MSc Placement

1. Introduction

Whether you progress to further study or into employment, one of the most important skills expected of a computing professional is the ability to work on your own project successfully. MSc projects provide the opportunity for you to engage in an extended piece of independent research. Projects are not extended labs or practicals – you are expected to work primarily on your own, while liaising regularly with your supervisor. The guidance given in this handbook is addressed to students taking one of the MSc Project with Placement units.

Knowledge and skills gained from other units, and from your wider educational and working background (e.g. your first degree which may be in a subject area rather than computing), is a major integrative exercise. The project unit is an ideal vehicle for this purpose. You will be expected to develop an idea (most likely generated by a member of academic staff or the host company supervisor) and demonstrate your ability to develop it further, producing a suitable artefact by applying their technical, analytical, practical and managerial skills in an integrated manner. You are required to emphasise on a topic which sufficiently reflects on the course you are studying.

1.1 Aims

• demonstrate that you have the appropriate level of intellectual skills – i.e. the abilities to synthesise, criticise, develop and integrate material that you have met in the taught part of your particular course of study
• develop the ability to identify problems, analyse situations and develop solutions
• develop the ability of project management to schedule your time and work, and schedule resources, assisted by supervision
• carry out and present in an organised way a substantial body of original work.

1.2 Learning Outcomes

Core learning outcomes
	On completion of this unit you should be able to:	Assessment number
1	Knowledge and understanding Develop the ability to analyse situations, isolate problem areas and propose solutions in relation to Computer Security and Forensics, critically evaluate a specialist area, applying knowledge and skills in a practical way, establish and specify the contribution to knowledge achieved through in-depth research and extend current thinking to cater for future developments in the field Computer Security and Forensics.	1
		2
2	Skills and abilities Develop competence in abstracting a wealth of current information from literature or situations, devising and following a clear process of investigation, assimilating material in an effective manner and work creatively under guidance of a member of staff, planning and presenting a comprehensive thesis in a professional manner according to the project timescale.	1
		2

 

More details can be found in the corresponding Unit Information Form.

2. Instructions

You need to have attempted all elements of assessment for 120 taught credits and to have passed 90 credits to be allowed to officially register for this unit and begin your project. In other words, you need to pass 3 out of 4 taught units and to attempt the assessments of the 4^th unit.

MSc projects are conducted individually. Each project will be supervised by an academic in collaboration with a placement company supervisor.

Project preparation will begin before or at the beginning of the project work. A project workshop will be held by the Project Coordinator to:
– familiarise you with project process
– inform you of project requirements
– support you in research methods
– enable you to prepare a Project Proposal Form
– provide you with guidance to poster production, thesis writing up and oral presentation

You are given an opportunity to find your own academic supervisor. If you cannot find an academic who agrees to supervise you, a supervisor will be allocated to you by the Project Coordinator.

You are expected to discuss the project topic with both your company and academic supervisor to ensure the selected topic has a value for the company and that it meets the academic requirements. You are encouraged to suggest topics and agree a project title with your supervisor. However, you cannot choose a topic without the active involvement of your supervisor.

Your project topic must sufficiently reflect on the course you are studying.

The Project Proposal Form(see Appendix A) must be completed by you under the supervision of your supervisor.  The appropriateness, academic level, technical content, resource requirements, time scale, original nature, vocational relevance of the proposed project must be considered in your Project Proposal Form. Your both supervisors and you must agree on a finalised proposal and project plan.

You need to have your Project Proposal Form approved also by your Course Coordinator. The approval will be made in BREO upon you submit the form. The Course Coordinator will screen all project proposals in the relevant course to ensure that your project topic and proposal are relevant to your degree pathway and to ensure a quality consistency across the course. In case either the Supervisor or Course Coordinator does not approve your proposal, you will be given a short additional time to revise the proposal and ensure all the required changes are rectified.

