Selection of Final Year Project for Best Project Award using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

The final year students of engineering colleges must complete a project for their course requirements. There are several streams in engineering. In each stream, there are many topics for the students to do their projects. These projects are done as a team and not individually. Each year the best project award is given in each branch to encourage the students for their effort in the project. This award is a recognition given during their lifetime for their work. These awards are also given to motivate junior students to perform better in their future projects.

There are many ways to select a project among different projects for the best project award. The drawback of these methods is that they choose a project based on one criteria only. They may be biased also. They may show favoritism to some students. Sometimes they may be based on the most expensive project. This paper is based on the project done by the Mechanical branch students. In mechanical engineering, the projects may be based on in-house fabrication or sometimes industrial oriented. Sometimes they may be experimental themed also. There are many subjects in which the projects could be carried out. The university appoints examiners to review the project. These examiners may have expertise in few fields only. In that case, there is a dilemma in selecting the project for the best project award. In these kinds of scenarios, the multi-criteria decision-making techniques come into play.

Whenever there is a dilemma, one can opt for multi-criteria decision-making techniques for clearing it. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one such technique for which has been adopted for this scenario.