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Guide to the ALM Capstone Project

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• Final Capstone Paper

While your final capstone can take other forms (e.g., digital media project or a policy paper for a local government), many students submit a standard research paper. The papers are formatted with eight main sections plus two optional parts (in parentheses):

• Summary /Abstract
• (Acknowledgements)
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Conclusions & Recommendations
• Literature Cited
• (Appendices).

Alternatively, with approval, you can use the format required by a competitive, peer-reviewed journal in your professional discipline; thereby, making your capstone project publication ready.

• Course Sequencing and Timeline
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CAPSTONE PROJECT: Parts of a Capstone Project

• Parts of a Capstone Project
• Voice in the Capstone Project
• Analysis of Qualitative Data

What a Table of Contents Could Contain

I      Introduction        A     Statement Of Problem/Opportunity (Research Question)        B     Background, Context, And Significance Of Study        C     Project Researcher Identification II     Literature Review        A     Subheadings (Themes Discovered In Review)        B     Notice Of Gaps In Knowledge III    Methods        A     Subjects/Participants        B     Data Collection Approaches/Strategies              1     Advantage Of Strategy              2     Limitation Of Strategy              3     Potential Risk              4     Ethical Issues About Collection Upon The Subjects/Participants        C     Data Analysis Approaches And/Or Software (NOT The Results Themselves, Just How You Are Going To Analyze The Data – Coding Method, Analysis Of Interviews/Recordings, Mathematics And Stats Analysis) IV     Results, Findings, Interpretation, And Discussion V      Recommendations, Application, And Conclusion VI     Reference Pages

What Goes Into Each Section

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Capstone & Thesis Research

Before you begin your research project, steps in doing a capstone paper or project, graduate thesis and dissertation general guidelines, find theses and dissertations, academic writing and research video, watch and learn with webster u. library online presentations, the research cycle.

• Thinking about your Project
• Selecting and Focusing Your Research Topic
• Start Searching
• Literature Review This link opens in a new window
• Doing Primary Research
• Presentation Skills This link opens in a new window
• Specific Graduate Programs
• Writing and Citing
• Mendeley Citation Manager This link opens in a new window

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Make sure you understand what is required. Read your assignment carefully and talk with your instructor if you need clarification. Think about how much time and other resources you have and need to complete all parts of the research assignment within the course timetable.

Select a topic area. See the " Selecting and focusing your research topic " tab at left for suggestions on choosing a topic, narrowing your focus, and developing a thesis statement or research question.

Do a literature review. The " Literature Review " tab will link you to helpful resources for planning a search and organizing your results. The "Start Searching" tab gives some examples for using article databases effectively.

Doing primary research (for those students required to do so). Check the " Doing primary research " tab for resources on creating surveys, finding tests, designing studies, etc.

Present your results. The " Writing & Citing " tab brings together resources for writing the paper, citing your sources, and avoiding plagiarism. The " Presentation skills " tab will help you create effective visual aids and deliver a professional presentation.

Here you will find everything you need to know about the purpose of a dissertation or thesis and the steps to complete and submit your work.

The Guidelines were created by the Webster University Office of Academic Affairs and approved by Webster University Graduate Council. The most recent version of the Guidelines is the 2023 revision.

• Theses and Dissertation Guidelines
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Academic writing and research: Top tips to transform your paper

• Academic Writing & Research: Top Tips to Transform Your Paper (Recorded on Apr. 3, 2019; 37 minutes) New to writing and research or just want to up your game? Join us! Learn simple and effective tips from Writing Center and Library staff to make your writing more polished and to find and integrate others’ ideas and research to strengthen your thesis and argument. Click here to watch specific parts of this video.

Watch  specific topics in this video

Visit our Library Training, Tutorials & Webinars  page to see tutorials that will sharpen your research skills and offer helpful guidance in doing a capstone, thesis or advanced research project. Recorded webinars may be watched at your convenience. Live webinars offer an interactive experience with Webster U. librarians present to answer your questions.

The Research Cycle is a circular process with the goal of identifying relevant and useful results.  The pieces of the process are:

• Define task: What is your assignment, problem or question?
• Identify options: What kinds of information do you need and where do you look?
• Select your sources: How do you search for them and which do you choose?
• Analyze content: What di you discover and what does it mean?
• Present findings: How do you organize and communicate what you have learned?

When you complete these steps you will need to evaluate your results.  Depending on your assignment you may need to refine or change your question and begin the process again.

 CMST 101: Introduction to Communications, Marian Lyles: Intro to Research. Seattle Central College Library.  Seattle Central College. 10 Feb. 2016. Web. 16 Jun 2016.

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Beyond the Research Paper: Redesigning the Capstone Project

Oct 5th, 2020 by Dominique

As we approach what would have been Fall break in a typical semester, many of us–students, faculty, and staff alike–are starting to feel like we’ve hit a physical and emotional wall . Burnout and fatigue are common to any semester, but COVID has exacerbated these conditions. Acknowledging burnout at mid-semester poses interesting challenges and opportunities looking ahead to pre-Thanksgiving finals . If your course ends with a long research paper, you may be considering ways to simplify or refocus while maintaining rigor and effective evaluation. Redesigning the research assignment can help students to pace themselves and also manage our end of semester workload. 

