Final Project

General Instructions

You will be assigned to a pre-assigned team of 4 or 5 students and a Teaching Fellow (TF) who will supervise your project. Your team will select one project from the list below and report to your assigned TF throughout the semester.

TF Name Groups
Angela Groups 1-5
Ava Groups 6-10
Emma Groups 11-15
Jing Groups 16-20

Grading: The final project accounts for 20% of your course grade, divided as follows:

  • Final Project Report: 10% of course grade
  • Oral Presentation: 10% of course grade

Available Projects

Your team will choose one of the following projects (possible topics will be posted here as they become available):

  1. TBD
  2. TBD
  3. …
  4. Custom Topic: Your team may propose your own research topic, subject to approval by your assigned TF

Detailed project descriptions, datasets, and example papers will be posted here as they become available.

Project Submission Requirements

You will submit your project using Git. Your project should be completely reproducible, meaning all the code and data needed to render your report from scratch should be in the repository.

Communication: Each group is encouraged to communicate with each other and their assigned TF on Slack throughout the project timeline.

Required Submissions to your TF:

  1. GitHub Repository: Submit the link to your team’s GitHub repository

  2. Oral Presentation: Each team must schedule a 20-minute oral presentation with their assigned TF via Zoom between December 16-19. All team members must be present during the presentation. The TF will ask each team member specific questions about different aspects of the project based on their individual contributions detailed in the contribution summary document (e.g., if a member contributed to data analysis, they may be asked about model choice, coding decisions, statistical methods, etc.).

Oral Presentation Evaluation Rubric

The oral presentation will be evaluated as a group grade out of 10 points based on the following criteria:

Score Criteria
0-1 No meeting scheduled or major absence of team members
2-3 Limited understanding of project components; significant gaps in explanations
4-5 Moderate understanding of project components; difficulty explaining individual contributions/methodological choices
6-7 Good understanding of project components; able to explain most individual contributions/methodological choices
8-9 Very good understanding of all project components; strong defense of analytical approaches with minimal gaps
10 Excellent understanding of all project components; exceptional ability to defend and discuss all aspects of the analysis

Sections

You will prepare a comprehensive report following the style of an academic paper. This report will be divided into the following five structured sections, with approximate word counts to help you reach a target of 2,500 to 3,000 words, up to four figures and up to two tables.

Abstract (150-200 words)

  • Purpose: The abstract provides a concise summary of your project, including its objectives, key findings, and significance. Write this section last, after completing all other sections, to accurately reflect your project’s focus and main results.
  • Guidelines: Limit this section to 150-200 words. Briefly outline the purpose of your study, the approach you used, and the primary results and conclusions. The abstract should be clear, succinct, and give readers an immediate understanding of what your project entails.

Introduction (500-600 words)

  • Purpose: The introduction sets the stage for your project, presenting the background and rationale for your analysis. Explain why the topic is significant.
  • Guidelines: Start with a broad overview of the topic, gradually narrowing down to your specific focus. Conclude with a clear statement of your research questions, hypotheses, or objectives. Use 2-3 paragraphs to establish a solid foundation for the rest of the paper.

Methods (600-700 words)

  • Purpose: This section details the data sources, methods, and analytical techniques you used to conduct your analysis. It should be specific enough that someone else could replicate your study using the same resources and approach.
  • Guidelines: Describe the dataset(s) you used, including information about data collection (e.g., sources, time frame). Outline your approach for cleaning and analyzing the data, including any statistical or computational methods applied. Clearly explain any assumptions or limitations in your approach.

Results (500-600 words)

  • Purpose: The results section presents the main findings of your analysis without interpretation. Organize the data logically to highlight key insights, using tables, figures, and charts to illustrate trends and comparisons.
  • Guidelines: For each result, briefly describe it and refer to relevant visuals or tables where appropriate. Do not provide explanations or discuss implications in this section; focus only on presenting the findings clearly and accurately.

Use of AI Tools

Students are welcome to use AI tools as a complementary aid, but they must clearly state in their report where AI was used (e.g., text generation, editing, data analysis suggestions, or AI-assisted conclusions). AI should serve as a productivity and learning tool, not as the primary author of the report.

Discussion (600-700 words)

  • Purpose: In the discussion, interpret the significance of your findings, explore potential implications, and relate the results back to your initial research questions or hypotheses. This section allows you to discuss any patterns, unexpected findings, or limitations and suggest possible future research.
  • Guidelines: Analyze your results in the context of your research question, linking them back to the background information from the introduction. Consider what your findings reveal, any limitations they may have, and how they might impact future work or policy. End with a brief conclusion summarizing your main insights.

Your final report should be professionally formatted, with each section clearly labeled and referenced. Aim for clarity, precision, and a well-organized presentation of your analysis.

Total Word Count: Approximately 2,500-3,000 words.

Supplementary Methods (no limit)

You can include a separate document titled Supplementary Methods.

  • Purpose: Share any mathematical derivations, data visualizations, or tables needed to justify the choices described in the Methods Section. You can also provide further support for the claims made in the Results Section. You can refer to this document in the main report.

  • Guidelines: There is no limits in the length of this section nor on the number of figures and tables. However, be careful not to drown the graders with too much information.

GitHub Repository

We recommend your repository include:

  • Directories code, data, and docs.
  • At least one script for wrangling in the code directory.
  • There should be one file called final-project.qmd that can be rendered to produce the final report. This can be in the code or home directories as long as it renders.
  • You should include a README file explaining how to reproduce all the results.
  • A contribution summary document detailing each team member’s specific contributions to the final report and analysis.
  • If you need to share raw data include it in the raw-data directory. Alternatively, you can include code that downloads the necessary data from the internet.

We expect to see at least five commits by each person.