The intention is that the student should be allowed to choose his own problem. This should be an optimization problem with constraints possibly coming from real-life applications. The project must be at a reasonable level and have a certain minimum content, therefore before starting it is advisable to consult the lecturer to have the project idea approved.
The project is carried out in groups. The group size is two or three persons, unless another agreement is obtained with the lecturer. The entire group must see the lecturer at the same time for approval of the project idea. This must happen several weeks prior to the deadline for handing in the project.
It must be possible to evaluate the project from the report alone. Thus, it must include a sufficiently detailed description of the problem tackled, an overview of the methods applied and an analysis of the performance. For the best algorithm found the description in the report must be sufficient for its reimplementation. The oral presentation to the class will be given before handing in the project in agreement with the lecturer.
Within the group, members collaborate in all the phases. Nevertheless a competitive approach has to be maintained in the development of the algorithms. This entails that members should exchange algorithm components but should develop their own code. In the implementation, the techniques which have been introduced during the course are supposed to be used, nevertheless, creativity and originality both in the solution approach and in the empirical analysis add value to the project.
The implementation of the best algorithm developed must be submitted to the lecturer together with the report. A small external program for verifying the quality of a candidate solution is also required. The program must be capable of reading its input instance from a text file and outputting the result in text form.
The program implementation and the report must be handed in at least 7 days before the oral exam. This can be done by emailing directly to the lecturer an archive containing the required files. The archive must be organized as follows. For each group indexed NN, the file hierarchy is:
DMP86project-NN/ DMP86project-NN/TEAM DMP86project-NN/Report/ DMP86project-NN/Slides/ (optional)DMP86project-NN/Instances/DMP86project-NN/Program/DMP86project-NN/Checker/
The file TEAM reports the name of the members of the working group.
The C or C++ code including a manual for compiling and the associated
makefile allowing to create an executable code should be in
DMP86project-NN/Program/.
The executable must be usable by typing in the directory
DMP86project-NN/Program/:
executable-name -i instance-name -t cpu-time -s random-seed
When running the program must report when it finds a new best solution by providing at least the following information
best ### time ### iter ###
and when it ends it must write the best solution in a file called
solution in the
current directory.
A small program returning the quality of the proposed solution must be
available in DMP86project-NN/Checker/. This should run as follows:
checker -i instance-name -s solution-nameThe format of the input file solution-name must be the same
as for the output file solution.
Programs must work on IMADA's computers with the compilers and other applications present on IMADA's computers. Students are free to develop their solution at home, but it is their own responsibility to transfer the solution to IMADA's system and make the necessary adjustments such that it works at IMADA.
Report and code must be handed in before the deadline. Reports or code handed in after the deadline will generally not be accepted. System failures, illness, etc. will not automatically give extra time.
After having handed in the project, the team members may, with no or very short notice, be called to demonstrate their program. If this becomes necessary, they will be notified via the IMADA e-mail address. It is students' responsibility to check e-mail regularly. If the students do not come in for a necessary meeting before the oral exam, they will not pass.
The report in DMP86project-NN/Report/ must be in PS or
PDF format (hence, pre-compiled). The front page of the report must
contain the date when it was hand in, and also, for each member of the
group, full name, first 6 digits of the CPR number, IMADA e-mail address,
and student e-mail address (nn@student.sdu.dk).
Beside the content that should reflect the Project Content given above, the following criteria will be taken into account:
The goal of the presentation is threefold: (i) report about the project to the class so that everybody can learn from the work done (ii) clarify points which may have been not sufficiently covered in the written report and answer to possible doubts of the lecturer (iii) develop presentation skills.
Each presentation must have a duration within 20 and 30 minutes. A beamer projector will be available for the use of slides as support to the presentation.
Each member of the group should participate to the presentation. This can be achieved by equally sharing the time or the topics of the presentation.
The scheme of the presentation can follow the same scheme of the written report, ie,
Attendance to the presentations is open to all students of the course who are also allowed to pose questions.