Why consider alternative research assignments? 

The research paper has its own rhetorical components and methods that make it an important genre for undergraduate students to learn and practice. If course goals prioritize generic components like discipline-specific argumentation, or if your course requires a minimum page count, then research papers are natural and necessary modes of assessment. However, the research paper assignment also has other goals that are not bound to the genre . If your goals focus on the demonstration of foundational research skills, communication, synthesis and/or critical thinking, you could consider alternative capstone assignments. 

Alternatives can: 

• lighten the grading load
• scaffold the skills and strategies necessary for writing complex arguments 
• develop and diversify student strengths and interests 
• expose students to different voices and modes of communication
• help students to experiment with audience beyond their professor 

How to create an alternative research assignment?

Standard research paper outcomes include research, argumentation, understanding of content, incorporation of evidence, citation, and synthesis. Think outside of the box and consider other outcomes that may assess the students’ abilities. Be sure to prioritize and connect assignment to course goals and consider the problems, skills, or knowledge the assignment will address. Consider devoting short segments of class time to tasks that will help students develop the skills necessary to complete the assignment. Call on colleagues, librarians, and/or technical experts to brainstorm alternative assignments. Remember: if you change anything in the course, be transparent with students about your reasons for doing so and make your evaluation criteria clear. 

Sample alternative assignments: 

• All-but-the-paper term paper: students complete every step in the research paper process and then write the introductory and concluding pages, a detailed outline of the body, an annotated bibliography, and an abstract
• Put on a class conference complete with poster sessions, panels, papers, etc. and let students choose how they will present research
• Summarize the literature on a topic and present the findings
• Create an anthology of readings complete with an introduction and reading summaries
• Create, judge, and “fund” research proposals
• Annotate an article for a novice reader
• Create an advertisement
• Analyze and respond to a case study
• Create an infographic 
• Explanation of a multiple-choice answer: students must explain why the answer they chose to a multiple-choice question is correct, or why the alternative answers are wrong
• Meaningful paragraph: given a list of specific terms, students must use the terms in a paragraph that demonstrates that they understand the terms and their interconnections
• Curate a portfolio to demonstrate evolution of work and thinking over time

As we begin the uphill push to the end of the semester, we can also think ahead to next semester and take stock of strategies that successfully motivate student learning and engagement under these unique circumstances. Above all, let’s continue to be patient and creative in pacing student work and assessment. 

References & Additional Reading:

“ Tip: Research Paper Alternatives ,” Tips for Teaching Professors  “ Alternatives to to Traditional Exams and Papers ,” Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning IU Bloomington “ Library Assignments / Research Paper Alternatives ,” Carson-Newman University  “ Alternatives to Research Papers ,” University of Connecticut “ Alternatives to the Research Paper ,” Muhlenberg College  Video Interview on UDL Assessment , Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment (CAFE) at Durham College Remix Multimedia Resources , Hesburgh Libraries and the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning

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Capstone Components

12 Research Design

The story continues….

“So, how do we go about answering our research questions?” asked Harry.

Physicus explained that they will have to analyze their questions to see what types of answers are required. Knowing this will guide their decisions about how to design the needs assessment to answer their questions.

“There are two basic types of answers to research questions, quantitative and qualitative. The types of answers the questions require tell us what type of research design we need,” said Physicus.

“I guess if I ask how we decide which type of research design we should choose, you will say, ‘It depends?'” uttered Harry.

Physicus’ face brightened as he blurted out, “Absolutely not! Negative!” Physicus continued, “If the research questions are stated well, there will only be two ways in which they can be answered. The research questions are king; they make all the decisions.”

“How come?” Harry appeared confused.

“Well, let us see. Think about our first question. How many mice will Pickles attack at one time? What type of answer does this question require? It requires a numeric answer, correct?” Physicus asked.

“Yes, that is correct,” Harry said.

Physicus continued, “Good. So, does our second question also require a numeric answer?”

“The second question is also answered with a number,” replied Harry

Physicus blurted, “Correct! This means we need to use a quantitative research design!”

Physicus continued, “Now if we had research questions that could not be answered with numbers, we would need to use a qualitative research design to answer our questions with words or phrases instead.”

Harry now appeared relieved, “I get it. So in designing a research project, we simply look for a way to answer the research questions. That’s easy!”

“Well, it depends,” answered Physicus smiling.

Interpreting the Story

There are qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and applied research designs. Based on the research questions, the research design will be obvious. Physicus led Harry in determining their investigation would need a quantitative design, because they only needed numerical data to answer their research questions. If Harry’s questions could only be answered with words or phrases, then a qualitative design would be needed. If the friends had questions needing to be answered with numbers and phrases, then either a mixed methods or an applied research design would have been the choice.

