College Component - GCCIS
Software Engineering
As a Software Engineering honors students you must complete the institute requirements and college level professional component in addition to the discipline specific professional component described here. One goal of the discipline honors activities is to provide you with more direct access to the department faculty. This will include an opportunity for discussions of technical material and to work in more depth on particular projects. This document also includes a list of discipline related complementary learning activities that you can select to fulfill the Institute requirements in that area.
Professional Component
The software engineering professional component, as described in the following sections, is composed of several elements that span all years of your program. It is divided into required and optional elements. The department faculty have an expectation of your enthusiastic participation even in the optional elements of the program. The department faculty look forward to the honors students being an active, contributing force within the program and the SE student body.
1. Senior Project Awareness (required)
The Senior Project is the major capstone component in your program. It is a demonstration of your professional abilities as an individual contributor and a member of a software development team. The faculty expect that many of you will have leadership roles on your senior project teams. It will be very beneficial for you to be aware of previous senior projects so you can identify what has worked before and what pitfalls your team should avoid. On a yearly basis you are required to attend two senior project interim presentations and two final presentations. The interim presentations are done at the end of the Winter term and final presentations are made in May at the completion of the projects. You are encouraged to attend more than two presentations if the times fit into your schedule. You register your attendance by completing the short Senior Project Presentation Reflection questionnaire for each project presentation you attend. Speak to the department Honors Advocate if in any term your class schedule prevents you from attending two project presentations.
2. Honors Independent Study Project (required)
During your third and/or fourth years you will work with a software engineering faculty member on an honors independent study project. It is your responsibility to identify an interesting subject area and seek a faculty member to act as your advisor. The faculty also post project ideas in a discussion forum on the SE Honors myCourses site. You will register for two courses of Honors Independent Study. Each course will be two credits. You do not have to take the courses in consecutive terms. The two courses can not be taken concurrently in the same term. These two courses will substitute for one of the Engineering Electives on your program worksheet. You should complete your independent study work prior to starting senior project. You can not take your independent study credits concurrent with senior project. No faculty will act as your independent study advisor during the terms when you are registered for senior project.
At the end of the independent study work you will write a technical report or submit a conference paper. You will also present a department colloquium describing your independent study work. You must receive a grade of C or better for each term of independent study to remain in the honors program. The second term will be graded as incomplete until you complete the written requirement and colloquium talk.
3. SE Honors Meetings and Journal Club (optional)
Two or three times per quarter there will be scheduled meetings of the SE Honors students. One survey of the SE Honors students indicated a desire for closer interaction with the faculty in the department. These meetings are one opportunity for that. While some meetings will be of a general nature most will center on a discussion of one or more journal articles. An honors student will select the article(s) for each Journal Club meeting. The primary article(s) for discussion must come from the IEEE or ACM literature. Supplemental readings can come from web sources.
4. SE Honors Projects and Activities (optional)
The department encourages any SE Honors student(s) to propose projects or organize other activities. These activities can be within the program, college, institute, or in the neighboring community. There is funding available in the college Honors budget to support activities particularly if they have an impact across the GCCIS Honors program. The key point is that the activities are student motivated. The faculty can facilitate the activities and will participate, as appropriate, but the driving force should be the Honors students themselves.
1. Senior Project Awareness (required)
The Senior Project is the major capstone component in your program. It is a demonstration of your professional abilities as an individual contributor and a member of a software development team. The faculty expect that many of you will have leadership roles on your senior project teams. It will be very beneficial for you to be aware of previous senior projects so you can identify what has worked before and what pitfalls your team should avoid. On a yearly basis you are required to attend two senior project interim presentations and two final presentations. The interim presentations are done at the end of the Winter term and final presentations are made in May at the completion of the projects. You are encouraged to attend more than two presentations if the times fit into your schedule. You register your attendance by completing the short Senior Project Presentation Reflection questionnaire for each project presentation you attend. Speak to the department Honors Advocate if in any term your class schedule prevents you from attending two project presentations.
2. Honors Independent Study Project (required)
During your third and/or fourth years you will work with a software engineering faculty member on an honors independent study project. It is your responsibility to identify an interesting subject area and seek a faculty member to act as your advisor. The faculty also post project ideas in a discussion forum on the SE Honors myCourses site. You will register for two courses of Honors Independent Study. Each course will be two credits. You do not have to take the courses in consecutive terms. The two courses can not be taken concurrently in the same term. These two courses will substitute for one of the Engineering Electives on your program worksheet. You should complete your independent study work prior to starting senior project. You can not take your independent study credits concurrent with senior project. No faculty will act as your independent study advisor during the terms when you are registered for senior project.
At the end of the independent study work you will write a technical report or submit a conference paper. You will also present a department colloquium describing your independent study work. You must receive a grade of C or better for each term of independent study to remain in the honors program. The second term will be graded as incomplete until you complete the written requirement and colloquium talk.
3. SE Honors Meetings and Journal Club (optional)
Two or three times per quarter there will be scheduled meetings of the SE Honors students. One survey of the SE Honors students indicated a desire for closer interaction with the faculty in the department. These meetings are one opportunity for that. While some meetings will be of a general nature most will center on a discussion of one or more journal articles. An honors student will select the article(s) for each Journal Club meeting. The primary article(s) for discussion must come from the IEEE or ACM literature. Supplemental readings can come from web sources.
4. SE Honors Projects and Activities (optional)
The department encourages any SE Honors student(s) to propose projects or organize other activities. These activities can be within the program, college, institute, or in the neighboring community. There is funding available in the college Honors budget to support activities particularly if they have an impact across the GCCIS Honors program. The key point is that the activities are student motivated. The faculty can facilitate the activities and will participate, as appropriate, but the driving force should be the Honors students themselves.
Discipline-specific Complementary Learning
All Honors students are required to satisfy the Institute complementary learning requirement. The Honors Student Council will assign points for each activity that you complete and submit a credit request. You individually choose your complementary learning activities. To encourage the honors students to have a leadership role in the department, several software engineering related activities are suggested as complementary learning activities.
- Hold a position for the academic year in the Society of Software Engineers (the SE student organization).
- Work on the SE College and Careers recruiting program for high school students. This would include assisting with preparation and being present at the sessions with the faculty. You would need to be in the Rochester area over the summer when College and Careers occurs.
- Attend SE department Open House sessions and speak with prospective students and their parents.
- Present one instructional session for SE students to learn to use one of the tools in our laboratories. This would be coordinated with the Society of Software Engineers which runs the Mentoring Lab.
- Assist faculty in preparing for and participating in community outreach programs. The department honors advocate will notify the honors students of the programs as they become available.
Late Entry and Transfer
Students that enter the honors program during their second or third year will not be required to take the Freshman Honors Seminar. Late entry and transfer students will be allowed to start work on their independent study project after completing one year in the program. The software engineering departmental advocate and/or the Department Chair will handle any other issues of late entry or transfer on an individual basis.