You also have to submit your Ethics Form (Appendix A). The form must be completed, signed and submitted by you, whereas your Supervisors and Course Coordinator will approve it in BREO. It is your responsibility to ensure that the Ethics Form is correctly submitted at the beginning of the project.If you do not submit the Ethics form, you are not legally allowed to complete your project.

Important project elements

• Artefact –According to the project requirements and definitions by both the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) you will actually need to ‘engineer’ (i.e. build) something. This will probably be an artefact in the form of software or hardware, but it might be also more conceptual (a design or method for example).
• Contribution to knowledge – The project is the main way in which postgraduates show their potential for research work. This is achieved by making a contribution to knowledge in the respective field of study.Simply providing literature review on any topic does not carry contribution to knowledge and it is not suitable as project deliverable!

3. Assessments

3.1 Deliverables

Interim report (20%)

• Project Proposal Form (5%)
  Project proposal details the problem statement and objectives of the project, including an outline of the artefact, methodology to be used, required resources to realise the artefact and identification of any ethical issues.
• Contextual Review (15%)
  Comprehensive primary and secondary research to support the workings of the project. The analysis of which should result in artefact specification and design blueprints (which in turn would be used to realise artefact).

 

Final report (80%)

• Project Management (10%)
  Management of project work (effective meetings with supervisor, initiatives shown in project definition, documentation, timing, process of investigation, etc).
• Thesis Report (50%)
  Quality of analysis, originality and depth, artefact produced, research conducted and references used, and overall presentation including structure and clarity.
• Poster (10%)
  Presentation of overall work via a poster (conformance of requirements, relevance, detail, quality of presentation, ability to defend, etc).
• Oral Presentation (10%)
  Presentation, clarity, knowledge and questions and answers.

See project guidelines in Appendix B.

3.2 Time-line, tasks and deadlines

The project work within the MSc Project with Placement courses spans 6 blocks (or 1 year), as shown below. The first block is Employability block where you are induced into the company work and environment through a series of workshops and training sessions organised by the Careers and Employability Service. After this, you will have 4 blocks of actual project work in the placement company. Finally, you will have one block for writing up the final thesis.

The list of tasks and deadlines is given below. Please note that the deadlines are given in relative terms to the project starting date. The actual deadlines will be listed in the corresponding Breo unit.

	Task/Deadline
Assignment	Student	Supervisor/2nd Marker/Course Coordinator
Supervisor selection	Block 1: end of week 7
	·    Meet you company supervisor. ·    Select your academic supervisor (talk to academic members of staff within the School). ·    Students who do not select the supervisor till the deadline will be allocated to available supervisors.	·   Supervisors: inform the project coordinator of the students you will supervise.
Project Proposal Form and Ethics Form	Block 1: end of week 7
	·    Your proposal and Ethics form must be submitted and approved by your both supervisors and your Course Coordinator. ·    Sign the Ethics form before submitting it to BREO.	·    Supervisors: check and approve the proposals and Ethics forms for you students. ·    Course coordinators: check and approve the proposals and Ethics forms for students in your course.
Progression Point Report #1	Block 1: end of week 7
	·    Submit the first Progression Point Report.	·    Supervisors: to arrange a visit to the company and to check the progress
Progression Point Report #2	Block 2: end of week 7
	·    Submit the second Progression Point Report.	·    Supervisors: to arrange a visit to the company and to check the progress
Interim report (20%) Project proposal (5%) Contextual review (15%)	Block 2: end of week 7
	·    Submit interim report to BREO link.	·    Supervisors & 2nd Markers: complete double marking in BREO with mark reconciliation.
Progression Point Report #3	Block 3: end of week 7
	·    Submit the third Progression Point Report.	·    Supervisors: to arrange a visit to the company and to check the progress
Progression Point Report #4	Block 4: end of week 7
	·    Submit the fourth Progression Point Report.	·    Supervisors: to arrange a visit to the company and to check the progress
Final report (80%)	Write-up block: end of week 5
	·    Submit final report to BREO link.	·    Supervisors & 2nd Markers: complete double marking in BREO with mark reconciliation.
Viva	Write-up block: end of week 7
	·    Arrange a viva date with the supervisor and 2nd marker within weeks 6-7 of this block (prepare a poster for the viva and short presentation).	·    Supervisors & 2nd Markers: arrange vivas with the students.

