As part of the project process, I anticipate having you

· Provide a recorded presentation for the class. This recording will be made available to all students in the class.

· Deliver a recorded presentation for the class of your final project report.  This, too, will be made available to all students in the class.

· Submit a written final project report

You should create a well-thought out proposal for a computer simulation/modeling study that you will conduct and report on, both orally and written.  

The study you perform should be ambitious, unique and novel.  You may attempt something strange that no one has tried before, or you may choose to research a previous modeling effort that someone else has performed and suggest a significant enhancement of that effort.  I think that browsing through the many problems in your textbook will give you lots of ideas.  Also, general reading of newspapers and journals might give you ideas.  Recently I was reading an article, Got a minute? Global attention span is narrowing, study reveals, that was based on a modeling study.

Although you should choose something challenging and ambitious, you should also be very realistic.  We often overestimate what we’re capable of learning and exploring in a limited period of time.  It’s often useful to have a bold vision, but to also have some “off ramps” in mind in case you run into too many unanticipated problems.

Your project proposal should be submitted in PDF format and should include the following

· A brief abstract of what you want to do

· Background information about the problem and the value of a new model that allows the lay-reader to understand without having to dig deep into other literature.  At the same time, should include references to more detail.

· An initial summary of

· What information you want to produce and how you will verify and validate it

· What kinds of simplifying assumptions you think you will need to make

· What kinds of variables and parameters you think you will need to consider

· How you will implement the actual model – methods, languages

· How you will verify that the model works for your assumptions

· How you will test the model against the “real world.”

· A preliminary timeline, problems you are worried about, and some possible “alternative plans” (preferably still related to your original modeling idea) in case the problems become overwhelming (I like to call these a “Plan B”).

· A bibliography (with citations in the above text) of references you used to research the proposal

Summary of what to submit

You should submit, long before the deadline, a single PDF file that consists of

• Your      project proposal in PDF format
• final project report
• A      link to your recorded YouTube presentation for the class of your final project      (again, this link will be made available to everybody in this course).

Note: Your work must be unique and no plagiarism. In such case you will be graded zero marks.