Due Date: February 5 by 11:59 pm ET
Group Formation: Assemble your team and ensure that all members are registered under the same group on Canvas. To do this, go to People > Groups.
Proposal Submission: Choose your project idea early and seek feedback from the instructor. Submit your proposal as a PDF document on Gradescope, ensuring the person submitting tags all other team members.
Please take the time to craft a well-thought-out proposal, as it lays the foundation for a successful project. A strong proposal ensures your approach is strategic, your goals are achievable, and your efforts are directed toward addressing significant and meaningful challenges in connectomics.
Format
Title: Clearly state the title of your connectome project.
Team Information: Include the full names and NetIDs of all team members.
Content: Provide a 300-500 word description outlining your project plan. Your description should cover the following content.
- Problem Statement: Describe the problem you are addressing and explain why it is significant or of interest. Highlight why the problem is relevant to the connectomics field, including its potential impact on neuroscience research or clinical practice.
- Challenges: Identify potential challenges and obstacles you anticipate encountering. These might include issues such as data preprocessing, the complexity of brain networks, computational requirements, or ensuring interpretability of results.
- Dataset: Describe the connectome dataset you plan to use, such as task-based fMRI, rs-fMRI, or DTI data. Outline your strategy for obtaining the data, whether from public repositories (e.g., OpenNeuro) or through collaborations. Highlight ethical considerations and data preprocessing steps, if any.
- Method/Algorithm: Explain the computational or analytical methods you will use to analyze the connectome. If you are using existing algorithms (e.g., graph neural networks, community detection methods, or clustering), describe how you will adapt or optimize them for your specific problem. Detail how these methods align with your goals, such as identifying key nodes, understanding network dynamics, or modeling connectivity changes.
- Literature Review: Summarize key research papers or resources that provide background and context for your project. Discuss how existing studies inspire or inform your approach, and identify gaps your project seeks to address within the field of connectomics.
- Evaluation: Detail how you will assess your project outcomes. Emphasize both qualitative methods (e.g., visualizations of connectome graphs, structural maps) and quantitative metrics (e.g., clustering coefficients, network efficiency, classification accuracy). Discuss how your results will yield insights into brain connectivity and inform neuroscience research or practical applications.
Grading: The primary goal of the project proposal is to ensure that you select a project topic and receive early feedback from the instructor. As long as your proposal adheres to the instructions and demonstrates a well-considered plan, it should be evaluated positively.
