I got an email from a student regarding her idea for a final year project. I gave her a detailed reply and thought sharing this may help guide other students so here goes...
My
name is XXXX. I'm writing to have some guidance from you, for
my final year project. I obtained your email address from the XXX university website.
Sir I’m doing my final year project; the topic of my interest is brain
controlled wheelchair. I need some direction for the topic I have opt. What
novel can I do in this area?
I also need to ask that is it the best choice or should I go for
something else? What else do you suggest for this area?
Thank you Sir.
Respectfully,
XXXX
Student Of BS(CS)
Fatima Jinnah Women University
And here is my reply that I hope may prove useful for other students.
Questions that you should ask
yourself first
In the first part you have asked for
direction on your idea brain controlled wheel chair. It is an interesting idea
though in no way is it novel. Just a simple search on Google will list a number
of such projects done before including a complete instructable (http://www.instructables.com/id/Brain-Controlled-Wheelchair/).
I have seen students do this same project in Pakistan as well (I remember
seeing one in Islamabad at FIT). So the questions that you
should be asking yourself when deciding on an idea to work on is
Q. Why do I want to build this?
Q. Does it solve a particular
problem or need?
Q. Would it be practical enough to
be used in Pakistan (For example Are the EEG Sensors easily available locally
or easy to re-produce locally)
Q. If I made one, would it be cheap
enough that people would be willing to buy it?
Q. Would it be practically usable? How much getting used to
would be required by someone if that someone decides to use it?
You will notice that in the question list, I haven't listed
down a single technical question or challenge. When you work on idea, you
usually build a prototype first to prove your point that the idea is possible.
In this particular case we know that the idea is possible and people (read
students) have built it quite a few times, but we haven't seen it as a
commercial product just yet. So the question comes down to whether it would be
really useful to build a brain controlled wheel chair in the Pakistani context.
The second part of your question is more general as to what
kind of final year project should you be working on. The answer that I'm giving
you is the discussion that I have with my students.
Research based versus non-research based projects
There are 2 kinds of projects. Research based and
non-research based. At under graduate level most students go for non-research
based projects which are mostly practical in nature. Those who are interested
in research based projects are usually who plan to go for a Masters degree by
research or a PhD later. So the first question that you should ask yourself is
what excites you? Doing research which involves reading research papers,
understanding analyzing and implementing them (in probably Matlab) and coming
up with your own improved techniques or algorithms in a particular area. Or building a project
which involves less research and more practical stuff like understanding new
programming libraries or algorithms and implementing them to solve a problem.
Choosing the right supervisor
Once you decide for a particular area you must select a
supervisor who most suits your project and your area. For example if you want
to do a research based project, find a supervisor with a PhD. If you want to do
a more practical project find a supervisor who has worked in the industry or
has worked on practical projects.
Hardware versus Software
If you decide to build a project
that is mostly software then you must see if you have access to the right
development tools. For example most Pakistani universities are part of the
Microsoft Academic Alliance which gives them access to most Microsoft
development tools. If you plan to use a particular library that is not freely
available, can you get an academic free version for it? Or can you find an open
source alternative for that library?
If you are planning to build a
hardware project, there are some important questions to consider. In most cases
hardware is unavailable locally, although there are now a number of local
websites that offer microcontrollers and electronics parts. Here is a list:
Funding your project
One of the most important aspects
that you must consider before going for your idea is to figure out how you are
going to finance your project. There are many ways to fund your project.
1. 1.
National
ICT R&D fund runs a program (http://www.ictrdf.org.pk/ngiri/main1.htm)
where they finance innovative FYP ideas, mostly for buying hardware. You can
get up to Rs 65000 in funding. Usually the fund takes a long time to release
funds so be prepared to spend from your own pocket initially if you plan to
take this route.
2. 2.
Another
way
is to find someone willing to fund your idea. There are several
companies
in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi willing to work with Final Year
Projects. The
key is to find a company that works in your area of domain and would be
willing
to work with you. A good idea is to find someone from the faculty who
knows people in a company you are looking for. Most faculty members have
friends and
colleagues working in local companies.
3. 3. The
third way is to fund your project yourself. In my case I wanted to build a robot which
required considerable finances in buying stuff and getting things done. I
solved this problem by convincing my friends to work with me and ended up with
a group of 5 students. It helped me in sharing the costs and we managed to
spend more than 50,000 on our hardware and manufacturing. Be careful though,
most universities usually only allow a maximum of three students per group.
Finding the right idea?
One of the key questions is to
understand what kind of idea you can work on. Final year project is one of the
most important activities in your undergraduate studies that can define your
future direction. So the decision should be taken very wisely. If you plan to
go for a Masters degree and are good at reading papers then find a research
based project. If you plan to work for a company even then you can do a
research project or vice versa. There is no fix path. For example a student of
mine did a research based project on data mining and started working at IBM (Islamabad)
in the Business Intelligence (BI) division. After working for a couple of years
at IBM he has now gone for his Masters in BI.
When students come to me and ask for
advice regarding projects, I usually tell them to find a problem to solve or a
need to fulfill. So how does one go about finding a problem? I have devised a
top down approach to finding the right problem to solve.
The key is to think big! Ask
yourself what kind of problem can I solve in the universe? Can I create an
algorithm to enable fully autonomous operation of the Mars Rover? If you think
that is too farfetched then narrow down your search. Think of what global problem
can you solve. Have you ever looked at United Nation’s Millennium Goals that
address global issues? There are many competitions as well (ITU Young Innovator’s
Program) that encourage one to solve global problems using Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs). If you still can’t find a problem then look
for a local problem to solve. Think of the problems that face Pakistan today.
Poverty, lack of education, lack of health facilities, etc there are practically
thousands of problems to solve. So choosing to solve one can benefit everyone. Finally
if you still haven’t found a problem to solve then look around you? Can you
find problems where you live or on your university campus? Can you automate a
certain process that could make life easier for students? For example every
university has a tedious clearance process through which each student has to go
through once he/she graduates wasting everyone’s time and energy! Can you somehow automate this
problem? There are once again plenty more to solve.
Finally one way to find ideas is to
read, read and read a lot. Read about things that interest you and you’ll
surely get ideas for your final year project. And once you find an idea, then
discuss it with your peers, your faculty and even your parents. Feedback helps
refine ideas and everyone will give their own perspective which will help in
improving your idea!
Good luck in finding the right idea for your
final year project. Feel free to email back if you have further questions.
