CS-3240: Pre-Senior Design

BTL-1: Bootcamp Task List #1

In the bootcamp phase of the course, you will spend time getting familiar with the basic technologies needed for your project. For example, if your project involves hacking part of the Linux kernel, you'll at least need to be able to make a small change and compile the kernel. Similarly, if you are working on a robotics project, you'll at least need to get your code downloaded to the robot and executing.

The purpose of the Bootcamp Task List (BTL) is to create a list of goals in getting familiar with the technologies you'll need in your project. We will do this in two parts, a beginning or basic part (BTL-1) and a more advanced part in which you will exercise APIs and start writing some substantial code (BTL-2). The idea is, at the end of completing all BTL-2 tasks, you will be ready to completely focus on your part of the project code. That is, all the other code or hardware you need will be working, and you'll know how to go through a compile-execute-test cycle with all these parts.

Think of BTL-1 as doing all the "helloworld" programs for the technologies you will be using. For example, consider a project that involves a barcode reader, character recognition with a webcam, and some encryption. And suppose that your own part involves some image analysis. Here are some example BTL-1 tasks:

Figure our where to buy or borrow the barcode reader and the webcam. What brands did you choose and why? Did you look through user forums to see that these brands were the best for programming projects?
Write a small program to read from the barcode reader when the reader is attached to your PC. Did you need a special library for this? An additional library to handle USB communication? Were there errors?
Write a small program to capture images from the webcam and to be able to examine the pixels. Can you get multiple images in sequence? Capture video?
If you are using an OCR package, download and get the package to work. Write some simple tests. What package are you using and why?
Write a small program to encrypt and decrypt text and images. What package are you using and why?
Outline ideas for your contribution. What problem or problems are you solving and why? What data structures do you anticipate needing?
Explain what determined your choice of language.

Why do these make sense? Clearly, if you are going to use these packages and the above hardware, you have got to be able to get them working with your code. This is the very basic next step in going forward with your project.

Submission:

Make a list of BTL-1 tasks like the above list, but add an explanation of why these are appropriate BTL-1 tasks for your project.
Get informal feedback from your team.
Post your BTL-1 list on your project website.