ISYE 6414

ISYE 6414 Final Project

Final Report

Key Numbers

14-20

pages

in-text graphics

20+

journal citations

required sections

Overview

Your Final Report is essentially a thorough but concise writeup of your entire investigation, noting its successess, shortcomings and what you would suggest be pursued next.

The Final Report is meant to be a standalone document. You may have changed your investigative methods as you progressed through your analysis — that's expected and normal. The big thing to remember: everything a reader needs to know to understand the Report should be found in the report.

Final Report Requirements

The Final Report accounts for 35% of your final grade and should be a professional academic paper.

Format Requirements

Your Final Report should follow a professional journal format with:

One-column Abstract at the beginning
Two-column text for the body of the paper
Graphics: Normally should be two-column width. One-column graphics are acceptable only if they truly warrant it in terms of both importance and need for readability
Professional figure and table labeling as demonstrated in the example templates

Sections

1. Abstract

A concise standalone summary of the entire report that can be understood without reading the full paper. Your abstract should include:

Problem Background:One to two sentences establishing the problem context and importance
Methods:Brief description of your analytical approaches and data sources
Results:Key findings and outcomes from your analysis
Conclusions:Main implications and significance of your findings

2. Introduction

Description of the reason you chose your analysis topic. In this section, you should provide some background research on the topic (this is the literature review), and a statement of your prior expectations for how your study would turn out.

Follow all literature review requirements specified on the Literature Review page.
Your citations ought to be spread across references to the problem, attempts to address it, to different analytical methods you're using, or anything else that seems appropriate.

Literature Review Must Be a Coherent Narrative

Your Final Report's Literature Review must flow as a coherent narrative — not a collection of summaries with section headers. The information must be cohesively assembled into flowing prose that tells a story. If the content is not integrated into a unified narrative, the Literature Review section will be docked.

3. Analysis

This is a summary of the statistical analysis (the methods and the data used). Structure this section based on the questions of interest.

a. Methods

Note each investigative path (e.g., analysis method) explored and why it was selected.

b. Results

Discuss the results of each analysis and include tables, graphs and other visuals as necessary. This is the most important part of this section. Much of your grade will come from how well you do in explaining and visualizing your results.

Graphics

All graphics and tables must be constructed according to the requirements on the Graphics page. Graphics should be elucidating and germane to your analysis — focus on model results and insights, not routine EDA unless illustrative. Tables should be formatted professionally and not look like raw software output.

4. Conclusions

This is a statement of the subject matter implications of your study and discussion of further questions raised by your study.

a. Success

Note which method yielded the best results and explain its relative success in the context of addressing the problem.

b. Limitations

Explain the shortcomings of your findings and suggest what might be good next steps for further investigation.

5. References

This is an enumerated list, in APA-style, of the works you referenced throughout your Report.

6. Appendix

This section contains paragraph-length summaries of each individual member's analysis and other relative contributions.

Additional Graphics in Appendix

You may include additional graphics in the appendix that provide supplementary insights beyond your 5 required in-text graphics. These must meet the same quality standards as in-text graphics (proper titles, captions, legibility, no pixelation). This is not a place to dump every graphic you created — only include graphics that genuinely add value.

Rubric

This rubric shows how your Final Report will be graded. Each criterion has multiple scoring levels with descriptions of what constitutes each level of performance.

Content & Analysis

Introduction & Motivation

5 pts

Excelling— Effectively synthesizes project objectives; clear roadmap of approaches and techniques; concisely describes data and prior expectations.

4 pts

Advanced— Effectively synthesizes objectives; approaches somewhat described; data well described but expectations not sufficiently covered.

3 pts

Proficient— Presents project objectives; approaches somewhat described; data described but expectations not covered.

2 pts

Developing— Unclearly presents objectives; approaches not described; data described but expectations not covered.

0 pts

Emerging— Does not present objectives, methods, or data description.

Methods & Creativity

5 pts

Excelling— Detailed, well-justified data processing; appropriate methods plus creative use of algorithms beyond course material; multiple techniques address objectives.

