06-18159 Project (CompSci - MSc) Level 4/M Syllabus Page, 2012/2013 06-06997 Project (Conversion-MSc) Level 4/M Syllabus, 2012/2013 MSc Projects Coordinator: Dr Shan He

School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, MSc Projects 2013

About this page:

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

• MSc Computer Security
• MSc Computer Science- ROUTE 1 and ROUTE 2

*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) MSc in Human-Computer Interaction (MScHCI), MSc in Multidisciplinary Optimisation (MScMO) and MRes Natural Computation. Advanced MSc projects webpage

Getting Started:

• Guidance notes for 2012/2013 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 2012/13.
• Project management system

Important Dates:

Action	MSc Students To graduate in December 2013^*
Presentations of topics by lecturers	14:00 - 17:00 6th Feb. (Wed.) in  Lecture Theatre 101, Haworth Building
Every student has a working title and a supervisor.	27th Feb  New Deadline: 8th March
Co-ordinators to allocate remaining students to supervisors.	11th - 22nd March (Please download the project selection form from here)
Deadline for submitting project proposals	14th June 2013**
Beginning of inspection week	24th June - 5th July 2013  Inspection Timetable (Please read this document to prepare  your insepction)
Beginning of presentation week	27th August - 3rd September 2013
Deadline for handing in dissertation	12th September 2013

* 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 20/2013: Inspections will take place between June 24^th to July 5^th 2013. Please download the Inspection Timetable

Updated August 27/2013: Demonstrations will take place between August 27^th to Sepember 5^th 2013. Please download the Finalised demonstration timetable

Updated September 3/2013: For thesis writting guide, please see below.

Updated September 10/2013: deadline for handing in dissertation is 12:00 midday on 12th (Thursday) September 2013

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

MSc Projects Orientation Programme for 2013:

Session	Date/Place	Slides/References
Session 1. Introduction, Assessment, and Logistics Session 1A. MSc CS, MSc Security, MSc HCI, Robotics, Multidisciplinary Optimisation (Alan Sexton), Fri 18^th June, 2010. 10:00-11:00. Session 1B. MSc in Advanced CS (Dave Parker)), Tues 22^nd, 11:00-12:00.	Friday July 5/2013 2:00pm Lecture Room 301, Biosciences	Session 1A slides
Session 2. The Good and the Ugly: Welfare and Plagiarism All MSc Programmes. Session 2A. Plagiarism (Professor John Barnden) Session 2B. Welfare (Dr Iain Styles)	Friday July 5/2013 2:00pm Lecture Room 301, Biosciences	Session 2A Plagiarism slides Session 2B Welfare slides
Session 3. Systematic Evaluation of Contributions Evaluating projects with substantial implementation and software engineering elements (Dr Rami Bahsoon)	Monday July 22/2013 13:00  Lecture Room E102 Biosciences	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)	16th (Friday) August 2:00pm, Learning Centre UG06	Session 4 slides
Session 5. Writing Good Dissertations (Dr Martin Escardo, presented by Dr Shan He)	16th (Friday) August 2:00pm, Learning Centre UG06	Session 5 slides Link to Dr Coxhead's notes
Session 6. Reviewing Samples of Good and Bad Dissertations (Dr Shan He)	16th (Friday) August 2:00pm, Learning Centre UG06	List of good dissertations (all 70+)

Thesis Essentials: Quick Guide

• Getting Started on Your Dissertation - a material from Academic Services, University of Birmingham
• Writing a Project Report by P. Coxhead.
• A Referencing Style Guide by P. Coxhead
• Latex style for MSc thesis: bhamthesis.cls. You will also need the university crest.
• For MS Word or other word processing software, please follow the instructions on this page to write your thesis.
• Copying is cheating: a guide to plagiarism - please read carefully!
• Guidance notes on plagiarism - please read carefully!
• Project grade descriptors - assessment criteria used in marking all projects other than those, which follow on from a mini-project.
• Project assessment form

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 (Office Hour Thursday 4:00-5:00pm).

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