, software, hardware or applications areas, development of a prototype system, address theoretical problems, a survey review or study of a theoretical or practical area, etc.
2.2. Form
A Diploma Project must be a comprehensive document structured in chapters and must follow the rules of the technical guidance report called Standards for Preparation the Diploma Project.
The Diploma Project should include an introduction to the subject, an analysis of the importance of project, a description of the related work, a review the work in the area of the topic, a description of the methodology used, listing, classification and evaluation of the results of the work and finally conclusions and suggestions for possible extension of the work.
Diploma Projects where software was created and/or used should also include the code of the software in a specific Annex, a description and analysis of the software a separate section, and instructions for the use of the software. The code of such software may not be used as the Thesis document.
2.3 Evaluation Criteria
The main criteria for the evaluation of the Diploma Project are the following:
[a] Quality of work (e.g. accuracy and completeness of analysis, appropriateness of methodology, validity of theoretical results, software quality, implementation, consistency of material presented and association of ideas).
[b] Degree of the objectives achieved of the Diploma Project.
[c] Degree of understanding by students of the area of the Diploma Project topic.
[d] Quality of the written language of Diploma Project (e.g. structure and organization, clarity, ease of reading and understanding).
[e] Quality of Presentation of the Diploma Project. (e.g. oral speech, the adequacy and suitability of multimedia used (such as slides), proper utilization of the allowed time of presentation, and most importantly to point the contribution of Diploma Project through the presentation).
3. PROCEDURE
3.1 Preparation
3.1.1 Submission and Announcement of Topics
Each member of the Faculty submits to the Department, end of March of each year, a number of Diploma Project topics greater than the ratio of the number of students per Faculty member. Each Faculty member reserves the right not to supervise a number of Diploma Projects larger than the nearest integer above the ratio of students per Faculty member.
Each topic has a title. It is expected that a brief description of each topic is made available to the students by the proposing faculty. (It is also expected that the faculty members will update and renew appropriately the description of the projects on their personal websites).
The Diploma Projects Coordinator establishes a list of the submitted Diploma Project topics, and announces the Diploma Project list to the faculty members of the Department and to the final-year students approximately in middle of April.
3.1.2 Choice of Topic
The successful completion of at least 156 ECTS is a necessary prerequisite for the assignment of a Diploma Project.
Each student should choose a Diploma Project topic. To this end, the students shall discuss with the corresponding faculty members that have offered the topics, in meetings during a specified period of time. Throughout the process of submission of preferred topics, the students obtain the agreement of the faculty member for the supervision of the corresponding project. This Faculty member will be the Diploma Project Supervisor for that student.
With the selected choice of the topics, the student completes a special Registration Form, available electronically on the website of the Department which includes the title, description, and any specialized software / hardware or other resources necessary for the preparation of the Diploma Project. The Registration Form is signed by the Faculty member, the Academic advisor of the student and it is deposited to the Department no later than the period of registration of students for the semester the student prepare the first part of the Diploma Project.
In case of not being able to select topic, the student returns the Registration Form to the Department, signed by him/her and the Academic Advisor. In this case, with the filing of the form, the Diploma Project Coordinator contacts the Faculty members of the Department, to ensure that every student who submitted the registration form without topic to select a topic before the end of the submission period. In case this is not possible, a special meeting of the Department Council is called to assure that each student is given a topic. The student must choose the topic selected by the Council meeting
Concurrently with the submission of the registration form, the student must register for the EPL 400 course.
3.1.3 Change of Subject
Changing topic of the Diploma Project (with the same or another supervisor) is possible within the first three (3) weeks of the semester the student enrolled for the first part of the Diploma Project (Diploma Project I). To this end, using the same procedure that was followed for the submission of the original Diploma Project topic, the student fills in the Special Registration Form to the Department in order for the coordinator of Diploma Project to approve it.
3.2 Preparation
3.2.1 Supervision
The supervision of a student who prepares a Diploma Project is the responsibility of the Diploma Project Supervisor. The monitoring and controlling of the Diploma Project progress is done through regular meetings between the student and the supervisor. In some cases a co-supervisor may be indicated. The supervisor must be a PhD holder and may either come from the Department of Computer Science or from an institute or organization outside the Department.
3.2.2 Interim Evaluation
During the examination period of the first semester in which the student enrolled in the Diploma Project, the student submits to the Supervisor a brief Progress Report. Following the submission of the Progress Report, the Supervisor shall submit a written assessment of the progress of the student to the Department, which is also sent to the student. The possible grades for this assessment are Success or Failure. The grade of the Diploma Project I is the student’s grade for the course EPL400 which has been enrolled for the current semester.
In the second semester the student can enroll in the Diploma Project II, EPL401, only if the student has succeeded with EPL400 course. In case of a Failure grade results in the student enrolling again in the first part of the Diploma Project (Diploma Project I: EPL400) in the same or different topic (with the same or different supervisor).
3.3 Evaluation
The final evaluation of the Diploma Project takes place towards the end of the semester where the student is registered for Diploma Project II.
3.3.1 Second Assessor
The Diploma Project is assessed by the supervisor, and the co-supervisor (if assigned), together with another member of the Faculty, known as the Second Assessor. The Diploma Project Coordinator with the collaboration of the Supervisors, publishes a list of Assessors and Program of Diploma Project presentations.
In special cases, the Coordinator of the Diploma Project may approve as a Second Assessor a Visiting Faculty Member of the Department or a Faculty member from other Department of the University or/and other University in Cyprus or abroad. The approval may be justified in cases of close affinity of the Second Assessor Diploma on the subject of the Diploma Project.
3.3.2 Presentations
The Diploma Project Coordinator publishes the Program of Diploma Project presentations for three days during the week immediately following the examination period. The Program of Diploma Project presentations must be made publicly available to all faculty members of the department and the presentations are open to the public.
Each student who is expected to complete its Diploma Project II based on the Academic Advisor judgment must be listed in the Diploma Project Presentation list. These students present their Diploma Project in public in front of their Academic Advisor and their Second Assessor.
The students who have been excluded from the Program of the Presentations of the diploma Project receive a grade equal to CD (Continuation of Diploma Project) and must continue working on the same Diploma Project so in the immediate following semester to complete their Diploma with success. Therefore, these students must reregister in the same course, EPL401.
3.3.3 Grading
After the presentation the Supervisor, in consultation with the Second Assessor, submits the grade for the Diploma Project with written justification comments, in a specific Assessment Form, and in accordance with the procedure for filing course grades. The Assessment Form of the Diploma Project contains different evaluation criteria that need to be filled with numerical grades.
A Failure grade results in the student enrolling again in the first part of the Diploma Project (Diploma Project I) in a different topic with a different supervisor. A Success grade in Diploma Project receives a numerical grade according to the Rules Studies.
The grade of the Diploma Project is the grade for the courses EPL401 which is enrolled.
The Coordinator of the Diploma Project handles the cases where there is a disagreement on the grade for the Diploma Project between the Supervisor and the second assessor.
3.3.4 Submit in Digital Format
Within ten days after the presentation and evaluation of the Diploma Project, the student shall submit to the Department its Diploma project in digital form. Failure to submit timely may result in delay of the student’s graduation which may cause the graduation of the student impossible in the current semester.
3.3.5 Final Grade Submission
The coordinator of the Diploma Project submits the student’s grade for the Diploma Project to the Academic Affairs and Student Welfare in time.