FAQ
Who can do FYP?
Final Year Project (FYP) is assigned only when SoC students have attained 70% of the total units for their respective degree and satisfied the GPA threshold of the proposed projects.
Highest Distinction / First Class Honours
- Students in CB / CM / CS (exclude IS / BA) from cohort AY2012-13 onwards must obtain a minimum GPA of 4.5 and pass the CP4101 BComp Dissertation in order to graduate with Honours (Highest Distinction).
- Students in IS / BA from cohort AY2018-19 onwards must obtain a minimum GPA of 4.5 and pass the CP4101 BComp Dissertation / BT4101 BSc Dissertation respectively in order to graduate with Honours (Highest Distinction).
- Students in CB / CM / CS / EC / IS from cohort before AY2012-13 must obtain a minimum GPA of 4.5 and score at least A- for CP4101 BComp Dissertation in order to graduate with first class honours.
Please refer to the degree requirements of your respective cohort for more details.
Who proposes FYP?
The project may be proposed by (1) an academic staff member, (2) jointly between an academic staff member and an external organisation/company, or (3) initiated by a student and endorsed by an academic staff member.
Academic Staff Proposals:
During both semesters, a list of projects proposed by professors, with a short description, required pre-requisite skills, deliverables, etc. are made available well in advance to students at the Project Administration System.
External Proposals:
Any FYP proposal from companies, other faculties within NUS, other institutions of higher learning, and research institutes are considered as externally proposed project. If an organisation/company is interested in proposing a project, they can complete the prescribed form (please see forms and circulars) and seek collaboration with a SoC staff to supervise the student. All other conditions of FYP remain applicable.
If a student takes the initiative, then he/she should request the organization/company to submit the project proposal using the prescribed form; and with the consent from a SoC academic staff.
In both, academic staff propose the externally proposed projects and inform the administrator from Undergraduate office for manual registration.
Students should discuss the project with the professors as soon as possible during the project discussion period (please see project selection schedule), so that sufficient time is there to think about the right project to work on.
Student Proposals:
If you have your own idea for an individual project, it is your responsibility to find a professor who both approves of the proposed programme of work and is willing to supervise it. It is a good idea to look at the SOC website to identify professors who work in the specific area of your proposed research project. You should first fill the form and take it along with other materials you may have to discuss it with the professor. The professor (supervisor) can then propose the project for you online and inform the administrator from Undergraduate office for manual registration.
Choosing the right project
The Project Administration System allows you to browse through all projects available for selection in a given semester. It is advisable to keep track of this website closer to the project selection period (please see project selection schedule).
The projects offered by the academic staff may differ in breadth, depth, degree of difficulty and expectations. Some projects may be part of a large research or development project while others may be a self contained individual project.
The project you choose should be consistent with the aims of your degree programme, your area of interest, and should be in-line with your future ambitions of pursuing higher degree. Some students are better suited to well-defined and relatively safe projects that provide scope for demonstrating proficiency with a low risk factor. Other students are better advised to tackle harder, riskier projects that require a high degree of research content. Please note that not every project is suitable for every student.
Each proposal will indicate constraints in order to help you to make an informed choice. The most important thing is to shortlist a set of projects that are right for you. Please also carefully look at the nature of project and keywords proposal. The potential supervisors will be happy to offer advice on the suitability of a project, given your individual background, strengths and ambitions.
Some projects may impose a minimum GPA requirement in order to bid. Please see the Project Selection for details.
Remember that it is important to balance ambition and realism when making a choice. Once you have been allocated a supervisor, there will be opportunities to refine the project idea and to focus on these issues in more details so it is not necessary to have addressed all of these issues at this early stage.
Workload
The Final Year Project spans over a period of two semesters, with a workload of approximately 400 hours (about 15 hours/week) equivalent to 3 courses. It carries 12 units. In most cases students work on projects during holidays, and hence actual number of hours of work put in may be more than stipulated here.
FYP and ATAP / Internship
Students cannot concurrently do FYP with ATAP. Conversion of ATAP related work to FYP is not permitted, irrespective of how good the ATAP-work is.
Similarly, students are not allowed to do FYP if they are engaged in other internships during regular semester.
FYP and NOC/SEP
It is optional for students currently on NOC programme/Student Exchange Programme (SEP) and due to return next semester to bid for project during the current semester. Student can discuss via email, or face-to face with their potential supervisor about a project that he/she wishes to take, and do so immediately upon his/her return from NOC programme/SEP.
The following details should be supplied to Ms Sharifah with a copy to the FYP Coordinators, Dr Leong Wai Kay and Prof Stanley Kok once an agreement is reached between student and supervisor:
Name and Student Number
A copy of supervisor’s consent
Project title
Project ID
The Office of Undergraduate Studies will update the system accordingly.
The conversion of NOC-related work to FYP is not permitted, irrespective of how good the NOC project work is.
In addition, please note that students are not allowed to concurrently do FYP with SEP/NOC.
Integrated Honours Project (IHP) for DDP students
- DDP students must first determine their eligibility to undertake IHP by consulting their degree requirements or home faculty. Eligible DDP students are then required to register for IHP through their home faculty.
- DDP students have to first approach supervisors from both departments, who agree on the joint supervision of the IHP, followed by seeking consent from both department heads (HoDs) for the project to be regarded as IHP.
- You are required to submit the approvals (email will suffice) to Ms Sharifah for further advise on registration.
- Upon successful registration, the home faculty will pre-allocate the IHP course code in ModReg for students in the next 2 semesters. For SoC, the IHP code is XFC4101. For home dept/faculty without an IHP code, they will pre-allocate the final year project code instead.
- DDP students, except for DDP students from SoC/Business School **, shall follow all aspects of project administration (e.g. presentations, assessment) based on the practice of the home dept/faculty. The supervisor from the 2nd degree’s faculty will collaborate with the supervisor from home degree’s department in each phase of the assessment. Please visit here for SoC’s project selection timeline.
- Where page limits of report between the home faculty and 2nd degree’s faculty are different, students will have to observe the word limit rules of both faculties. For example, if student meet the limit of the faculty with higher word limit but exceeds the word limit of the faculty with lower word limit, he/she will need to re-adjust the contents and submit two separate thesis to requirements of each faculty.
** Students may submit an email to Ms Sharifah for more details on project administration and requirement.
The project grade awarded at the end of the second semester will be finalised by both faculties.
For DDP students who have registered for a final year project via SoC project admin system without seeking the required approvals, the project will be treated as CP4101/BT4101 which cannot be double counted as IHP for fulfillment of the degree requirements of the DDP.
Plagiarism
The University takes a serious view on plagiarism. Students caught with plagiarised work cannot opt the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option for the poor grade obtained. Please refer to the School’s Preventing Plagiarism website for information.
Please also see section on report writing.
Intellectual Property
For Policies Relating To University Intellectual Property please click here.
