Senior Capstone Experience

Majors in computer science should have a thesis topic selected and approved by the end of the junior year. For students with double majors in computer science, one thesis may satisfy the thesis requirement for both majors.

The senior capstone experience in computer science consists of a prototype (computer program), a written thesis, and an oral presentation. Recent thesis topics may be found here.

Some students find a topic in the process of their course work. Others come to a faculty member and ask for a choice of topics. If you are not sure which topic you want to study, it is a good idea to talk with a few different faculty members and get some ideas. Many times, a faculty member can offer a quick summary of several possible topics. You can do a little preliminary research on a few areas and then come to a decision.

Each major will research and write a senior thesis with the supervision of a faculty member and will make an oral presentation on the thesis that includes a demonstration of the developed software, if any, at a departmental seminar.

Departmental Support

Weekly seminars are scheduled to provide information about careers, graduate school, thesis ideas, and research areas, as well as to enable each major to make the required presentation on the thesis or programming project.

The Senior Capstone Experience is graded as Pass, Fail, or Honors.

Helpful Links

Mathematics Magazine The American Mathematical Monthly The College Mathematics Journal Math Horizons School Science and Mathematics

Recent Senior Capstone Experience (SCE) Topics

Algorithm for a Haiku Poem Generator - Celina Palomique
Game: A Story in Java - Erin Sauter
Database Management and Business UD Design - Chen Zhu
Pixel Perfect - Matthew Bernero
Music Plagiarism Checker - Patrick Gallagher
Mikro Trainer - Michael Gutkind
To:Day a Web Application for Scheduling Meeting Rooms On a College Campus - Isiah Lloyd
Vocabulary Practice - Xin Miao
Tracking the Source of a Magnetic Field - Adam Roth
Video Game Role Playing Game Design: The Final RPG - Thomas Carter
Exploratory Analysis of Traffic in Chicago - Eric Celmer
League of Legends North American Championship, Series Unofficial App - Carl Williams
Image Filtering and OpenCV in Python - Jinge Xu

Soccer Predictions Using Machine Learning - Courtney Colbert, Mathematics and Computer Science
Recurrent Neural Networks for Dance Action Recognition - Caroline Cox, Mathematics and Computer Science
How the Invisible Hand Pushes a Market to Equilibrium: An Agent-Based Search Model - Henning Kjoeita, Computer Science and Economics
Tracking the Source of a Magnetic Field - Adam Roth, Computer Science and Physics
The Design and Implementation of Digital Signature Algorithms in Bitcoin’s Blockchain - Jessica Dixon, Mathematics and Computer Science
Elliptic Integrals and Functions - Qiuda Lyu, Mathematics and Computer Science
Using Probability Method to Analyze the Stock Price - Sheng Mi, Mathematics and Computer Science
Multi-Class Image Classification Using Machine, Learning - Robert Clark, Computer Science and Mathematics
BRDFs and Rendering - Brian Rabner, Computer Science and Mathematics
STAT CAST Sabermetrics in Baseball - Ryan Zwier, Computer Science and Mathematics
3D PRINTED TABLE-TOP KIBBLE BALANCE - Caitlin McDaniel, Physics and Computer Science
RecordTop Records, an E-Commerce Application - Justin Gruen, Business and Computer Science
Generating Art Images with Machine Learning - Drake Harrison, Art and Computer Science

Sample Thesis Timeline

Before Jr. Year

Explore and Learn

Take advantage of the diverse offering of courses here at Washington College and within the Department of Philosophy and Religion to explore your interests and find topics/subjects that resonate with you.

Juinor Year

Hone your ideas

Enrolling in PHL 435 (Philosophical Methods) during the fall of your juinor year will provide an excellent opportunity to turn your philosophical interests into workable philosophical questions. At the conclusion of your junior year, you'll be given the SCE guidlines packet mentioned above. Juiniors are asked to submit a summer research plan where they detail steps to turn their philosophical questions into research proposals.

Fall of Senior Year

Propose Your Thesis

Having spent the summer researching your questions, you will spend the fall working on your thesis proposal, annotated bibliography, and yes the thesis itself! You will work with your peers in the department and the faculty in refining the scope and scale of your thesis, when it is deemed ready, you will start the writing process.

Spring of Senior Year

Write Your Thesis

You will be encouraged to take advantage of winter break to create as much of a working draft on your thesis as possible, using the spring semester to then turn your work from a draft to a polished thesis paper. Seniors who follow all the departmental deadlines and submit a polished, well reasoned paper will be considered for departmental honors come graduation.