MSci Individual Research Project

Code

COMP4027

School

Computer Science

Level

4

Credits

40

Semesters

Full Year UK

Summary

Students undertake a research project in Computer Science supervised by an academic member of staff. The topic should fall within the supervisor's research interests and must further be relevant to the student's programme of study; in particular, projects undertaken by Artificial Intelligence (AI) students must have a strong AI focus. The project may be proposed by either the supervisor or the student, and may be theoretical, empirical, or even of survey type depending on what is appropriate and feasible for the area and topic. Projects, however, must ultimately be agreed with the supervisor concerned.

The results from the project are to be distilled into a conference-format research paper, authored by the student and constituting the main assessed output. There may, however, be further deliverables as dictated by the nature of the project. Any such, deliverables are to be submitted (electronically) as supplementary material. A revised version of the paper, possibly co-authored with the supervisor, may subsequently be submitted for publication to an external venue, such as a conference or journal, if the work is judged to be of sufficiently high standard.
 

Target Students

Available to Level 4 students in the School of Computer Science. This module is not available to students not listed above without explicit approval from the module convenor(s). This module is part of the Projects theme in the School of Computer Science.

Classes

• One 2-hour workshop
• One 1-hour lecture each week for 5 weeks
• One 2-hour computing

Assessment

• 75% Project 1: Electronic submission of an up-to 10-page research paper in 2-column ACM conference format outlining the outcomes of the research, a demonstration video highlighting those outcomes, and individual reflections; (if relevant) source code archive of the developed software for research, including any end-user documentation; supplementary material (e.g., appendices, data, lengthy proofs, lengthy empirical/software evaluation/survey results or any other supporting documentation).
• 15% Practical: Formal presentation/demonstration of the project outcomes.
• 10% Report: Interim report including draft table of contents, background, details of any design and implementation achieved so far, and a brief progress report with reflections based on the project plan.

Assessed by end of spring semester

Educational Aims

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

• Research projects may arise from any area of the curriculum and so may address any of the knowledge and understanding outcomes.

Intellectual Skills

• Clear and logical thinking.
• Understanding complex ideas and relate them to specific problems or questions.
• Acquiring and systematically analysing substantial quantities of information.
• Thinking independently while giving due weight to the arguments of others.
• Depending on the specific project, other intellectual skills may also be addressed.

Professional Skills

• Individual projects may arise from any area of the curriculum and so may address any of the professional skills outcomes.

Transferable Skills

• Analytical and problem-solving ability.
• Obtaining and critically analysing information from scientific literature.
• Devising and carrying out a complex project to meet specific objectives.
• Time management.
• Communicating complex ideas and information in writing and orally.
• Confidence in public speaking.
• Reflect upon and assess own performance.

Conveners

• Adam Walker