Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Tsing Yi)
Department of Engineering
Guideline for Final Year Project (for Students)
This is a guideline to summarize and present the schedule of the Final Year Project (FYP). For the details of the FYP, please read the documents of Syllabus of Major Project in conjunction with Operational Arrangements for the Final Year Project.
Final Year Project (FYP) provides students with an opportunity to work on a project with the industry to acquire the experience and exposure which can build students’ competence and confidence in tackling an engineering problem through different stages of development, including literature and information search, design, fabrication, testing and evaluation where applicable.
Students will start their projects at the beginning of the second term of the final year of study and carry their project work full-time throughout the whole term. The nature of industry-based projects can vary from small to medium sized projects or work attachment as long as the project work is relevant to the stream or course of study.
Due to the large number of students studying in the course, the Department cannot guarantee industrial placements to all students; in-house projects would be deemed as necessary. The Department will provide similar working environment to the students, who undertake in-house projects, and the project titles will be closely related to the current trend of developments in industry.
There will be two supervisors for each FYP student – one from the Department and one from industry (in case of a project conducted in industry) or preferably from industry (for in-house projects). The Supervisor from the Department oversees the work of the student in general while the Supervisor from industry follows the work of the student in the company. Both supervisors assess the project work of the student in two assessment stages.
The schedule of FYP is listed in the table below followed by explanations about the different stages of the schedule.
Activities / Week1. Project induction to students / Week 13 (around beginning of Dec)
2. Project proposals submission by staff / Week 13
3. Projects selection / Week 14 - 15
4. Signed Statement of Understanding / Week 20
5. FYP starts / Week 21 – 22 (around beginning of Feb)
6. First stage assessment / Week 28 – 30 (around end of March)
7. Second stage assessment / Week 36 – 38 (around end of May)
The guidelines for the assessment of FYP are given in Paragraphs 6 – 11.
1. FYP Induction and Information Upload (Week 13)
FYP induction session for the students will be conducted by FYP Coordinator in the beginning of December and detailed operation of FYP and assessment requirements will be introduced.
All background information and forms introduced to the students during the induction session will be made available to students and staff as follows: for FYP students, they can access the information from http://tyneng.vtc.edu.hk/ (select FYP) while staff can download the files from the departmental network drive.
2. Project proposals submission by staff (Week 13)
During the first term, staff prepare project proposals and submit them to the Stream Leader or Course Leader to review the proposed project work which should be relevant to the stream or course of study and at an appropriate level.
3. Projects selection (Week 14-15)
At the beginning of the final year, project groups will be formed normally with two students per group. Projects will be either industry based or in-house. On need basis, Project Supervisor can put more than one project groups to work together for large-scale projects.
Students will be invited to apply for available projects by their Lecturers / Stream Leader / Course Leader as the projects will be agreed with the companies and in the Department. Students should submit their most updated CV as a part of their application for FYP allocation.
The selection of students for work on the project will be done on the basis of students’ academic achievements in general. However, the Project Supervisor, in selecting the students, may take in consideration other aspects of students’ performance such as good results / knowledge / skills / exposure / experience in areas important for the particular project.
For projects in industry, students may be required to attend interview with the company and, in such case, the company will decide on which students will be engaged for the project.
Students who are not selected for projects in industry will work on in-house based projects in case when there are not enough industry projects for all students in the Department.
4. Signed Statement of Understanding (Week 20)
After the selection process of students for working on a certain FYP have been completed, a Statement of Understanding shall be signed by the company and the corresponding project student to indicate their agreement for working on certain FYP. The ‘Statement of Understanding’ form is given in Appendix 2.
During their work on final year project in industry, students are covered by VTC Insurance Policy which provides a general insurance coverage for all academic related activities of the students as required by the curriculum of the courses. Students should pay attention that VTC insurance covers only severe physical damages. Students are advised to pursue extra insurance on their own in order to enhance the coverage.
5. FYP starts (Week 21-22)
The objectives, aims and specification of each final year project will be described in the ‘Industrial Attachment Programme’ form given in Appendix 3.
To support the students, the Project Supervisor from the Department will act as a mentor and guide the students throughout the project. Each group of project students will be required to have regular meetings with their Project Supervisor to discuss about the progress and problems associated with the project work. For industry based projects, the Project Supervisor must be satisfied that the work is relevant and student has adequate supervision.
Visit by the Project Supervisor from the Department
The Project Supervisor from the Department will visit the students in their working place in accordance to the following schedule:
• For companies in China: two times during the working period.
• For companies in Hong Kong: once per month.
• For in-house based projects: once per week.
