Final Project Information
General Information
The final project for this course is expected to be a moderately ambitious undertaking
that students devote effort to at a consistent rate throughout the semester. Final
project reports are due by 4:00pm on Thursday, December 4th.
Final projects presentations are scheduled for Tuesday, December 9th,
during the class period.
The final project should fall into one (or more) of the following categories:
- An implementation of an interesting or useful application, using virtual
environments technology.
- An experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of using a particular
virtual environments system or method for a particular purpose or application.
- A literature review on a topic relevant to virtual environments research. This
could involve further investigation in one of the topic areas touched upon in class,
or in a complementary area that wasn't covered. Literature reviews are expected to
provide added value, in the form of critical analysis or novel organization of insights
on the selected topic, beyond merely summarizing the selected readings.
Initial Project Proposals
Initial project proposals are due on or before the end of class on Thursday,
September 25 (four weeks from the start of the term).
Your initial project proposal will count towards 5% of your final project
grade. In it, you should include the following information:
- project title
- project category (implementation, evaluation, literature review, 'hybrid' or 'other')
- team members on the project (implementation and evaluation projects can be done
either individually or in pairs)
- a brief description of the proposed project, including why you chose that topic, and,
if it is an implementation or evaluation project, what equipment you intend to use
- sources you will use to get started (a list of 1-3 papers or books)
- a tentative timeline, consisting of a list of milestones for your project and the
anticipated completion date of each one
Midterm Progress Report
Project progress reports are due on or before the end of class on Thursday,
October 30th (nine weeks from the start of the term).
Your midterm progress report will count towards 5% of your final project
grade. In it, you should include the following information:
- project title
- project category
- names of team members
- a short (e.g. 100-300 word) abstract summarizing the proposal
- a thorough description of the motivation for your project: why did you choose this project?
why is this topic, and this particular project, important/useful? what new insight do you seek
to gain through your work on this project? what contributions do you anticipate making through
your work on this project?
- a detailed project description, including milestones and timeline (specifying your concrete
intermediate goals, and when you completed or expect to complete each step). For implementation and
evaluation projects, you should specify what equipment you are using; for literature
reviews, you should list the sources you have consulted and those you intend to consult,
and describe how you plan to organize and analyze your findings.
- a list of the project deliverables
Final Project Reports
Students are required to submit a written report describing the final project.
These reports are due on Thursday, December 4th (the end of the week before the end of classes).
Your final project will count towards 50% of your final grade in this course.
Your final report should include the following information:
- project title
- project category
- names of all team members (if joint work)
- a polished 200-300 word abstract summarizing the motivation for and accomplishments of the project
- a sufficient review of relevant previous work
- a detailed description of the accomplishments of the project
- a complete bibliography and list of references cited
Suggested Topics for Final Projects
I actively encourage those of you who are either engaged in an ongoing research project,
or are seeking a research project to fulfill your MS degree requirements, to choose a
topic that will complement these other research efforts. It can be a particularly
rewarding and valuable experience when your work on a class project has a significance that
extends beyond merely satisfying the requirements of the course.
Example topics include:
- Implementation of techniques that enable the illusion of walking infinite distances in a finite
space wearing an HMD;
- Implementation of an application that supports a useful activity in an immersive virtual
environment (head-mounted display or immersive projection-based display), such as: immersive sketching,
immersive painting, immersive modeling, etc.
- Implementation of an application that supports a useful type of interaction with a particular
type of data or model, such as immersive information visualization
- A comparative evaluation of distance/size perception in different types of virtual environments, under
different display/interaction/experience conditions
- A comparative evaluation of the relative effectiveness or ease-of-use of different methods or models
of user interaction in a virtual environment
- A comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of different types of display systems (e.g. desktop
computer, head-mounted display, immersive projection display) and/or mode of interaction, on a particular
task, such as navigation and wayfinding, or information visualization
- A review of the current state-of-the-art in a particular research area, such as VR hardware development
- A review of the current state-of-the-art in a particular applications area, such as the use of VR
in design and manufacturing