School of Computer Science - Module 12415.1 (2002)

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Module 12415.1 (2002)

Syllabus page 2002/2003

06-12415
NC mini-project 1
Level 4/M A

pjh
Peter Hancox (coordinator)

30 credits in Semester 1

The Module Description is a strict subset of this Syllabus Page. (The University module description has not yet been checked against the School's.)

Relevant Links

Outline

The material covered in lectures falls into two areas: information skills -- retrieving and recording bibliographic information from manual and computerised sources; transferable skills -- time management, report writing, oral presentation. Each student also undertakes a piece of research work that can be seen as a preparation for a possible final summer project under the supervision of a research-active member of academic staff. Supervision and the written report should address the development of skills in defining aims, objectives and plans; project and time management skills; systematic literature searching and written and verbal communication skills. There is no requirement for a mini-project to include development of a program. Projects are either negotiated from a list of academic staff's interests or are developed from a student's original idea.

Aims

The aims of this module are to:

allow the student to deepen their knowledge of an area of computing through individual, supervised study
learn and develop research skills appropriate to their chosen area of computing
provide the student with the basis of transferable knowledge and skills necessary for a successful research-oriented career in industry or academia, with a particular orientation to computing-based disciplines.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, the student should be able to:		Assessed by:
1	understand modes of communication in the computing sciences	Oral presentation, Written report
2	appreciate the structure of the literature of the computing sciences in general and a chosen research field in particular	Written report, Project report
3	methodically search the literature to investigate a research topic	Written report, Project report
4	make effective presentations both orally and in writing	Oral presentation, Written report, Project report
5	define aims and objectives for a research project and propose feasible working plans to accomplish the work	Project report
6	manage their project and their time	Meetings with project supervisor, Project report

Restrictions, Prerequisites and Corequisites

Restrictions:

None

Prerequisites:

None

Co-requisites:

Teaching

Teaching Methods:

2 hrs/week throughout the semester, consisting of a mixture of lectures, seminars and practical sessions; regular meetings with the mini-project supervisor.

Contact Hours:

Assessment

Supplementary (where allowed): As the sessional assessment
Continuous assessment (100%), based on (i) up to three practical tasks, including at least one oral presentation and one written report (ii) a written report on the project work undertaken of a length appropriate to the material presented.

Recommended Books

Title	Author(s)	Publisher, Date
Keyguide to artificial intelligence/expert systems	P J Hancox; W J Mills & B J Reid	Mansell, 1990
The Chicago manual of style (14th ed)		University of Chicago Press, 1993
MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing (2nd ed)	J Gibaldi	Modern Language Association of America, 1998

Detailed Syllabus

Key skills
- document preparation in Latex;
- recording bibliographic information.
Scholarly communication
- scholarly communication in science;
- time delays in publications.
Information skills
- retrieving bibliographic information from manual sources;
- retrieving bibliographic information from computerised sources.
Transferable skills
- intellectual property rights;
- time management;
- report writing;
- oral presentation.

Last updated: 25 September 2002

Source file: /internal/modules/COMSCI/2002/xml/12415.xml

University of Birmingham