As you probably know, the capstone project spans over two semesters. In the first semester, you complete the DATA7901 course which concerns with the project’s design phase. In the second semester, you will enroll in the DATA7902 or the DATA7903 (please see details below). Both DATA7902 and DATA7903 are concerned with the implementation phase of the project.

What is the difference between industry projects, frontier project, innovation projects, and themed projects?

THEMED PROJECTS: These projects will be offered through a #2 course DATA7903 which you can take instead of the #4 course DATA7902. This new offering is in response to a number of students who have been interested in taking further advanced courses instead of a large project. Additionally, a number of students (and future employers) are interested in getting further practical experience in doing an end-to-end data science project without the overhead of significant background research. Themed projects will be offered every semester under 2-3 specific themes and up-to 20 students can signup to undertake their capstone within that theme. Although each project will be done individually, students will have the benefit of a cohort experience and tutor support in addition to the advice and guidance from their academic supervisor. Although you will not enrol in DATA7903 until the next semester, the assessments in DATA7901 (for example project proposal, etc), will be based on this project. Hence it is important to identify what type of project you would like to take by the beginning of the semester.

FRONTIER PROJECTS: If you are interested in investigating cutting edge research in data science, and like to work on open and exploratory problems then you should consider this option. If you choose this option, you will continue to the DATA7902 course in the next semester.

INDUSTRY PROJECTS: These projects have been proposed in conjunction with our industry partners. You can expect to work in industrial setting including for some projects, a requirement to spend a designated amount of time on premise.

INNOVATION PROJECTS: A number of you are already working in data-intensive areas and have some great ideas stemming from your work experience. You may also have innovative ideas on use of public/open data. With these, you can pursue your ideas, while gaining credit and having the benefit of an expert mentor! If you choose this option, you will continue to the DATA7902 course in the next semester.

The next important step is to find a project and a corresponding academic supervisor. While projects will be gradually added in ITEE ProjectDB (https://student.eait.uq.edu.au/projects/? please choose ITEE - DATA7901 Data Science Capstone Projects Starts (your current semeser and year)

I would like encourage you to have a look at the potential supervisors using the following links:
- https://www.itee.uq.edu.au/research/data-science-team , and
- https://smp.uq.edu.au/staff-directory (please filter by: statistics and probability).
Please take your time to explore the list of supervisors. If you find an interesting topic/supervisor, I would also like to encourage you to contact the corresponding supervisor directly.