Final Year Project Information for Students

Final Year Project Information for Students

Project Selection

The final year project is the most crucial task students must complete as part of their degree course. Therefore, a student must accomplish two tasks immediately to get a head start. These two tasks are listed below:

1. Select a Final Year Project Topic
2. Find a Suitable project supervisor

Selecting a suitable project topic can seem to be a challenging task. Most universities have a database of project lists that final-year project students can consult. The list of topics in the university’s databases are suggestions only and helps the students understand the scale of the project they should be attempting. Most, if not all, universities encourage students to develop their ideas for a project. Students do not have to select a project topic from the university’s list. When and if a student comes up with a project topic, it makes the student think thoroughly about all aspects of the project, helping with their project management skills.

Final Year project students can also consult the university’s project list to view the list of potential supervisors. Most of the time, the university’s list will also list the project supervisors who specialise in their respective fields. This list can benefit students as they can find which project supervisor is the most suitable to help them with their final year project.

Choose Final Year Project and Supervisor Early On

We recommend that you choose a final year project topic and project supervisor by the first week of the start of the final year of your degree. If you leave the project topic selection and supervisor selection too late, the university may assign you a project topic and supervisor. It is possible you may not like the university’s chosen project topic and not get on well with the supervisor appointed by the university. So you must be proactive and make the project topic and supervisor selections yourself. 

You can find helpful information on how to select a final year project topic and choose a suitable supervisor by reading the articles given below:

How to Choose a Final Year Project Topic

Final Year Project Selection Tips for Beginners

How to Select a Final Year Project Topic for Electronics

Project Supervisors

Depending on the university and your degree course, your university may assign a technical and academic supervisor for your final year project.

Technical Project Supervisor

Ideally, your technical project supervisor will teach the subject you selected for your final year project. Furthermore, Working with an expert tutor will give you a significant advantage throughout your final year of project development. In addition, you will learn tips and valuable techniques to work on technical projects.

Your technical final year project supervisor will advise you on any technical and hands-on aspects of your final year project. Initially, the technical project supervisor will assess your ideas, proposal and scope of your project and advise if they are suitable. If some aspects of your final year project are irrelevant, then the technical supervisor will help you improve them. Your technical project supervisor will also read and comment on the first drafts of your project reports before submission, allowing you to enhance the report to better your results.

You should organise a meeting with your technical project supervisor every four weeks to ensure your project is on track. It is best to check with your technical supervisor and agree on the meeting dates and times. You can also list the schedule of the meetings in your final year project proposal. You can send Teams meeting requests or emails to get a meeting confirmation before the planned meeting. These meetings are beneficial; if you are stuck on a problem, you can ask your technical project supervisor for help.

Academic Project Supervisor

Your university may offer you an academic and technical project supervisor.

Your academic supervisor will offer academic supervision and support you with project management. In addition, the academic supervisor will advise and support various crucial non-technical topics, including project proposal reports, project management and planning, etc.

Keep Working Consistently on Final Year Project

It will not be possible to complete your final year project when you start working on it a few weeks before the deadline. An intense activity before the deadline produces no meaningful output for any task.

A final year project student must work on the final year project consistently and efficiently. It will be very beneficial if a student writes draft reports while carrying out the work. In our opinion, it is much easier to write a report about a project task just after completing it than to write about the task months later.

It is vital to make regular progress on the project by working on project objectives to meet your deadline. A written log will help you see the details of where your spent time during the R&D of the project. The students must log their project-related activities in a weekly log. The log should contain the list of tasks you worked on weekly. You should also log the records of your meetings with academic and technical supervisors in the logbook. All the final year project-related progress should be listed on the log book and must be reviewed with a project supervisor during the meeting with your project supervisor. It is best to start the log at the beginning of the final year. In addition, you must submit an appendix along with the project report.

Depending on the university and degree course, sometimes a single project supervisor fulfils the role of both the technical and academic project supervisors. 

Final Year Project Timescale and Deliverables

A final year project student must perform specific tasks and also submit several written reports throughout the final year project. We have listed some of these tasks and documents/written reports below.

• Browse the list of projects issued by the university to get some idea of what project you would like to do.
• Pick a Project Topic and select a final-year project supervisor
• Write up and submit a project proposal
• Interim report covering everything you have done up to the mid-semester
• Hardware Development
• PCB Development
• Software/Firmware Development
• Analysis and Testing
• Project Poster
• First Draft of the final year project report
• A complete Final Year Project Report
• Project Presentation and a short talk

All the universities will assign a deadline for each of these documents, and students ensure that they submit these reports on time to avoid late submission penalties, which can affect a student’s overall grade. Therefore, you should consult your university to get concrete deadlines for submitting the documents mentioned above.

Background Reading

A final-year project student must undertake a lot of background reading on the project topic selected by them. This background reading is encouraged so the student can have a complete handle on the chosen topic and fully understand the problem. A student can use different sources for background reading, such as case studies in a specific industry, magazines, research papers, books and even some earlier projects to solve the problem.

We highly recommend a thorough background reading.

Final Year Project Proposal

At the start of your degree’s final year, you will require to write a proposal for your final year project. Students generally write the final year project proposal after choosing a project topic and comprehensively reading about the topic’s background. In addition, you will conduct a literature review, reading about the past and current techniques used to solve the problem you are trying to address as part of your final year project. Final Year Project Proposal is one of the vital pieces of Final Year Project Information for Students.

Your project proposal should cover the following sections:

• Final Year Project Title
• Abstract
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Images
• Introduction
• Problem Statement
• Aim
• Background
• Literature Review
• Project Objectives
• Methodology
• Block Diagram
• Equipment and Bill of Material
• Test Plan
• Project Budget
• Project Timeline
• Referencing
• Appendix
• Proofreading and Grammar
• Formatting
• Conclusion

You can read the following article, where we have given all the details of what you need to do to write a great final year project proposal.

Final Year Project Report

The details and discussion on the Final Year Project Report is an important elements of the Final Year Project Information for Students. A final year project student should submit a final year project report as part of their final year project. However, it is usual for universities to impose a maximum number of words limit on the final year project report. Usually, the number of words is limited to 10000, excluding the appendix. Therefore, you must check with your university the number of words limit for your final year project report.

The final year project report should follow the format required by the university. Usually, most universities require that the final year project report should consist of the following sections:

Cover Sheet

A final year project report’s cover sheet should contain the project title, student name, candidate number, the title of the degree course, department name, name of the project supervisor and the calendar year.

Statement of Originality

Following the cover sheet, you must include a statement of originality sheet. The statement of originality should state that the submitted work is yours. Where you have used someone else’s work, you must credit it using proper referencing style as required by the university. In addition, the statement of originality section contains any intellectual property agreements in place as part of the final year project. Each university usually provides its template of the statement of originality; students should include that as part of their final year project report. A student then must sign the Statement of Originality to authenticate it.

Acknowledgements

In the acknowledgement section of the final year project report, you will recognise and thank the people and organisations who may have helped you during the project. The individuals may include your project supervisor(s), other students, family members etc.

Summary

This section should contain a one-page summary of the final year project report.

Table of contents

You must include a Table of contents in your final year project report. The table of contents should mention the page number of each section’s heading. Each section’s heading should also contain clickable links to the relevant sections.

Introduction

The introduction section of the final year project report should detail the motivation for the project. In addition, the introduction must include the problem statement/hypothesis, the project’s aim, objectives, and background information. The introduction section should also explain the report’s structure and summarise each section quickly.

Ethical and Professional Considerations

In the interim report, a student must discuss professional and ethical issues relevant to the final year project topic. The student should detail how they addressed ethical and professional concerns in the final year project report. In case there were no or minor ethical concerns that did not require addressing, you should mention them in the introduction section of the report. If significant ethical and professional concerns need addressing, the student must submit the necessary paperwork and evidence to prove how they addressed these concerns. The Appendix section of the report can contain the proof.

