The University of Sheffield
Department of Computer Science

MSc Individual Projects - An Introduction

Index of Contents

Introduction

This document describes the timetable and assessment of the MSc dissertation project. It contains a lot of important information, so please read it very carefully, and keep it for reference during the remainder of the course.

Description and aims

The dissertation project is an extended piece of individual work. You will spend some time working on the project from the end of Semester 2 onwards, and the project will occupy all of your time from the end of the spring examination period until the submission of your dissertation. You will generally work on a topic that interests you, and have regular meetings with your supervisor (and/or external client) to discuss your progress. For all students, the aims of the project are to encourage and reward individual inventiveness and application of effort. Additionally, advanced MSc students (MSc in Advanced Computer Science, MSc (Eng) in Advanced Software Engineering, MSc in Data Communications) are expected to produce dissertations that contain some element of original work. This does not mean that the project is expected to obtain publishable research results (although some advanced MSc projects do produce publishable material), only that the project has to cover new ground and contain some element of innovation.

Objectives

  • Construct a project from initial (perhaps unstructured) ideas;
  • Plan, schedule, monitor and control your own work;
  • Defend your ideas in discussions and presentations;
  • Use libraries and other information resources;
  • Apply tools and techniques from taught courses (e.g. design and project management tools);
  • Communicate your findings through a written report and poster presentation.

Different types of MSc project

Broadly speaking, there are three basic types of project: experimental, theoretical and design and build. Some projects may combine features from more than one of these types. It is expected that conversion MSc projects (SSIT, IS) will usually be design and build projects, whereas advanced MSc projects (ACS, ASE, DataComms) will be experimental or theoretical. Of course, this is a generalisation and a project may combine features from more than one of these types. It is important, however, that an advanced MSc project offers scope for making an original contribution to the field.

Design and build

These projects should involve the main activities associated with the development of a well-engineered software system for carrying out the particular task required by the project: requirements analysis, specification, program design, implementation, system testing (including field testing and user comments), documentation and maintenance. Most of these stages are likely to be included in the report and the reasons for the various design decisions will be carefully described.

Experimental

These projects involve the investigation and evaluation of a new piece of technology (eg, an AI search algorithm or a statistical model for text processing). This may involve a substantial amount of (software or hardware) implementation and the application of scientific measurements and investigations to ascertain its properties and usefulness. Such a project will necessarily have a report which will describe the theoretical foundations of the technology, a description of the implementation and the experimental procedures used and an analysis of the results, together with an assessment of the relationship between the project work and other published work. Thus there should be a discussion of the problems of existing methods and how the new ideas overcome any of these problems.

Theoretical

Project dissertations in this category tend to concentrate on introducing the relevant concepts with suitable examples, investigating further examples, making and testing conjectures, developing theorems and proofs, where appropriate, and assessing the results, with attention given in suitable cases to possible applications.

Supervision

You should arrange a meeting with your supervisor as soon as a project is allocated to you, and you should meet at least once every two weeks during the remaining project period (from the end of semester 2 onwards). Many supervisors will want to meet with you weekly.

For projects with an external organisation, you will be allocated an academic supervisor (a member of the academic staff) and an industrial supervisor (a member of the client organisation). The industrial superivsor will act as project manager, ensuring that your work remains relevant to the client company. You will still be expected to meet your academic supervisor occasionally (if you are working away from Sheffield, your academic supervisor will visit you).

You should be prepared for meetings with your supervisor. Bring along results to discuss and questions to explore. If your supervisor requests it, you may also have to regularly submit short reports on your project work (usually by email). These reports should record the main milestones of the project, discussing both successes and failures.

External projects

Curriculum Vitae

Students wishing to apply for an external project should submit a copy of their curriculum vitae (CV) with a covering letter. The CV should be neatly formatted for A4 paper and clearly laid out. The University Careers Advisory Service can provide help with producing a CV. It is not necessary to go into great detail about the course modules being taken, as placement providers will have received a course synopsis. Students should concentrate on relevant personal details such as previous work experience. However, it would be helpful if students could highlight their particular strengths and interests from the course and outline their plans for the future. Regrettably no student can be put forward for an external project if they have not supplied a CV.

Responsibilities of the student

Whilst on placement, whether in a company or in another part of the University, students will be representing not only themselves, but the University of Sheffield and the Department of Computer Science in particular. The projects offered are all real tasks that various organisations would like done. They all expect useful results from the placement and will be devoting considerable managerial time to integrating a student into their organisation. Whilst on placement the student is required to:

  • Undertake the project to the best of his/her capabilities;
  • Liaise regularly with company and academic supervisors;
  • Comply with company regulations whilst on company premises or representing that company (e.g. dress, time keeping, smoking, safety procedures etc.);
  • Produce a dissertation for the University at the end of the project;
  • Maintain any confidentiality associated with the project.

Any student who feels unable to proceed with a project should discuss the situation with their supervisor. If this is not possible, then they should speak to the Director of MSc Courses. Students must not leave a project without good reason and must inform both academic and industrial supervisors in writing that they intend to do so.

Project allocation procedure

The vast majority of projects will be listed on MOLE no later than Week 5 of the second semester (external project details may continue to be received and listed after this date), and each project will have its own discussion thread. Students should read the project descriptions and identify those projects which they would be interested in doing. Leave a note on the relevant discussion thread(s) registering the fact that you are interested in doing the project(s), and then contact the named supervisor by email, asking to discuss the project in more detail. No projects will be allocated before Week 8 , so you have plenty of time to investigate the possibilities. Week 8 of the second semester is Projects Week. Taking into account the various discussions they've had with interested students, supervisors will decide which student they would like to have on each of their projects, and will make them an offer. This offer will be time-limited, i.e. you will be given a deadline, typically 24 hours. You may receive offers from several projects, but you can only accept one of them. To accept an offer, you should reply to the supervisor saying that you agree to do the project (the supervisor will then tell the relevant members of the admin team); you are now committed to doing that project - you cannot change your mind and accept a different project later. If you reject the offer (or if you miss the deadline) the project may be offered to another student instead. You cannot accept more than one offer. In addition to any deadline you may receive in respect of an offer, there is a global deadline at 5pm on Friday of Week 8. Any students who have failed to secure a project at that point will be assigned an unallocated project by the Projects Officer (in practice this happens the following Monday, so that supervisors have time to notify us of late acceptances).

Payment

The placement is part of a course of study. The Department does not provide any financial assistance. Students should not expect to be paid any wage by the placement provider although some may be generous and offer remuneration. There are all sorts of legal implications for registered students receiving wages and advice about this should be sought although repayment of expenses incurred is usually acceptable. If companies wish to remunerate students as a 'thank you' for their work, we suggest that they arrange a lump sum to be paid direct to the student once the course has ended.

Proposing your own project

If a student finds a project for themselves, the Department must see and approve a project specification before such a project is accepted. Please submit specifications to the Project Officer. Any student offered a placement which they have sought themselves but which they no longer wish to use should inform the Project Officer as soon as possible, since it may be possible to offer the project to other students.