# Project Milestone 4: Progress Report + GitHub Repo

**Due: April 3 (submit PDF on Blackboard)**

Spring break is behind you, and the semester's final stretch is ahead. This milestone is a structured check-in: where are you, how does it compare to your M3 plan, and what's the path from here to the finish line?

By now you should have made meaningful progress — data in hand, at least some code running, and a clearer sense of what your experiments will actually look like. The goal of this milestone is to surface that progress, surface any complications, and make a concrete plan for the remaining weeks.

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## Part 1: Progress Report

Write a progress report addressing each of the following. There is no strict length requirement, but be specific — vague answers ("we made good progress on the model") are not useful to you or to me.

### What have you completed?

Describe concretely what you've done since M3. This might include: obtaining and cleaning data, implementing a preprocessing pipeline, getting a baseline model running, completing a literature review, or running initial experiments. If you have preliminary results — even negative or inconclusive ones — report them here.

### What has changed from your M3 plan?

Research rarely goes exactly as planned. If your direction, dataset, methodology, or hypothesis has shifted since M3, explain what changed and why. A moderate course correction at this stage is normal and expected — plans meet reality, and good researchers adapt. What's not expected is a complete restart; if you're considering scrapping your M3 direction entirely, flag that now so we can talk through it before you invest more time.

### Revised completion plan

Update your week-by-week plan from M3 to reflect current reality. Your plan should account for all remaining deadlines:

| Date | Milestone |
|------|-----------|
| Week of Apr 14 | Code walkthrough (30-min meeting — book with me) |
| Apr 24 | M5: Final progress report |
| Apr 28–30 | Presentations |
| Finals week | Final writeup due |

Be realistic. A plan that requires heroic effort in the last two weeks is not a good plan. If you're behind where you hoped to be, your revised plan should reflect that and show a credible path to having something presentable by Apr 28.

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## Part 2: GitHub Repository

By the M4 deadline, you must have a GitHub repository set up for your project. The repository can be private (add me as a collaborator: `cmdowney88`) or public.

Your `README.md` should include:

- A brief description of your research question and methodology
- An explanation of the repository structure: what's in each folder, what each script or notebook does
- Instructions for obtaining data (do not commit data files, especially if you don't own the copyright — include a download script or step-by-step instructions instead)

Even if your code isn't fully functional yet, the README should reflect where things are headed. A well-organized skeleton with clear documentation is better than a pile of undocumented files.

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## Ask for Guidance

Use this milestone to flag anything you'd like help with. I can respond in written feedback, or we can use your code walkthrough meeting (week of Apr 7) to discuss in person.

Things worth flagging:

- Experiments that aren't working as expected
- Uncertainty about how to set up comparisons or metrics
- Scope concerns — too much to finish in time, or results that feel thin
- Anything about the experimental design or analysis that still feels unclear

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## Formatting and Logistics

- Submit the progress report as a single PDF on Blackboard
- If working in a group, all members submit the same document
- Link to your GitHub repository in the PDF (at the top, or in the GitHub section)