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Final-year project implementing rules for the Bachelor's Degree in Informatics Engineering from the UPM

Preamble

The Final-Year Project (hereafter FYP) is a compulsory module worth 12 ECTS credits. The FYP is defined as an “original exercise to be completed individually and presented and defended before a higher education examining board. It is a professional project on informatics engineering technologies that synthesizes and integrates competences acquired throughout the degree programme” (Spanish Official State Gazette 187, Tuesday, 4 August 2009).

The subject outline for the FYP in the degree programme handbook specifies all the general and specific competences and learning outcomes to be attained by a student completing the project.

Enrolment

Students should enrol for this subject and complete their FYP when they enrol for the last of the 240 ECTS credits that they have to earn to complete their degree programme.

This subject makes no provision for assessment in a deferred or referred examination in July. Students that fail the ordinary examination shall have to repeat the project, that is, the process and milestones described here, under the supervision of the supervisor and the subject committee. Neither is there an option of assessment by final examination only.

Subject milestones for students

Assessment

Student final grades will be based on the three submissions and the public presentation and defence:

Project proposal and assignment

Submissions

Students shall have to make three submissions:

To pass the subject, students have to submit the three scheduled submissions on time. All submissions shall be made via the Facultad de Informática's Virtual Lecture Theatre (Moodle) and be accessible (visible) to all academic staff.

Late submissions shall not be accepted unless there is, in the view of the subject committee or, failing this, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a justified reason.

All students enrolled in the subject, even students on a work placement at a company, shall be subject to these deadlines. In this case, the academic supervisor assigned to the work placement shall be responsible for following up these submissions.

Work plan

Students' first task shall be to give a written description of the project according to the instructions given by the supervisor during the preliminary work sessions. During these sessions, academic staff and students shall further specify the goals to be achieved, plus a preliminary work schedule. The document shall be no more than four pages long and shall have four sections:

Submission grading recommendation: 30% of the grade for each of the first three sections and 10% for overall presentation.

Progress report

The second student submission shall be a progress report describing the work that the student has completed, highlighting any changes that have had to be made to the work plan. The document shall be no more than five pages long and shall have five sections:

Submission grading recommendations: 30% of the grade for each of parts 1 and 2 of the document, 10% for the other three sections, and 10% for overall presentation.

Final report

Students shall be responsible for electronically submitting the final project report completed according to their supervisor's instructions and respecting the report structure and other requirements established by the Degree Programme Academic Committee at the instance of the subject committee.

The first two pages of this report shall contain a brief summary describing the developed project. It shall be up to the project supervisor to define the structure of the remainder of the document and the maximum number of pages.

Project presentation and defence

To pass the subject, students shall have to present and defend the project outlined in the submitted report at a public hearing before an examining board:

The presentations shall be given on the last two days of the examination period. These dates cannot be changed without express permission from the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs subject to submission via the Facultad de Informática's Registry of the respective application and justification, as established in the Examinations Policy.

The project defence shall focus on the background, goals, theoretical foundations, processes, results and conclusions.

Students shall have a maximum of 15 minutes to present and defend their project. This will be followed by a 10-minute question and answer session.

The grade shall be proposed by the majority of the board members and shall be accompanied by a reasoned report from each board member. The subject committee shall award the grade of A with honours to candidates proposed for this grade by the respective boards up to the maximum permitted by the Examinations Policy. In their deliberation, committee members shall have recourse to the reasoned report issued by the examining boards. Only if the examining board's decision is unanimous shall candidates be eligible for the A with honours grade.

Students must upload their presentation in PowerPoint, Open Office or PDF format to the subject electronic repository on the day before public defence. Students must use a laptop provided by the Facultad de Informática to give their presentation, and software demonstrations (e.g. requiring configuration or installation of additional software, Internet connection, etc.) shall not be acceptable. Students shall download their presentation from the electronic repository at the time of the presentation. This way they will not have to connect any device to transfer files to the laptop.

If, for any justified reason (speech difficulties, diction problems, anxiety neurosis, agoraphobia, etc.), any students feel that they should not be expected to present their project under the same conditions as their fellow students, they should notify the subject committee at least one month in advance of the examination date so that the circumstances can be appraised and the case treated, if necessary, as an exception to the rule.

Erasmus students

Students completing their FYP as part of an Erasmus programme at a higher education institution abroad shall not have to follow this procedure, nor are they subject to these rules, which are substituted, in this case, by the respective Learning Agreement. If the presentation and defence of their project before an examining board is not a requirement at the receiving institution, they shall have to give the presentation and defence at the Facultad de Informática as stipulated here.

Students repeating the subject

Students that are repeating the subject can, with the permission of their supervisors and the approval of the subject committee, continue with the project that they were assigned in the previous term or can apply for a new project.

Repeating students that choose to continue with their project may opt to retain the grades that they received for their Work Plan and Progress Report last term or resubmit them for regrading. Students that opt for new projects are obliged to submit new Work Plans and Progress Reports.

Subject coordination structure

The subject shall have a coordinator proposed by the Degree Programme Academic Committee and appointed by the Office of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a FYP subject representative on the Degree Programme Vertical Coordination Committee and a subject coordination committee.

The committee shall be set up every academic year at the end of the first-term enrolment period (September-January) and shall be composed of:

These academic staff members shall be appointed by the directors of department and departmental section in advance of the end of the previous academic year's enrolment period (30 July).

Recommendation: These representatives shall be chosen, on a rotation basis, preferably from among academic staff that volunteer and/or put forward projects in this or previous academic years.

The responsibilities of this committee shall be to: