Undergraduate Course: MInf Project Planning (INFR10037)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Informatics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/teaching/courses/mpp |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | MInf Project Planning is the first of three courses which comprise the MInf Project process. Collectively, these courses involve the student in a substantial piece of practical work, conducted individually under the supervision of a member of teaching staff. They allow students to demonstrate their ability to devise, organise and carry out a substantial investigation into a problem in Informatics, according to sound scientific and engineering principles, and to deepen the student's competence in a particular area of Informatics. The project will normally involve the construction of an artifact, whether software, hardware, a robotic device, some other artifact incorporating computation, or some combination of these.
During the MInf Project Planning course, the student will critically evaluate the relevant literature and develop a structured project proposal of around 8 pages. This will use the surveyed literature to justify experimental design choices, will explain key hypotheses and methodological approaches and will outline project management issues. A good plan will provide a convincing case for the high quality of the proposed project. It will show an awareness of relevant prior work and include a clear statement of the problems and hypotheses to be addressed and why they are important. It must also make clear exactly how the methods used to investigate those hypotheses will yield interesting results. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | For MInf fourth year students only. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1 - Critically evaluate research literature appropriate to their topic.
2 - Develop a structured research proposal.
3 - Justify experimental design choices.
4 - Discuss a research proposal with particular reference to key hypotheses and methodological approaches.
5 - Outline project/research management issues.
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Assessment Information
Written Examination 0
Assessed Assignments 100
Oral Presentations 0
Assessment
The course is assessed on the basis of a written project plan of around eight pages. A good proposal might be organised as follows:
* Purpose: a statement of the problem to be addressed.
* Background: a short description of how previous work addresses (or fails to address) this problem.
* Methods: A description of the methods and techniques to be used to test the hypotheses, indicating that alternatives have been considered and ruled out on sound scientific grounds.
* Evaluation: Details of the metrics by which the outcomes will be evaluated.
* Workplan: A timetable detailing what will be done to complete the proposed project, and when these tasks will be completed.
The two markers independently allocate a numerical mark. These are used to determine the final mark, which is normally the average of the two marks. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Project dependent |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Project dependent |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Lectures 0
Tutorials 0
Timetabled Laboratories 0
Non-timetabled assessed assignments 0
Private Study/Other 200
Total 200 |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr David Aspinall
Tel: (0131 6)50 5177
Email: David.Aspinall@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kate Farrow
Tel: (0131 6)50 2706
Email: Kate.Farrow@ed.ac.uk |
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