Reference no: EM134044248 , Length: Word Count:10000
Research Project Assignment - Dissertation and Presentation
learning outcomes
Independently conduct empirical and/or advanced technical research in the area under study
Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems or conceptualising solutions
Reflect objectively on the approaches, methods, processes, management and outcomes of the research project
Develop a research project dissertation and presentation providing the approach, findings, evaluation and reflection for your research project
You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the University Infringement of Assessment Regulations (see Programme Guide). Plagiarism, paraphrasing and downloading large amounts of information from external sources, will not be tolerated and will be dealt with severely. Although you should make full use of any source material, which would normally be an occasional sentence and/or paragraph (referenced) followed by your own critical analysis/evaluation. You will receive no marks for work that is not your own. Your work may be subject to checks for originality which can include use of an electronic plagiarism detection service.
Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of work, the work must be entirely your own. The safety of your assessments is your responsibility. You must not permit another student access to your work.
Where referencing is required, unless otherwise stated, the Harvard referencing system must be used (see your Programme Guide).
Please ensure that you retain a duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send samples of student work to the external examiners for moderation purposes. It will also safeguard in the unlikely event of your work going astray.
Your Task
Your task is to create a Computer Science research project dissertation with chapters including a contextual, technical and literature review; research design and methods; practical implementation and experimentation; artefact project evaluation, academic reflection, discussion and conclusions, disseminated with a short digital presentation.
Student Information
The submission should represent both the practical and research elements of your project and it must be clear how your project relates to your programme of study.
Detailed instructions for completing the dissertation and presentation are provided in the "PROM06 Dissertation and Presentation Guidelines" document provided on Canvas with a summary of the key points included below:
Dissertation
The guideline word count for the dissertation is 10000 words. This is not a fixed limit so there isn't a direct penalty for not hitting the exact number of words, with +/- 10% considered acceptable (i.e. 9000-11000 words). The abstract is included in the word count but reference list, figures, screenshots, diagrams, charts, tables, and appendices. are outside of the word count. A copy of your project proposal and any additional supporting documentation should be provided in appendices and referred to, where relevant, in the main body of the dissertation.
Dissertations are required to be written in a standard format and a template is provided on Canvas that should be used and modified appropriately to match your project. Your dissertation should be submitted in PDF format and should include (but is not limited to) the following elements:
TITLE PAGE
DECLARATION
ABSTRACT
CONTENTS PAGE
Chapters usually including:
1. Introduction
2. Research Context/Literature Review (should be given an appropriate heading)
3. Practical Work
4. Results, Analysis and Evaluation
5. Project Evaluation
6. Conclusions and Recommendations
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
The chapters in bold must be included. The exact title and contents of the chapters in italics will depend on the nature of the project.
Recorded Presentation
In addition to your dissertation, you are required to submit a recorded oral presentation, with voice-over, of the key components of your project, supported by slides or equivalent visual material. This should last between 10-15 minutes. You should include a maximum of 10 slides to present your research and practical element. If appropriate, you may also quickly, concisely, and effectively demonstrate any products developed or configured within your project.
Your recorded presentation may be created using any suitable audio/video/screen recording software e.g., Review, Camstudio, PowerPoint (saved as Slide Show format), and saved in a format that can be viewed on a Windows machine e.g. .mp4, .avi or .pptx.
Abstract
The Abstract should be a single paragraph of 200- 250 words summarising the project. It should include the following:
Motivation for the Project
Research Aim/Hypothesis
Research Objectives
Research Approach
Key Findings
Conclusions
The job of the abstract is to summarise the project in a way that allows the reader to decide whether the report is relevant to them, and whether they should read it.
Introduction
The Introduction should introduce the main report. It should include a short discussion on each of the following:
Motivation for the project
Research Aim/Hypothesis
Research Objectives – these should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely) and show the steps required to meet your research aim/hypothesis
Planned Research Approach
Structure of the Report
It should not discuss the main results and conclusions from the research project. These will appear in the main report and be summarised in the Conclusions and Recommendations Chapter. The Introduction should also include an explanation of the structure of the rest of the report.
The two main functions of the Introduction chapter are to introduce the main ideas and approach for the research and signpost the reader to the relevant chapters for each different element of the research study.
Research Context/Literature Review
The literature review chapter(s) should each concentrate on one particular aspect of the research context and background. It is a review, not a survey, which means that it should not be a collection of all previous literature in the field, but instead should be a careful selection of relevant papers and a critical review and evaluation of these, which has a logical structure and provides a coherent argument and background to your proposed study. The chapter(s) should be given an appropriate heading, not simply “Literature Review”.
The research aim/hypothesis should be the natural conclusion of the literature review. In other words, it should follow clearly and logically from your review why your chosen aim/hypothesis is worth investigating (and answering). For example, because it fills a hole in existing research, corroborates previous work, or tries a variant of previous research.
Practical Research Work
This should discuss any practical work done. If a significant product has been built then this should include a discussion of each stage of the product development life cycle, including:
Definition of requirements
Design of product
Implementation/build
Testing
Along with consideration of any tools and technologies used.
Similarly, if your practical research work has consisted of experimental work, then this should include a discussion of each stage of the experimental process including:
Definition of experimental variables and other requirements
Design of experiments
Implementation
Collection of Results
Along with consideration of any tools and technologies used the discussion should also outline the choices made along with any alternatives considered and the reasons for those choices.
This section should also outline the key legal, social, security, ethical and professional considerations, and how these have been addressed.
Results, Analysis and Evaluation
The content of these chapter(s) depends on the nature of the project, but the overall idea is to determine how well you have met your original research aim/hypothesis. For a development type product, this should include an analysis of to what extent the product created – or the method used to create the product – meets some set of evaluation criteria. In such cases this chapter should discuss the choice of criteria, how they were measured, and the results. In the case of experimental projects, this chapter should include an analysis of the results of the experiments, including some consideration of their statistical significance and reliability. For more qualitative studies, this chapter should include an analysis of the findings from the data, including consideration of their depth, reliability, and significance. You should also discuss anything that might have happened during the study that might have affected your main results and findings.
Finally, you should discuss how your findings contribute to the wider academic body of knowledge and compare your results/findings/hypotheses with those of others, particularly those studies you included in your earlier literature review.
Project Evaluation
This should evaluate two aspects: the quality of the research itself and the journey you have gone through.
For the research itself, consider how well each objective was met and how successful was each stage of the project. For example:
How effective was the literature review? Is it possible that there were relevant techniques or issues that were ignored?
Were there alternative aims/hypotheses that could have been tested?
For developmental projects, what other evaluation criteria could have been considered?
For experimental studies, how complete were the experimental results; how reliable are the conclusions?
For more qualitative studies, how robust was the data collection and analysis; how reliable is the data and were there any limiting factors?
You should then evaluate and reflect on your own learning journey. What have you learnt by doing the project? What worked well, what could have been improved? How effective was your project planning and management? You should also evaluate the key ethical, legal, social, security and professional considerations for your project and how well you addressed these.
Conclusions and Recommendations
The conclusions should present the answer to the original research question, along with any other conclusions reached along the way (for example, about the best choice of tools or technologies).
There should be no ‘surprises’ in this chapter: each conclusion should have been noted and evidenced elsewhere in the dissertation.
Recommendations should also be included for further research, for any possible practical applications, or any recommendations for future practice.