Project

Now that you have a better grasp of the technologies presented in the modules, let's incorporate them in a real project!

Objectives

You should now have a better understanding of what the chosen AI technology does and how it can be integrated . We are now ready to take a step back from all these new technical concepts in order to grasp how they can add value to various projects, increase their efficiency or improve their impact.

You'll conduct and document an exploratory research on existing projects answering to your Sustainable Development Goal subject.

Instructions

Your assignment will take the form of a documentation page created and hosted through Notion, just as in the previous part. It should summarize the results of your exploratory research and reflect your understanding of the technologies as well as your subject's issues.

At first, you'll look for existing projects addressing your subject in an interesting way. They must be either a service, an object or a digital project. If they use AI in a way or another, it's even better, but not necessary.

You'll probably use a search engine to discover and document such projects, but feel free to use other ways to gather information: specialized magazines, tech or social entrepreneurship events, organizations, incubators... You'll then have to summarize briefly four projects that seem relevant to you, following the detailed structure in the template.

Then, you will focus on only one of these projects. The choice is up to you, but be sure to explain us why you chose this project among the others. You will deepen both the user experience aspects and the technical principle.

Once you've selected a project to explore, choose one of the technologies presented in the modules and think about how to use it in that context. Focus on how this technology would improve the selected project.

Methodological tools

Research question

As the name suggests, a research question (sometimes called 'problematic') is particularly central in a research project, such as a thesis or even a dissertation. But it is more generally a fundamental starting point when you're trying to tackle an issue through a well-defined problem. If you want to propose a relevant solution, which meets a need or a demand, you absolutely must take your time to carefully formulate your research question.

Storyboard

When you'll design a product or service it's important to think about how it would be used and in what circumstances. This will enable you to get a better understanding of the users problems, when they struggle and more importantly where you can add something in order to help them. This is why we are going to use a storyboard.
A storyboard is a sequence of drawings describing a scene. In our case, we'll use storyboards to illustrate how the user interacts with the product. Here are some tips to help you draw a relevant storyboard:

1. First step: write down the user scenario, in 5 to 6 steps rather general, with words and not drawings. It is the base of your process, include it to your assignment. It must start with the initial situation and end with the resolved situation, and should contain:
   • The context of the interaction
   • The user's motivations
   • The actions performed with the product
   • The consequences of the interaction

   If your scenario is too long, try to combine or suppress some steps.

2. Second step: transform your scenario in a storyboard by illustrating each step with pens and paper. You'll then have 5 to 6 boxes, the first one illustrating the initial situation and the last one the resolved situation. These drawings will help you show the environment of the user, the key aspects of their interaction with the product, and the evolution of the situation. Here are some tips for this step:
   • Only draw the elements essential to understand the main interaction. No need to go into to much detail in the representation.
   • You can add captions if it clarifies the situation (ex: 'in the subway' or 'at the office')
   • The artistic esthetic of your drawings are not important at all!

It's the result of that step, that is the illustrated storyboard, that you will have to include in your assignment (picture of your storyboard or screenshots / .png export of your digital illustrations)

Getting technical

In this part, you'll write down a detailed technical overview of the project once the AI model has been included:

To give a good and detailed technical overview of the project, you must at least answer to the following questions:

• Dataset: What kind of dataset would be used to train your model? How would you gather the required data?
• Model: What kind of model this service uses or would use? And why? What does this specific model allow?
• Use: How is it used in your project? Is it directly displayed to the user? Will the user interact with it? Or is it never displayed?

You should give as much (relevant) technical details as possible. Don't hesitate to include links of external resources. And remember to always cite your sources!

Getting ethical

Now that all the technical parts are covered, it's time to start questioning the ethical implications of your project.

To give a good and complete ethical overview of your project you must question the following things:

• Source: is your model an open source or closed source one? What about your dataset?
• Misuse: how would you prevent misuse of your model? How could it be used in a way not intended by you in order to discriminate or do something wrong.
• Bias: biases can emerge during the data gathering part? During the training phase?

Template time!

Now that you know everything we expect from you it's time to fill the notion template!

PROJECT

A documentation template on Notion has been prepared specifically for this part, it should be completed progressively throughout the exploration.

Similar to Part 1: Basics of the course, the evaluation for this part will be done solely on the basis of the documentation. Before we embark on our exploration let's start by duplicating the template:

1. Login to your account on Notion.

2. Duplicate one of the following Notion templates, according to your strongest and preferred language, in English (Template / Part 2 : Explorations) or French (Modèle / Partie 2 : Explorations). It may take a little time, please be patient.

3. Write the introduction to your document: indicate your name as it appears on BrightSpace and the subject you have chosen.
4. Complete the page as explained above.

You cannot delete parts of your documentation but we allow you to add parts if you wish.

It is imperative that you cite all sources related to your exploration and credit images as well as files added in your documentation.