M S RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Information Science & Engineering

Project Dissertation Guidelines (Under-graduate)

Introduction
The project dissertation is a part of curriculum, occupying your time from the end of
seventh semester through to the end of eight. You may find it to be enjoyable and
stimulating thing of your course. The objectives of the project dissertation are to
encourage and reward individual inventiveness. The project will develop your ability to:

• Design and Implement a project from initial stage, through thorough analysis of
the problem area.
• Plan, schedule, and monitor your work: You should demonstrate your work in
different of ways, e.g. being prepared for meetings with your project guide;
• Defend your ideas and presentations: Plan ahead, find evidence and describe
your ideas;
• Use library and other information sources: This demonstrates your ability to work
on your own and find further relevant information and tools for your project;
• Apply relevant tools and techniques: understand the theory and demonstrate the
practical skills;
• Communicate your findings (e.g. written report, Underer and viva).
• Finally, to demonstrate your work to the examiners for final evaluation.
The project constitutes one of the major parts of your degree. 03 credits will be awarded
for 'Project - I' and 12 credits will be awarded for 'Senior Project'.

Your project is of individual one and may fit into one of the following categories.

Experimental: These projects involve the investigation and evaluation of a new piece of
technology. It may involve a substantial amount of software/hardware implementation
and the application of scientific measurements and investigations to ascertain its
properties and usefulness. Such a project will necessarily describe the theoretical
foundations of the technology, implementation and the experimental procedures used
and an analysis of the results, together with an assessment of the relationship between
the project work and other published work. There should be a discussion of the problems
of existing methods and how the new ideas overcome any of these problems.

Theoretical: Project dissertations in this category tend to concentrate on introducing the

relevant concepts with suitable examples, investigating further examples, making and
testing conjectures, developing theorems and proofs, where appropriate, and assessing
the results, with attention given in suitable cases to possible applications.

Design and build: These projects should involve the main activities associated with the
development of a well-engineered software system for carrying out the particular task
required by the project: requirements analysis, specification, program design,
implementation, system testing (including field testing and user comments),
documentation and maintenance. Most of these stages are likely to be included in the
report and the reasons for the various design decisions will be carefully described.
Project stages
You must complete the following stages as per the schedule. The effective management
of your time could be a major factor in the quality of your project. You should start basic
work on your project during the semester 6, then work consistently during the semester
7 and 8. Each project has three assessments –
i. the supervisor (throughout the project period),
ii. The committee constituted in the department (during the middle and end of
the project period) and
iii. The examiners (internal examiners during the process and internal & external
examiners during the end of the project period). The schedule is given as
follows:

Stage Deadline Remarks

1 Selection of the During the semester VI. Form-1 to be submitted within

project area. two weeks from the last exam of
VI semester.
2 Submission of Second week of semester To be submitted to project
Synopsis VII. coordinator; forwarded to
examiners with Form-2
3 Project-1 progress Tenth week of semester Examiners will evaluate the
evaluation VII candidate and submit the report
in Form-3
4 Submission of Project- Before the last working To be submitted to project
1 report day of semester VII. coordinator; forwarded to
examiners along with Form-
4A/4B
5 Project-2 Progress 8th week of semester VIII Examiners will evaluate the
Evaluation candidate and submit the report
in Form-3
6 Project-2 Evaluation: 16th week of semester VIII To be submitted to project
Final (Internal) coordinator; forwarded to
examiners along with Form-5
7 Final report 18th week of semester VIII To be submitted to coordinator
submission/Underer
Session
8 Project2 Evaluation: 4-6 weeks (in general) Internal/External Examiners
Final (External) from the date of
submission

Meetings with your supervisor

Your supervisor(s) helps in implementation of the project you have been allocated.
However, in some circumstances you may be allocated a different supervisor, e.g. due to
illness, or non-availability. Your supervisor will also be your tutor during the project
period. It is a formal requirement that you should meet your project supervisor regularly
during semesters VII and VIII. You should meet your supervisor at least once in a
week. Some supervisors may want to meet you more often.
You should be prepared for meetings with your supervisor. Bring the outcomes to
discuss and questions to explore. You may have to submit progress reports of your
project work fortnightly. These reports should record the milestones of the project,
discussing both successes and failures. You must keep backup copies of your work, and
has to submit a copy to your supervisor at meetings. Any loss of information due to
failure of your computing equipment is not the Department's responsibility, and will not
be considered for extending the project work deadline.