 

3.3 Important note on the submission process

You must follow the submission instructions carefully. According to the University’s policy, if you fail to electronically submit your work by the required deadline, this work will be viewed as a non-submission and, consequently it will receive an automatic 0 grade.

3.4 Project marking process

Second marker will be appointed for your project. All assessments will be independently double marked by your supervisor and the second marker according to the process described in the University Quality Handbook Chapter 8. To ensure a consistency of the grades awarded across the course, the Course Coordinator and, if necessary, the academic members of the Course Team will check all grades to make sure that they are consistent and conform to the marking schemes.

3.5 Project Progression Point Reports

Youare required to write four project Progression Point Reports during the project work in addition to the other submissions(interim report and final report). These reports will be due at the end of each block (starting from Block 1) and they will inform the grade given to the project management component. The academic supervisor will arrange a visit to the company at the end of each block to assess the progress reported in Progression Point Reports.

The purpose of these progress reports is to evidence continuous engagement throughout the project and regular updates of the progress to your academic supervisor. Each project Progression PointReport must be filled by you and thenthe supervisor must insert the commentsand sign it. The reports must be submitted to BREOto the appropriate submission links.

 

 

 

MSc Project Marking Form
Double marking process is required for all MSc projects

	G/F 0/1-24%/25%-34%	E 35%-39%	D-                       DD+ 40%-43% ,  44%-46%, 47%-49%	C-                    CC+ 50%-53%54%-56%   57%-59%	B-                     BB+ 60%-63%64%-66%67%-69%	A-        AA+ 70%-74%75%-79%80%-100%	Weight	Supervisor Marking
PROJECT PROPOSAL FORM 50% Description of artefact 50% Project methodology	No submission Description of artefact does not match course of study Vague discussion of artifact Irrelevant/vague methodology	Description of artefact rather superficial Lacks intellectual challenge No added value Methodology lacks depth and rather superficial	Basic structure of artefact, but with notable shortcomings Minimal added value highlighted Basic methodology described, but with notable shortcomings	Satisfactory attempt at depicting features of artifact, with some relevant added value Satisfactory attempt at depicting the development approach	Good artefact description based on relevant context Relevant features showing some real added value Methodology described shows good understanding of project needs	Excellent artefact portrayal, with clear range of added features and context Excellent and clear exhibition of methodology.	0.05
LITERATURE SEARCH 50% Comparative presentation 50% Comparative analysis	No / poor literature research.	Weak literature research. Rather vague.	Acceptable literature research, though requires better description of existing products or systems.	Satisfactory literature research, with some useful insights. Basic comparative analysis provided.	Good literature research with useful, relevant and in- depth discussion. Good comparative analysis presented.	Excellent literature research with substantial discussion. Excellent comparative analysis demonstrated.	0.15
PROJECT MANAGEMENT / CONDUCT 50% Planning and Meetings 30% Initiative 20% Process of Investigation	No / rare meetings arranged/attended. No initiatives undertaken. No motivation shown. Did not follow schedule/ instructions.	Infrequent / irrelevant meetings arranged / attended. Showed some interest, but weak all round.	Some meetings arranged / attended. Showed some initiative, but rather limited. Undertook some investigation, but rather brief.	Satisfactory meetings arranged and attended. Satisfactory initiative shown, but could have done better. Some investigation undertaken.	Good productive meetings arranged and attended. Good initiative shown. Good investigation undertaken with necessary documentation.	Excellent productive meetings arranged and attended. Excellent initiative shown. Excellent investigation undertaken with a full portfolio.	0.1
POSTER 30% Content 20% Presentation 50% Q/A	No / poor, or irrelevant poster. Poor explanation.	Basic poster but lacks relevant detail and presentation. Some understanding.	Basic poster, with relevant content that needs improving Satisfactory understanding.	Satisfactory poster, with notable content and presentation. Good understanding.	Well-presented poster, with clear diagrams and detailed content. Good knowledge of relevant issues.	Excellent poster. Excellent understanding and knowledge of relevant issues.	0.1
THESIS 5%   Presentation 5%   Structure 30% Analysis and synthesis 30% Originality and contribution 10% Research and references 20% Quality of artefact	No / poor, or irrelevant thesis. Poor structure and presentation. No research, analysis or synthesis. No / poor or irrelevant artefact.	Weak thesis. Basic contents, but lacks flow, structure and understanding. Minimal research with textbooks, analysis and synthesis. Weak artefact – requires the addition of relevant and important features.	Reasonable thesis. Reasonable presentation and structure. Some research with refereed publications, analysis and synthesis, but rather limited. Some original ideas, but rather brief. Reasonable artefact but requires improving.	Satisfactory thesis. Good presentation and structure. Satisfactory research with refereed publications, analysis and synthesis using good range of references. Original ideas leading to satisfactory relevant artefact.	Good Thesis. Overall good presentation and structure. Good research with refereed publications, analysis and synthesis using a wide range of references. Good original ideas leading to good relevant artefact.	Excellent thesis. Well structured and presented. Excellent research with refereed publications, analysis and synthesis with well-defined methodology and evaluation. Excellent original ideas leading to excellent artefact overall.	0.5
ORAL PRESENTATION 20% Technical presentation 30% Clarity 50% Q/A	No / poor presentation. Poor presentation of work. Poor Q/A.	Weak presentation. Shows little knowledge and work. Weak Q/A.	Reasonable presentation. Shows some knowledge and work, but rather basic. Reasonable Q/A.	Satisfactory presentation. Shows good knowledge and work, but not widespread. Satisfactory Q/A.	Good Thesis. Overall good presentation and structure. Good research with refereed publications, analysis and synthesis using a wide range of references. Good original ideas leading to good relevant artefact.	Excellent presentation. Shows excellent and original widespread understanding and work. Excellent Q/A.	0.1

