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Importance of Mini –Projects in Engineering Curriculum and
Guidelines for Mini-projects
Dr. Ishwar P. Sonar
Associate Professor in Civil Engineering
College of Engineering Pune
Mini-projects have their own importance. Mini-projects are neither a complete theory
course nor a conventional practical. It is an activity of a group of students with intention to work
on a “Specific Topic” of common interest which will give an experience of problem solving along-
with group members, by using knowledge, facilities available and under the guidance of a faculty.
Within a group, one may work on different components of work or all may work on each activities
related work, depending on management of the work under the guidance of faculty (Guide) and
nature of the work. Mini-projects help students in different ways like formation of groups,
understanding group behaviour, improving the communication skill, learning in depth with
minimum time, interaction with guide and outside agencies, thinking about final year projects, etc.
Normally, Mini-Projects are place at fifth or sixth semester in regular engineering course of eight
semester duration. Though mini- project is new for third year (Fifth- sixth semester) engineering
students, it is observed that students are always excited to work on “something new topic in
Engineering” because their interest in learning in implementation of knowledge in actual fields
rather than classes. This is due to about fifty percentage coverage of curriculum in earlier semester
wherein most of the courses are informative in nature and concepts in engineering create more and
more interest in learning. Therefore, Mini-projects are introduced at third year level so that students
will get some experience by applying knowledge and concepts they learned and it is expected that
they can perform well in their final year projects also.
Now, due to off campus working situation for the students, most of the mini-
projects can be completed by slight adjusting the objectives of your mini-projects, working on
theoretical way by referring appropriate references, by focusing more on literature works and
expected results based on actual work completed. Students can make presentations on the work
completed, likely to be completed, including some important facts related to their work by
searching similar type of work done by researchers. It will be appreciated if students involve some
experimental works, case studies, site visits, and industrial projects, if possible. Some
experimental work if planned properly, can be completed when they are available in the campus
as per the situation. In normal situation, Mini-projects are conducted on the same line of laboratory
work for a course, as per time table schedule.
Procedure of Evaluation:
Normally, evaluation of mini-projects is done through presentations by a group of students in
front of two or more faculty and assessment of individual student is done by faculty and average
of marks are worked out. General procedure is given below.
1. As per departmental academic policy, mini-projects may be evaluated similar to laboratory
course work.
2. The soft copies of Mini-projects in the department are collected by the faculty Co-ordinator
and the grouping of the Mini-projects are done depending upon the topics of the Mini-
projects. Panels of 3 to 4 faculty guiding concerned Mini-projects, are formed for the
evaluation
3. Mini-project Guide (internal Faculty) will evaluate project report submitted by his group of
students, in the form of soft copy in the “suggested” format and recalling the observations of
performance of the students in a group, faculty will give marks out of 25.
4. As per the mid semester examination schedule, the evaluation of the Mini-projects is done
by a concerned panel of the faculty and average marks out of 25 are given to the students.
Suggestions by the panels during the presentation works play a very important role for the
motivation and guidance for further work on the Mini –projects.
5. After mid semester evaluation for 50 marks, student groups continue their work under the
guidance of concerned guides. After completion of the Mini-projects by the students, small
report based on the work is prepared by the students under the guidance of concerned guides
and the evaluation for 25 marks is done by the faculty guide.
6. The final presentation ( end semester presentation) of the Mini-projects for 25 marks is
done in front of same panels
Common Instructions to Students:
1. Students should remain in contact with concerned Guide for deciding scope, sharing of
learning materials etc. for the completion of mini projects.
2. Students will complete their Mini-project report and submit soft copy as per suggested
format, after discussion within group so that it will represent a group work.
Suggested format for the Report of Mini-Project
Mini-project report may be of 25 to 40 page write up including Title page, certificate,
acknowledgement, Contents, Introduction, Objectives, methodology, Literature review,
actual contribution including extended work, photos of actual work done, tables,
observations, Graphs, figures, good photos from literature for better explanation, Letter
of interaction with outside industry /institute/ individuals, paper details in journal or
participation certificate in conference, seminar, paper, email correspondence, Appendix
if any, list of references in standard format (alphabetically) as per standard journal
paper.
All write up will be in Microsoft Word , page set A4 size, Text font 12 Times in Roman,
Main heading may be 14 or 16 font size , maintain uniformity, No page border, include
page numbers. Additional file after all correction can be made in pdf format with proper
file name.
Suggested format for Mini-project
1. Title page 1 page
2. Certificate Page 1 Page
3. Acknowledgement Half page
4. Content (Index) 1 or one & half page
5. Introduction 1 or 2 page
6. Problem statement and Objectives 1 page
7. Literature Review 5 to 10 pages depending on topic
8. Work Methodology as per nature of topic/work 10 to 20 pages
9. Summary of Results and discussion 2 to 4 pages
10. Conclusion and Future Scope 1 or half page
11. Letter of interaction with outside industry /institute/ individuals,
paper details in journal or Participation certificate in conference,
seminar, paper, Email correspondence, 1 to 4 pages
12. References 1 or 2 pages
13. Appendix if any 1 to 4 pages
I hope that this article will be useful as a guideline for the faculty and students in Engineering
for their Mini-projects.