Research Design

The Research Design explains what type of research is being conducted in the needs assessment. The writing in this heading also explains why this type of research is needed to obtain the answers to the research or guiding questions for the project. The design provides a blueprint for the methodology. Articulating the nature of the research design is critical for explaining the Methodology (see the next chapter).

There are four categories of research designs used in educational research and a variety of specific research designs in each category. The first step in determining which category to use is to identify what type of data will answer the research questions. As in our story, Harry and Physicus had research questions that required quantitative answers, so the category of their research design is quantitative.

The next step in finding the specific research design is to consider the purpose (goal) of the research project. The research design must support the purpose. In our story, Harry and Physicus need a quantitative research design that supports their goal of determining the effect of the number of mice Pickles encounters at one time on his behavior.  A causal-comparative or quasi-experimental research design is the best choice for the friends because these are specific quantitative designs used to find a cause-and-effect relationship.

Quantitative Research Designs

Quantitative research designs seek results based on statistical analyses of the collected numerical data. The primary quantitative designs used in educational research include descriptive, correlational, causal-comparative, and quasi-experimental designs. Numerical data are collected and analyzed using statistical calculations appropriate for the design. For example, analyses like mean, median, mode, range, etc. are used to describe or explain a phenomenon observed in a descriptive research design. A correlational research design uses statistics, such as correlation coefficient or regression analyses to explain how two phenomena are related. Causal-comparative and quasi-experimental designs use analyses needed to establish causal relationships, such as pre-post testing, or behavior change (like in our story).

The use of numerical data guides both the methodology and the analysis protocols. The design also guides and limits how the results are interpreted. Examples of quantitative data found in educational research include test scores, grade point averages, and dropout rates.

Qualitative Research Designs

Qualitative research designs involve obtaining verbal, perspective, and/or visual results using code-based analyses of collected data. Typical qualitative designs used in educational research include the case study, phenomenological, grounded theory, and ethnography. These designs involve exploring behaviors, perceptions/feelings, and social/cultural phenomena found in educational settings.

Qualitative designs result in a written description of the findings. Data collection strategies include observations, interviews, focus groups, surveys, and documentation reviews. The data are recorded as words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. Data are then grouped together to form themes. The process of grouping data to form themes is called coding. The labeled themes become the “code” used to interpret the data. The coding can be determined ahead of time before data are collected, or the coding emerges from the collected data. Data collection strategies often include media such as video and audio recordings. These recordings are transcribed into words to allow for the coding analysis.

The use of qualitative data guides both the methodology and the analysis protocols. The “squishy” nature of qualitative data (words vs. numbers) and the data coding analysis limits the interpretation and conclusions made from the results. It is important to explain the coding analysis used to provide clear reasoning for the themes and how these relate to the research questions.

Mixed Method Designs

Mixed Methods research designs are used when the research questions must be answered with results that are both quantitative and qualitative. These designs integrate the data results to arrive at conclusions. A mixed method design is used when there are greater benefits to using multiple data types, sources, and analyses. Examples of typical mixed methods design approaches in education include convergent, explanatory, exploratory, and embedded designs. Using mixed methods approaches in educational research allows the researcher to triangulate, complement, or expand understanding using multiple types of data.

The use of mixed methods data guides the methodology, analysis, and interpretation of the results. Using both qualitative (quant) and quantitative (qual) data analyses provides a clearer or more balanced picture of the results. Data are analyzed sequentially or concurrently depending on the design. While the quantitative and qualitative data are analyzed independently, the results are interpreted integratively. The findings are a synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Applied Research Designs

Applied research designs seek both quantitative and qualitative results to address issues of educational practice. Applied research designs include evaluation, design and development, and action research. The purposes of applied research are to identify best practices, to innovate or improve current practices or policies, to test pedagogy, and to evaluate effectiveness. The results of applied research designs provide practical solutions to problems in educational practice.

Applied designs use both theoretical and empirical data. Theoretical data are collected from published theories or other research. Empirical data are obtained by conducting a needs assessment or other data collection methods. Data analyses include both quantitative and qualitative procedures. The findings are interpreted integratively as in mixed methods approaches, and then “applied” to the problem to form a solution.

Telling the research story

The Research Design in a research project tells the story of what direction the plot of the story will take.  The writing in this heading sets the stage for the rising action of the plot in the research story. The Research Design describes the journey that is about to take place. It functions to guide the reader in understanding the type of path the story will follow. The Research Design is the overall direction of the research story and is determined before deciding on the specific steps to take in obtaining and analyzing the data.

The Research Design heading appears in Chapter 2 of a capstone project. In the capstone project, the Research Design explains the type of design used for conducting the needs assessment.

Capstone Projects in Education: Learning the Research Story Copyright © 2023 by Kimberly Chappell and Greg I. Voykhansky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Sample Capstone

Here’s a sample research paper from a past OHS student.  It’s longer than I expect for the Capstone (~15 page) but it should give you an idea of what I am looking for.  Ideally the abstract would be a little longer, the main body a little shorter.

