CE3: Analyzing Senior Design Projects Through A Data Lens

DUE DATE: At the end of Friday, April 18th, 2025, at 11:59 PM.

SUBMISSION: Submit 3 analyses (this may be between 1 and 2 form submissions, depending on whether you analyze multiple tracks for a given project or not).

TIME ESTIMATE: We estimate this activity will take about 20 minute per submission, so should take overall 1 hour.

FEEDBACK LINK: If you have suggestions to improve the structure, clarity, or readings, please share them: Homework Feedback Form. This is not for clarification questions (which should go in #questions), but for thoughtful feedback on the learning experience.

The Senior Design Project is a year-long capstone project in which senior students in Penn’s Computer and Information Science department design, build, and present a substantial software or hardware system. Projects span a wide range of domains—health, education, AI, finance, and more—and are presented at a public poster session each spring.

This project is organized by Professor Boon Thau Loo and is a great opportunity for students to showcase their work and gain valuable experience in project management, teamwork, and technical skills. It is perfectly aligned with the goals of CIS 3500.

Here is a list of past Senior Design Project Award winners to give you an idea of the types of projects that are typically presented. The competition is throughout the whole Penn Engineering school, and last year, we were very fortunate that two CIS projects won:

• Social Impact Award: RAVE (CIS) (Katelyn DePaula, Henghak Kun, Aviel Resnick, Helen Rudoler, and Ryan Oliver, mentored by Professor Boon Thau Loo). This was a project to help in the identification and detection of Deep Fakes. Watch Presentation.

• Leadership Award: Parallex (CIS) (Vikram Bala, Ethan Chee, Anirudh Cowlagi, Andy Liu, and Christian Sun, mentored by Professor Boon Thau Loo). This was a (brilliant) project to sell micro-compute credits and run them on a platform. Watch Presentation.

• Observe and analyze real senior design projects during recitation time by attending their presentations and filling out a form three times (once per project).

• Develop critical thinking about software and data: Students are expected to engage with the content and domain of each project, asking thoughtful questions and reflecting on the data behind the projects—connecting with the course’s broader emphasis on data extraction and software analysis.

This activity is an individual activity, and while you can attend project presentations together, you must make individual submissions

• If you are not a presenter: Attend the presentation of 2-3 projects, and complete 3 analyses.
  • You can complete 1 track per project (= 1 analysis), if you just want to do Data Ethicist or Growth Hacker.
  • You can complete 2 tracks per project (= 2 analyses)
• If you are a presenter: Please fill out the form for your own project, and complete both tracks (Data Ethicist & Growth Hacker) for your project.

➡️ Link to the project analysis form ⬅️

(Here is also a PDF version of the form, if you want to get a sense of all the questions and/or feed the form into an LLM like ChatGPT for assistance.)

• Project presentations will take place on Thursday, April 17th, 2025, from 2-4:30PM (which includes the course’s regular recitation time).

• The list of all projects is available both in Excel format and CSV format.

• The projects are located on the 1st and 2nd floor of Levine Hall.

You must make at least three separate analyses (one analysis = one form submission).

You can choose any project + form combination, but you must pick at least two from the sublist below (i.e., you must select not just the project but also the specific form).

Strong Data Ethicist (i.e., major ethical/privacy/regulatory focus):

• Poli (1)
• Opus (2) — also strong Growth
• Medinators/Med AI (4)
• Eduquest (7)
• Dobbs Decision NLP (8)
• Examify (12)
• PosturePro (15) (somewhat)
• Nexus (19)
• SafeAI@Penn (55)
• Veterans Society (57)
• Edu-AI (69)
• Partners in Crime/Homesafe (99)

Strong Growth Hacker (i.e., large user base, viral loops, or monetization from data):

• Opus (2) — also strong ethics
• Stylistly (13)
• MoneyMates (11) — also an ethics angle (finance data)
• Joey (16)
• Clarity Scan (9) — also potential ethics
• Papyrus (10) — also potential ethics
• Crashpad (52) — also data privacy
• BetIQ (24)
• riskyBusiness (26)
• Reach (100)

As part of this activity, you will have to add at least one of the presenters for each project to your LinkedIn connections. This is a great opportunity to network with your peers and learn more about their projects.

Pro-Tip 1: Consider messaging your new contact with some information about their project. This note will persist throughout the years, and will provide you with context on how you know this person if ever you need to reach out to them in the future.

Pro-Tip 2: If you are feeling awkward about making this request, I understand, but you should not: Networking is very natural, and benefits both parties. If you need more encouragement, feel free to explain that your professors is forcing you to do this. (This is true, and it is a good thing to do anyway.)

Pro-Tip 3: Take photos of the projects (if permitted) to help you remember details, and to remember the context of your connection. You can also take a photo of the poster, and/or ask the presenters to send you a copy of their slides.

If you have feedback, we’re listening: Homework Feedback Form