 

 

 

 

3.6 Referral and retake

If you fail to meet the learning outcomes for the above assessments and you are referred, there will be an opportunity to repeat the assignment and examination at a time to be indicated on BREO.

If you do not submit the interim report and/or final report by the deadlines, this will be considered as a non-submission case. You will not be given an opportunity to submit your referral work. You have to retake the whole unit and start your project again on a new topic from the beginning.

 

4. Plagiarism and Referencing

Note that any help or use of external sources must be clearly acknowledged and referenced. This includes asking other students for help, asking for guidance and help in internet forums, use of example code that is available on the internet or in books, use of third-party, open-source software. Any embedded code which does not originate from you must be clearly marked as such in the source code. If in doubt, ask your supervisor if and how you can use a particular source.

Referencing must follow the UoB Harvard Referencing System. See http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/guides/referencing for details. Good guidelines for computer science or engineering based projects can be found here:

• Dawson, C., Projects in Computing and Information Systems: a Student’s Guide, 2^nd Edition, Addison Wesley, 2009
• Berndtsson, M., Hansson, J., Olsson, B., Lundell, B., Thesis Projects: a Guide for Students in Computer Science and Information Systems, 1^st Edition, Springer, 2007.

The project report must be self-contained and will therefore contain a literature review. You can re-use your contextual report as part of the final thesis.