Project Log of Activities
Each student will be required to maintain a project log of activities. The project log includes the project plan, details of work undertaken, and results obtained. Every week, each student has to submit his / her project log individually to the supervisor(s). The form ‘Final Year Project Log Book - Regular Records – Template’ is shown in Appendix 5.
6. First stage assessment (Week 28)
Each student will be required to prepare progress report and submit it to both supervisors before the assessment. The form ‘Final Year Project Log Book - Progress Report – Template’ is given in Appendix 6.
The submission of the progress reports will be accompanied by presentation that students should deliver to the supervisors at the place where the project is carried out. The presentation should be of about 10 – 15 minutes duration and will be followed by question and answers session. If more students work on the same project, each of them should give their own individual presentation of 10 minutes duration. The content of presentations should reflect on the work done individually by the students.
The presentation will give an opportunity to the supervisors to assess student’s presentation skills. Supervisors will record their marking for the progress report and the presentation in an assessment form for the first stage assessment. The assessment components and marks allocation for FYP are given in paragraph 9.
7. Second stage assessment (Week 36)
Student will prepare a final report and present his final work to both supervisors. The report should follow a template. The form ‘Final Year Project Report – Template’ is presented in Appendix 8.
Every student should submit individual report even if more students were working in the same project group. Supervisors will record their marking for the report and the presentation in an assessment form for the second stage assessment. The assessment components and marks allocation for FYP are given in paragraph 9.
8. Assessment of FYP
Normally two students will be assigned to a project and a Project Supervisor from the Department is appointed to oversee the project. Although students share a common project, they are required to divide the work between them and each student will be assessed individually. To avoid variations in assessment, the following procedures will be adopted:
(i) Course Team members, including Stream Leaders and Stream Members where applicable, through partnership and industrial connections, prepare a proposal for industry-based projects with description of the nature of the project work.
(ii) The Course / Stream Leaders assess the appropriateness, level and relevance of the proposed projects and confirm the project list for the course.
(iii) The Course / Stream Leader is responsible for the allocation of each project and the appointment of a Project Supervisor from the Department.
(iv) The Project Supervisor will be responsible for ensuring that the student produces an activity plan.
(v) The Project Supervisor will monitor the student's progress, holding regular consultations throughout the project period and will liaise with the Course / Stream Leader in case there are problems in the project progress.
(vi) The Course / Stream Leader will ensure that a Second Project Supervisor / Assessor will be appointed for each project. For industry-based projects, the Second Project Supervisor will be nominated from the industry. For in-house based projects, the Course / Stream Leader will secure a Second Project Supervisor / Assessor who will, preferably, be industry based professional from the course / stream area.
(vii) The two Project Supervisors will work together for the allocation of the project marks as specified in the module assessment scheme given in Paragraph 9 below. This includes continuous assessment and project deliverables (such as final report, oral presentation and product demonstration).
(viii) A departmental Project Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring common and consistent approach in project management, operation and assessment.
9. Assessment Scheme
The assessment components and marks allocation for FYP are given in the table below.
10. Weighting of Assessments
The weighting of the first and second stage assessments in the final mark is defined to be 40% : 60%.
11. Assessment Criteria
Marks will be given in the range of (0 – 100)% for appropriate components of Engineering Competence and Soft Skills (at least one component for each category) and all components for Project Deliverable and Presentation according to the criteria given below.
Range of Marks Criteria
75 – 100 Outstanding or excellent performance demonstrating highest level of independent work and initiative, comprehensive, very well planned, creative and original work supported by critical analysis/research, innovative concepts and thorough development leading to an exceptional solution which meets all the objectives of the assessment while exhibiting a very high professional level of technical skills.
65 – 74 A good performance demonstrating a high level of independent work and initiative; comprehensive, well planned and creative work supported by good research/analysis, concepts and development leading to good solution which meets all the objectives of the assessment while exhibiting high level of technical skills.
50 – 64 A satisfactory performance demonstrating an adequate depth and range of work relevant to the objectives of the assessment; work supported by reasonable research/analysis, concepts and development leading to an appropriate solution and exhibiting adequate technical skills.
40 – 49 A marginal performance demonstrating an adequate depth and range of work relevant to the objectives of the assessment; work supported by little research/analysis, concepts and development leading to a solution and exhibiting little technical skills.
20 – 39 A inadequate performance demonstrating low initiative, poor understanding and creativity, lack of planning and limited scope of work with little or no conceptual and development work. The solution has not been resolved and demonstrates little relation to research while exhibiting poor technical skills.
0 – 19 Totally inadequate level of performance demonstrating little or no initiative, very poor understanding and creativity, lack of planning and incomplete work in research / analysis, conceptual and design development with very poor technical skills.
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