Our Graduation Project Was Chosen as the Best of the Term at the University

Hey everyone!

In this post, I'll talk about the final or graduation project we did during our last year at the Computer Engineering Department of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. Without diving into the technical details, I'll give a general overview of the project and share some tips for students.

I've detailed the technical aspects of our project in another post. That post is ready and will be published soon after editor review.

Those studying computer science know they need to complete a final or graduation project in their last year. These projects allow you to apply what you've learned, boost your career, and stand out when job hunting. Now, to help students choosing a graduation project, I'd like to share some tips:

Internship Technology

If you're studying in a department that requires a graduation project, you love software, and you want to become a software developer after graduation, you should make the most of your internship. Learn as much as you can during your internship.

Interest and Passion

When choosing your project, it's important to pick a topic you'll enjoy working on and are passionate about. Finding a topic that will keep you motivated through long hours of work will be beneficial for you.

Learning Potential

Choose a project that allows you to learn new technologies and improve your existing knowledge and skills. This supports your professional development and increases your career opportunities after graduation.

Career Goals

Choosing a project that aligns with your long-term career goals will give you an advantage when entering the job market, allowing you to gain experience in your area of interest. If you don't have career goals, it's important to set them and choose your project accordingly.

Difficulty Level

The project's difficulty level should be just above your current knowledge and skills. Such projects give you the opportunity to improve your problem-solving skills. On the other hand, choosing a project that is too hard or too easy can negatively affect your learning experience. We chose a very hard project; I'm not sure if I would recommend it, you decide.

Innovation

Working on an innovative idea that hasn't been tried before in the market or academia can make your project stand out and gain value. I still start my professional experience discussions with my graduation project in job interviews. So far, in 400–500 interviews, I've never met a manager who didn't respect or show interest in our graduation project, regardless of the company's size.

Impact of Results

Evaluate the potential impact of your project. Does the system or software you develop have the potential to solve real-world problems? Such projects can increase both your motivation and the impact and visibility of your project.

Time Management

Use your project time well. Graduation projects are usually selected in September and cover a 6–8 month period of work, but remember you are still a student with other courses. It's important that the project you choose can be completed within the given time and doesn't affect your other courses.

Teamwork

If possible, don't do the project alone. Do it with your favorite friends you enjoy spending time with at university. This way, you can discuss the project's progress and motivate each other, and in job interviews, saying "We did it as a team of 3 (or 5, however many you are)" will show that you are a team player.

The Project Should Work

"Done is better than perfect." No one expects clean code from a student, or even a junior. Companies that hire you as a junior will be aware of this and won't expect it. They will pay you accordingly. Finish the job well, write your article carefully. These are much more important than code quality for a graduation project.

Importance of Internships

In the first point, I mentioned the importance of internships. I did my internships at a major government institution using ASP.Net MVC 5 technology and at a company developing ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. As a result, I learned this technology well at that time. I even developed the official website of this major institution with a gov.tr extension as an intern.

For a long time, I couldn't stop myself from looking at my embarrassing codes by right-clicking on the browser and selecting "inspect," just like a parsley-covered front tooth you don't want to look at but can't help it. At first, I was happy thinking, "Oh, they haven't made a new site yet, my codes are still there." But over time, I started to think, "I wish they would make a new one! How did I write this? What is this? Oh, I didn't even format it. Damn it!"

Remember, there's a well-known fact in the industry: Not liking your own code is not a bad thing. "A good programmer should look at the code they wrote six months ago and think, 'What was I thinking? Where was my mind when I wrote this?' If not, it means they aren't learning fast enough."

The good old days spent with my dear friends at university, just hanging around as three hopeless cases, making terrible jokes, teasing each other, and having fun. The three losers, the three dummies, the three "lows"; feeling the youthful winds everywhere, going to the PS cafe 2–3 times a week and playing PES for 4–5 hours without getting up, our butts hurting. (I hope my mom doesn't read this post.)

Our long walks, sometimes between Kızılay and Ulus, sometimes between Etlik and Yenimahalle, starting and ending without using a map app, full of gossip, teasing each other for fun, and having a good time.

