Final Projects

This page describes the final project process, milestones, and objectives, and includes several sample final papers.

Project Milestones

• Initial Proposal: due Lec #6
• Interim Pitch & Outline: due Lec #9-10
• Final Presentation & Paper: due Lec #15

Team Tips

• Meet in person
• Meet virtually (Skype, Google chat/voice)
• Meet weekly at the least!
• Meet weekly with your advisor(s)
• Prepare for your meetings
• Stay organized
  • Calendar apps
  • Google Docs
  • Dropbox
  • Wikis

Initial Proposal

The initial project proposal is due at the beginning of Lec #6, and is not to exceed 2 double spaced pages in 12-point font.

Proposal Goals

• Communicate a clear problem statement
• Identify information resources
• Identify knowledge gap
• Think about "the how" of project execution

Proposal Outline

• Topic: problem summary 250 words
• Background: identify the sources of information for your project.
  • Literature, articles
  • Data repositories
  • Related work by other organizations, nonprofits, NGOs, companies, etc.
  • Potential people to talk to (5-8)
• Educational goals: topics & skills
• Known unknowns: your questions
• Timeline: propose an internal timeline
• Artifacts: blog posts, Wikipedia entries, prototypes

Interim Pitch and Outline

The interim pitch is given in class during Lec #9 and 10 sessions

• Goal: pitch your project to the class in a 5 minute presentation.
• No more than 5 slides
• Submit an outline of your project

Final Project Presentations

At the last class meeting, student groups present their final project findings.

• 30 minute presentation
• 15-20 page report
• Project artifacts

Final Project Paper

Length and Authorship

The final paper is not to exceed 16 double spaced pages in 12-point font. In keeping with any academic work, references and data sources should be cited rigorously. Such data sources may include both academic and management literature and personal interviews.

Due Date

The final paper is due the day after the last class session.

Grading

Papers will be graded on the power of the analysis. Grading criteria include:

• Clarity of problem statement
• Quality of problem analysis
• Quality of logic regarding potential solutions and their rationale
• Quality of evidence to support various solutions
• Appropriateness of conclusion
• Clarity of writing

Sample Final Papers

These sample final papers are presented courtesy of the students, and used with permission.

"Designing a Public Health Software Framework: Porting OpenMRS data to i2b2" (PDF)

"Impact of US Federal Funding on Global e-Health Initiatives in Developing Countries" (PDF)

"Vaccine Supply Chain in Ethiopia" (PDF)