Final Year Project Progress Report, 2012

Progress Report

<Project Title>

<Student Name, Number>

School of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering
University of Western Australia

Supervisor

<Supervisor Name>
Supervisor Affiliation

<Co-supervisor Name, if necessary>

Co-supervisor Affiliation

<Progress Report Submission Date>

 Final Year Project Progress Report, 2012

Original Project Objectives

A summary of the original objectives of the project (as set out in the project proposal) must be
provided. There is no need to repeat the full introduction section of the project proposal, but
any material that places the original objectives in context in a way that is relevant to
subsequent discussions should be provided.

For example: an original project objective may have related to the circumstances of an
industrial partner, and changes in those circumstances may have dictated an updating of the
objective. In that case, the original circumstances prompting the objective should be
described in this section.

Project Progress

Progress against the milestones set out in the project proposal should be discussed. Progress
should be related to the Gantt chart provided in the project proposal;
 How has each task progressed?
 Have tasks that were to be completed by this date actually been completed? If not,
why not?
 Have their been any significant delays? This is especially important for items on the
critical path for the project. In each case, the reasons for any delays should be
identified and discussed.

Key results obtained to date should also be briefly described. The nature of this description
will depend on the project; a single graph, image or table will probably be sufficient. Any
discussion of the results at this stage should be brief. This material is particularly important if
the findings to date have contributed to significant changes in the project objectives.

Updated Project Objectives

Based on the progress and findings of the investigation to date, provide an updated set of
project objectives. Where there have been significant changes in the objectives, the reasons
for these changes should be discussed in detail.

Note – In some (rare?) cases, the objectives for the project will be unchanged; this should
also be justified in the context of the progress made to date.

Updated Project Timeline (including Gantt Chart)

The project timeline provided in the proposal should be updated to reflect the current state of
the project. This will require providing an updated Gantt chart, along with an updated table of
key milestones. It is important to identify the tasks that form the critical path for the project,
and to discuss any circumstances affecting these items. It is also important to discuss any new
tasks that have been identified since the compilation of the original proposal.

Risk Management Update

Risk management was discussed in the original project proposal. As the project has
progressed, it is expected that your understanding of the risks will have evolved; some risks
may have been realised, while previously unforeseen risks may now have become significant.

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 Final Year Project Progress Report, 2012

In the progress report you should update your risk management discussion, and focus
discussion on any items that have changed (or even eventuated) since your original proposal.
This would mean both reassessing your original risk statements and paying particular
attention to discussing any new risks that have been identified as the project has progressed.

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 Final Year Project Progress Report, 2012

Appendix – Submission Instructions and Format

The progress report is to be submitted via WebCT. The reportmust be submitted in pdf form
(to minimise platform translation issues). A hard copy must also be submitted directly to your
supervisor.

This template provides an example of a suitable format for the progress report. The basic
required elements of the format are as follows;

Length
Up to 4pages (excluding the Gantt chart and references)

Font
12 point Times or Times New Roman

Paragraph
No indent, Left aligned or justified (your choice), single line spacing.

Margins
2.5 cm on all edges

Header and Footer

As in the template.

Cover Page
Fonts as in the template. Replace all bracketed <> items, removing the brackets.

Headings

Section – 12 point Bold; Subsection - 12 point underline; Subsections - 12 point italic

Equations

Where equations enhance the discussion of progress, they should be provided. The equation
itself should be centred using a centre tab, and all equations must be numbered, with the
number being right justified, as illustrated below;
(1)

Graphs & Figures

Diagrams, graphs and pictures can be included to enhance the report, but embedded (pasted
in) files can cause problems when being translated between applications and computer
platforms. Where possible, please use diagrams stored in a fixed picture format such as .eps
(an enhanced version of PostScript which is the language used to drive most laser printers),
.tiff (for all images), .gif (for line diagrams) or .jpeg. Ensure that you use a high enough
resolution for the image to be of high quality.

One way to avoid translation problems, especially in excel graphs or manually drawn
diagrams, is to paste the graph (or diagram) into a powerpoint presentation, and then to save
that presentation as “tiff” images. The resulting image files can be inserted into the document

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 Final Year Project Progress Report, 2012

and cropped or resized (use the insert/picture/from file option), and are very stable. Inserting
images or diagrams from files is preferred – it is much easier to handle from a formatting
standpoint than an image that is inserted amongst or over the text. Align figures in the center
of the page, and ensure that all figures have a caption, as illustrated in the example below.

All figures should be in Black and White.

Figure 1: Congruent subdivision.

Tables

Tables should be numbered and provided with captions, as illustrated below.

Level of refinement* Sample (1) Sample (2) Sample (3)

One 17 % 12 % 19 %
Two 15 % 10 % 18 %
Three 3% 4% 4.5 %
Four 1% 2% 2.5 %
*Based on congruent subdivision.

Table 1: Estimated error for successive levels of mesh refinement.

References

Any reference list should be provided starting on a new page (ie insert a page break after the
risk management section). The references should be cited and listed in the Harvard Style : See
the document provided at the FYP website for details.

5 <Student Name, Student Number>