 

 

APPENDIX A

MSc Project Proposal Form

AY17/18,

 

Student Number
Student Name
Degree Course
Supervisor Name
Title of Project
Description of your artefact	Context of project with reference to relevant existing products, services and work (ie how does your artefact relate to what other people have done) Aim & objectives of the project List of features that the artefact will include Identify added value that the project provides Identify the intellectual challenges involved
What methodology (structured process) will you be following to realise your artefact?	Describe approach that will be employed to develop your project artefact (this should also show how you plan to test and evaluate the work) Justify the appropriateness and suitability of your approach for realising your artefact
How does your project relate to your degree course and build upon the units/knowledge you have studied/acquired	Highlight aspects of the project that correlate with knowledge and skills acquired from your course of study
What are the main contributions of your project as compared to state-of-the-art?	List the main novelties you will produce during the project work and explain briefly how they differ from the existing solutions.
Resources	List ALL the resources required to develop your artefact Be clear on which packages, tools, languages and environments will be used and are available on campus

 

 

Electronic approval on Breo

FACULTY OF CREATIVE ARTS, TECHNOLOGIES AND SCIENCE

Fo

rm for Research Ethics Projects (CATSethicsform)

1.

Student  Name

2.

Student Number:

3.

Degree Pathway:

4.

Supervisor’s name

5.

Supervisor Signature

6.

Working title of project

IMPORTANT:

After the proposal form and ethics form have

been signed off by both the Supervisor

and Course Co

–

ordinator, the student must scan both signed proposal form and ethics

form, then upload both of them on BREO in one file.

.

Failure to follow this process will result in the cancellation of the project and there will

be no compensation for any time lost.

SECTION A

Ethical Issues

Please

summarise below the ethical issues involved in the research proposal and how they

will be addressed. In any proposal involving human participants

clear explanation of how

informed consent will be obtained, how confidentiality will be observed, how the nature of

the research and

the means of dissemination of

the outcomes

will be communicated to

participants must be provided

.

SECTION B   Check List

 

Please answer the following questions by circling YES or NO as appropriate.

 

1. Does the study involve vulnerable participants or those unable to give informed consent (e.g. children, people with learning disabilities, your own students)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will the study require permission of a gatekeeper for access to participants (e.g. schools, self-help groups, residential homes)?

 

YES                 NO

 

 

1. Will it be necessary for participants to be involved without consent (e.g. covert observation in non-public places)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will the study involve sensitive topics (e.g. obtaining information about sexual activity, substance abuse)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will blood, tissue samples or any other substances be taken from participants?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will the research involve intrusive interventions (e.g. the administration of drugs, hypnosis, physical exercise)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will financial or other inducements be offered to participants (except reasonable expenses or small tokens of appreciation)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will the research investigate any aspect of illegal activity (e.g. drugs, crime, underage alcohol consumption or sexual activity)?

 

YES                 NO

 

1. Will participants be stressed beyond what is considered normal for them?

 

YES                 NO

 

1.  Will the study involve participants from the NHS (patients or staff) or will data be obtained from NHS premises?

 

YES                 NO

 

If the answer to any of the questions above is “Yes”, or if there are any other significant ethical issues, then further ethical consideration is required. Please document carefully how these issues will be addressed.

Signed (student):                                                         Date:

Signed (Supervisor):                                                   Date: Electronic approval on Breo
Signed (Course Co-ordinator):                                   Date: Electronic approval on Breo

 

 

APPENDIX B

MSc Final Project Report Guidelines

Structure of the Final Project Report

 

The main body of the Report is subdivided into logical sections, or chapters.  The structure should follow the following example format (the details may vary depending on your particular project):

 

• Title page
• –    Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication

–     Key words

• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1 Introduction, Aims and Objectives
• Chapter 2 Literature review
• Chapter 3 Artefact Design, Development & Testing
• Chapter 4 Testing and Evaluation
• Chapter 5 Conclusions & Further Work
• References
• Appendices

 

Title Page (Report Frontcover)

This should give:

 

–           the student’s name

–           the student’s number

–           the title of project

–           the degree title (e.g. MSc Computer Networking)

–           MSc Final Project Report

–           School

[e.g. School of Computer Science & Technology

University of Bedfordshire]

–           the supervisor’s name

–           the date of writing the report

 

You are expected to use the following template for the Title Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Name Here

Student ID Here

 

Title of Report Here

 

Degree Title Here (e.g. MSc Computer Networking)

MSc Project Final Report

School of Computer Science and Technology

 

Supervisor: ….

