>>>Greetings everyone!!!  I have decided to design and build
    >>>a bicycle computer for my senior project.
    >>
    >>The UK magazine 'Everyday and Practical Electronics' did one
    >and they have the code available for free download.
    >
    >Would this be the same as cheating?

    YES!! :-).

Come now.  It's cheating if you simply copy major parts of the design and
software.  Otherwise it's "research."  There's a great dichotomy between
education and the real world when it comes to looking at what other people
have done along similar lines.  In the real world, people who ignore public
solutions to the problems they're trying to solve are called "idiots."

 :-)
BillW