What you'll build
Extend one of your week's projects (or pick from the menu) into a polished, GitHub-published, README-having project you can show off.
Pick one of these
Each one has a full brief — the problem, what your program does, and what you’ll have to go and find out. Read the project briefs →
- Project 1 — Application pack generatorWrite your application letter once. Your program fills in each university's details and writes one document per school. You end up holding a folder of twelve letters, each correctly addressed.
- Project 2 — Deadline radarKeep every scholarship deadline in one file. Your program works out the days remaining and writes a calendar file you import into Google Calendar — so your real phone reminds you about your real deadlines.
- Project 3 — Literature scanPick your real research interest. Your program asks a free research website for papers on that topic, saves them to a spreadsheet, and charts how the field has grown.
- Project 4 — Spending reportExport your own mobile money or bank statement. Your program reads every transaction, sorts each into a category, totals them, and produces a report and a chart. Warning: real statements are messy.
- Project 5 — Profile page and a QR codeYour program builds a one-page academic profile from a file of your details, you publish it, and it turns the live link into a QR code you can print on your CV.
- Propose your ownGot a clear idea tied to your field or workflow? Pitch it. It must take real input you didn't type by hand, and end in an artifact you can send to someone. Approved by the instructor before you start.
Requirements
The must-do parts. If any are missing, we'll ask you to take another pass.
- Pick one of the seven capstone options below or pitch your own (must be approved before Week 4 begins).
- Lives in its own GitHub repo with a clear name.
- Has a README that explains: what it does, how to run it, one limitation, one thing you would add next.
- Code is split across at least two files (no single-file 400-line monolith).
- Includes a 3–5 minute demo recorded as a screen capture, or live on Demo Day.
Bonus, if you're feeling brave
- Write tests for your most important function.
- Add a simple
requirements.txtorpyproject.toml. - Use a public API or a real dataset you care about.
How we'll grade it
Four checks, four points. Three or above is passing — we'll ask you to revise anything we can't tick.
| Check | What we look for | Pt |
|---|---|---|
| It runs | I can clone and run it in under five minutes. | 1 |
| Solves a real problem | Has a clear user, a clear job, and a small but honest scope. | 1 |
| Communicates well | README is readable. Names are meaningful. Demo tells a story. | 1 |
| Reflection | You wrote one paragraph about what was hard and what you'd do differently. | 1 |