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Applied ms capstone papers.

References to publications, sorted by year and author.

Ansari, RCHIS, BS. S. (2015) “Optimization of a Clinical Decision Support Rule that detects Heparin-induced Thrombocytopenia” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Briones, L. (2015) “Analysis and Improvement of Cancer Data Reporting” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Fregia, H. (2015) “Content Management of Clinical Decision Support Order Sets” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Garza, G. (2015) “Electronic Health Records Applications and Outcomes in Special Projects in the Rio Grande Valley” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Kapoor, BS. M. (2015) “Making Big Data Effective with Visualizations” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Loubser, MD. P. (2015) “Development of an Asynchronous Postgraduate Anesthesiology Educational Prototype” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Nichols, M. (2015) “Epic Chart Review Web-based Tutorial and Inpatient Quick Reference Guide (QRC) Development: An Informatics Approach” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Sayre, D. (2015) “Development of a Health Risk Assessment Tool for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Arandela, Ad. (2015) “Workflow Analysis of Ben Taub Hospital's Clinical Processes” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Arandela, Al. (2015) “Workflow Process Analysis and Redesign to Improve System Interoperability, Communication, and Coordination Between Different User Roles at the Ben Taub Operating Room” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Eilami, K. (2015) “Evaluating the Effectiveness of Order Set Utilization on ICU Patients” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Pandey, MBA. S. (2015) “Mobile Devices in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Reichgott, MD. K. (2015) “Mobile Devices in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Saldana, BS, M(ASCP)CM. A. (2015) “Mobile Devices in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Jardine, MPH. M. (2014) “Telehealth: Its Impact on Health Policy and Population Health Management” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Tharamai,BS EE. L. (2014) “Business Process Analysis and Workflow Mapping” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Nguyen, BS. K. (2014) “How Will Adoption Of A Unique Patient Identifier Affect U.S. Healthcare Reform, Relative To The Emerging National Health Information Network Infrastructure?” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Rezanejad, MD. N. (2014) “Barriers in the Electronic Health Record Implementation Process: A Systematic Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Joshi, BS, MLS(ASCP). S. (2013) “Health Information Exchange: A Review of the Literature Examining the Definition as it Relates to Meaningful Use Stage 2, Evaluating Barriers and Motivators to Participation Among Primary Care Practices, and Assessing Factors for Successful Implementation” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Ungerer, RN, BSN. R. (2013) “Health Information Exchange: A Review of the Literature Examining the Definition as it Relates to Meaningful Use Stage 2, Evaluating Barriers and Motivators to Participation Among Primary Care Practices, and Assessing Factors for Successful Implementation” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Wells, PharmD, RPh. A. (2013) “Health Information Exchange: A Review of the Literature Examining the Definition as it Relates to Meaningful Use Stage 2, Evaluating Barriers and Motivators to Participation Among Primary Care Practices, and Assessing Factors for Successful Implementation” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Condon, J. C. (2012) “Utilization of Mobile Technology in a Hospital Setting” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Keeton, P. O. (2012) “Utilization of Mobile Technology in a Hospital Setting” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Lisina, A. (2012) “Utilization of Mobile Technology in a Hospital Setting” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Ellwood, S. (2012) “Solving the Medication Reconciliation Dilemma Using Health Information Technology” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Kannan, K. (2012) “Solving the Medication Reconciliation Dilemma Using Health Information Technology” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Fatoye, L. (2012) “What are the Potential Utilities of a PHR: A Literature Review” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Harold, BS, PMP. N. (2012) “Social Media in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Perez, BSN, RN. C.(2012) “Social Media in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Zarda, BS, RHIA. S. (2012) “Social Media in Healthcare: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Brixey, BS, MTASCP. J. E. (2012) "Personal Health Records: A Review of the Literature Review " Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Campbell, BSN, RN. D. (2012) “Computerized Physician Order Entry … Will It Save Your Life? A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Fulton, BA. D (2012) “Computerized Physician Order Entry … Will It Save Your Life? A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Jones, RN, MSN. P. (2012) "Organizing Chaos: A Literature Review of the Form and Function of an Electronic ED Whiteboard" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Joseph, BS, MS. B. (2012) “HIT and EHR Adoption in Rural and Critical Access Hospitals:  A Review of the Literature”    Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Kannan, ND. K (2012) "Solving the Medication Reconciliation Dilemma Using Health Information Technology: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Meese, BS. M. (2012) "Organizing Chaos: A Literature Review of the Form and Function of an Electronic ED Whiteboard" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Morris, LMSW. C. (2012) “Technology’s Impact on Medication Reconciliation: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Ozoka, BS. N. S. (2012) “HIT and EHR Adoption in Rural and Critical Access Hospitals: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Rais, MD. M. (2012) “Technology’s Impact on Medication Reconciliation: A Review of the Literature”  Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Stubblefield III, BS, EMBA. J. B. (2012) “HIT and EHR Adoption in Rural and Critical Access Hospitals: A Review of the Literature” Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Thaker, BS, RHIT. S. (2012) "The Potential of Electronic Personal Health Records: A Review of the Literature" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Clabough, BS, RN. L. D. (2011) "Can Mobile Telemedicine Clinics Help Solve America’s Healthcare Needs: An Integrative Review of the Literature" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Cuevas, MSN, FNP, BC. E. L. (2011) "Utilization and Acceptance of the Personal Health Record: An Integrative Review of the Literature" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Jenkins, MBA. C.M. (2011) "Can Mobile Telemedicine Clinics Help Solve America’s Healthcare Needs: An Integrative Review of the Literature" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Rubio, BS, RHIT. C.(2011) "Utilization and Acceptance of the Personal Health Record: An Integrative Review of the Literature" Capstone Papers, The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston.

