MCS 044: MINI PROJECT, PROBLEM DEFINITIONS FOR JULY, 2013 & JANUARY, 2014

Important Notes:
1.) Viva-voce worth 20 Marks is compulsory for each course.
2.) Please follow the MCS-044 guidelines for solving, presentation format and submission of the          Mini Project.

INTRODUCTION

The mini project is designed to help you develop practical ability and knowledge about practical tools/techniques in order to solve real life problems related to the industry, academic institutions and computer science research.

The course Mini Project is one that involves practical work for understanding and solving problems in the field of computing. In this booklet the list of the problem definitions for the July, 2013 and Jan, 2014 sessions are given.

Every year, the list of problem definitions will change.

Please do not attempt the problems given in the booklet (MCS-044, Block-1) received by you along with your course material.

PROBLEM DEFINITIONS

We have divided different projects into four broad areas / categories of computer science as given below, so that you can select any one of these categories for your Mini project.
 Application development
 Networking project
 System software
 Website development.



An initial list of project definition will be given below in the following sections. However, student can elaborate the project definitions after discussing it with the project counsellor.

Students should select one project from the given categories only as per their interest, experience and knowledge in that area. Students should evaluate themselves and then should choose the project.

Students may propose modifications/suggestions in the given project specification and finalize it in consultation with the MCS-044 counsellor.

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Here we focus on investigating new ideas in application development through different projects. A set of possible project name and their details will be presented, however, students are encouraged to be creative and develop their own ideas in the given project descriptions.

1) Project Name: Bus Information System

Description
A Bus Company has about 50 Buses. These Buses service 10 different routes, each route has only one stopover. For example, two routes may be Delhi-Noida-Meerut and Delhi-Indirapuram-Meerut. All the bus routes start from the same city Delhi, however, they may have same or different stopover and destination city. (You may assume that no two routes are identical.) There are about 15 cities covered by the Bus company. Each Bus route includes information about the distance between various cities and time taken between two cities by that route. For example, for the route Delhi-Noida-Meerut, the distance and time taken between Delhi-Noida and Noida-Meerut will be recorded. The Buses return using the reverse route after a stop time of 1 hr at the destination. The Buses depart for one route after every 6 hours with the first bus starting at 5 a.m.
Use suitable data structure to create this system. Your system should be such that it should try to answer the following queries:
 Given a source – destination (can be a stopover also) by a customer, the software should give the route number of the path that takes the shortest time from the source to destination. Please note that there may be some source-destination pairs that may not be connected directly or indirectly.
 The time at which next bus from a source be available for a given source-destination pair.
 List all the routes for a given source-destination pairs.
 List all the routes and return routes
You may add more queries and more functionality into the system.

2) Project Name: Complete Contact Book

Description
Contact information is an essential component of any digital device that is involved in communication between more than two people. Assume that a Contact database stores all the possible addresses relating to a person including number of addresses (like office, home, permanent), different phones (residence, mobiles, office phones, etc.), fax number, e-mail addresses, website address, internet call addresses, etc.

The names of the person, designation and company name should also be included in this data. Each person may be part of one or more groups. Design either an object oriented or relational database system for the requirements above. In addition, you must design and implement an interface to query the address book on name or part of name, telephone number, group lists, etc. You should also design and implement interface to create new contact, editing and deleting contact information.

NETWORKING PROJECTS

We will focus on investigating new ideas in networking research through different networking projects. A set of possible project topics which will be presented, however, students are encouraged to be creative and develop their own ideas in the given project descriptions.

1) Project Name: Peer to Peer Networks – implementing shared file system with support for search.

Description
This project is aimed at helping you demonstrate the use of shared file system that may be used in peer-to-peer networks. It is suggested that you may create a distributed file system that may use a centralized directory but have replicated file storage. The query for a file may be created at any participating computer and should be answered by the centralized directory. The additional complexity here is due to availability of replica – which of the replica must be selected to answer the query? You may define your own technique for this purpose. You may simulate the network or use object oriented programming language like Java to demonstrate the system.

2) Project Name: Storing secured information on a remote node

Description
This project is aimed at helping you to demonstrate the use of cryptography while transfer of information from a source to a destination. The information that is to be sent across must be encrypted using any stated algorithm. You must write the code of this algorithm yourself. The information may be stored at remote note in decrypted form. However, whenever the information is requested at any node, it should be sent in encrypted form. You may simulate the network or use object oriented programming language like Java to demonstrate the system.

SYSTEM SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Here we will focus on investigating new ideas in application development through different projects. A set of possible projects and their details will be presented however, students, are encouraged to be creative and develop their own ideas in the given project descriptions.

1) Project Name: Concurrency and Synchronization Manager of a shared file

Description
The purpose of this system software is to create a structured shared file. The file can be considered to be a cluster of information. For example, it may include student information and all the results of the students in different subjects. The file is to be used by a number of users at the same time. Allowable operations on the file by different users are:
 Create new data record
 Reading data
 Updating data

While creating and updating data only one user can operate on the entire file, whereas, many users may read data from the file concurrently. In addition, to all the above, design and implement two coordinating processes Insert transactional data (for example, insert marks) and printing completed transactions (for example, print result). The Insert transactional data process may be created as a batch process and should signal the printing completed transactions process on its completion. You must use an object oriented programming language for implementing this project.

2) Project Name: A simple editor

Description
In this project you are expected to create a simple GUI editor. The editor should have features for creating, editing, viewing and printing of files. It should also have feature for finding and replacing text in the file. The editor should support Hindi fonts (if possible). The editor must support GUI. You must use an object oriented programming language for implementing this project.

WEB DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Here, we will focus on investigating new ideas in application development through different projects. A set of possible project name and their details will be presented, however, students are encouraged to be creative and develop their own ideas in the given project descriptions.

1) Project Name: Online Assignment Result Monitoring System

Description
Develop an Online assignment result monitoring system that provides all the facilities related to assignment evaluation at a study centre of a University like IGNOU. The student submits the assignment at the study centre, the related data (enrolment number and subject code) is entered into the system at the study centre. The system verifies from the available data, if student is eligible to submit that assignment. If everything is in order the receipt of submission is issued to the student. Once assignments are submitted, they are sent to evaluators (about 20 assignments of a subject to an assignment evaluator). The evaluators evaluate and conduct the viva-voce of the students and are given access rights to enter the marks of the students. They, however, cannot change the marks of the students. Any change of marks can be made on the request of evaluator and study centre by the Regional office. The student can view the status of his/her assignment evaluation but not his/her marks till assignment results are officially declared by the University. Study centre can use this system to create the bills of the evaluators and also monitoring reports such as time taken by an evaluator to evaluate the assignments given to her/him. The regional centre uses this system to create the consolidated results and get it declared by the University.

2) Project Name: Online Art Gallery

Description
An art gallery exhibits the works of many artists. Each artist is given a specified space on the online webpage. The artists are charged for the space allotted to them on daily basis. The charges vary in different months. Jan to April and August to December the charges are Rs 200 per day per exhibit, from May to July charges are Rs 300 per day per exhibit. Each exhibit has a name and style of painting. The exhibits can be bought by the online customers who need to register with the art gallery. On receiving the full payment, the painting is sent to the customer. The system keeps track of the status of delivery of the painting to the customer. This status can also be seen by the customer. The gallery also stores the information about the visitors of the gallery who need not register with the art gallery website. For visitors only email id of the visitor is asked. Every month a complete information of business through online site is created for the artists as well as for the site promoters.