An application that allows user to add stocks in their stock portfolio, including the number of shares bought, the buying price, the fees paid, the dividend paid (if any) The application should be able to show the current value of your portfolio by downloading the current prices from a site such as Yahoo finance. It should be possible to designate more than one source. For each item of stock the item should show the -

• Name of the stock,
  
• its ticker id,
• the current price
• an indication of whether the stock has risen or fallen
  

By clicking on the stock it should be possible to drill down to the stock details which should show -

• Name of the stock,
• its ticker id,
• the current price
• the total number held
• the total value
• the total cost
• the break-even exit share price o the retain share price (i.e. the price at which we can retain 50% of the shares but still recover the full costs.)
• the current yearly dividend
• the current dividend yield
• graphs showing stock price trends
  

For each tranche of shares purchased the application should show -

• the qty of shares bought
• the buying price
• the total cost for this tranche
• the dividend at time of purchase
• the dividend yield at time of purchase
  

The portfolio manager should offer a number of useful tools to support share selection such as a dividend yield calculator and a Fools Ratio calculator (see Motley Fool books and website). Similar projects have already been done in the past so a significant amount of the investigative work has already been done and is available by reading the project reports. None of these versions were as comprehensive as that which is proposed here.

In 2008 Finlay McAree wrote a physics engine for 2D games as his final year project. This project will build on that engine to create a fully realised butterfly collecting game.

The basic scenario for the game is that butterflies are fluttering about the field of play. Low scoring, common, butterflies are easily accessible at normal height while the rare, high value, butterflies flutter out of reach. A player must collect as many butterflies as he can to fill his specimen book in a specified period of time. To reach high value specimens the player must run and jump and take advantage of the many ramps, springboards, platforms, and updrafts to be found on the field of play. Catching more than one butterfly at a time will attract bonus points. As the butterflies are captured the specimen book fills up. As each specimen is captured, the number captured, the actual photograph of the butterfly, as well as its details are shown in the specimen book.

The target platform for the app is the iPad. A successful implementation of the project will result in the release of the app to the App store.

It is envisioned that this project will be undertaken by two people.  One person (from either LM051 or LM110) will be responsible for programming while another (from either LM113 or LM114) will be responsible for music/sound selection/creation/composition as well as the game's graphic and user interface design.  This is a challenging project and will require persons with advanced programming, musical, and design skills.

A single person version of this project was attempted last year for the Android platform. The project report is available on request.

The objective of this project is to create a visual interpretation of traditional as Gaeilge songs such as Tá na Báid, Táimse i m'chodladh and Thúas ag Gort a Chárnáin, using the medium of Second Life (see MC06).

For inspiration see the Anam An Amhran videos created by the Cartoon Saloon for TG4 (http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/index.php/2009/12/tv-series-siog-na-ran/)

Alternatively, create a visual interpretation of such Hindi songs as - "Jaane woh kaise" (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRBJ71oBzqw and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN33WS6S1Vw)
or
"Dil hi to hai" (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIrvq5-Cp40)
or
"Yaad Kiya Dil Ne" (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf5EFXATWm0

A very successful project of this type was done last year. The FYP Report for the project is available on request. The video may be seen at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jeQOaP3urM&feature=feedf

Examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRCMSEq7xMo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hnUYV06t4

Second life is a virtual world environment. Users interact with the world by means of customizable onscreen characters called avatars. An avatar is a virtual character in the Second Life world which the user controls using the mouse and the keyboard. Avatars can communicate with one another using audible conversation or built-in chat and instant messaging. Second life provides a large range of exotic locations with which to interact. Users can even build their own locations. Second Life interactions can be recorded with a controllable camera.

The objective of this project is to create an animated movie through the interactions of avatars in the Second Life environment. The movie will be based on one of John Wyndham's short stories A script will be required which actors will perform using their Second Life avatars. Some virtual sets may have to be built. The performance will be recorded and then edited to create an animated movie.

A very successful project of this type was done last year. The FYP Report for the project is available on request.
You may see the video at http://vimeo.com/22229248

Some References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3gHCupXSMs
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Movie_help

Examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa7u0a9pUSs

The objective of this project is to create either a documentary or an instructional video on some subject using the medium of Second Life.