 

Semester/Block and Academic Year here (e.g. Semester 3 or Block 3, Academic Year 2019/20)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

The abstract should be a concise summary of the study, identifying the nature and scope, the major findings and the contribution to the overall field of the subject. Abstracts give the reader an overview and feel for the work without first having to study the whole project.

 

The abstract must be succinct (not exceeding 200 words) and clearly written.  It is important to note that the abstract is not an introduction.

Acknowledgements

This section should be used to state the names of the individuals who provided substantial help.  Care must be taken not to forget the supervisor!!

Dedication

The author usually dedicates the project to their spouse, parents, dog, or whomever they choose.  This decision is left to the individual.

Keywords

Assume that the project is to be converted to electronic form (e.g. CDROM or Internet).  You need to supply key words and/or phrases so that researchers can locate the project by means of searches.  The total number of key words must not exceed eight.

The Contents Page

The Contents should be structured by ‘nesting’ as shown in the example:

 

Contents List

 

1. CHAPTER TITLE
   • Sub-section Title

1.2       Sub-section Title

 

2. CHAPTER TITLE

2.1       Sub-section Title

2.2       Sub-section Title

 

APPENDIX A                        TITLE

APPENDIX B                        TITLE

APPENDIX C                       TITLE

 

Introduction

This is always the first chapter and informs the reader about the nature of the artifact, the project, the aim and objectives.  It should put the work into context, including history and the background to the study.  The introduction presents a broad general development of the work covered in the project. For example, the introduction should be presented under the sub-sections:

 

• Introduction to Problem
• Introduction to Project, Aim and Objectives
• Introduction to Artefact

 

The introduction should also detail the structure of the report.

 

The Main Body of the Report

In the various chapters of the main body, the findings of the literature search, pertinent facts, evidence, data, analyses, findings, discussions and arguments are all presented.  These chapters and the nested sections and sub-sections should be well structured and must remain focused.  It is essential that the chapters, sections, sub-sections are all clearly linked together and are presented in a logical sequence.  There should be a clear match between the contents of these chapters and the hypothesis, the questions asked and the aims and objectives presented in the Introduction.

Conclusions& Further Work

This section is used to bring together and summarise the main points and findings, along with any recommendations.  The conclusion must not be used to introduce new material. You should finish your discussion with thoughts on future developments and/or recommendations.

References

These should be presented as per the Literature Review.

 

Here is a Harvard Reference Generator – http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/

The Appendices

The appendix or appendices can be used to present detailed information of relevance that is not essential in the main text.  Appendices help to minimise ‘clutter’ in the main body of the project, making it more readable.  The project plan should be made the first Appendix. Any completed forms for the supervisor-student progress meetings might also be included as an appendix – as per the advice given by the supervisor. Any source code listings should be included as an appendix or submitted as a separate document – again as advised by the supervisor. Appendices may include, for example, data, graphs, tables, data sheets, background theory and lists of relevant names and addresses to support the main text.  It is not acceptable to include photocopies of materials from books, journals or the Internet merely to show that certain documents were previously consulted.  Material in appendices should be closely linked to the main document.

 

Every appendix should be coded with a letter, Appendix A, Appendix B, and so on, and should be titled.  Each appendix begins on a fresh page. All material in the appendix should be cited in the main text.

Presentation

• The final document must be word-processed using the ‘formal’ font Times New Roman. The font size must be 12 point. The text should be left justified. You should use 1.5 line spacing.

 

• Paper size should be A4 and printing must only be on one side of the page.

 

• The margin on the left side of the sheet should be 4cm – to allow for binding.

 

Length

The length of the main body of the thesis should be approximately 20,000 words(but, no hard limitation).

Proof-reading

As the writing progresses, every aspect of the entire project should be read and re-read, checked and double-checked to minimise errors.  Electronic checking is also helpful with errors in spelling and grammar.  Calculations should also be thoroughly checked.  References must be scrutinised for accuracy.  Mistakes, sloppy presentation, numerous typographical errors, all give a very bad impression.