FENG 497 - Graduation Project

Dear students,

As mentioned via previous OASIS and Blackboard messages, starting with this year the FENG 497 course will be conducted in the same format as FENG 102 used to be conducted. This message aims to consolidate the information provided in previous notifications and to provide more detailed information about the process. Particular attention should be paid to clause number 4.

• As you know, the add-drop period is currently ongoing. After the completion of course selections and the finalization of class lists, student groups will be randomly formed, with each group consisting of at least 3 students from different departments. Although not yet finalized, it is anticipated that there will be 6 or 7 students in each group.
• Groups will be formed by trying to include students from departments that can be considered close in terms of curriculum, allowing them to work together harmoniously on the project. However, it should be noted that while there are approximately the same number of faculty members in each department, there are significant differences in the number of students. Since the goal is to assign one group to each faculty member (faculty members with less than the standard course load can be assigned to more than one group), it may not be possible for the student distribution to be such that only students from similar departments are together in each group.
• In accordance with the project theme, there will be at least 1 CE or SE student in each group (see clause 4).
• The main theme of the project is artificial intelligence applications for disaster engineering. Project topics can vary on various subjects such as disaster prevention, disaster warning systems, combating climate change/adapting to climate change, post-disaster logistics, damage assessment, search and rescue, etc. Ideally, the project topic will be determined by all group members during the first meeting with the project advisor.
• Group and advisor assignments will be communicated to the Faculty by October 10 at the latest. Project topics must also be entered into the Google Sheet, the link of which will be shared with you later, by October 18 at the latest.
• The project schedule is as follows:

Formation of groups: October 10
Determination of project topics: October 18
Proposal submission: November 8
Report submission: January 6
Presentations: January 13

• Groups must meet regularly with their advisors each week. Meetings should be arranged face-to-face whenever possible. A minimum of 10 meetings must be held during the term (see clause 8).
• The grading scheme is as follows:

Participation: 10% (each meeting report is worth 1%. Each student in the group may have a different participation grade)
Laboratory/application: 40% (this is a measure to assess the individual performance of students. It may and is expected to be different for each student in the group.)
Homework: 10% (Proposal grades will be entered into this measure - the same grade must be entered for each student whose name appears on the cover page.)
Presentation: 10% (Each student in the group will speak for at least 3 minutes during the presentation. Presentation grades are individual and may be different for each student.)
Report: 20% (Final report grades will be entered into this measure - the same grade must be entered for each student whose name appears on the cover page.)
Midterm exam: 10%

• A structure should be established in groups where students can evaluate each other. In the FENG 102 course, if a student did not contribute to the project, this situation was communicated to the advisor by the students not writing the relevant student's name on the cover page of the report, and the student in question was given 0 for the project. A similar procedure can be followed here. The advisor is responsible for following up on this process.
• Students are responsible from the topics in the videos on the course webpage (https://fecs.ieu.edu.tr/tr/feng-497-graduation-project) for the midterm exam. The midterm exam will consist of 20 multiple-choice questions.
• Proposal and report formats are available on the course webpage (https://fecs.ieu.edu.tr/tr/feng-497-graduation-project). There is no fixed template for presentations.

Please find the formats for the "Proposal" and "Report" documents regarding the FENG 497 course in the links below.

• Graduation Project Weekly Meeting Report Format
• Graduation Project Proposal Format
• Graduation Project Final Report Format

 FENG 497 Course Videos

• Introduction & General Information
• Grant Applications
• How to Perform a Literature Review
• Method Development and Design of Experiments 
• Report Writing 
• Ethics in Engineering & Plagiarism
• Poster and Presentation Preparation
• How to write a CV and a cover letter
• Sustainability in Engineering