For inspiration see the Male Restroom Etiquette at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzO1mCAVyMw

Examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N73KZMAoW8g

The advisor will allow users to browse through an oil database. It will assist users who wish to create their own oil blends by identifying compatible oils. It will assist users who wish to create their own essential oil perfumes by identifying compatible oils with the appropriate scent notes (i.e. Top, Middle, Base). For a given ailment it will suggest oil remedies. To achieve a given effect it will suggest appropriate recipes. It will warn of possible dangers when any oil is chosen for a blend. We have already created a web page version and a PC based version of this project. This project will attempt to rewrite or port the existing PC based version to create a mobile version for the iPhone or the Windows Phone 7 or Android operating systems.

Breakout was arcade game developed by Atari, Inc and introduced on May 13, 1976.  In the game, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen. A ball travels across the screen, bouncing off the top and side walls of the screen. When a brick is hit, the ball bounces away and the brick is destroyed. The player loses a turn when the ball touches the bottom of the screen. To prevent this from happening, the player has a movable paddle to bounce the ball upward, keeping it in play. (Wikipedia).

Breakout is a simple but very visual game. The challenge for this project is to create a version of the game that is playable by partially sighted or blind players. Although the category for this project is given as Game Development this may well turn out to be a research project. How can a visual game provide sufficient clues to allow blind or partially sighted players to play it?

One suggestion is that aural clues be provided as to the location of the bat, the ball, and the position and number of the remaining bricks. A colleague has suggested that the bricks might be aurally represented by instruments in the orchestra (hence Orchestral Breakout). Stereo effects and knowledge of the layout of the orchestra should allow a player to discover the location and number of the remaining bricks. The location of the bat (which always moves on the same plane across the screen) could be represented as a continuous tone that rises in pitch as the bat moves right and falls as it moves left. The screen might be logically divided into a number of vertical pitch bands. Using this idea we would be able to identify the horizontal position of the ball using the pitch bands and could represent the vertical location by pinging in the appropriate pitch (slower pinging might indicate that the ball was at the top of the screen while faster pinging would occur as the ball approached the bottom of the screen). The ball and bat would be in vertical alignment when they were both playing the same tone; the ball pinging and the bat continuous.

The suggestions of aural clues provided here are just suggestions. You may decide that other mechanisms such as a feedback mouse, or Wii controller, or some other device might be more suitable.

Examples: A number of ideas for games suitable for blind players as well as examples of existing games are to be found at -
http://www.omninet.net.au/~irhumph/blindgamers.htm#WISHLIST

The Jackson approach to program design separates the algorithm architecture from the executable program statements. This idea can be used to produce a web-based system that allows us to create useful programming tutorials. In this tutorial system the lecturer provides a working program, the program test data, the expected results, and the program specification. The student is shown the program specification and the randomized executable statements and is then tasked with reordering them so as to produce a working program that produces the correct results. The system will accept the students reordered statements, submit them to the console based COBOL (or other) compiler for compilation, linking and running and, assuming that the reordered program compiles, will then compare the actual results with the expected results. The usual administrative and user functionality that such a system might entail will also have to be provided.

The plugin should allow users to analyse the readability of Word documents. Users of Word can already request readability statistics but this project will offer a far more sophisticated analysis. Users of the readability plugin should be able to specify a style model suitable for their target audience. The readability program should analyse the Word document, produce a style diagram and various readability indices, and should identify sentences that don't fit the style model.

The project will be based on an application produced many years ago by Scandinavian Systems. The manual for that application will form the functional specification for the project. The specification may be modified by any applicable modern research.

Advanced students wishing to attract a high grade for the project should make it possible for users to define new style models. This could be achieved by feeding the program with documents written by an author upon whose style the model is to be based. The program could create the new style model by analysing the writing style used in the documents.

References: Readability Program for the IBM PC, XT and AT - Scandinavian Systems PC - Manual.

Stars! is a complex turn-based computer game based around the management of planets and fleets of spaceships following the 4X game model (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit & eXterminate).  It was originally written in 1995 for Windows based PCs (Stars! FAQ - http://www.starsfaq.com/fileinfo.htm  & Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars!).

This project will implement Stars! for the iPad.  The implementation of the single player (against the computer) mode will be regarded as most critical but consideration should also be given to allowing the game to participate in multi-player hosted games (http://starsautohost.org/stars.htm)
A copy of the game, for the purposes of research, is available to anyone undertaking the project.