Computing Research Methodologies Propsal

CS project notes 1

Notes for Final Project Dissertation This document contains an overview of the marking scheme for projects with some notes that should be useful for planning, executing and writing up your final project dissertation. This should be useful for anyone taking a project module but is aimed in particular towards students in the Computer Science course group (CS, CGT).

1 Marking Criteria Title – Meaningful, descriptive but not too long (must not promise anything that you do not deliver) Abstract – brief overview of what you did (last thing to be written) Introduction (10%)

State the hypothesis and aims, background to subject leading to a definition of the 'problem' or 'application domain' for your work, what you hope to achieve (i.e. what aspect you are addressing with your work) and how you intend to go about it (more details in the methodology section). Make sure you have appropriate title and achievable aims

Use of Literature (15%) Can be in its own section but 'use of literature' applies to whole document. Brief description i.e. (a single paragraph) of 4 – 10 key texts (but this number rather depends on the work you are doing) where you say what was useful for your work. Also remember to use citations throughout your work as you introduce ideas and make claims that need support. Overview of alternative approaches and software can also go here or in the introduction.

Methodology (20%) Rational for approach, i.e. why use this way of solving the problem?

Design (often big enough to be its own section) provide specification, description and diagrams. Marks given for originality and difficulty of task

Implementation and results (15%) Description of functionality and provision of evidence (testing). Make sure you are clear about what resources you have used and what is 'your' contribution. Summary of test output (raw data mostly in appendices) Can also provide screen capture video clips and snapshots Usefulness and usability for intended audience. Discussion – what has your work demonstrated, how has this effected the target problem / application area.

Discussion (20%) Interpretation of results Evaluation of approach Wider implications of work Discussion – what has your work demonstrated, how has this effected the target problem / application area. This will need to link to other work / applications so you may need to reference some of the literature and/or add to your references with some more research.

Conclusion (10%) Brief summary of what has been achieved, Critical appraisal of work and future work / improvements to be made.

Presentation (15%) - discuss with project supervisor, here are some general suggestions. Layout, use of English, spelling, grammar, academic style, binding, Turnitin report. Use page numbers, numbered headings and sub-headings, contents list for headings and figures, running headers with chapter title and appendices. Code printed out to fit the page – may print quite small (8pt fixed font) to fit lines onto the page, colour printing can help. Make sure you have plenty of comments and highlight your work. 2 copies (of everything) comb bound with cover sheet and declaration. CD / DVD with source code and executable, test results, instructions for installation and running, whole text of the report, attached in a proper stick-on CD container (available from SU shop).

CS project notes 2

pdf of your poster on the CD/DVD, and an A4 'thumnail' output in an appendix. Include a packing list in an appendix that says what is on the CD/DVD.

References (5%) Harvard referencing style (use library resources to see how this is done). Good number and quality i.e. refereed journals - you can use Google Scholar but a better resource is the library search which allows you to use keywords and select 'journal articles' as a filter, so you can go directly to a full text online version of the paper.

Interim report (5%)(mid semester 1)

Includes project proposal, which includes a project outline with an overview of the proposed methodology, references to support your approach and justify what you are doing, how you intend to evaluate your work and an implementation plan. Also includes PDP (CV and exit plan).

Poster (15%) (due mid semester 2)

Single A3 sheet that graphically displays what you have undertaken and preliminary results. Get this produced in good time, show rough draft to your supervisor.

2 Other marking considerations Other aspects which are implicitly taken into consideration in the marking process.

Difficulty of task

If the task is easy it has to be done very well, even then you may find that there is not a great deal to say about the topic. A difficult task may only need a 'proof of concept' implementation to get good marks.

Scope of task

Has something obvious been left out? Write up may need to mention alternative approaches and current state of research.

Management

How much of the work was independently guided by the student and how much had to be directed by the supervisor. Did student show up to supervision meetings, take notes, keep in touch by email, have a development plan that was regularly updated.

Log book This is not marked as such but can provide valuable support your claims for originality and management of the process. Recommend that you have a hard back A4 book into which you put rough thoughts, diagrams, diary of progress, action points arising from supervision meetings and emails, test results etc.

Plagiarism You will need to run your project through Turnitin and show that you have by this by submitting a receipt with your project. You can re-submit your work more than once and it is good at helping you spot problems with referencing and quotations. A less known problem is self plagiarism – if you include work that you have done elsewhere or submitted in another module for assessment you cannot get credit for it in the project. If you need to include the work you can reference it as you would for any other resources that you may use from other sources. Any issues about re-using work should be discussed with your supervisor.

CS project notes 3

3 The project Process Help from supervisor

You should expect to meet with your supervisor between 4 – 6 times each semester (but use of email may reduce the need for face to face discussion). You can ask your supervisor to look at parts of your work.

Outline Time-line

You will already have a project plan from your initial proposal, although this starts as a bit of a guess it is useful to measure your progress against the deadlines and milestones you create for your project. That way you will notice and be able to react to significant over or undershoot for your project. Each project will be different but the key phases for a typical project are outlined below. Remember to be realistic – 8 hours of actual work a day is hard to achieve. Allow time for other modules and assessments, breaks, holidays, work and family commitments.

May (end of second year before you start your project) –

Start to think of topics that interest you, consider the sort of project you want to do software development, (more doing than thinking) technical analysis and testing evaluation and discussion (more thinking than doing) comparison of techniques or application of an approach to a particular problem.

Consider how this fits with your experience and future career. June – September

Read around your topic area, collect references for lit review Consider implementation choices, test out feasibility with small development projects and 'getting started' tutorials. Email ideas to lecturers for feedback and suggestions Look for project ideas from external organisations, companies, clients and even family.

September – November Prepare and hand in initial proposal, plan Continue to talk with lectures to refine your plan Allocation of supervisors (this does not rule out talking to other staff for technical advice). Detailed project plan agreed with supervisor

November – December Design – methodology and system design (e.g. Bohem Spiral model + UML diagrams) Detailed specification and outline test plan Complete feasibility and make sure any potential 'show stoppers' have been investigated e.g can component 'a' send data to component 'b'? Finish learning and introductory tutorials for the technology, design methods and data analysis techniques you are going to use. If any kind of questionnaire is going to be used for evaluation start to research what questions, to whom and how you are going to contact your audience.

December - February

Main time for implementation and software development or data collection, analysis work. January should be uninterrupted work on your project, time spent on this has a significant effect on what you can achieve in your project and therefore your final degree classification.

February – March

Complete implementation, initial testing and final 'tweaks' to software.

CS project notes 4

Start to gather usability data, Collect, collate and analyse information from questionnaires.

March – April Start Write up Early on in the write up process is a good idea to create an extended table of contents i.e. write the headings you intend to use with a sentence or two as to what they will contain, as well as a rough guide to word count. Using, testing, gathering usability data.

April – May

Hand-in is typically late April or early May, be sure to leave enough time for write up. Two weeks is a minimum, having longer means you can reflect more on the results and may even have time for last minute tweaks and experiments to fill in holes in data collection – but only once you have the bulk of your write up finished to a 'hand-in' level of presentation. Send samples of your write up to your supervisor. Supervisors can comment on a portion of your work but the rules forbid them giving detailed feedback on the whole work or engaging in an iterative process of incremental improvements.