MInf Project Planning (U04182)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : INF-4-MPP

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

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : For MInf fourth year students only.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Informatics, (School of Informatics, Schedule O)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : To be arranged/Unknown

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

* Critically evaluate research literature appropriate to their topic.
* Develop a structured research proposal.
* Justify experimental design choices.
* Discuss a research proposal with particular reference to key hypotheses and methodological approaches.
* Outline project/research management issues.