Team 1

Capstone Proposal

ITS 4390 Capstone Project, Fall

2015
Capstone Proposal

TEAM 1
JESSICA FARIAS, KRISTY FORSTHOFF, BINET LEE,
ADAM SAMADZADA, ANDRE SOUTHIVONG

Team 1
Capstone Proposal

Capstone Proposal, Fall 2015

1. Business Objective, Problem Statement, Proposed
Solution
a. Consumer Need
i. There is a need to facilitate decisions when selecting activities for group
experiences. The proposed application will combine individual preferences to
suggest personalized options for a group event that may span multiple
venues.
b. Problem Statement
i. Current applications focus on individual needs, but do not resolve the
preferences of a group, which may have different shared interests.
c. Proposed Solution
i. The proposed application will take individual preferences and history data
from social media sites such as Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter, and
combine that with the data of other members within the group to find a
dataset of venues that would best satisfy the partys needs. Value will be
created through push advertising.

2. Scope
a. How can we define the project purpose to make certain that our scope is
manageable?
i. The purpose of the project is to design an application that will help a group of
individuals make insightful decisions for group outings.
ii. The scope of the project is to create a detailed model of the proposed
system/application. It will include analysis of the given datasets, as well as
design deliverables for the implementation of the proposed idea.
iii. Due to the busy school and work schedules of the group members, the scope
of this project is limited to the detailed design of the proposed idea and
production datasets based on group preferences. Based on the novice
experience of the team members and the time constraints of the semester,
the group has decided that developing a system prototype with user
interface will not be achievable within these constraints.
b. Data Analysis Approach
i. Provided Data
1. The team will be using the given Foursquare dataset concerning New York
and Tokyo, and will utilize every field
ii. Third Party Data
1. The team will request data from individuals in the groups Facebook social
circle
2. Yelp data and preferences
3. Twitter users that also use Facebook and Yelp
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iii.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
iv.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
c.
i.

Tools
Facebook Developer
Yelp API
Twitter API
R
Tableau
Java Eclipse
Mahout based off Hadoop
Techniques
API gathering
R Trim of Data and Merge (formatted as a .csv file)
Tableau Data Visualization
Building a basic recommendation engine
Group recommendation algorithms based on collaborative filtering
Out of Scope
The project solution will not include implementation of a production solution,
nor will it include a complete working prototype of the application.

3. Workplan: Milestones with Dates & Deliverables

a. Proposal and Work Plan
Week

Task

Due

Week 1

Meet team members; obtain work/school schedules,

phone numbers, and email addresses; conduct a
team meeting to discuss deliverables and
implementation

August 25th

Week 2

Present draft proposal to professor; research and

start data analysis on how to use APIs

September
1st

Week 3

Make final changes to proposal suggested by

professor; complete final proposal and presentation;
present to sponsor

September
8th

Week 4

Final decisions on tools for data analysis; begin

familiarizing with tools such as Mahout and new
concepts such as group recommendation algorithms
(knowledge and research)

September
15th

Week 5

Begin collection of user data via APIs from Yelp,

Twitter, and Facebook to be formatted in a .csv file

September
22nd

Week 6

Present a basic recommendation engine using

Mahout in the Eclipse platform capable of showing
top 5 recommendations

September
29th

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Capstone Proposal
Week 7

Refine API gathering process so that the data comes

in as recently as possible

October 6th

Week 8

Improve algorithm to accommodate groups of

individuals by aggregating multiple user lists and
merging them into one pseudo-user, and forming
recommendations based on that user

October 13th

Week 9

Meet with professor to present working product and

take any suggestions

October 20th

Week
10

Present an improved recommendation engine that

takes multiple users and gives top 5
recommendations

October 27th

Week
11

Make any changes to the project based on sponsors

suggestions and professors advice; use Tableau to
visualize resultant data

November
3rd

Week
12

Identify test cases for the machine; make

improvements as necessary to improve
recommendations; commence user interface
mockup; identify room for improvements in
recommendation machine.

November
10th

Week
13

Create and present the practice presentation to the

professor

November
17th

Week
14

Thanksgiving Break; make final changes to the

presentation

November
24th

Week
15

Present final presentation and deliverables to the

sponsor

December
1st

b. Literature Review
i. The focus of this project, big data, is a broad term for data sets; they are
large, complex, and traditional data processing applications are inadequate
to handle. It involves aggregating information from potentially disparate
sources with the goal of drawing meaningful conclusions about what a
person or group might be most interested in. In the field of big data, mobile
is growing huge interest because it is ubiquitous, highly personal and is
growing faster than the human population. When regulators began requiring
all new mobile phones to have built in location technology such as GPS to
help find emergency callers, it was a huge milestone for the big data history
because it changed how information is captured and mined. Also, the rise in
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Capstone Proposal
network connectivity and the severe social network adoption that people
have become accustomed to when using their mobile device is huge. The
information that was captured improved predictive analysis by helping to
make meaningful conclusions about a person or groups behavior or
interests. For this application, the team will utilize this information and make
meaningful conclusions about a person's behavior so it can suggest activities
that would be of interest to the group. There will also be the need to consult
literature for best practices on data gathering, especially in real time, as well
as algorithms used to form recommendations, for both individuals and
groups. Group members will also need to educate themselves on new tools,
such as Java Eclipse and Mahout.
c. Architecture
i. The implementation of this application would require the use of the
Foursquare data set, as well as collection of the groups user information
from their Yelp, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. This data will be
incorporated into a .csv, which will then be processed by a Java file in Eclipse
using Mahout libraries. Recommendations for the group will be displayed
based a group recommendation algorithm that uses collaborative filtering.
This data will be exported and then visualized using Tableau.

4. Constraints, Risks, and Resources

a.
i.
ii.
iii.

Expertise
Adam: SQL
Andre: Programming in R, Basic SQL, Basic Java, Basic HTML, PHP
Binet: Programming in R, Java, Mobile programming
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iv. Jessica: Programming in R, Basic HTML, Basic Java, Basic SQL, Basic CSS,
Basic DarkBASIC programming, PHP
v. Kristy: Programming in R, SQL
b. Limitations
i. Limitations are mostly based on the areas of expertise of each team
member; most team members have basic experience in programming in R
and SQL. The team members will overcome almost any limitations by helping
one another in an area as needed and will contribute what they know to the
best of their ability. Time is another limitation, since the team members work
and go to school. This limitation will be overcome by contributing not only at
team meetings but also by working individually and bring what has been
completed to each team meeting. The team will also maintain daily contact
by using GroupMe and Google Docs to share and edit documents. To
overcome the limitation of developing a system prototype, the team will
create a basic design of the user interface of the mobile web application.

5. Communication Plan
a. Weekly updates per course schedule
i. As per the project work plan, the team will complete and present the project
proposal to the sponsor on week 3. Status updates will be presented to the
sponsor on weeks 6 and 10. The final deliverables will be presented to the
sponsor on week 15.
ii. Any weeks that are not reserved for project sponsor updates will consist of
weekly status updates to the professor.
b. Weekly questions to sponsor
1. Do you have any suggestions on
project improvements?
2. What are your thoughts on the
teams method of data analysis? Do you have any
suggestions on improvements in regards to methods and
technique?
3. Do you foresee any errors or
troubles that could occur with the teams current idea?

Sign-Of
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Capstone Proposal

__________________________________________________________________________
Instructor

__________________________________________________________________________
Sponsor

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