Academic Project Schedules
Some reasonable schedules are proposed below by project type and 13 week academic semesters. There is some allowance for projects that encounter technical or schedule problems, but anything more than 1 week behind schedule will typically cause problems later.
2 Semester design and build:
Semester 1 - Planning
Project Launch - week 1
Needs identification - 1 week
Specification development - 1 week
Specification approval - week 2
Concept and embodiment development - 2 weeks
Concept approval - week 4
Detailed design - 6 weeks
Prepare presentation - 1 week
Detailed design review and approval - week 11
Order components - 1 week
Semester 2 - Implementation
Launch Execution - week 1
Build - 4-6 weeks
Build review - week 4-6
Test - 2 weeks
Documentation - 2 weeks
Customer review - week 8-10
Revisions - 2 weeks
Preparation for delivery - 1 week
Project Close - week 11-13
2 Semester design only:
Semester 1 - Planning
Project Launch - week 1
Needs identification - 1 week
Specification development - 1 week
Specification approval - week 2
Concept and embodiment development - 2 weeks
Concept approval - week 4
Detailed design - 6 weeks
Prepare presentation - 1 week
Detailed design review and approval - week 11
Order components - 1 week
Semester 2 - Implementation
Launch Execution - week 1
Build - 4-6 weeks
Build review - week 4-6
Test - 2 weeks
Documentation - 2 weeks
Customer review - week 8-10
Revisions - 2 weeks
Preparation for delivery - 1 week
Project Close - week 11-13
1 Semester design and build:
Project Launch - week 1
Needs identification
Specification development
Specification approval - week 2
Concept and embodiment development
Concept approval - week 3
Detailed design
Prepare presentation
Detailed design review and approval - week 7
Order components
Build
Build review - week 9
Continued build
Test
Documentation
Customer review - week 11
Revisions
Preparation for delivery
Project Close - week 12
2 Semester research thesis:
Semester 1 - Thesis planning
Thesis Launch - week 1
Thesis topic identification
Subject reading
Formulation of research problem
Approval of research problem statement - week 3
Location and review of seminal works
Review of literature
Write the literature review chapter
Literature review chapter approval - week 8
Develop a protocol to test the thesis
Write a methodology chapter
Methodology chapter approval - week 11
Supplies and equipment are gathered
Semester 2 - Experimentation and Verification
Launch Testing - week 1
Build experimental setup
Test for general operation
Approve equipment - week 4
Verify equipment using a control
Preliminary testing and adjustment
Write the chapter on apparatus, implementation, or verification.
Approval to collect data - week 6
The data is collected and analyzed
A chapter on data results is written
A chapter on analysis and proof of thesis is written.
Results approved - week 10
The abstract, Introduction, and Conclusions are written.
Proofreading
Equipment is returned
Thesis accepted - week 12
1 Semester research thesis:
Thesis Launch - week 1
Thesis topic identification
Formulation of research problem
Approval of research thesis - week 2
Review of literature
Write the literature review chapter
Literature review chapter approval - week 4
Develop a protocol to test the thesis
Write a methodology chapter
Methodology approval - week 6
Build experimental setup
Test for general operation
Approve equipment - week 8
Verify equipment using a control
Preliminary testing and adjustment
Write the chapter on apparatus, implementation, or verification.
Approval to collect data - week 9
The data is collected and analyzed
A chapter on data results is written
A chapter on analysis and proof of thesis is written.
Results approved - week 11
The abstract, Introduction, and Conclusions are written.
Proofreading
Equipment is returned
Thesis accepted - week 12