The Project Pitch
Overview
In class the topic of the impact that technology can have in our world has come up in several ways. I've also presented some of my thoughts on how I like to encourage students to think about the ways in which computing could be utilized to make some part of the world a better place. One of the things that some computer science majors find interesting is to be a part of a hackathon. Another is working on their own pet projects during semester breaks (or even a longer period). These both, as well as many other things, share two things in common; the need for an idea with a purpose and the need to have a plan of action. In this paper, you will be describing an idea for a pet project or hackathon project and providing some of the information needed as part of a plan of action.
The Idea
The first thing to do is to come up with an idea for a piece of software you imagine you'd like to build, or be part of a team to build. You don't build it for this assignment, you just work out the idea and assess what you'd need to be able to actually build it down the road. In general for this project, if you've ever thought "Why isn't there a program/app/site that does XYZ?" you might have an idea right there!
You can also think about things like your hobbies or your daily life or family members. What's a program you could write to help your hobby, make your daily life easier, or help a family member?
In all of the above, don't worry about whether you have
the skills yet or not, that comes later. First, you
need an idea that you find interesting!
Once you have your idea, you'll need to write:
• a short title
• a one-sentence description that captures the idea
• a one-paragraph description that summarizes the
key details of the entire project
Write these in a way that people, from friends to family
to venture capitalists, could understand.
It is recommended that you write this up in a simple
word processing document and refine it as you think more
about the project.
When you are ready to submit the full
project, you can then copy and paste that text into the
appropriate box on ELMS.
The Skills
Once you have a solid idea, then you need to assess
what skills will be needed to implement it. Don't
worry yet about whether you have those skills, or if
there are skills that will be needed that you don't
want to learn. That comes next.
For now, make a
bullet list of the skills that will be needed to work
on the project. This should include things like
programming skills (for example, if you are going to build
a mobile app, you might need to learn Android or iOS
programming),
math skills,
domain knowledge (for example, you can't write
voting software without learning about voting laws,
and you can't create software
to control a drone in some interesting way without
learning a lot about how drones work),
as well as perhaps less obvious ones like
fundraising skills (in case you will need to raise
money to buy tools the project needs)
or making business contacts.
For each skill, identify whether you already have it, or
if not then where you could learn it (the
list of pages for classes that
have been offered by the department
could be very useful for this)
or
identify it as a skill you don't want to acquire and would
instead recruit someone to cover.
Your list should have the following form.
Note: it doesn't have to be three per category,
that's just here to show the basic layout.
Skills I Have
• skill
• skill
• skill
Skills I Need
• skill (where you will learn it)
• skill (where you will learn it)
• skill (where you will learn it)
Skills I Will Recruit
• skill
• skill
• skill
Again, you should write this up in a word processing document
as you think more about the project, and will then copy and
paste it into the appropriate box on ELMS.
The Structure
Now that you have an idea and a sense of what would be
needed to bring it to fruition, you need to start to
structure a plan.
To have a strong project structure, you would shape your pitch
by incorporating the answers to the following questions:
First, will this be an individual project or
a team project?
Second, when would the project begin?
Third, what is the intended duration of the
project in terms of months?
Fourth, in one paragraph how would you define success for
the project?
Once again, type these into a word processing document as you
develop the assignment. There will be specific boxes for each
at the ELMS submission page.
Submission
Once you have written up answers to all of the above, submit this "paper" assignment via the ELMS entry. There will be questions to answer and space to copy and paste each part of the text you have been writing.
Grading
This assignment will count for 20 points in the "Quizzes/Labs/Paper" category. The points will be associated with your presentation of your idea and the quality of your answers to each part, not the quality of the idea itself.