Thesis, Dissertation, Research Paper, CAPSTONE REPORT

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Many graduate programs require students to complete a final paper (research paper, capstone report, thesis, or dissertation) and submit it to the Graduate School. These final papers must be submitted electronically via the appropriate submission site. The standards of preparation that have been established by SIU graduate faculty and the administration of the Graduate School must be followed.

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2024 Software Engineering Capstone Designs

Territorial acknowledgment.

The Software Engineering program acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.  

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR  

Victoria Sakhnini  Director of Software Engineering 

Dear Graduates, 

Congratulations on reaching this pivotal moment in your academic journey! As we approach the Capstone Design Project, I want to take a moment to applaud your hard work, resilience, and innovative spirit throughout your time in the program. 

Your projects showcase the diverse range of ideas and solutions you've explored, covering everything from healthcare to finance to environmental sustainability. This variety reflects the depth and breadth of your learning experiences. Beyond the classroom, you've tackled real-world challenges head-on, navigating deadlines and standards with determination. This hands-on experience has sharpened your technical skills and cultivated your leadership abilities. Already, you've achieved significant milestones, from submitting scientific papers to contributing to open-source projects. These accomplishments highlight your talent and dedication to making a difference.  

As you prepare to showcase your projects, remember the journey that brought you here and the impact you're braced to make. Your projects aren't just technical achievements—they represent your passion, creativity, and commitment to positive change. 

In the years ahead, carry forward the lessons learned and the challenges overcome. You're equipped with the skills and vision to shape a brighter future. With your talent, determination, and vision, you have the power to shape a better future for generations to come. Embrace this opportunity to leave your mark on the world and continue striving for excellence in all you do. 

Once again, congratulations on this momentous achievement. We're immensely proud of you, and we can't wait to see the incredible contributions you'll continue to make. 

Sincerely, 

Victoria Sakhnini 

Director of Software Engineering 

CAPSTONE DESIGN PARTICIPANTS  

ATARRA Audiogen Based JAML  Design Party Fire Optices MicroMusic Mira Muntalacier

Narratives NewBloom PILAR Pixel Team Epsilon Team Go TIme Team Gols Team Goose

Team Pursuit Team Sasquatch Team Spacewalk Three TrainsControl Wave Zephatech

Ryan Dancy, Taya Davison, Amir Roshankar, Aariana Singh, Alex Van De Wiele, Raymond Zhou

Our project is an invasive plant species identifier which leverages AI to identify invasive Phragmites australis from satellite imagery. Phragmites australis is one of Ontario's worst invasive species and a massive threat to biodiversity. Currently, conservationists are limited to manual field exploration to find and remove this invasive species. We hope our tool will optimize their workflow by allowing them to predict the locations of Phragmites patches. We developed an application as an interface through which conservationists can access our AI model and extract insights.

Kyle Anderson, Russell Chan, Patrick Davies, Dylan Snelgrove, Hannah Zhu

Audiobooks are a convenient alternative to standard books, allowing listeners to enjoy a novel completely hands-free. However, with over 48.5 million books on Amazon but only 200,000 audiobooks on Audible, fewer than 1% of books have an Audiobook format. Audiogen makes audiobook creation more accessible, integrating state-of-the-art large language models and speech synthesizers to generate audiobooks on demand. We bring books to life, incorporating natural sounding narration and dialogue infused with emotion to form a compelling narrative where each character speaks in their own voice.

Based JAML 

Laura Florea, Andrew Guo, Jack Hu, Molly Yu

The redesigned SE 464 course emphasizes modern software architecture, focusing on scalable, performance-driven designs suited for today's complex systems. This curriculum, meticulously crafted to bridge the gap in performance-focused architecture, aims to equip students with vital industry-relevant skills for developing robust, scalable systems. Including comprehensive labs for practical application, the course seeks student feedback for continuous improvement. This strategic approach ensures students are well-prepared for real-world system design challenges and to engineer reliable, high-performance software systems.