4 pts

Advanced— Appropriate methods with some new approaches, but not presented in depth; multiple techniques address main objectives.

3 pts

Proficient— Appropriate methods but no creativity beyond course material; multiple approaches address main objectives.

2 pts

Developing— Methods address main objective but no variety of approaches discussed.

0 pts

Emerging— Methods wrongly implemented or not useful to address objectives.

Statistical Modeling & Analysis

5 pts

Excelling— Comprehensive model analysis (key parameters/components), thorough data preprocessing, rigorous validation process.

4 pts

Advanced— Good exploration with evidence of trials and iterations. Ideas aligned with statistical modeling.

3 pts

Proficient— Some exploration but limited evidence of iteration. Ideas somewhat aligned with modeling goals.

2 pts

Developing— Minimal exploration, no evidence of trials. Ideas not clearly presented.

0 pts

Emerging— No exploration or evidence of analytical process. Ideas difficult to understand.

Results & Conclusions

5 pts

Excelling— Effectively summarizes results demonstrating superior learning; conclusions follow logically; includes interesting further questions.

4 pts

Advanced— Summarizes results and presents conclusions that address the main objective.

3 pts

Proficient— Summarizes results but conclusions do not fully address the main objective.

2 pts

Developing— Results not well presented; conclusions do not address the main objective.

0 pts

Emerging— No results presented nor conclusions.

Critical Insight

4 pts

Excelling— Reveals and wrestles with complexities, ambiguities, and paradoxes in the data and findings.

3 pts

Advanced— Explains findings with nuance and consideration of limitations.

2 pts

Proficient— Some interpretation but surface-level, lacks depth.

1 pts

Developing— Minimal interpretation; mostly reports numbers without context.

0 pts

Emerging— Just reports numbers and charts with no interpretation.

Presentation & Writing

Clarity & Organization

4 pts

Excelling— Excellent writing style; topic well presented and understood; easy flow; clear evidence of systematic analysis.

3 pts

Advanced— Appropriate writing style; good flow from one section to the next.

2 pts

Proficient— Somewhat appropriate writing style; acceptable flow between sections.

1 pts

Developing— Writing style issues; report somewhat organized but not easy to follow.

0 pts

Emerging— Inappropriate writing style; complicated to read.

Graphics & Tables

4 pts

Excelling— Graphs carefully tuned for purpose; appropriately labeled with explicit captions; tables constructed for easy comparison.

3 pts

Advanced— Graphs/tables with minor label errors; well constructed for their purpose.

2 pts

Proficient— Graphs/tables with minor errors; still useful for comparisons.

1 pts

Developing— Graphs/tables have errors; presentation unclear but understandable.

0 pts

Emerging— Several errors in graphs/tables; wrong dimensions; difficult to interpret; no correct labeling.

Requirements

Literature Citations

3 pts

Complete— 20+ peer-reviewed journal citations, properly formatted using the cite package, all references cited in-text.

2 pts

Substantial— Meets citation count but has minor issues (formatting inconsistencies, a few uncited references, minor cite package issues).

1 pts

Partial— Major issues (significantly fewer than 20 citations, many formatting errors, references not cited in-text, cite package not used properly).

0 pts

Insufficient— Severely deficient (far too few citations, no proper formatting, or citations completely mishandled).

Penalties

LaTeX Template Requirement

−15 pts

0 pts

Used template— Report uses the required LaTeX template.

-15 pts

Did not use template— Report does not use the required LaTeX template. This is a mandatory requirement.

Total Possible Points35

Maximum Penalty−15

Grading Note

The Final Report accounts for 45% of your Final Project grade. Focus on professional presentation, thorough analysis, clear communication of results, and high-quality graphics.

Final Report

Overview

Format Requirements

Sections

Final Report Section Overview:

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Analysis

4. Conclusions

5. References

6. Appendix

Requirements

Required Template

Content Requirements

Rubric