SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

COMPUTER SCIENCE PROJECT 1
CSIT-411A
KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY THESIS AND
PROJECT SUPERVISION SYSTEM (TPSS)
SUPERVISOR: JOSEPH KOECH
NAME: HEZBON KOBI
REG NO: BCS/071/2019
DATE: 20/04/2023
Project proposal was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the award of
Bachelor of Science in computer science.
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

Contents
CHAPTER ONE.............................................................................................................................................

1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................

1.0.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY............................................................................................................

1.0.2 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................

1.0.3 PROBLEM DEFINITION................................................................................................................

1.0.4 OBJETIVES...................................................................................................................................

1.0.5 SIGNIFICANCE.............................................................................................................................

1.0.6 SCOPE.........................................................................................................................................

1.1 DEFINITION OF TERMS......................................................................................................................

1.2 MODULES..........................................................................................................................................

1.2.1 MODULE DESCRIPTION...............................................................................................................

CHPTER 2.....................................................................................................................................................

DEVELOPMENT........................................................................................................................................

2.0 Methodology Development Model................................................................................................

2.1 Tools and Technique......................................................................................................................

2.2 Software Product Features..........................................................................................................

2.3 Platform.......................................................................................................................................

CHAPTER 3.................................................................................................................................................

DESIGN..................................................................................................................................................

3.0 Database design...........................................................................................................................

2.2 WEB DESIGN................................................................................................................................

2.3 SEQUENCE DIAGRAM...................................................................................................................

2.4 USE CASE DIAGRAM.....................................................................................................................

SCREENS....................................................................................................................................................

CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1: waterfall model.................................................................................................................7
Figure 2: sequence diagram...........................................................................................................18
Figure 3: use case..........................................................................................................................19
Figure 4: login interface.................................................................................................................20
Figure 5: Admin interface..............................................................................................................20
Figure 6: student interface.............................................................................................................21
Figure 7: faculty interface..............................................................................................................21
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.0.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
In many tertiary institutions in the country, students seek a project in a given field of specialty as
part of the upper level of their degree program. Usually, a project can be filled by at most one
student, though in some cases a project is suitable for more than one student to work on
simultaneously. But also, a lecturer or the supervisor will have to approve if the project is worth
doing.

Each student has preferences over the projects that he/she finds acceptable, whilst a lecturer will
normally have preferences over the students that he/she is willing to supervise. There may also
be upper bounds on the number of students that can be assigned to a particular project, and the
number of students that a given lecturer is willing to supervise. In this paper, we consider the
ways of allocating supervisors to students, also, ways of supervising the projects in our
institution.

1.0.2 ABSTRACT
This will be an online application which will mainly focus on automating the process of
submission, approval and assessment of projects, which will reduce the physical efforts of
students meeting the supervisor and also reduce the time frame (period) of completing this part
of project work. Registered students will be submitting their project proposals or project
documents through this system. The faculty approves or rejects the project. If approved the
project undergoes subsequent project reviews (through presentations from the students) and the
faculty may offer their comments. This system will offer a network where the student and
supervisor will be communicating. The supervisor will be updating the project status after a
given period regarding the progress.

1.0.3 PROBLEM DEFINITION

Approving and managing projects has been a major issue in majority of the universities in Kenya
and particularly at Kenya Highlands University. The main reason for this is that, there is no
automated system followed. Project ideas, proposals and reports from students are gathered
and assessed manually by the staff then stored physically in some locations. This takes a lot of
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

time and resources. To overcome this problem or to make the process easy and more secure, I
came up with the idea of doing research and developing a secure internet application that will
help on the same.

1.0.4 OBJETIVES
 Evaluate the current system
 Establish a system that will automate project submission
 Develop an online system for supervision of projects

1.0.5 SIGNIFICANCE
Projects provide a flexible framework for engaging students in exploring curricular topics and
developing important 21st century skills, such as communication and teamwork. Also, Projects
are vehicles to help students learn, change, adapt, improve, and adopt new processes in
technology. In addition, students are motivated by the fun and creative format of presenting their
projects. For teachers, a school portal enables quick and easy supervision and management of
student accounts and review of project work.

It is a system, which will enable students track project progress therefore giving room for easy
planning and working on the project. It will also be economical since the students will not
present nor submit their project proposals and reports physically which incurs some costs.

