Master Project (Thesis) Proposal Guidelines

A project (or thesis) proposal should have six components: title page, abstract,
objectives of proposed work, summary and conclusion, proposed schedule, and
references. In addition, a signature page should be attached to the front of the
proposal, which will be reviewed and approved by the Graduate Committee.
Guidelines for preparing these components are presented below. A sample
proposal is attached to demonstrate how these guidelines are applied.
The proposal is written in 3rd person. Often this results in passive voice. It should
not contain “I”, “we”, “me”, “mine”, “ours” or other first person words. The
proposal is a statement of future work, and the parts to be done should be in
future tense. Those items discovered in the state of the art can be in present or
past tense, while those items in the literature are typically in past tense.
The Project Proposal follows IEEE format for a paper or submission.

1 Signature Page
List the title of the proposal, your name, the supervising professor's name, your
advisor's name, the name of the co-advisor, and the names of the Graduate
Committee members. At the bottom of the page, list your address, student
number, phone number, and email address.

2 Title Page
List the title of the proposal, your name, and the supervising professor's name.
Often combined with the signature page on a proposal.

3 Abstract
The abstract should not exceed 150 words. Write one or two sentences on each
of these points: the motivation, tasks, and significance of the project.
The abstract provides the reader with a quick summary of the proposed project.
It may contain the hypothesis and a quick statement of work. An abstract allows
the reader to quickly determine if they should read the rest of the paper. These
are often read quickly by people performing research. A simple example is
below:
This paper proposes a new channel model for pedestrian mobile data
devices allowing improved digital video reception. The project will
measure channel conditions around SJSU in the downtown San Jose
area, and develop a model that matches the observed conditions. The
project will compare 2X4 MIMO and 4X4 MIMO OFDM using the new
channel model.
4 Objectives of Proposed Work
Present what the proposed work plans to accomplish. Explain the outcome
expected and its significance if your hypothesis is validated by experimental
work.

5 Introduction
Discuss the motivation and the need for the proposed work. Present background
information on the proposed work and describe current work in the subject area.
The introduction explains the project in quick simple terms. It allows introduction
of terms used in the rest of the proposal. The introduction typically exposes the
benefit that will be mentioned in the hypothesis. It can also set the position of the
project in a social or related to the state of the art. The introduction should state
what is unique or different in this project from all other projects. The introduction
is the first part of the process of:
• Tell them what you are going to say
• Say it
• Tell them you said it

5.1 Hypothesis
The hypothesis provides the reader with an understanding of what will be done,
and the expected benefit. It is normally in the form of “if X, then Y” or “Y results if
X”. Some simple examples of the Hypothesis are below.
VOIP spam can be reduced using a time of day call map
If an algorithmic ADC is changed from switched voltage to switched
current, the costs will be reduced
Asynchronous design can reduce clock tree power and be a benefit in
low power designs.
Four level logic can result in faster multiplier implementation

5.2 Literature Survey / State of the Art

The literature survey shows you have a grasp of the state of the art in your topic
area. It provides an explanation of what others have done. This provides a
contrasting background as you explain the approach later in the document.
Summaries of what was learned are often useful to the reader. It also shows the
author understood the literature in the survey.

5.3 Motivation and application

Explain your motivation and how the project will benefit society and the
engineering community. Explain how the resulting project would be better than
existing solutions discovered in the state of the art.
6 Proposed Work
Present specifics on the proposed work and the approaches you plan to
investigate or implement. Give sufficient technical details to demonstrate the fact
that the proposed project is well thought out.

6.1 Method
Describe the methods that will be used to achieve the objective, what tools and
resources will be required, and how the hypothesis will be tested. The method
section includes block diagrams, flow charts, and other aids to enable the reader
to quickly understand how things will be accomplished and how measurements
will be taken.

6.2 Scope of work

Explain the scope of the project. Often, a project will be focused on a portion of a
large problem. Students may describe an entire router in the “state of the art”
discussion, but will be working on improving a lookup algorithm. The scope
section allows explaining to advisors and peers what will be the work performed
by the student.
In the scope, the student should explain what special “nugget” of original work
will be performed, and where it will fit in the larger picture.
It is helpful to include a highlighted block or system diagram when possible. It is
then easy for others to see the project scope quickly.
If the project will use design elements from others, that should be indicated in the
scope statement.
Project
scope
 Not
used in
this
project

Project block diagram implementation areas

6.3 Specification
The specification section has two major elements. The first of these are
environmental assumptions. The second are measurement methods. The
measurable results will be used to determine if the hypothesis was validated.
Examples of environmental assumptions:
• 0.13u process
• Synthesis library
• AWGN channel models
• Single fault model
• Limited set of network attacks
• FPGA type and speed
• Data converter specifications for DSP algorithms
• Compatible with 802.11n
Examples of measurement methods:
• reduction of Bit Error Rate using MAC error reporting hardware
• smaller die area by measuring layout
• reduction in Cycles per Instruction measured by Verilog test bench code
• packets per second filtered as measured with two network sniffers

6.4 Statement of Work

Explain what will be done in the project. This should include both activities and
results. The results should bring together the items in the scope and
environment. The results should include all things “delivered” at the end of the
project. All delivered items should have a numeric value. All deliverables should
be placed in a table for quick reference.
This project will develop a urban communications channel model for the
downtown San Jose area by taking measurements of signal strength,
 and OFDM bit error and bits/second rates. A channel model will be
developed, and the resulting model will use a previously developed
MIMO OFDM system model to validate the data. Major activities shown
below:

Activity Deliverable Measurement Comment

Set up transmitter Working Finished/unfinished May need a FCC
on roof of building setup license (Could get
help from ham radio
club)
Measure Line of Measurement db signal strength Calibrates
sight signal strength transmitter power at
a distance, and
compensates for
antennas and other
variables.
Measure signal in Signal 300 db signal Will assume fair
downtown SJ strength strength values. 50 weather conditions
locations values MIMO BPS/BER
measurements. (25
4X2 and 25 4X4)
Create channel Mathlab code Standard deviation
Model within 10% of
measured results
Apply channel Bit rate Bits/second
model to 4X2 MIMO prediction differences from 25
OFDM models measured
BPS/BER
Apply channel Bit rate Bits/second
model to 4X4 MIMO prediction differences from 25
OFDM models measured
BPS/BER
Write report Report Approved by
advisors

7 Summary and Conclusion

Summarize the need for the proposed work and tasks for the proposed work.
Discuss the significance and impact of the proposed work. Also helpful is the
discussion on the possible extension of the proposed work.
8 Proposed Schedule
Break your proposed work into several tasks. Give a time line for completion of
each task. Indicate who will perform each task in a multi-person project. The final
task for the project is the master project presentation and report, which is due on
the Friday before the last week of the class.

9 References
List sources cited in the body of the proposal. In the report, number your
references consecutively and enclose the reference number in brackets, e.g.
"Pekmestzi [14] suggested the use of complex binary digit." The reference
sources cited in this section should be in IEEE reference format, e.g. K. Z.
Pekmestzi and G. D. Papadopoulos, "Cellular Two's Complement Serial-parallel
Pipeline Multiplier," Radio and Electronic Engineering, Vol. 49, pp. 575-580,
1979.