Design Party

Neha George, Aparajita Ghimire, Kevin Li, Andrea Miranda, Zhengmao Ouyang

Going on exchange is a remarkable opportunity, which many students consider but do not pursue. It is difficult for students to be well-informed about the living environment of potential schools, and challenging for students and advisors alike to identify foreign course sequences satisfying UW academic plans. XChange eases these difficulties by providing a web-service allowing users to query schools and previously approved course equivalencies. Students can also post about their experiences on exchange, informing others about crucial topics related to safety, housing, finances, and more.

Elliott Song, Peter Szczeszynski, Timmy Thorpe, Eli Williams

Creating synthesizer presets is a difficult process that requires skill and effort - until now. MicroMusic creates a synthesizer (Vital) preset from a WAV file automatically. The presets are generated within 1 second, and the overall model error is 2%. This model was created through daily trains on 500000 unique data points, using a customized Resnet architecure. Public release of the model has attracted over 3000 users with over 12000 downloads.

Mark Wang, Harry Yu, Alison Zhang

The pandemic has shifted lots of workplaces and schools to be remote. With remote jobs and studies, the problem arises that it is difficult for people to work efficiently with their teammates for collaboration such as pair programming and school projects. Our tool, Mira Screen Share, is designed to make remote collaboration more seamless by allowing not only sharing the screen but also concurrent viewing and remote controlling from multiple users. The use cases includes pair programming, co-authoring documents, troubleshooting, and more.

Muntalacier

Asim Bhatia, Md. Abdul Chowdhury, Aly Muhammad Mithani, Faiz Momin, Aryan Patel, Muntaqim Rahman

Chasm is a learning platform that gives students access to problems that will help them build skills to excel in their exams. Often, students struggle to find problems relevant to their course material and can't collaborate on these problems to fill gaps in their knowledge. Chasm allows users to submit and vote on questions to trickle the highest quality problems to the top, and after attemping post and comment on solutions from their peers to truly solidify their understanding.

Robert Craig, Ryan Ehrlich, Harris Luo, Sam Orend

Code review is critical for identifying bugs and maintaining code quality, but current tooling presents code snippets in an unintelligent order (e.g. alphabetical), which makes reviewing them more time consuming and error prone. We proposed a new code review system that enables authors to organize their code snippets into different sections and to include annotations that walk reviewers through their changes. We both developed a GitHub-integrated web application and implemented these changes directly in GitLab.

Emily Lin, Richard Sun, Wendi Yu

In Canada, the immigration system grants asylum to politically persecuted refugees. In 2022, 68% of 94,246 asylum applications were approved. To ensure transparency, supporting documents are released publicly after redaction due to personal information concerns. Manual redaction by government court redactors is time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to high turnover. Our solution, NewBloom, utilizes machine learning to suggest redactions, improving speed, accuracy, and redactor confidence. Through ergonomic UI and redaction abstractions, we combat biases, enhance accountability, and streamline the process. Initial testing with student volunteers showed significant improvements over manual methods.

Aaron Abraham, Yash Dani, Kevin Zhang

Modern software applications generate logs, requiring parsing for analysis. The PILAR parser algorithm, notable for its design simplicity, enhances log processing but is not optimized for industrial-scale applications. Our project integrates PILAR into Logstash as a plugin, enabling parser deployment at scale. By addressing challenges like streaming log compatibility, thread safety, scalability, and compliance with Logstash standards, our plugin achieves high accuracy and processes logs rapidly with minimal latency. Published on RubyGems, it's under review for official Logstash integration and submitted to FSE 2024.

Yameen Abba, Jack Douglas, Marco Liu, Kevin Yang, Alexander Yee

Novelty is a software system that facilitates graphic novel creation using natural language processing and generative AI. First, users upload a text file to Novelty. An initial rendering of the graphic novel is created, and users can customize the style and contents of the illustration with prompts. Once the user is satisfied, Novelty returns a PDF of their generated graphic novel. Novelty accelerates the process of creating graphic novels and is accessible to everyone. 

Team Epsilon

Boon Boonsiri, Luke Klassen, Sunny Lan, Royi Luo

S4DGE - Some 4D Game Extension - is an open-source plugin for Unity which provides a base for developers to build games with a 4th spatial dimension as a core gameplay component. S4DGE can render any 4D object and offers tooling to generate such objects. Users can add arbitrary 4D shapes into any Unity scene, and manipulate them as they would in a typical Unity workflow, allowing them to seamlessly integrate 4D ideas into their games.

Anthony Chang, Michael Pu, Kieran Quan, Andrew Wang, Yiwei Zhou

Snowflake helps users bypass internet censorship in highly restrictive regions by disguising their online activities as video or voice calls. To accomplish this, the system needs a rendezvous mechanism to connect censored users to the rest of the world. Our work focuses on improving Snowflake's resilience by developing and testing new methods for rendezvous. We successfully implemented and deployed our AWS SQS-powered rendezvous method and are actively researching additional techniques, such as DNS over HTTPS, to further enhance Snowflake's efficacy in the future.

