The Semester 2 Project Module

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The Semester 2 Project Module

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The Project
AprilSeptember
Semester 2
This module the Portfolio -- background
research and other preparation
Design/Implementation/Experiment/Dissertation
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This Module
wk1

wk4
wk6
wk7
wk9
wk12
Hand-in portfolio
Lecture 3 feedback questions
Submit skeleton draft portfolio
Lecture 2 feedback questions
Submit draft reference list 30 relevant items
This lecture
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This Module

• How to do really well in this module
• Arrange and agree a suitable project
• with a supervisor
• Write a very, very, very good
• project portfolio
• Hand that in in week 12
• (No need to come to these 3 lectures, except to
  find out what is required for the portfolio)
• (No need to provide week 4 and week 7 handins to
  me)

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This Module

• An easier way to do very very well in this
  module
• Arrange and agree a suitable project
• with a supervisor
• Use me, the hand-ins I ask for, and the later
  
• feedback lectures, to help you prepare the
• portfolio
• Hand that in in week 12

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• I guess you want to know what the Portfolio is?

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The Portfolio

• A document of around 20 pages in total,
  comprising these 10 parts in this order
• A signed pro forma statement stating that
  Portfolio is free of plagiarism
• An abstract (about 200 words)
• Aims and objectives of your project ( about 300
  words)
• A project description, (about 500 words)
• An appropriate discussion of the professional,
  legal and social issues pertinent to your
  project. (201,000 words)

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The Portfolio

• 6. An outline of the dissertation structure and
  layout. This is expected to be presented as
  headings and sub headings and potentially subsub
  headings with a short description of the expected
  content of each section, sub section or subsub
  section. You may wish to discuss this with your
  supervisor. Note that this is a plan your final
  report may contain a modified structure.
• 7. A literature review and/or review of other
  background material associated with your project.
  This is the most substantial and important
  component of your Portfolio -- 5000 words or
  more.
• 8. A conclusion and discussion of the issues for
  your project (5001000 words).

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The Portfolio

• 9. A completed risk assessment form for your
  project. A risk assessment form is available from
  the module web site. You may not start your
  project until this has been completed.
• 10. A Project Management plan (PMP), comprising
  
• 1. A Gantt chart outlining the timeline for the
  project
• 2. A brief description of the project plan to
  support the Gantt chart, to include risk
  identification, risk assessment and risk
  management.

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Portfolio Marking

• Abstract, Aims, Objectives and Project
  description
• Is the project and its rationale accurately
  described?
• Dissertation Outline
• Is the project outline appropriate and well
  thought out?
• Literature Review or appropriate background
  material
• Conclusion
• Are the main issues of the project highlighted?
• Project Management Plan
• Is the PMP realistic, sufficiently detailed? Have
  risks been identified and assessed and has risk
  management been incorporated into the PMP?

• 10
• 5
• 60
• 10
• 15

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You, Me, and your Supervisor
For This semester only, consider me to be your
main project supervisor, even if I know nothing
about your project. To balance workloads over
the year, student project supervision is
concentrated into semester 2, when you are
actually doing your project. For the current
background review and preparation stage, I can
guide you towards producing an appropriate
Portfolio, informed by the basic
project description, and with a small amount of
help from the supervisor.
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An Ideal Plan for this module in this semester
Weeks 24 Collect several pertinent reference
sources on which to base your lit./background
review. Use me and your supervisor appropriately
to help decide what is relevant. End of week 4
Email me your list (if you want to email me your
full literature review, or anything inbetween,
thats fine too) Attend week 6 lecture in which
I will give general feedback about progress so
far, deal with ongoing questions about the
reviews, and talk more about the other parts of
the Portfolio Weeks 59 Organising your time
appropriately, try to provide me a draft of the
portfolio (skeletal in places) in week 7, and
carry on drafting until week 9. Attend week 9
lecture where I will provide general feedback on
progress so far, and YOU should ask questions
about what to write in particular parts of the
portfolio sometimes it is not obvious given
the details of your particular project. Weeks
912 Finish the portfolio and hand it in.
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One way to do a Review

• Find 30 relevant items
• -- web search / google scholar / library
  /
• -- item seminal research paper /
  current research paper / website / application /
  system /
• report / perhaps your review
  contains some of each
• -- 30 is a good amount but just a guide
  / more may be appropriate in your case
• Write a mini-review of each item -- 100/150
  words a description / its main features or
• findings, its main results and how useful
  they are criticise it when it seems appropriate
• (cont)

