dcsil / csc491

University of Toronto's Capstone Design Course

CSC491/2600

University of Toronto's Capstone Design Course through the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL).

Table of Contents

• Course Overview
  • Requirements to take this course
  • Expectations and evaluation of students
  • Required Materials
• Who is the lecturer?
  • Office Hours
• Time and Location
• Schedule
• Assignments, Deliverables, Distribution of Grades
  • Suggested Work Schedule
• Resources and Readings
• Policies
  • Attendance
  • Communication
  • Late Policy
  • Midterms & Exams
  • Plagiarism
  • Support and Accommodation
  • Team Grades
  • Repos

Course Overview

Students will write a software application that implements the business ideas developed in CSC454/2526 (Business of Software). This course will expose students to the core technologies, ideas, and processes in developing a startup.

Students will be given a theme, in the corequisite course (CSC454), in which to develop a startup. Students are expected to:

• Define their own scope of problem within the theme
• Develop a cohesive plan
• Produce a working MVP (minimum viable product)
• Present their work in various mediums, including written, orally, visually, and through the internet.

Class time will be a mixture of project-focused workshops, lectures, and discussions. The class will be small and very interactive. Students may hear from guest lecturers from the field.

Requirements to take this course

• There is a co-requisite to CSC491/2600, students must also be enrolled in CSC454/2527 or have taken CSC454/2527 before to take this course
• Students must maintain a good GPA
• Students must have some prior software experience (web applictions preferred, though not required)
  • I would also encourage you to review the recommended skills and knowledge on the DCSIL website
• Students must have at least 4 CSC300+ level courses, and any other 300+ level course (previously 5 CSC300+ level courses)

Important: There is also an application process on the DCSIL website.

Expectations and evaluation of Students

In general we expect students to come prepared to be guided, mentored, and to work hard throughout the term. This is not an easy course and there is a lot of work, but it is a course former students regularly describe as "having taught me more than all my other courses" and "having taught concepts I use on a daily basis as a software engineer". Despite this, the teaching staff make themselves available via Slack and Zoom as needed and will help guide and mentor you. The teaching staff is here to help you succeed as long as you put the effort in, effectively contribute to your team, and communicate (that last one is important!) In order for students to be successful in this course and their team, here is a subset of expectations students should have:

• Students will actively participate in all assignments and communicate regularly with their team
  • Any absences will be communicated in advance to both the team and instructor
• Students will write code and substantially contribute to their team's software/data stack.
  • Doing product or design work is great, but it is not a replacement for software in this course. Of course, if you are also designing or doing another role, we won't expect as much coding. Talk to the instructor to make sure you're striking a good balance.
• Students will adapt and self-teach any technologies their team chooses for their team's project (Instructor does not choose the techs)
• Students will record all work using GitHub Issues, GitHub Pull Requests, and learn the GitHub / Git platforms if required

All of these expectations are in place, combined with mentorship and guidance, so that we can evaluate your abilities around:

• Write software and learn new technologies as required
• Design and architect software systems
• Manage and execute software projects
• Collaborate with other roles (business, finance, etc)
• Set up a proper "Software Development Lifecyle" (SDLC) including continuous integration, testing, and deploys

With these expectations and evaluation principles, we know you'll be better prepared for the software industry.

Required Materials/Software

There aren't any required materials per se, but it is required that you bring a laptop to class with a fully functioning developer environment for your project. iPads/tablets are not recommended as the main vehicle unless you can develop on them.

You will also need a GitHub account.

It is required to download, install, and set up Zoom as this will be used for all communications throughout the term.

Lecturer

This course is being updated. The lecturer will be announced as the course is offered again.

Office Hours

TBD.

Time and Location

Class is on Wednesday from 6-9PM EST. If you are not in a time zone that aligns with EST, please let me know early!

• If we are in person, we will meet in the DCSIL Lab in Gerstein Library
• If we are online, we will meet on Zoom

We use primarily an inverted classroom. This means that lectures are pre-recorded and asynchronous online. The 6-9pm lecture slot is reserved for working periods, guest lectures, discussion, etc. Students are expected to attend class times in order to work with their team, attend valuable tutorials, demo their work, and work with the instructor.

I don't like something about this course

There's always room for improvement and I'm happy to take any feedback.

Please submit an issue on this repo, or preferably make a pull request changing or adding something you don't like.

That said, remember that your changes or concerns aren't guaranteed to be addressed how you want. I (the instructor) have the final say.

If you prefer to speak privately, please email me or message me on Slack.