This document traces the evolution of the kind of student projects that I supervised over the years. I describe some of the more interesting milestones in its still continuing evolution of moving.

(For a list of my student projects, please see Project List and for a list of my project students, please see Student List.) [Last Updated: Feb 2000].

 1999 -- (Moving towards the Web, Productisation and Commercialisation)
Projects have now moved to the Web. Towards this end, we developed several projects on Web-interfacing and on Java Animation Generator System for viewing on the Web. The group also worked on its second flagship project on land transportation -- the Route Advisory Systems for Public Transport (RADS). This moved the group towards GUI and GIS systems development. 

• Empirical Studies of Shortest Path Algorithms on Road Networks (UROP, 97/98)
• Dynamic Route Advisory System (HYP, 98/99)
• Route Advisory System for Public Transportation (HYP, 98/99)
• SPIDER (Service Planning: Intelligent Design, Evaluation and Refienment) (HYP, 99/00)
• Development of GIS for RADS (TYP, 99/00)
• Graphical User Interface with Workflow for RADS (TYP, 99/00)
• Information Kiosk Architecture Design (UROP, 98/99)
• Information Kiosk Route Planning System (UROP, 98/99)
  
• iBAPS -- Interactive Berth Allocation System (HYP, 98/99)
• Bumping Algorithm for iBAPS (UROP, 98/99)
• RAS-Packing -- A Game based on Research on One Dimensional Rectangle Packing (UROP, 98/99)
• Vessel Partitioning for the Berth Allocation Problem (UROP, 98/99)
  
• Development of a Web-based GUI Front-End (TYP, 97/98)
• Java Animator Generator System (TYP, 97/98)
  
• A Distributed Network Clustering System using CORBA (UROP, 98/99)
• Optimised Data Structures for Naming Service in CORBA Network Middleware (sponsored by Inprise (Singapore) Pte Ltd) (HYP, 99/00)
  
• Algorithms for Vehicle Routing with Scheduling (UROP, 99/00) 

1996 -- (Moving to Focussed Software System Building Building...)
Major focus shift -- software system building -- and each student project builds modules (parts) of this bigger system. I formed the RAS-Group consisting of me and my graduate students -- RAS means Resource Allocation and Scheduling. The group will consist of current students as members and also interested past graduates as industry friends who will give advice. The group will focus on building industrial-strength software prototype system for solving practical problems. To consolidate our efforts, we decided to work on only a small number of topics and to select a flagship project. The first flagship project  was the Berth Allocation Planning System (BAPS). 

We also want to institute a good software development process that is industry standard. (In fact, we feel that we should be pushing the outer envelopes of the industry standards.) We want our project students to get a real taste of what development in a good company setup is like, yet they can still work on interesting research problems that interest them.

We released BAPS Ver1.0 in August 1997 and the system has been demo-ed to many different people since. Work continue on BAPS to improve the algorithmic engine in 1998 onwards. The group also looked briefly into related work on the Gate Assignment Problem (GAP).

• Algorithms for the QAP and the Berth Allocation Problem (HYP, 95/96)
• A Resource Allocation System for VLSI High-Level Synthesis (HYP, 95/96)
• Graph Algorithms for BAP Partitioning (MSc, 97)
• Simulated Annealing for BAP Partitioning (UROP, 97/98)
• Genetic Algorithms for BAP Partitioning (MSc, 97)
• Vessel Packing using Mathematical Programming (UROP, 97/98)
• Mathematical Programming for the Gate Assignment Problem (GAP) (UROP, 97/98)
• Tabu Search Algorithms for the Gate Assignment Problem (GAP) (UROP, 97/98)

1994 -- (Embracing Good OO Project Methodology...)
Project continue to be more application driven with a more modern twist -- we now emphasize the use of modern methodologies (OO-software development, C++, GUI, Internet) and software tools (MS-Project, Visio). These gives great value-add to project students. Some sample projects are:

• Interactive TimeTable Scheduling System (TYP, 94/95) -- with GUI (XMotif)
• Interactive Time Table Scheduler II (TYP, 95/96)
• Enhancement to Nesting Software - Phase IV. (An Object Library for AutoNEST), (TYP, 94/95)  Software library development
• Reusable GUI Object Library (TYP, 95/96) -- GUI library development
• Generic GUI Generator -- Phase II (TYP, 96/97)
• A Resource Allocation System for High Level Synthesis of VLSI Circuits (HYP, 94/95) -- system-based

1992 -- (Moving to Applications and Systems...)

My projects have shifted to be more application driven, though very much algorithm-related. This allows students to see how algorithms are applied and used in real life applications. Some example projects are:

• Enhancement to Nesting Software - AutoNEST (TYP, 91/92)  Company sponsored
• Algorithms for the Advertisement Packing Problem (TYP, 92/93)
• Heuristics for 2-D Bin Packing Problems (HYP, 91/92)
• On the Incremental Bin Packing (HYP, 92/93)
• Algorithms for Resource Allocation in High-Level Synthesis (HYP, 92/93)
• Algorithms for Scheduling in High-Level Synthesis (HYP, 92/93)

1988 -- (Just joined dept...)

Most projects are algorithms-related, emphasizing learning opportunities for students. These projects gives project students exposure to problem modelling, literature research, algorithm development and test. Some example projects are:

• "A Survey of Graph Partitioning Algorithms" (TYP, 88/89),
• "A Survey of the Bandwidth Minimization Problem" (TYP, 90/91),
• "Constraint-based Channel Routing Algorithms", (HYP, 88/89)
• "On the Sports Scheduling Problem", (HYP, 89/90)

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