Literature Review

The literature review section of the report must include an overview of the state-of-the-art in the subject area of your final year project. In addition, you must thoroughly review and read research papers related to your project topic. The literature review demonstrates to the reader that the author has sufficient research in their subject area and showcases their knowledge and command of the subject.

Body of Report

The final year project report’s body consists of various sections covering the following aspects of the final year project:

• Requirements Analysis
• Specification of the problem addressed
• A description of the project design
• Details of the build and evaluation of the project

Technical and research-based projects will have a different final year project report structure. The main body of the report would consist of several chapters such as methods, testing, and discussion of the results.

A student must explain the project’s different blocks, i.e., the purpose of each element used. The description should be unambiguous and concise so that a layperson can understand it. For example, if the project contains hardware design, you must discuss each hardware element, highlighting its significance. If the final year project involves software development, you must discuss the block-level details of the software sections and features.

In your project, you must use a robust and detailed test methodology to test your system so you can back up any claims made on the finished project. Students are encouraged to define a test matrix covering individual elements of the project and then an overall test matrix testing the whole system developed as part of the final year project. The result section will list all the results of the test. The discussion section should then discuss the results and what the results prove regarding the original project requirements.

Conclusion

The conclusion section of the final year project report should be self-explanatory and concise. The conclusion section should include an assessment of the success of the finished objectives of the project. You should discuss if you have achieved all the project objectives or not. If you have not been able to complete all the project objectives, then you should define the reason. The student should present suggestions for further extension of the project in the future. You must also retrospectively discuss if any other methodologies would achieve better results than the methodologies used in the project.

References

If the final year project report contains or mentions someone else’s work, then you must reference all of this work. You should use the referencing system prescribed by your university to cite any work. If you have consulted any previous projects in the same domain as yours, then you must reference the name of the project, year of completion, student name and supervisor’s name. You must also cite references in the main body of the report where appropriate. Also, do not forget to reference the web pages consulted as part of the research. You should add the webpage’s title, the last time you and the URL Link accessed the website.

Appendices

The appendix of the final year project should include the project proposal and project interim report. Furthermore, also include logs of any meetings or emails that will help the reader while reading the report. The appendix should also include any detailed test data or technical material considered too technical for the main body of the report. All the material in the appendix should be annotated appropriately and presented logically. 

Source Code

If you have written source code as part of your project, then you should check with your university if you can include it as part of the appendix or does it have to be submitted separately. Your project supervisor should be able to answer this for you. Regardless of how you submit your source code, you must reference it in the final year project report.

We have written a detailed article on how to write your final year project report. Please read the article below for in-depth knowledge and guidance on writing a final year project report:

How to Write a Final Year Project Report

Project Presentation

In addition to writing the project proposal, interim report, final year project report, and design work, a student is also expected to present their project. Every student’s performance in the project presentation must be good. The project presentation carries a good percentage of marks. The examiner would assign appropriate marks that will count towards your overall grade.

The project presentation usually lasts for 20 minutes. In the 20 minutes, you should give a brief overview of the project. Furthermore, you should also detail what you have achieved and what you missed to achieve, citing the reasoning. You should also demonstrate the inner working of the project and show the main features. During the project presentation, your aim should be to convince listeners that your project work is original, exciting and high-quality. Therefore, we recommend you prepare your presentation and practice it with a friend or other students in your class.

It is important to note that a project presentation is a must-attend event, and you should not miss it. If you miss it without a solid reason, you will lose the marks associated with the final year project presentation.

Project Poster

Sometimes, there is an option to create and present a poster as part of your project presentation. You may also use the poster during conferences or exhibitions at the university. You should check your university policy regarding the poster format, submission, and presentation.

