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