Undergraduate Project Ideas, Distance Learning

William Marsh, 2005

General areas: software engineering, including UML. Groupware and collaborative working.

UML Online Tests

Multiple choice questions are harder when diagrams are involved. The aim of these projects would be to develop an online multiple choice question system for UML diagrams. Ideally, the system would automatically generate example problems with correct and incorrect answers.

Possible topics would be (easiest first):

• Use case diagram notation
• UML class diagrams, multiplicity of associations
• Consistency of use case diagram and normal flows
• UML class diagrams and equivalent Java code
• Message nesting and sequence diagrams
• Consistency of class and sequence diagrams

Skills: good knowledge of UML; java programming and design. Note: it might be possible to use a multimedia package for the simpler topics; this is ok but I would not be able to give detailed advice.

Difficulty: average

Groupware and Collaborative Working

Groupware system are growing in popularity, with capabilities such as email, task lists, project planning, calendar (i.e. diary) and document management. It is not possible to implement a groupware system in a student project; instead a possible project would investigate particular features or to enhance an existing open source groupware system. You should consider which approach you intend to follow before writing a proposal.

A possible project would be to investigate the integration of two existing capabilities:

• Task list and diary, so that tasks appear in the diary.
• Document review and discussion board.
• (Others you suggest)

Another possible topic would be to add a new capability (or enhance an existing one) to support a specific collaborative task, such as software engineering. Possible topics would be:

• Code review
• Unit testing
• (Others you suggest)

Skills: good research skills; good programming; imagination

Difficulty: high

UML Development Tools

I have supervised a number of projects to built tools for UML and for debugging. Use case editors remain weak in my view. I am willing to discuss ideas in this area (but I will only accept projects in this area with some originality and a clear aim).

Skills: Java programming and design; good knowledge of UML

Difficulty: high

Page last updated 13.10.2005