TITLE OF THE PROJECT YOU ARE UNDERTAKING

YOUR NAME
YOUR REGISTRATION NUMBER

PROJECT PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE AWARD OF
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN DATA SCIENCE AT JOMO KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
OF AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
DECLARATION BY STUDENT
I declare that this project is my original work, completed independently, and has not been
submitted for any academic assessment.

NAME:
SIGN:
DATE:

DECLARATION BY UNIVERSITY SUPERVISOR

I declare that this work has been submitted with the approval of the University Supervisor.
NAME OF SUPERVISOR:
SIGN:
DATE:
Table of Contents
 ABSTRACT
The abstract of a data science project proposal should concisely summarize the project,
providing a clear overview of its objectives, significance, methodology, and expected outcomes.
It should be brief (150-300 words) and focus on the key aspects that will capture the reader's
interest. Here's a suggested structure:
1. Begin with 1-2 sentences introducing the problem or context. Highlight why the issue is
significant and relevant in the broader scope. Example: "The proliferation of online retail
platforms has led to an overwhelming volume of customer data, making it challenging to
deliver personalized recommendations at scale."
2. Clearly state the aim(s) of the project. What does the project intend to achieve?
Example: "This project aims to develop a scalable recommender system that leverages
collaborative filtering and natural language processing to improve personalization for e-
commerce platforms."
3. Briefly describe the methods or approaches to be employed. This could include specific
algorithms, tools, frameworks, or techniques. Example: “Using machine learning models
such as matrix factorization and sentiment analysis of customer reviews, the system will
identify user preferences and recommend relevant products. Data preprocessing, feature
engineering, and model evaluation will be conducted on a large-scale retail dataset.”
4. Summarize the anticipated results and their significance. Explain how they address the
problem or create value. Example: “The proposed system is expected to enhance user
engagement and satisfaction by providing accurate recommendations, potentially increasing
sales by 15-20% for mid-sized e-commerce platforms.”
 1. Chapter One