Final Year Project and Employment Prospects

Your final year project will be the most critical piece of academic work you will ever do. Hence, you must focus and pay particular attention throughout the final year project. Understandably, undertaking a final year project can be a daunting and exciting task. A final year project is challenging because it requires considerable time, effort, and self-discipline. But on the other hand, the final year project is exciting because a successful project is enriching and satisfying. A successful final year project boosts the students’ self-confidence.

Final Year Project Enhances Student’s Skills

The final year project requires a mixture of different kinds of skills to be successful: analytical thinking, problem-solving, research approach, and both written and spoken communication. The final year project makes students think on their own. Furthermore, a final year project also enables the student’s ability to reach limits they never thought were possible. Ultimately, this gives students confidence even if they have not achieved all the project objectives.

The final year project is the most wildly focused area regarding graduate recruitment. A final year project is an excellent indicator of a student’s overall ability to undertake a serious and professional piece of work. Most employers will be interested to know and discuss the details of your final year project. Hence, a successfully executed final year project gives you something to discuss as part of your job hunt. You should come across as a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and admirable candidate to a potential employer. A final year project is an excellent way to demonstrate your problem-solving, creative thinking and independent working skills.

Summary

This article presented helpful information for students undertaking a final year project. Firstly, we explained how important the final year project is for students. We also detailed the importance of the final year project topic and supervisor selection. Every university usually has a list of projects that final year project students can look at to decide if they want to choose a project and supervisor from the list. The students can also make use of this list to come up with their project topic, and this list will help them define the scope and objectives of the project.

The final year project student would usually be assigned a technical and academic project supervisor. Therefore, the students need to stay in regular contact with their supervisors. It is also vital for students to get advice from their supervisors if they get stuck on any part of their project.

Keep Working Consistently on the Final Year Project Report

Another important piece of information for final year project students is related to consistent work. It is also crucial for students to keep working consistently on their final year projects throughout the academic year. The students should not leave things till the last minute, as usual; this would result in students not performing tasks optimally. Late project execution will result in students not achieving good marks. Every final year project student should have a detailed project plan and the timeline for each project objective. The student should review the project plan regularly to ensure the project is progressing as planned.

The project proposal is a critical report that universities expect you to submit at the start of the academic year. The project proposal report should clearly define the project problem statement, project aims and clear objectives, along with the other elements given in this article.

The interim report submission is usually during the mid-section of the academic year. The interim report is a project review report where a student would highlight the project objectives completed thus far, any issues found during the project execution and any changes to the project scope.

Final Year Project Report is Very Important

Final Year Project Information for students is undoubtedly incomplete without mentioning the Final Year Project Report.

Following the interim report, the final year project report’s submission date is usually at the end of the academic year. The final year project report carries the most marks for the final year project module. The students can include parts of the project proposal and interim report along with the methodology, testing, results and discussion on the results achieved. The students should indicate if the final year project was a success and fully justify it in no uncertain terms. If you have not met some of the project objectives, then the student should detail the reasoning behind this. The student should also present ideas for improving the project and lessons learnt during the execution. If the student thinks other methods can result in better project execution, then the student must present these methods as part of the future work section of the final year project report.

If a student has used others’ work, others’ work should be cited using the referencing style prescribed by the university.

Create an Immaculate Project Presentation

The student should also prepare a presentation to practically demonstrate the project. This presentation usually lasts for 20 minutes. Some universities require that students also design a project poster to display during the presentation. Finally, the students should methodically and clearly describe the project in detail and answer any questions the assessors may have about the project.

A successfully executed final year project would be helpful for students looking for a job after graduation. The employers focus more on students’ final year projects and mostly ask questions about the final year project. A successfully executed final year project gives students something to discuss in the job interview. The students would also be able to demonstrate knowledge, independent working skills and enthusiasm in their respective fields.

We hope that after reading the Final Year Project Information for Students given in this article, students will feel more confident when undertaking the final year project.