As part of your semester in CMSE 201, you are expected to complete a fully-fledged data analysis or
computational modeling project. This is your opportunity to choose a topic that sounds interesting to you and
dig into it.
At the end of the semester you'll submit your work as a detailed Jupyter Notebook and you'll present your
findings to the rest of the class.
You have the freedom to choose from any of the techniques that we have covered and will be covering in class.
These techniques include, but are not limited to:
Data Science: analyzing and modeling data
Modeling with ordinary differential equations
Modeling with compartmental models
Modeling with agent-based models
Modeling with random numbers
Furthermore, you can also choose nearly any topic that you find interesting or exciting. Possible areas of
interest may be:
Physical Systems: modeling problems in physics, chemistry, ecology, biology, etc.
Social Science: modeling people and their interactions
Finance, Banking, and Economics
Diseases: modeling the tissue scale or the person scale
No matter what you choose, the main goal is to define a question that you think you can answer using the
techniques we're learning in class and not just a question that you can look up the answer for on the internet.
A successful project will include all of the following components:
A question that you will attempt to answer.
A model, expressed in broad mathematical terms, that can be applied to a dataset or chosen topic.
Computional methods that seek to answer your question. (This will vary from project to project,
CMSE 201 - Semester Project
Choosing your project
Project requirements
depending on the context).
Meaningful visualizations that productively convey your results.
An answer to the question or an explanation as to why you were unable to answer the question.
You'll need to spend some time figuring out what model is the right model to use or what data are available to
answer your question. The internet is your friend for this part. You should be able to find the details you need to
compute your model or the data you want to analyze on the web. These are possible resources for locating
data:
Data.gov - Federal
Data.gov - State of Michigan
Kaggle
Data.world
Fivethirtyeight
You may also which to explore some of the resources listed on this page: https://www.dataquest.io/blog/freedatasets-for-projects/
For the models, you'll need to do a bit of background research and determine which of the models we're
working with in class are the most appropriate for your question.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: When you're finding datasets online you should make sure to record exactly where
you found the dataset and cite the source in your final project notebook. Additionally, if you use any code that
you find online to complete part of your project you must give credit to the original source code and cite this in
your project as well. Any code you use that is found online and not properly cited will be considered
plagiarism and violates the academic integrity expected of you in this course.
The following is a tentative plan for the timeline we'll be following to ensure that you successfully complete your
assignment. There may end up being slight shifts in these days based on our progress through the course
material.
October 21/22: Project brainstorming in pre-class assignment for this class period.
For this component, you are expected to brainstorm two possible topics for a modeling-focused project and two
possible topics for a data-focused project. See the pre-class assignment for details.
Locating data and models
Project Timeline
October 30/31: Project Proposals due before start of class.
For this component, you are expected to write up what you think you want to do for your semester project. This
should address the question you hope to answer and the data/models you plan to use. You may be asked to
present your project proposal to your classmates.
November 13/14: Project Updates due before the start of class.
You will be expected to update the instructors on the state of your project. Again, you may be asked to present
your progress to your classmates.
December 2/3 and December 4/5: Project Presentations in class on these days.
We'll spend the end of the semester having everyone present the outcomes of their projects. The requirements
for the presentation will come out later in the semester.