1.0.6 SCOPE
The research centers on the design and implementation of Thesis and Project supervision system
at the Kenya Highlands University.

Advantages

 Automated submission and review

 Reminders and alerts to ensure expedience.
 Complete trail of all activities.

Disadvantages

It will need data connection to access the system.

PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

1.1 DEFINITION OF TERMS

HTML CODE- HTML stands for Hyper Text markup language. It is a type of computer
language that is primarily used for files that are posted on the internet and viewed by web
browsers. HTML files can also be sent via email.
Markup language - A markup language is a combination of words and symbols which give
instructions on how a document should appear. For example, a tag may indicate that words are
written in italics or bold type.
Web browser - A Web browser is a software program that interprets the coding language of the
World Wide Web in graphic form, displaying the translation rather than the coding.
File extension - A file extension is the suffix at the end of a filename that tells a computer, and
the computer user, which program is needed to open the file.
Email - Email, also as e-mail, is simply the shortened form of electronic mail, a protocol for
receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages.
TCP/IP - This set of operations stands for transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TCP/IP is the combination of the two and describes the set of protocols that allows hosts to
connect to the Internet.
TEXT FILE - A text file is a computer file that stores a typed document, usually without visual
formatting information.
Hyper Link - A hyperlink is a graphic or a piece of text in an Internet document that can
connect readers to another webpage, or another portion of a document.
www – acronym for World Wide Web

1.2 MODULES
 Administration

 Student

 Faculty
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1.2.1 MODULE DESCRIPTION

Admin module
After login, the Administration will be able to;

i. Add students
ii. Add faculty
iii. Search and update student details
iv. Search and update faculty details
v. Allocate supervisors to students
vi. View progress report
vii. View the skill matrix of the faculty members

Student module
After login, the student is able to;

a. Upload needed files

b. View Faculty skill matrix.
c. Request for particular Supervisor Allocation.
d. View Feedback from supervisor.
e. View feedback from Moderator.
f. Request from supervisor for meeting.
g. Reply to supervisor for reminder mails.
h. Reports if any.
Faculty module
After login, the faculty will be able to;

i. Update his/her skills

ii. View which student he/she will supervise
iii. Give reports of the progress
iv. Give timeline for face to face meetings
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

CHPTER 2
DEVELOPMENT
2.0 Methodology Development Model

Figure 1: waterfall model

The sequential phases in Waterfall model are −

Requirement Gathering and analysis − All possible requirements of the system to be

developed are captured in this phase and documented in a requirement specification
document.

• System Design − The requirement specifications from first phase are studied in this
phase and the system design is prepared. This system design helps in specifying
hardware and system requirements and helps in defining the overall system
architecture.

• Implementation − With inputs from the system design, the system is first
developed in small programs called units, which are integrated in the next phase.
Each unit is developed and tested for its functionality, which is referred to as Unit
Testing.
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• Integration and Testing − All the units developed in the implementation phase are
integrated into a system after testing of each unit. Post integration the entire system
is tested for any faults and failures.

• Deployment of system − Once the functional and non-functional testing is done; the
product is deployed in the customer environment or released into the market.

• Maintenance − There are some issues which come up in the client environment. To
fix those issues, patches are released. Also, to enhance the product some better
versions are released. Maintenance is done to deliver these changes in the customer
environment.

2.1 Tools and Technique

a. Php

b. Xampp

c. MySQL

d. HTML

e. Bootstrap

f. Visual Studio

g. Git hub

h. Java Script

i. CSS

PHP

Hypertext Preprocessor (or simply PHP) is a server-side scripting language designed for
Web development, but also used as a general-purpose programming language. It was
originally created by Rasmas Ledorf in 1994, the PHP reference implementation is now
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now
stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

PHP code may be embedded into HTML code, or it can be used in combination with
various web template systems, web content management systems, and web frameworks.
PHP code is usually processed by a PHP interpreter implemented as a module in the web
server or as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) executable. The web server combines
the results of the interpreted and executed PHP code, which may be any type of data,
including images, with the generated web page. PHP code may also be executed with a
command line interface (CLI) and can be used to implement standalone graphical
applications.