Assistance
• Progress: If things start to go wrong it is important to talk to your project
supervisor, your proctor, the project coordinator or to the Head. This will help us
to help you more quickly and effectively.
• Extensions to deadlines: Extensions may be granted if you are ill
(obtain a valid medical certificate), or any other exceptional extenuating
circumstances. You must inform your supervisor about the above circumstances.
The medical certificate must be submitted to the department forwarded by the
project guide and the proctor.
• Late start: If you are not allocated a project until the 3rd week of
semester VII, you must approach the project coordinator, the proctor or the head
of the department and you can still meet the deadlines listed above. You should
make sure that your supervisor records the date that you start your project as
this detail may be useful when the project is assessed.
Stage 1 - Selecting a Project
This takes place during semester VI of your programme.
• Project preparation period: Read the project outlines, consult individual
lecturers about their areas of interest.
• Return form-1: Submit to the project coordinator within the deadline.
• Project allocation: You will be allocated a project based on your submitted
choices. Your previous performance may be considered for the allotment of
supervisor. If your choices are not available then you may be asked to submit
some more choices.
• Meet with supervisor: Immediate to the announcement of supervisor, you
should obtain the date for the meeting to discuss your project in greater detail,
gathering references and reading material curing the vacation. If your supervisor
is unavailable for a meeting you may request him for the list of materials via e-
mail.
Stage 2 - Synopsis Submission
You are required to submit two copies of the project synopsis to the coordinator. This
will be read by both your supervisor and other internal examiner. Your supervisor will
then give feedback in a subsequent meeting with you. If this feedback has not happened
within two weeks of submitting the report, please contact the Project coordinator.

This report sets the scene for your project work. It should discuss the relevant
background to the project and identify some of the problems and processes involved in
the work. The report should be no more than 3 A4 pages in length.

A typical structure for this report is:

• Title, name, supervisor(s), date, place of project work
• Introduction: background, clear description of project, cite any literature read to
date
• Analysis: Discussion of problems to be solved and possible techniques and tools
• Plan of action: Fortnightly plan of work
Assessment
• At this stage the aim is to make sure that the project is feasible, given any
relevant working constraints. Your guide will be continually judging your
performance on the project.
The project will not be allowed to continue if the report does not describe a feasible
project. Instead, it will have to be modified according to the examiners' suggestions.

Stage 3 – Project-1 progress Evaluation

There are two reasons for holding a project progress evaluation.
• First, the examiners wish to decide which side of a degree class boundary
the work lies on.
• Second, the two examiners cannot agree on a combined mark and so wish
to use the progress evaluation viva to clarify their differences - this usually means
that they need to hear more about the work from you.

Stage 4 - Project 1: Survey and analysis stage

This stage of the project is of 03 credits. You are required to submit two copies of your
report to the project coordinator. (Note: You need not bind the survey and analysis
report. Instead, two copies securely stapled, each with a cover sheet and the certificate,
should be handed over). The report will be examined by both supervisor and second
examiner. Your supervisor will then give detailed feedback in a subsequent meeting with
you. If this feedback has not happened within two weeks of the start of semester 2,
please contact the Project coordinator.

The main component of this report will be an extensive literature survey (or similar
technology/mathematical survey for certain types of project). In addition, the report
should contain the description of the work done so far and a clear presentation of what
the project is aiming to achieve in the subsequent semester. It is expected that the
project will be well under way at this stage. The contents of the report should be 10-15
A4 pages long. Many pitfalls can be avoided if you submit a draft of your report to
your supervisor two weeks before the deadline.