Will Harris, Jerry Qu

Team Goose has built You, a voice-based assistant that can hold natural and convincing conversations. You combines the technologies of voice activity detection, echo cancellation, speech recognition, large language models, and text to speech. It utilizes multiprocessing and streaming in order to meet real-time performance goals and deliver a convincing conversational experience.

Team Go TIme

Nicholas Makharinets, Jacob Meleka, Braydn Moore

Online sports betting is forecasted to grow from $36 billion in 2022 to $116 billion by 2032, fueled by legalization in various regions. Currently, states like California, Texas, and Florida are poised to legalize it within five years, despite 1 in 5 Americans already participating in private betting. Retail sports bettors face significant losses, averaging 3-10% per dollar wagered. Omega Odds addresses this by offering a platform that identifies statistically profitable wagers from major sportsbooks in real-time, enhancing bettor profitability. Our service provides unparalleled transparency, showing all recommendation histories. This helps bettors avoid the typical losses associated with hidden fees, potentially saving thousands annually. Our performance is measured by user interaction and the success of our recommendation algorithm, which has demonstrated a 1.85% daily return, equating to a monthly profit of 73.31%.

Team Pursuit

Joshua Cheng, Maahir Gupta, Het Shah, Danny Wu

Pursuit reimagines hide and seek for the digital age, merging geolocation with physical activity to enhance social connections. This mobile web app allows players to "ping" their location, adding real-time excitement to traditional gameplay. It targets a wide audience seeking active, social games, leveraging technology to revitalize a classic, fostering adult engagement through competitive, scalable play. Anticipating private lobbies and a basic mode by January 2024, our objective is 50 weekly active users, aiming for feedback-driven enhancements. This project underscores technology's role in transforming social interaction and physical activity.

Team Sasquatch

Yash Arora, Armanya Dalmia, Oustan Ding, Jessica Lui, Tony Zhao

Maintaining closeness in long-distance relationships is challenging. Digital communication, while crucial, often falls short. Tether fills this gap by offering a shared space for couples to connect despite distance. Research into cognitive psychology reveals that relationship satisfaction depends on partners feeling they share the same reality. This involves integrating your partner into the daily details of your life, aligning on goals, and creating a shared space. Tether embodies this principle by providing a platform for photos, thoughts, and memories, exclusive to you and your partner. It encourages engagement through daily prompts, helping partners to learn about each other and grow closer. Additionally, by sharing locations and virtual pets, Tether helps partners inhabit each other's worlds, reinforcing a unified reality. Now available on the iOS app store, Tether continues to evolve, guided by user feedback and growth metrics.

Team Spacewalk

Ibraheem Aboulnaga, Vaenthan Jeevarajah, Cole MacPhail, Olivia Misasi, Janakitti Ratana-Rueangsri, Anthony Wang

Spacewalk is a web application enabling users to create cinematic 3D presentations. It allows for constructing 3D environments and setting camera keyframes, acting as "slides." Users can customize transitions to create a walkthrough. Unlike traditional slideshow software, which excels in 2D effects, Spacewalk bridges the gap to 3D visual effects, combining the ease of presentation tools with the impact of 3D VFX. Targeting users without art or motion graphics experience, Spacewalk offers an intuitive interface, minimizing fine-tuning controls for a cleaner experience. Starting with a Google Slides-like base, it introduces 3D tools and layman's terms, easing the transition for 2D users. User studies confirm Spacewalk's usability across skill levels, emphasizing its potential for frequent use and highlighting its intuitive, easy-to-learn nature for creating professional 3D presentations.

Frank Chen, Willard Ma, Wanda Song, Helen Zhang

Electricity Maps is an open-sourced start-up who provides vital data that tells the world how electricity is produced and used. Over the course of a year, our team has touched upon the vast majority of the project's pipeline: from the data collection phase to the API and display phase. This term, our team focused on the development of a package that allowed users to calculate temporal and locality schedules for their data jobs that maximized the effectiveness of the energy being used.

Connor Byers

TrainsControl

In CS452 Real-time programming, a problem students must overcome is estimating where and how fast a train is on the track so they can stop at a specific point on the track or avoid collisions. Students traditionally have trouble combining a kinematic model with live sensor information as most have no control theory knowledge. This project combined them by designing a Kalman Filter that accurately tracks the kinematics of a train. The process to create it is documented so future students can easily follow.

Andrew Dong, Linda Jiang, Bryan Ling, William Qin, Michelle Wong

Wave is a companion app to the University of Waterloo's co-op job board, WaterlooWorks. Students can browse co-op jobs and organize multiple shortlists in a modern interface with fast and flexible search and filter tools. Additionally, students can browse and share salaries and reviews on co-op jobs and interviews. Wave uses a web scraper integrated into a web application to keep all job data local to the student's device.

Ryan Deng, Zuoqiu Liu, Lizhuo You, Hubert Zhu

UWTrade provides a trusted, streamlined platform designed specifically for university students to buy and sell used goods (i.e. textbooks, i-clickers) in a simpler way. By implementing verification through school email addresses, and an AI-assisted system & platforms, we ensure a trust, secure and legal trading environment. Our platform simplifies the trading process, significantly reducing the hassle associated with buying and selling used items. Our vision is to cultivate a large user base, incentivizing both buyers and sellers to utilize UWTrade for savings and sustainability.  

