• About the Projects Program
• Find Available Projects
• Starting a Project
• Finishing a Project
• Faculty Project Proposal
• Sponsoring a Project
• Search Completed Projects
• Related Sites
  • Global Perspective Program
  • Center for Communication Across the Curriculum
  • Corporate Relations
  • Humanities & Arts Requirement
  • Registrar's Office
  • IQP Advising Resources (for Faculty)

Finishing a Project

During the final term of registration for the project and sufficiently prior to the deadline for submittal of Completion of Degree Requirement Forms, students must submit their completed project report to the project advisors. Students are also required to submit a copy of the document to the participating off-campus organization sufficiently prior to the end of the term so that proprietary and confidential information in the report can be identified and removed. Most off-campus organizations require 30 days for this review, and the grade and final report cannot be submitted to the Registrar by the project advisor until this review has been done.

A final project report may NOT be submitted as hard copy, or on disk or CD. Directions for submitting the project report electronically are detailed below:

eProject Submission and Approval Checklist

All of these steps MUST be completed by the CDR deadline! See the Registrar's Office for information about the dates.

• Students should write their project report using proper word processing techniques (e.g., Microsoft Word, LaTeX) and citation style (e.g., APA, Chicago Style, IEEE). Consult the helpful hints available on the eProject website and visit the CCC Software Instruction web site if training is needed.
  
• Students should present the project to the advisors for review then make changes based on advisor comments. The submission system is not appropriate for developing the document. Only the final project in PDF format is required for submission but additonal supporting files may be added as appropriate (including PPT, XLS, MDB, ZIP, etc.).
  
• Advisors and students should discuss web access options: Worldwide access? WPI-only? Restricted from public access?  eProjects are automatically added to the Library Catalog unless restricted for public access.  If a project report is restricted from public access by request or agreement with a corporate sponsor, an e-mail or memo is required.
  
• Students must convert the final copy of their report to PDF using Adobe Acrobat®. See Converting to PDF for details. Signatures of students and advisors do not need to be on the final PDF submitted.
  
• If the advisor wants to verify the submission, students should email or otherwise transmit a copy of the final PDF for the advisor. The advisor will have the option to click to compare the submission to the final PDF to assure that the agreed copy has been uploaded without needing to review again. Note that the file creation time is in the PDF, so a copy of the same PDF must be submitted in order for this process to work. Another PDF made from exactly the same source will fail this test.
  
• One student member of the project group should submit their report via the online submission system. Review online help documentation for detailed instructions. The submission process involves entering:
  • title and abstract information,
  • project authors and advisors,
  • the future access & restriction options,
  • then uploading the required PDF document and any supplemental files (accepts most file types including PPT, XLS, MDB, ZIP, etc)
    
• Once the submitter clicks to submit the project for advisor approval the project cannot be modified unless the advisor rejects it and it is sent back for changes.
  The project advisor will receive an email from the submission system requesting approval. Advisors should remind the students to complete submission if they do not get the expected email requesting approval.
  
• The advisor must log in to the eProject site and review the information (title, abstract, access-restriction option, etc.) and ensure the PDF submitted is correct. If the advisor has a copy of the PDF, an option allows the advisor to click and compare the copy to assure that the submission matches exactly. The advisor can then approve or reject the project report. If the project report is approved, an email is sent to the Registrar by the submission system. If the project is rejected, an email notice is sent to the students with the advisor's critique. They should make appropriate changes and then one member should resubmit.
  
• Once the project is approved, students in the team will receive a notification email. At this point the eCDR (electronic Completion of Degree Requirement) form(s) can be printed. An eCDR form for each student is required for the students to get credit for the project.
  • If the project is an MQP, the student team member who submitted must login and select the project in order to obtain & print the special eCDR form. If the submitter has partners, there will be one sheet for each partner to complete & sign.
  • If the project is an IQP, each team member must login to print their own eCDR. Each member must go through an advisor evaluation form on the way to reaching their own eCDR.  IQP cannot be approved until every student on the team has completed the survey.
    
• Each member of the project group should sign their copy and bring their eCDR to their project advisor.
  
• The project advisor assigns the grade to the eCDR, signs it, and delivers it to the Registrar's Office.
  
• Once the Registrar archives the project, the students and advisors will be notified via e-mail. At this time, the project will be accessible via the eProject search if unrestricted access has been selected. In some weeks it will also be accessible via the Library Catalog.
  
• Once the project has been archived, any changes required to the project must be made by application to the Provost, so advisors and students should take care that the project is correct before it is approved.

If you have questions or problems with the process, please email project-questions@wpi.edu for help with the eProject submission.

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: October 28, 2009 14:05:28