While the thesis is now "two" semesters long, one of those is just a handful of weeks, and it will go past faster than you imagine. So, it is important to have a good plan and to get it in place early. It is also important to write it down so you have something to look at as you go. I expect these to be revised as you learn more about your topic (and your ability to get things done).

Part 1: Proposal

tl;dr Write a 1-2 page description of your project with three references, after a discussion with your thesis advisor.

Your thesis proposal will be a 1-2 page description of what you will do for your thesis. For most of you, this will be a description of what problem you are addressing, why the problem is an important or interesting one, and a plan for what you specifically will be doing over the course of the semester. If you are struggling with mapping your topic into this framework, please talk it over with either me or your thesis advisor. These should be detailed, but short and to the point. One page is the sweet spot and two pages should be considered the upper bound.

In order to write this proposal, you will have to do some initial work (this is why I am telling you this now). There are three things that you should do before starting to write this. First, you need to do some actual research. This should involve reading some papers or books about your topic to help you understand the current state of the art and to give your topic focus. Your proposal should include three references. Second, you need to do some actual thinking to figure out what it is you actually want to do. Finally, you should have a meeting with your advisor and talk about what you are going to do before you write it all out. Ideally, this meeting should be after you have found and read at least one of your sources so you have a better idea of what direction your work will take.

Part 2: Timeline

Write a week by week breakdown of your process (your best guess right now). Here is an example for a hypothetical study on dance visualization. Notice that there is some slack built into the schedule (multiple weeks of analysis, time for chasing bugs), and things get less ambitious after the break.

Week	Dates	Activity
01	01/17 - 01/23	Finalize topic, find references, write proposal
01	01/17 - 01/23	Finalize topic, find references, write proposal
01	01/24 - 01/30	Read up on existing visualizations and look into motion capture technology, write lit. review, Figure out motion capture technology
01	01/31 - 02/06	Write proof of concept motion capture app, come up with at least three ideas for visualizations
01	02/07 - 02/13	Get app to capture movement and display simple visualization, write outline
02	02/14 - 02/20	Break
02	02/21 - 02/27	Implement more interesting visualization
03	02/28 - 03/06	Chase bugs
04	03/07 - 03/13	Start recording dancers
05	03/14 - 03/20	Finish recording dancers
06	03/21 - 03/27	Analyze results
07	03/28 - 04/03	Analyze results
08	04/04 - 04/10	Write implementation chapter
09	04/11 - 04/17	Write analysis
10	04/18 - 04/24	Finish second draft of thesis
11	04/25 - 05/01	Work on final draft of thesis, make poster
12	05/02 - 05/08	Work on final draft of thesis, write presentation
13	05/09 - 05/15	Give presentation, work on final draft of thesis
14	05/16 - 05/22	Finish final draft

Part 3: Advisor/Advisee plan

Please answer these questions after discussing them with your advisor.

• When and how often will you meet? (at least weekly during J-Term is recommended)
• How will you communicate between meetings (if needed)?
• What does independence mean in terms of your work on this project? (For example: are you expected to find your own references? Are you expected to generate all/some ideas for approaches? What role will the advisor play in guiding you during the thesis?)

Submission

Please create this as a shared Google Document so that it can be revised over time. Submit the link on Canvas.