THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Engineering : Postgrad (School of Engineering)

Postgraduate Course: Research Methods for Engineers (MSc) (PGEE11225)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Engineering CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis course provides an introduction to research and research methods in general. This is done through a consideration of the process of research and a detailed overview of the methods which are appropriate to the students in the programme. The course will also consider practical aspects of research dissemination using visual (poster) and written documents.
Course description The course will be delivered as a series of lectures, and assessed through two pieces of coursework, specifically a poster presentation and a written paper.

The students will select a topic to practice the research methods presented in the course. This topic will also be used for the course paper, which is a literature review.

Course topics include (not necessarily in this order):
1. Literature search;
2. Critical literature review;
3. Citing references;
4. Risk assessment;
5. Research ethics;
6. Project planning;
7. Data collection;
8. Data analysis;
9. Poster presentation;
10. Paper and report writing;
11. Abstracts and conclusions.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2021/22, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 16, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 4, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2, Formative Assessment Hours 2, Summative Assessment Hours 20, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 54 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Coursework 100%
Feedback Continuous feedback opportunities will be available to students as they develop their poster and written submissions. Formal feedback will be provided following the poster submission. A feedback meeting will be offered for the course paper.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Identify, search for, and find research literature on a given topic;
  2. Summarise, synthesise and critically evaluate literature from various sources;
  3. Express technical information to various audiences as a poster and as a scientific paper;
  4. Plan, implement and write up a research project.
Reading List
Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bizup, J., & Fitzgerald, W. T. (2016). The craft of research. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsResearch,Research methods,Writing,Dissertation,Dissemination
Contacts
Course organiserDr Antonios Giannopoulos
Tel: (0131 6)50 5728
Email: A.Giannopoulos@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Margaret Robertson
Tel: (0131 6)50 5565
Email: margaret.robertson@ed.ac.uk
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