06-18159 Project (CompSci - MSc) Level 4/M Syllabus Page, 2011/2012 06-06997 Project (Conversion-MSc) Level 4/M Syllabus, 2011/2012 MSc Projects Coordinator: Dr Shan He

School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, MSc Projects 2012

About this page:

The MSc projects described here are meant for all MSc projects of the below programmes:

• MSc Advanced Computer Science (without two mini-projects),
• MSc Internet Software Systems
• MSc Computer Security
• MSc Computer Science- Conversion and
• MSc Intelligent Systems Engineering.

Note: For projects following from a mini-project, there is a separate projects page for 02637 Project - Advanced MSc, which is meant for students of MSc Advanced Computer Science (research stream with mini-projects) and MSc Natural Computation. Advanced MSc projects webpage

Getting Started:

• Guidance notes for 2011/2012 MSc and final year students
• List of project supervisors with links to topics
• Project supervisor availability - log in the project management system and follow the link Table summarising Project supervisor project allocations/availability. Make sure that the project batch is set to 2011/12.
• Project management system

Important Dates:

Action	MSc Students To graduate in December 2012^*
Presentations of topics by lecturers	13:00 - 18:00 8th Feb. (Wed.) in G31, Mech Eng
Every student has a working title and a supervisor.	Extended to 9th March 2012
Co-ordinators to allocate remaining students to supervisors.	12th March to 16th March 2012 If you have exhausted all the means in finding a supervisor, please fill in this form and post it to the reception by 16th March 2012, 12:00 p.m the very latest. Download the: Allocation form for unallocated projects students
Deadline for submitting project proposals	8th June 2012
Beginning of inspection week	25th June to 6th July
Beginning of presentation week	29th August  to 5th September
Deadline for handing in dissertation	13th September 2012

* For detailed MSc project deadlines and assessment opportunities, please see also section 8 of the Project Guidance Notes

** Project Proposals: Submit 2 pages-A4, Font 10 proposal. Discuss the content with your supervisor. The proposal should include brief yet precise specification, statements on the aims, and a sound plan for completion. Submit a copy directly to your supervisor and another copy to Ms. Sharon Powel at the reception with a receipt by 12:00 p.m. the latest (above date).

Updated June 21/2012: Inspections will take place between June 25^th to July 6^th 2011. Please download the Inspection Timetable

Updated August 28/2012: Demonstrations will take place between August 29^th to Sepember 5^th 2011. Please download the Demonstration Timetable

Updated September 10/2012: Deadline for handing in dissertation is *12:00 midday on 13th (Thursday) September 2012

Note: Two unbound copies of your dissertation and two copies of a CD containing (1) an electronic form of your dissertation and (2) all codes and files related to the projects, should be handed in at the School Office by 12 midday on the Dissertation Deadline day (relevant dates can be found via the projects web page), The printed copies must have at least 2.5cm margin on the binding side to allow room for binding. 

MSc Projects Orientation Programme for 2012:

Session	Date/Place	Slides/References
Session 1. Introduction, Assessment, and Logistics Session 1A. MSc Internet Software Systems, MSc in Security, Conversion CS, and Intelligent Sys (Alan Sexton), Fri 18^th June, 2010. 10:00-11:00. Session 1B. MSc in Advanced CS and MSc in Natural Computation (Robert Hendley)), Tues 22^nd, 11:00-12:00.	Friday July 6/2012	Will be added soon
Session 2. The Good and the Ugly: Welfare and Plagiarism All MSc Programmes. Session 2A. Plagiarism (Dr Manfred Keber) Session 2B. Welfare (Dr Iain Styles)	Friday July 6/2012	Slides from Dr Manfred Keber Slides from Dr Iain Styles
Session 3. Systematic Evaluation of Contributions Evaluating projects with substantial implementation and software engineering elements (Dr Rami Bahsoon)	Aug 13/2012	Kitchenham et al.: recommended framework for evaluating project contributions with substantial implementation (e.g. tool) and software engineering elements. Kitchenham, B. et al., DESMET: A Methodology for evaluating software engineering methods and tools. IEE Computing and Control Journal 8(3): 120-126. 1997 Other useful references/selected reading: Basili, V.R., The Role of Experimentation in Software Engineering: Past, Current, and Future. Proc. 18th Int. Conf. Software Eng., IEEE Computer Soc. Press, Los Alamitos, Calif., March 1996. Curtis et al., A Field Study of the Software Design Process for large systems. CACM 31(11): 1268-1287. 1988. Mockus et al., A Case Study of Open Source Software Development: The Apache Server. Proc. 22nd Int. Conf. Software Eng., ACM Press, March 2000. Tichy, W., Should computer scientists experiment more? IEEE Computer 31(5): 32-40.1998. Zelkowitz, M. and Wallace, D. Experimental validation in software engineering. IST 39:735-743. 1997. Zelkowitz, M. and Wallace, D. Experimental models for validating technology. IEEE Computer 31(5):23-31. 1998.
Session 4. How to prepare demos/presentations (Dr Shan He)	Aug 24/2012	Slides for session 5
Session 4. Writing Good Dissertations (Dr Martin Escardo, presented by Dr Shan He)	Aug 24/2012	Slides for session 5
Session 5. Reviewing Samples of Good and Bad Dissertations (Dr Shan He)	Aug 24/2012	List of good dissertations (all 70+)

Contact:

If you have any questions, please conact Shan He by email: s.he@cs.bham.ac.uk. His office hour can be found here. His office is UG36.

The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
copyright of The University of Birmingham