In Indian Engineering colleges, Project work is a core part of curriculum in the last semester. Project work is different from the other subjects studied in rest of the 7 semesters.
Project work gets really challenging when you try to do it on your own. Doing the project on your own is a great learning experience. And it’s a great accomplishment if you are successful in doing it yourself. Finishing your project within the allotted deadline is really important. More important than the technical content of your project.
The students, irrespective of college they study and place they are located, are more or less the same. They think in similar patterns. 9 out of 10 students tend to delay their project work till the last day of project demo. Students would want to add new features at the end. Few students would want to make their project model look better in the last week. By incorporating last minute changes, students run the risk of not being able to complete their project in time. Here are few disadvantages of working on your project till the last day of demo.
Disadvantages of delaying project
- Poor Project Report
If you are late in winding up your project, you will tend to neglect your project report. The end result would be a poorly documented report which gives unclear picture about your project. - Poor preparation for Viva
You won’t find time much time to prepare for viva session as you would be busy in getting your project to work on the day before your demo. You may also stammer during viva session when questions are being asked. - Less time for testing
You’ll never be able to justify the specifications that you set for your project if you are late. Testing is nothing but checking whether or not your project is working properly in different cases.
Try to finish your project within deadlines. Below are few advantages of finishing project in time.
Advantages of finishing project early
- More time for Documentation
The first impression on your project to a third person comes from reading your project report. Sometimes a good project report is more useful than a good project. - Can check results
If you finish your project a week before your deadlines, you will have enough time to check your results, check whether your project satisfies its specs. - Finish leftovers
You will be able to finish all the modules that you had planned to build in your project. You can patch up leftovers and bring them to a finish. - Decorate better
You will have time to decorate your project and make it look better. Not everyone can understand the technical details of your project prototype. Remember that your fellow students judge your project based on how cool it looks.
Tips to finalize project before deadline:
- Make a weekly schedule
Write down your weekly goals and plan weekly schedule. Check your progress against these goals. Try to finish at least two weeks before your demo date. - Keep realistic goals
Don’t bite off more than you can swallow. Know your technical limitations. Don’t set idealistic goals or too high ambitions just to make your project sound cool among fellow students. Set the scope for your project. - Be an early bird
Start as early as possible. If your project curriculum officially starts from January, start by December or even earlier.
I would like to share my friend’s experience in engineering project. He scored 75% in project not because his project was bad, but his presentation and report were bad. His project was the best one among other projects in our class. He tried to make the best technical design in the class. He worked 60 hours straight without sleep until the night before submission day. He was vexed and frustrated with the work and just dumped datasheets and notes randomly into a word document and submitted it. His design wasn’t properly readable, his presentation slides were haphazard. So he got bad grades even though his design was one of the most optimized.
About the Author: Srimannarayana Karthik is a graduate student of University of Southern California. 