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One way to do a Review

• Step back and think about how to organise these
  reviews what are they telling you about
• the state of play in the area you are
  looking at the main methods, the best methods,
  the
• current directions, current progress
  what seems not done yet, but seems like a good
  idea
• to try? (i.e. what are the
  opportunities?) what are they telling you about
  the best method/system/idea to use in your
  project? Etc etc
• 4. Using your step 3 musings and your step 2
  text, write a coherent review! E.g. a general
  introduction a section about how the background
  is organised into themes and/or subthemes, a
  section reviewing key items in each theme, and a
  concluding section that pulls together
  generalities and makes conclusions

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Another way to do a Review
Any way that works for you, as long as leads
to the same result an organized, coherent and
critically discussed account of relevant
background material that sets out the context for
your project, and also helps to define the
project or justify aspects of it.
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30 items EXAMPLE 1Suppose this is your project

• Goal To develop a Google-type interface to
  bioinformatics databases
• Description The Mouse Atlas and related
  gene-expression databases provide both textual
  and spatially annotated patterns of
  gene-expression in the mouse and other model
  organism embryos. A number of specialised query
  interface have been developed for specific
  keywords, anatomical components or spatial
  regions. This project aims to produces a simple
  "google-style" interface in which the user can
  type any term of interest and have the search
  passed over complete datasets and web-site
  sources. The proposed architecture will be to use
  the Lucene (http//lucene.apache.org/java/docs/)
  search engine combined with bespoke links to
  databases to generate records in the index. In
  its simplest form the engine will be used to
  capture and index for a prescribed set of
  database and web-sites. An extended version of
  the system will allow more intelligent
  interpretation of a query string to include
  synonyms and structural relations from the
  anatomy and other ontologies. For example a query
  on "hand" will return expression patterns that
  are annotated with "finger" (part-of hand) or the
  index can be supplemented with other annotation
  (e.g. Gene Ontology or disease) associated with
  the gene. The project will require java
  programming coupled with delivery a of a
  web-application and access both to other
  web-sites, gene-expression databases and other
  bioinformatics resources. The project will take
  place in collaboration with the MRC Human
  Genetics Unit and co-supervised by Prof. Richard
  Baldock.

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Areas in this project

• Project Develop a Google-type interface to
  bioinformatics databases
• Foci
• google-type interfaces to databases
• Gene expression databases
• Using Lucene
• Coupling java with the www
• Intelligent interpretation of query strings
• Bioinformatics resources in general

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30 items might be

• 3 sources of b/g material about java/www
  libraries, including Apache Lucene, but also
  maybe 2 others, so you can compare and contrast
  their features
• 5 online databases that have interesting/google-li
  ke interfaces
• 3 online databases that have quite different
  interfaces, so you can contrast the two kinds.
• 2 key sources about gene expression data and its
  importance
• 5 sources about interpretation of query strings
• 12 sources about ontologies (4 definition/intro
  8 current research)

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30 items EXAMPLE 2 Suppose this is your project

• Goal To carry out a survey of evaluation studies
  which have been reported on the effectiveness of
  Online Learning.
• Description The project will survey the
  literature of evaluation studies which have been
  reported on the effectiveness of Online Learning.
  Further analysis of the context of these studies
  will be undertaken to produce a general report on
  what can be learned from these evaluations.

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Areas in this project

• Project To carry out a survey of evaluation
  studies which have been reported on the
  effectiveness of Online Learning.
• Foci
• Online learning
• Measuring effectiveness of online learning

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30 items might be

• 5 sources of b/g material about online learning
  itself different styles/strategies/technologies
• 10 articles about evaluating the effectiveness of
  learning 2 seminal, 8 recent and/or influential,
  3 about offline learning, 5 about online
  learning.
• 15 studies that each present (and at least
  attempt to evaluate) a specifc online learning
  tool!

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The draft portfolio handin

• WHATEVER you have ready by the end of Feb
• Ideally, you will be well into the literature
  review part, so that I can see if the structure
  and organisation seems basically OK
• Ideally there will be enough in the asbtract and
  project description parts that help me see if the
  project is clearly defined and you know what you
  are doing
• At least brief notes for each section.

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Weeks 4 and 6
wk1

wk4
wk6
wk7
wk9
wk12
Submit draft reference list at the end of week
4, email me your list of 30(ish) items (or,
anything further towards preparing your portfolio)
Lecture 2 general feedback to all, discussion of
common issues. Some info about the other
aspects of the portfolio, especially the PWP
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Hand-in Dates etc.
When What How
Friday 6th Feb 5pm Your 30 items on which your review will be based Email me an editable document (e.g. word, txt, not pdf)
Friday 27th Feb 5pm Draft of portfolio, maybe 40 done, skeletal in parts Email me an editable document (e.g. word, txt, not pdf)
Friday 3rd April 5pm Portfolio Paper hand-in via the CS/IT coursework box
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Your Questions About

• The 30 items
• Reviews for your particular project
• How to do a good review
• Other aspects of the Portfolio