FUTURE CAPSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS  

For more information about Sponsorship Opportunities, these Software Engineering design projects or to inquire about joining us in future design projects, please contact:  

Derek Rayside [email protected]

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Science-of-science researchers at the iSchool expose imbalances in biomedical research

Assistant Professor Ian Hutchins and PhD student Salsabil Arabi are researchers researching research . Yes, you read that right.

Hutchins and Arabi, members of the Metascience Research Lab at the iSchool, are engaged in the “science of science,” using large datasets and machine learning to reveal trends and expose inequities in the complex landscape of academic research. Hutchins and Arabi’s newest study challenges traditional notions of success in academia by scrutinizing how the impact of scientific publications is measured and why some exceptional work remains virtually “ invisible ,” as Hutchins said.

The story of their latest research begins more than a decade before Hutchins became an iSchool faculty member, when he was a biomedical researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Impact factors as gatekeepers

As a neuroscientist at NIH, Hutchins noticed that in the biomedical realm, decisions about hiring and promotion often came down to which candidates had published in so-called “high-impact journals” such as Science, Cell, or The New England Journal of Medicine. These journals are set apart by a high “impact factor,” a single number measuring how often an average paper from that journal is cited during a two-year period.

Impact factors can vary widely. To offer a few examples, Science boasts an impact factor of 47.7 and Nature Immunology has a 25.6, while the impact factor of Annals of Medicine is 4.4. Hutchins and colleagues consider any journal with an impact factor over 15 to be a “high-impact” journal.

When institutions hire tenure-track faculty and research scientists in biomedicine, impact factors loom large, Hutchins said: “They narrow it down from a long list of candidates to a shorter one by looking only at people who have published in a journal with an impact factor above a certain number.” As a result, otherwise qualified candidates for roles as research scientists and tenure-track faculty members are overlooked solely because their work has not been published in a few extremely selective academic journals. This raises larger questions about the role of journal impact factors in assessing research and the people who do it.

“I think that the value of research is really multifaceted,” Hutchins said. “There are many things that an article can do to advance the frontier of science,” he added, even without being published in a journal with a high impact factor. For instance, a study may end up leading to a new patent for a medical technology that directly benefits human health – but impact factors don’t capture outcomes like patents.

Trailblazing research often overlooked

In a preprint paper currently under peer review, Hutchins and Arabi, along with iSchool Assistant Professor Chaoqun Ni, show just how few biomedical researchers have ever published an article in a high-impact journal, and just how many studies published in other outlets do end up making a real impact.

The research team finds that about half of biomedical researchers have never published in a journal with an impact factor above 15. In addition, they conclude the vast majority of papers that end up being widely cited are published outside high-impact-factor outlets. By implication, many scientists with highly influential work never publish in high impact-factor journals, and they may thus be denied access to professional opportunities on the basis of a single journal metric. These results confirmed what the researchers had suspected.

“Many researchers in the biomedical community feel that they are unfairly judged in research assessment; that they do not receive enough credit given the influence on the research community of their published work,” Hutchins, Arabi and Ni write. “We find strong empirical evidence that this is the case.”

And as Arabi told Science magazine , for early career researchers like herself, “this matters to us more than to senior researchers. There should be [a] better way to evaluate scientists.”

Improving the practice of science

The end goal for practitioners of the science of science is the development of tools and policies that have the potential to improve and accelerate research.

In the case of their latest project, Hutchins and Arabi’s work challenges the disproportionate influence of the impact factor in shaping biomedical scientists’ career trajectories. They argue that looking ahead, decision-makers in biomedicine should weigh article-level metrics, such as number of citations or likelihood of stimulating future innovation or patents, more heavily alongside journal-level metrics like the impact factor.

“Even if it’s not broadly recognized by the scientific community, a paper may still inform later clinical research, which then moves the needle on human health,” Hutchins said. “I want those measures to also be visible so that people have multiple ways to have their research recognized,” he said.

When asked why they decided to pursue science-of-science research in the first place, Hutchins and Arabi both pointed to the direct effects their work could have on real policies. “I saw it as a way of improving legacy decision systems by analyzing decision-making structures and finding ways to improve upon them,” Hutchins said.

Arabi added, “The questions we address go directly to policy decisions and funding decisions.”

Moving forward, the researchers hope their work will prompt biomedical institutions like universities and hospital systems to reconsider how much weight they give journal impact factors in hiring and promotion policies. A broader goal of Hutchins and Arabi’s work, though, is to help create a more equitable research enterprise — one that values scientists’ work holistically, rather than leaning so heavily on a single indicator like the impact factor.

To learn more about the Metascience Research Lab at the iSchool, visit its website .

For information about the iSchool PhD program, contact the program director, Professor Rebekah Willett, at [email protected] .