Stage 5 – Senior Project- progress Evaluation

This is similar to stage 3.

Assessment
• The examiners will examine the candidate. Accordingly, suggestions will be
made. Project Guide should monitor implementation of the suggestions during the
remaining period of the project work.

Stage 6 – Project-2 Evaluation (Internal)

The final stages of the project are worth 12 credits, much of which rides on the quality of
the final dissertation. Submitting drafts of your work to your supervisor well in advance
of final deadlines can be rewarding.
One hard copy of your final dissertation (unbounded) must be submitted to the
department. In addition to this, you are required to submit the electronic version of your
dissertation in CD from (that contains source code, input data and report) to the
coordinator. Note however that the contents of the dissertation should not exceed a
maximum of 100 A4 pages in length.
The dissertation presentation and viva will be examined by both supervisor and second
internal examiner.
Assessment
The supervisor and second internal examiner will mark the final dissertation
independently. Each examiner will submit the Form-2 independently and submit the
Form-3 together. Also included below is a table that gives an indication of what is being
looked for in the overall work - note however that this is only a guide.

Stage 7 - Underer Session

The purpose of the Underer session is to demonstrate the ability, both in writing and
orally, to describe the project and explain its important findings to others.
The Underer should give a brief description of the project, and summarise its findings.
Diagrams and the text should be made large enough so that people can see it at a
distance. Sensible (?) use of colour can be a great eye-catcher. The Underer should be
interesting enough to make people want to know more.
You have to submit your Underers to the Department after the Underer session.
Attendees

Attendance at the Underer session is compulsory for all the candidates. Academic staff
will be there, since they will be marking your Underers, asking you questions and
assessing your performance. It is open to all.

Assessment
You will be assessed on your ability to summarise your work and professionally present it
in an interesting manner. Three areas will be focussed on in the assessment process:

• The Underer itself: Is it bold, summarising, colourful, attractive?

• The software demonstration: It should work (to whatever extent) and be usable
by visitors;
• Oral explanations and question-answering skills.

Stage 8 – Seniour Project Evaluation (External)

The final stages of the project are worth 28 credits, much of which rides on the quality of
the final dissertation. Submitting drafts of your work to your supervisor well in advance
of final deadlines can be rewarding.
Three hard copies of your final dissertation (Bounded) must be submitted to the
department. In addition to this, you are required to submit the electronic version of your
dissertation in CD from (that contain source code, input data and report) to the
coordinator. Note, however, that the contents of the dissertation should not exceed a
maximum of 100 A4 pages in length.
The dissertation will be examined by both supervisor and an external examiner.

Assessment
The supervisor and second examiner will mark the final dissertation independently. Each
examiner will submit the Form-2 independently and submit the Form-3 together. Also
included below is a table that gives an indication of what is being looked for in the
overall work - note however that this is only a guide. The following list gives an
indication of what is being looked for in the overall work. Note however that this is only a
guide.
Dissertation structure
There are different types of project and so it is difficult to produce a detailed set of
recommendations to suit every single dissertation. Thus the dissertation structure given
below is only a suggestion.

• Title page
• Certificate
• Signed declaration
• Abstract
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3 onwards: Requirements and analysis/Design/Implementation and
testing/ Results and discussion etc.
• Final Chapter Conclusions
• References
• Appendices
• Program code: will be collected electronically, and should not be printed
 Title page format

M S RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
A Dissertation Report on
Title of the dissertation
submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of degree
Bachelor of Engineering in Information Science & Engineering
By
Name of the student(s) and USNs

Under the guidance of

Name of the supervisor Name of the supervisor

(Internal) (External, if any)

Project work carried out at

(Name of the organization, Place, Pin)
Emblem of the Institute
Academic Year

MSRIT Emblem

Department of Information Science & Engineering, MSRIT, Bangalore

 CERTIFICATE

M S RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

LOGO

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project work entitled

“___________________________________” is a bonafide work carried out at M S
Ramaiah Institute of Technolgy, Bangalore, by
___________________________________, USNo. ________________, in partial
fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree in Bachelor of Engineering in
Information Science & Engineering discipline affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological
University, Belgaum during the academic year 20__ to 20__. It is certified that all
corrections/suggestions indicated during the internal assessment have been incorporated
in the dissertation report submitted to the department. The project has been approved
as it satisfies the academic requirements in respect of project work described for the
B.E.. degree.