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction and Background
 Introduce the general topic and area of study.
 Provide background information that contextualizes the project.
 State why this topic is important and relevant in a broader or specific context.
 Highlight any existing gaps, challenges, or issues in the current domain.
Example:
"In recent years, e-commerce platforms have witnessed exponential growth, accompanied by an
increase in the volume of customer data. Despite the wealth of available information, many
platforms struggle to provide accurate and personalized recommendations, leading to reduced
customer satisfaction and missed revenue opportunities."
1.2. Problem Statement
 Clearly articulate the specific problem the project seeks to address.
 Explain why this problem is worth solving and the implications of not addressing it.
Example:
"Existing recommender systems often fail to scale effectively with large datasets, leading to
inefficiencies and poor user experiences. Furthermore, traditional methods neglect contextual
information, such as customer reviews, which could significantly improve recommendation
accuracy."
1.3. Research Objectives
 Define the main aim of the project.
 Break it down into specific objectives or goals.
Example:
 "To develop a scalable and efficient recommender system using collaborative filtering
techniques."
 "To integrate sentiment analysis of customer reviews into the recommendation process."
 "To evaluate the model's performance using key metrics such as precision, recall, and
computational efficiency."
1.4. Research Questions or Hypotheses
 Pose specific, measurable research questions the project will address.
  If applicable, include hypotheses that will be tested.
Example:
 "What is the impact of integrating sentiment analysis on the accuracy of
recommendations?"
 "Can a hybrid model combining collaborative filtering and natural language processing
outperform traditional methods in terms of scalability?"
1.5 Scope of the Study
 Define the boundaries and limitations of the project.
 Specify what is included and excluded to manage expectations.
Example:
"This study focuses on developing a recommender system for product recommendations in e-
commerce. It will utilize publicly available datasets and evaluate the system based on predefined
metrics. The study does not cover other domains such as movie or music recommendations."
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review demonstrates familiarity with prior work and identifies gaps that your
project aims to address.
Purpose:
 Provide an overview of the state of research in your topic area.
 Highlight gaps, limitations, or inconsistencies in existing approaches.
 Justify your proposed work by showing how it builds on or differs from previous studies.
Structure:
2.1 Introduction:
o Briefly explain the purpose of the literature review.
o Outline the key areas covered in this section.
2.2 Thematic or Topical Review:
2.3 Organize the literature by themes, methodologies, or chronological developments.
2.4 For example, in a recommender system project, you might divide the review into:
2.4.1 Traditional Approaches (e.g., content-based, collaborative filtering).
2.4.2 Advances in Hybrid Systems.
2.4.3 Role of Natural Language Processing in Recommender Systems.
2.4.4 Performance Metrics and Limitations.
2.5 Key Studies:
2.6 Summarize and critically analyze significant studies, noting their methods, findings, and
shortcomings.
2.7 Highlight relevant datasets, tools, or algorithms mentioned in prior work.
2.8 Research Gap:
2.9 Synthesize findings to identify gaps your project addresses. For instance: "While recent
studies integrate collaborative filtering and sentiment analysis, most fail to address
scalability for datasets exceeding 10 million entries."
2.10 Conclusion of Literature review:
CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY
The methodology section describes your approach to achieving your project objectives. It
demonstrates the feasibility and validity of your plan.
Purpose:
 Explain how you will collect, preprocess, analyze, and interpret data.
 Detail the tools, frameworks, and techniques used.
 Justify why these methods are appropriate for the project.
Structure:
1. Introduction:
o Briefly describe the overall approach to solving the problem.
o State guiding principles or frameworks (e.g., CRISP-DM, agile data science
workflow).
2. Data Description and Collection:
o Source: Identify datasets to be used (e.g., Kaggle datasets, company databases).
o Collection: Explain how data will be gathered, if applicable (e.g., web scraping,
APIs).
o Characteristics: Describe key features (e.g., number of records, variables, types).
3. Data Preprocessing:
o Outline steps for cleaning and transforming data:
 Handling missing values, outliers, or duplicate entries.
 Feature selection or extraction.
 Scaling or normalizing data if needed.
o Mention tools/libraries (e.g., Python’s pandas, R’s dplyr).
4. Modeling and Analysis:
o Describe the models, algorithms, or statistical methods you will use:
 Traditional machine learning methods (e.g., regression, SVM).
 Advanced techniques (e.g., deep learning, ensemble methods).
 Any hybrid approaches.
 o Justify your choices with references to the literature.
5. Evaluation Metrics:
o Define metrics for assessing performance:
 For classification: accuracy, F1 score, ROC-AUC.
 For regression: RMSE, R².
 For recommender systems: precision, recall, NDCG.
6. Validation and Testing:
o Explain how you will validate results:
 Cross-validation techniques.
 Train/test split or hold-out datasets.
7. Tools and Technologies:
o List programming languages (e.g., Python, R), libraries (e.g., sci-kit-learn,
TensorFlow), and platforms (e.g., Jupyter Notebook, AWS).
8. Ethical Considerations (if applicable):
o Address data privacy, bias mitigation, or fairness concerns.
9. Conclusion:
o Summarize the methodology’s strengths and expected outcomes.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 BUDGET: This is the total cost of your project. Prepare to estimate costs in terms of:
 Subscription for certain tools you shall use to do the modeling
 Internet costs
 Printing costs
 If you are doing an IoT-based project, the costs of the IoT components
4.2 SCHEDULE
Use a Gantt Chart to show the project flow. The project should encompass the following phases:
Proposal, Literature review, methodology and modeling, evaluation and analysis, discussion,
and results.
REFERENCES

Formatting Guidelines. Strictly adhere to these formatting guidelines for a standard

project document within the academic sphere.

- Font: Times New Roman, size 12.

- Line Spacing: 1.5.
- Margins: 1 inch on all sides.
- Citation Style: APA.

NB: Each Chapter should start on its own page

 3. Methodology
4. Expected Results
5. Budget
6. Ethical Considerations
9. References
10. Appendices