XAMPP

XAMPP is free and open source cross-platform web server solution stack package
developed by Apache Friends, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP server, MariaDB
database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.
XAMPP stands for Cross-Platform (X), Apache (A), MariaDB (M), PHP (P) and Perl (P). It
is a simple, lightweight Apache distribution that makes it extremely easy for developers to
create a local web server for testing and deployment purposes. Everything needed to set up
a web server – server application (Apache), database (MariaDB), and scripting language
(PHP) – is included in an extractable file. XAMPP is also cross-platform, which means it
works equally well on Linux, Mac and Windows. Since most actual web server
deployments use the same components as XAMPP, it makes transitioning from a local test
server to a live server extremely easy as well.

MySQL

MySQL is the world’s most popular open source database. With its proven performance,
reliability and ease-of-use, MySQL has become the leading database choice for web-based
applications. It is a platform compatible and open source relational database management
system, based on SQL, that is developed by Oracle company.
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for creating web
pages and web applications. With cascading style sheets (CSS) and JavaScript, it forms a
triad of cornerstone technologies for the Worldwide Web.

Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or from local storage and render
the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page
semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images
and other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page. HTML
provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics for text
such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes and other items.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is free and open-surce front-end framework for designing websites and web
applications. It contains HTML- and CSS-based design templates for typography, forms,
buttons, navigation and other interface components, as well as optional JavaScript
extensions. Unlike many web frameworks, it concerns itself with front-end development
only.

Visual Studio

Visual studio is a creative launching pad Integrated Development Environment (IDE), from
Microsoft, that you can use to edit, debug, and build code to build computer programs such as
websites, web apps, web services and mobile services. It uses Microsoft software development
platforms such as windows API, windows forms, windows presentations foundation, windows
store and Microsoft Silverlight, which can produce both native code and managed code.

Java Script
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

JavaScript often abbreviated as JS, is a high-level , interpreted programming language. It is a

language which is also characterized as dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based and multi-
paradigm.

Alongside HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the three core technologies of the
Worldwide Web. JavaScript enables interactive web pages and thus is an essential part of
web applications. The vast majority of websites use it, and all major we browsers have a
dedicated JavaScript engine to execute it.
GitHub

GitHub is a web-based hosting service for version control using Git. It is mostly used for
computer code. It offers all of the distributed version control and source code management
(SCM) functionality of Git as well as adding its own features. It provides access control and
several collaboration features such as bug tracking, feature requests and task management
for every project.

GitHub offers plans for both private repositories and free accounts which are commonly
used to host opensource software projects.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used for describing the presentation of
a document written in a markup language like HTML. CSS is a cornerstone technology of
the Worldwide Web alongside HTML and JavaScript.

CSS is designed to enable the separation of presentation and content, including layout,
colors and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more
flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple
web pages to share formatting by specifying the relevant CSS in a separate CSS file, and
reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content.
2.2 Software Product Features
Thesis and project supervision system

Login Information:
Description
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

-The software will maintain the login information of its user to enter into the
system

 Validating Checks

-Users need to login the unique id and password.

-All the details must be fill up.

 Sequencing information

-Login information should be filled before the user allowed.

 Error Handling

-If user doesn’t fill up valid information then the system displays an error
message for user and requests the user to enter valid information.

Performance required

 Security

-System should be Protected from unauthorized access that’s the valid Username
and Password are required so no other can access.
 Maintainability

-System is designed in a way it can be easily modified.

2.3 Platform
 Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows
 Software Requirements:
PHP 5.0
APACHE HTTP Server
Visual Studio, for Front End Programming
Microsoft Windows or Linux
 Hardware Requirements:

Intel Pentium IV processor or equivalent or higher

PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

512 MB Ram or Higher

20 GB HDD or Higher

 Network Connectivity

CHAPTER 3
DESIGN
3.0 Database design
The database is formed of 8 tables. The attributes of each table are organized in such way to
facilitate current supported features and future features that might be added. There structure is
given in the following SQL codes:

Table structure for table `admin`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `admin` (
`ID` char(5) NOT NULL,
`password` char(5) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`ID`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Table structure for table `faculty`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `faculty` (
`f_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
`email` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
`phone` varchar(15) NOT NULL,
`password` varchar(25) NOT NULL,
`qualification` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
`domain` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
`research` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
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`others` varchar(500) NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (`f_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Table structure for table `mail`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `mail` (
`mail_id` int(5) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`s_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`f_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`msg` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`mail_id`),
KEY `s_id` (`s_id`,`f_id`),
KEY `f_id` (`f_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=17 ;