Guide(s) Head of the Department Principal

External Viva-Voce

Name of Examiner Signature with date

1.

2.
Abstract
This should be two or three short paragraphs (100-300 words total), summarising the
dissertation. It is important that this is not just a restatement of the original project
outline. A suggested flow is background, project aims and main achievements. From the
abstract a reader should be able to ascertain if the project is of interest to them and
presents results of which they would like to know more details.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to whoever may have helped you in any way.
Contents
Contents include titles and page numbers of all sections and subsections. Chapter 1
begins on page 1. Use roman numerals for all previous pages, eg. title page (i), abstract
(ii), acknowledgments (iii) and contents (iv).

The best often include a separate list of all the figures (List of Figures) in the dissertation
(figure number, label, page number), and a separate list of all tables (List of Tables) in
the dissertation (table number, label, page number).

Chapter 1: Introduction
The introduction has several purposes. First one is to set the scene for the project by
giving a little relevant background information. Second one is to clearly elucidate the
aims, objectives and scope of the project. If the project involves the solution of a
specific problem or the production of a specific system this should be clearly specified in
an informal way. Finally, the introduction should summarise the remaining chapters of
the dissertation.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter is open for discussion. The main thrust of this chapter is to review of
relevant work of other authors and the relationship between their and your work. If
several other people have done closely related work in a different way then highlight the
reasons for your approach here. Project1 report may be helpful at this point of time.
A literature review is not simply an annotated list of papers you may have read, the cited
papers should be compared and contrasted. A literature review should cover a range of
relevant material to your project. Everything you use should be cited by reference. As
an example: "...some early work by Brooks [1] suggests that throwing men at a problem
is counter-productive". This would then be listed in the reference section as follows:

1. Brooks, F.P., The Mythical Man Month:Essays on Software Engineering, Addison-

Wesley, 1975.

Everything that you write must be your own words and you must cite other people using
references. You may also quote sentences from the work of others. These must be
included in quotation marks and again the relevant work must be cited. Your signed
declaration means that you will fail your dissertation if you do not cite the work of
others.

Chapter 3 onwards:
Subsequent chapters may cover the requirement and analysis, Design, implementation
and testing, results and discussion etc. This may vary from one project type to another.
Guides are requested to go through the report thoroughly and advice the student
accordingly.
Final Chapter: Conclusions
The conclusions can be summarised in a fairly short chapter (2 or 3 pages). This chapter
brings together many of the points that you will have made in other chapters, especially
in the results and discussion chapter. Do not be afraid of repeating some of your earlier
statements here, albeit using different wording. This chapter may contain Goals
achieved, and future scope.
Goals achieved - describes the degree to which the findings support the original
objectives laid out for the project. The goals may be partially or fully achieved.
Further work - describes the new areas of investigation prompted by developments, and
parts of the work which were not completed due to time constraints and/or problems
encountered.
Appendices
These may be provided to include further details of results, mathematical derivations,
certain illustrative parts of program code (e.g. class interfaces), user documentation, log
of project milestones. In particular, if there are technical details of the work done that
might be useful to others who wish to build on this work, but that are not sufficiently
important to the project as a whole to justify being discussed in the main body of the
dissertation, then they should be included as appendices.
Program code
Do not include an appendix containing all your source code listings – instead, a CD may
enclose along with the report. What may be worth doing, perhaps, is that if there are
any code fragments of particular novelty, then you could include these in an appendix,
so that they could be referenced in any descriptions in the main text of the chapters.
Also a copy of the source code should be submitted to coordinator along with inputs.
 Form-1

M S RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Department of Information Science & Engineering

Undergraduate/Under-graduate dissertation project: Choice form
(Please remember to keep a copy of your choices for your records.)

