Topics, Research and Skills in Computing

Assessment - Dissertation Project Proposal and Initial Literature Review

1. A dissertation project proposal and plan. This could be presented as:
a. A 700-800 word written description
b. A 3-4 minute video description
c. A 3-4 minute audio description
2. A short initial literature review on the topic of the proposal above. This could be presented as either:
a. A standalone presentation (8-10 slides)
b. A poster (A1 size)
3. A reflection on your personal skills as related to a dissertation project. This should be presented as a short piece of reflective writing (~800 words).

Assignment

For this assignment you will be put together a dissertation proposal, an overview of the literature or state of the field/market connected to that proposal, and a reflection on your personal skills related to the completion of a dissertation.

Note: the proposal you complete as part of this assessment may not be the proposal you eventually work on as part of your dissertation project, though these may be the same.

Dissertation proposal

This should be a short description of a project that is suitable for a dissertation project in Computing, and an overview of how it will be carried out, including a justification for this. Your dissertation proposal should cover the problem that you are attempting to solve, the solution you are proposing to solve this problem, and a justification of the methods used to create and evaluate this solution. This proposal may not be the final dissertation proposal that you ultimately complete for your dissertation, it just needs to be *a* project proposal that would be suitable for an MSc Computing dissertation.

Literature Review

The contents of your literature review will depend on the type of project, but it should aim to provide an overview of the context of your problem. For example, are there any existing/competing solutions that you can build on or build an alternative to? What external factors will influence the completion of your project?

Personal Skills

The reflection of your personal skills should be an audit of your skillset as compared to the skills needed to complete your proposed dissertation project, and where there are gaps should include an assessment of how these skills will be acquired/strengthened to allow the project to be completed successfully.

Learning Outcome 1: Discuss the purpose, goals and process of academic research
Learning Outcome 2: Appreciate and compare a variety of research approaches, methods, tools and techniques, and choose appropriate methodology relevant to the research issue or topic
Learning Outcome 3: Demonstrate the process of evaluating and synthesising prior knowledge through carrying out a literature review on a topic related to Computing
Learning Outcome 4: Reflect upon their strengths and skills acquired or enhanced to date
Learning Outcome 5: Create a project pitch and design a project plan

Questions

Questions about the assignment can be posted to the COMSC StackOverflow site.