Don't get distracted by the fun. I was the best in software knowledge and the most successful student in software courses in the department. Even now, looking back, I don't see anyone from our term who graduated and worked in companies as big as the ones I worked in, or in banks, or in a company at the level of Turkey's biggest agencies. If they interviewed with me, I wouldn't hire them. :)

At the beginning of our last year, we started to think about "what we would do for the graduation project." Despite our professors saying they would take the graduation projects seriously and not graduate those who didn't produce a good project, our tall friend Taner thought, "Don't worry, man! Won't we be the first graduates? They can't make us repeat the year." (Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University was newly established, and we were its first students.) With my anxious, unsatisfied, and know-it-all personality, I was saying, "We have to do a proper project."

Graduation Project Idea

Since I knew ASP.NET MVC 5 technology (!), I told my dear friends that we could do the final project with this. I'm talking about the years 2015–2016. E-commerce was just starting to rise, and even the famous food delivery app in Turkey(I think it was the only one at that time, not sure) was not very popular. E-commerce was rising so much that jokes were made about the domains being bought: snagitfast, whatchagonnabuy, dontclickhere, buyordie, shoptillyoudrop, even getitbeforeitsgone…" (Of course, with extensions like .com, .org.) I said, "An e-commerce graduation project would work."

The other member of our cute but useless trio, Ömür, said, "Mobile is also on the rise. Okay, MVC 5 is good, but have another option, maybe we'll earn our bread from there, who knows. Don't ignore mobile so much." Initially, I responded in our group's communication style, "Shut up!" but a seed of doubt was planted. I asked around and researched, and with the support of our supervisor Prof. Dr. Baha Şen, who was the Head of Information Processing Department at TÜBİTAK at the time, we decided to write a shopping mall navigation mobile app. It was very difficult because GPS didn't work indoors, but we had to determine the person's location inside the mall for the project scope.

Project Requirements:

• Create a database with the floor plan of the shopping mall,
• Determine the user's location, which floor and which store they are in front of,
• When the user enters the store they want to go to in the search screen, calculate the shortest route,
• Like in map applications, place a blue dot at intervals and guide the user,
• Turn the blue dots gray as the user moves.

We used modems to calculate distances.

We converted the store's location inside the building into machine language using the numbering system in analytical budget codes. If you're wondering "How do you know about analytical budget codes?", this is where the importance of internships comes in. Details will come in another post. This way, we easily answered questions like "Which store is next to which?", "Which one is on which floor?" by giving each store its own special code.

To calculate the distance between the user and the area in front of the store, we used the free space path loss (FSPL) formula, which calculates the distance from the modem's signal strength.

A modem could be the same distance from many stores. We determined the user's location at the intersection of the distances of the nearest 5–6 modems, not just 3, using the trilateration method.

Since the signal strength was variable, we used a range-based localization method. The area in front of large stores is also large. For example, a 5 square meter area doesn't have a single distance to a modem. According to the user's closest and furthest distances to the modem, the location determination became more accurate.

We wrote a separate Android mobile application for creating the floor plan and indoor mapping. We installed this application on our personal Android device and went to the mall, waiting in front of each store to measure distances and create the floor plan database.

To find the shortest route between the user and the store, we used Dijkstra's Shortest Path algorithm, which is highly favored in academia and commonly taught in algorithm courses.

Since the signal strength was variable, we used interpolation to estimate unknown values between two known data points.

So, we had an algorithm like this: The user is in that region if the 5–6 modems closest to the person have the most common in the regions that are within the coverage area of ​​these modems at the same time.

In the last suggestion, I mentioned that your project should work. That year, a group with a GPA higher than the combined GPA of the three of us decided to use ASP.NET MVC 5. However, they faced some challenges in transferring data between the controller and the view, opting to use ViewBag and ViewData structures that even Microsoft advised against relying on too much. They didn't consult me, of course.

The morning we presented our projects, I suggested they switch to the ViewModel structure as there was still time, but they didn't take my advice. Unfortunately, their project didn't work as expected during the presentation, and some friends left the presentation with teary eyes. Taner was right, as far as I remember, no one had to repeat the term or project.

Make sure your project works. You have 8 months. If you include the summer, it becomes 11 months. Start thinking and preparing as soon as your finals end in the 6th term. Use proper technologies and improve yourself. You might not be as lucky or have grades high enough to get special treatment.

Also, make sure to have such warm friendships during your university years. As you read, our trio had legendary conversations. When things got serious, we made the best project. Even though we can't meet since I moved to Istanbul, your place in my heart never changed, guys. I love you.