MIMS Final Project Judging Guidelines

At the end of the term, each project will be judged by an invited panel of professionals. Projects will be chosen for the Chen Award according to the following criteria:

  • Originality: Is the work original and creative?

  • Meeting a need: Did the presentation show adequate motivation for this work? Did it tell us who this project is for and why it will matter?

  • Process: Was the process or method used in the project appropriate to the problem or topic? How well did the group adapt its process and methods, if necessary, to the developing situation? Was the process followed in rote fashion, or applied with appropriate insight?

  • Completeness: Did the project result in some meaningful body of work or artifact?

  • Evaluation: Was there some form of evaluation appropriate to the project's methods and outputs?

  • Potential impact: Does the project have the potential to be used or to serve as a platform for future work? Does it make an intellectual contribution?

  • Presentation: Was the presentation clear, professional, informative, and appropriate to the topic and the audience?

  • Overall quality: Is the work of overall high quality?

In years when projects are divided into separate tracks or sessions, the session or track title is not an element in the project judging. All projects will be judged on the same criteria; projects are not judged on how well they fit the track title or achieve the goals suggested by the track title.

Chen Awards

The MIMS Final Project presentation and competition is sponsored by the Dr. James R. Chen Award Fund. This fund is intended to recognize and foster innovation, creative solutions, and pragmatic applications in the area of information retrieval and management. Winning projects will receive a Chen Award and a monetary prize. Awards will be announced during commencement.

Past recipients of the James R. Chen Award

Last updated:

March 7, 2023