Table structure for table `meeting`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `meeting` (
`meeting_id` int(5) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`f_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`s_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`date` date NOT NULL,
`time` time NOT NULL,
`desc` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`meeting_id`),
KEY `f_id` (`f_id`,`s_id`),
KEY `s_id` (`s_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=4 ;
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Table structure for table `project`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `project` (
`p_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(30) DEFAULT NULL,
`domain` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
`s_id` varchar(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`f_id` varchar(10) DEFAULT NULL,
`ppf` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
`psf` varchar(200) NOT NULL,
`remark` varchar(500) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`p_id`),
KEY `f_id` (`f_id`),
KEY `s_id` (`s_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Table structure for table `request`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `request` (
`request_id` int(10) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`s_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`f_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`request_id`),
KEY `s_id` (`s_id`),
KEY `f_id` (`f_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=795;

Table structure for table `student`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `student` (
`s_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(25) NOT NULL,
`email` varchar(30) NOT NULL,
`phone` varchar(15) NOT NULL,
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`password` varchar(25) NOT NULL,

`year` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`stream` varchar(15) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`s_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Table structure for table `st_mail`

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `st_mail` (
`s_mail_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`s_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`f_id` varchar(10) NOT NULL,
`mag` varchar(250) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`s_mail_id`),
KEY `s_id` (`s_id`,`f_id`),
KEY `f_id` (`f_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 AUTO_INCREMENT=5;

2.2 WEB DESIGN

Web design is the “skill of creating presentations of content (usually hypertext hypermedia) that
is delivered to an end-user through the worldwide web, by way of a web browser or other Web-
enabled software. The intent of web design is to create a web site—a collection of electronic
documents and applications that reside on a web server and present content and interactive
features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text,
bitmapped images (GIFs, JPEGs) and forms can be placed on the page using
HTML/XHTML/XML tags.

Typically, web pages are classified as static or dynamic:

Static pages do not change content and layout with every request unless a human (web
master/programmer) manually updates the page. A simple HTML page is an example of static
content.
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on end-user’s input/interaction
or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) Dynamic
content is often compiled on the sever utilizing server-side scripting languages. Both approaches
are usually used in complex applications.

Web design is a kind of graphic design intended for development and styling of objects of the
Internet's information environment to provide them with high-end consumer features and
aesthetic qualities. The offered definition separates web design from web programming,
emphasizing the functional features of a web site, as well as positioning web design as a kind of
graphic design.

My project being a web-based system, I used the following languages to design it:

▪ Mark-up languages (HTML and XHTML)

▪ Style sheet languages (CSS)
▪ Client-side-scripting (JavaScript)
▪ Server-side-scripting (PHP)
▪ Database technologies (MySQL)
 PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

2.3 SEQUENCE DIAGRAM

Student Faculty Admin Student

Login

Login approved

Add student

Add faculty
login

Login approved

Login

Login approved
View skill matrix

Request allocation

Allocate faculty

Arrange meetings
View reports

Upload files

Update skills
Chat by mail
Supervision

Download files

Figure 2: sequence diagram

 PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

2.4 USE CASE DIAGRAM Figure 3: use case

TPSS

LOGIN

Add
Request
student
allocation

Add
Student Upload
faculty
files

Chat
Search
students

Update
skills
Search
faculty
Download Admin
files
Allocate
Faculty supervisors
View
supervision

Arrange
meeting

Reports
PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

SCREENS
LOGIN PROCESS
The individual can enter the website through the login page. The login page is there to restrict the
entry of unknown people in the website, maintaining security of the software. The individual can
enter his/her user id and the password associated with that user. Then if he is valid user then the
access is given to the user or else access is blocked.

Figure 4: login interface

Figure 5: Admin interface

PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

Figure 6: student interface

Figure 7: faculty interface

PROJECT REPORT KENYA HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY

CONCLUSION
To conclude, the project, developed using php, MySQL, CSS, bootstrap, and JavaScript is based
on the requirement specification of the user and the analysis of the existing system, with
flexibility for future enhancement. The expanded functionality of today’s software requires an
appropriate approach towards software development. Talking about the project, it has all the
required essential features with user friendly interfaces. This system makes supervision and
management efficient and restricts unauthorized users from accessing the data in the site. It is
beneficial as it reduces manpower and time. Human errors are also reduced as well as paperwork
and remembering all the projects name.