USN Names

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

Contact number:

E-mail address:

Choice Broad area of the project with title

1st
2nd
3rd
Signature and date:

For Office Use Only

--------------------------------------------------------------------- project is approved

Guide Assigned:

Signature of the coordinator with date Signature of HOD

 Form-2

M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology

(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Information Science & Engineering

Dissertation Project Evaluation: Stage-2

(Synopsis Evaluation Form)

Name of the Candidate : ……………………………………………………………… USN : ………………………

Programme:

Title of the Work :………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Observations :

Suggestions to the Student :

Name : Signature with date

Project Guide :

Second Examiner :
 Form-3

M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology

(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Information Science & Engineering

Dissertation Project Evaluation: Stage-3

(Project-1 Progress Evaluation Form (Combined))

Name of the Candidate : ……………………………………………………………… USN : ………………………

Title of the Work : ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Programme :

Earlier suggestion incorporated : Y /N / NA

Observations :

Comments on the presentation :

Suggestion for further improvement :

Combined over all work

Name : Signature with date :

Project Guide :

Second Examiner:
 Form-4A
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Information Science & Engineering

Project Dissertation Evaluation: Project I – Survey and Analysis

GUIDE

Name of the Candidate : ……………………………………………………………… USN : ………………………

Title of the Work : ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

(Grade on 5 point scale)

1. Literature Survey : (Not used – Addresses Critically)

2. Problem Formulation : (Unclear – Focused definition)

3. Analysis of the Problem : (Vacuous – In-depth)

4. Discussion on Potential Problems : (No – Detailed)

5. Organization : (Poor – Well organized)

6. Presentation : (Poor – Well presented)

7. Amount of work completed : (Insignificant – Substantial)

8. Time Plan of phase 2 : (Unrealistic – Justified)

9. Overall performance : (Unsatisfactory – Good)

10. Attendance : (Unsatisfactory – Attend all

meetings)

11. Monthly reports : (Unsatisfactory – Satisfactory)

Total
Name of the Evaluator Signature with date
 Form-4B
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Information Science & Engineering

Project Dissertation Evaluation: Project I – Survey and Analysis

INTERNAL EXAMINER

Name of the Candidate : ……………………………………………………………… USN : ………………………

Title of the Work : ………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

(Grade on 5 point scale)

1 Literature Survey : (Not used – Addresses Critically)

2 Problem Formulation :(Unclear – Focus ed definition)

3 Analysis of the Problem :(Vacuous – In-depth)

4 Discussion on Potential Problems :(No – Detailed)

5 Organization :(Poor – Well organized)

6 Presentation :(Poor – Well presented)

7 Amount of work completed :(Insignificant – Substantial)

8 Time Plan of phase 2 :(Unrealistic – Justified)

9 Overall performance :(Unsatisfactory – Good)

Total

Name of the Evaluator Signature with date

 Form 5
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
(Autonomous Institute, Affiliated to VTU)
Department of Information Science & Engineering

Dissertation Project Evaluation: Stage -2 (Final Internal Evaluation)

1. Problem Formulation : (Unclear – Focussed definition

2. Literature Survey : (Not Used – addressed Critically)

3. Analysis of the Problem : (Vacuous – In-depth)

4. Implementation and Testing/

Theoretical Modelling : (Poor – Thorough

5. Evaluation and Discussion of Work: (Vacuous – Rigorous)

6. Report Organization : (Poor – Sensible)

7. Presentation : (Inadequate – Unambiguous)

8. Software Demonstration : (Ineffective – Well organized

9. Overall Performance : (Unsatisfactory – Good

10. Outcome of the Dissertation

Resulting in an article : (No Submission – Published)

Name Signature with date

Guide:
Examiner: