FIT5008 (12 points) project is compulsory in the Master of Digital Communications unless the 24-point minor thesis is taken. It is taken in a single semester, and is usually offered in both semester 1 and 2.
The purpose of the project subject is to provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate that they can carry through a reasonably large piece of individual research, investigation, development and/or reporting work under supervision, and to have it assessed. The project subject should be undertaken after the completion (or close to completion) of other subjects in the course.
The students are encouraged to create their own project topics, subjective to the approval of a project supervisor who supervises the project. Some possible project topics and available supervisors are given below:
Possible project supervisors in 2008:
Some general guidelines in the selection of a project topic are given below.
The above project topics normally fall into one of the following three areas:
The following are typical software-based project topics that have proved successful. Note that most require access to a good-quality multi-tasking operating system, and associated compilers and support software.
These are usually based on a survey of the literature available on a topic, and the writing of a comprehensive report. The topics have changed over time as the technology has developed. For maturing technologies comprehensive texts usually appear, which largely eliminate the possibility of an independent report.
Past and present topics include:
A number of projects have been carried out as part of students' employment. In such cases, it is quite appropriate that the report be kept confidential, provided it can be assessed.
Past projects have included:
Existing or new research in a relevant area.
After deciding the topic, students are encouraged to talk to or email a potential supervisor as early as possible. This should be done before the end of Week 1 in semester. The course coordinator can also help to suggest a supervisor. Upon the agreement of supervision, the project student will complete a project proposal as detailed in the next section.
The project proposal is a summary (about 1 page A4) description of the proposed project. It should have a project title, an introduction, some justification on the selection of the project and a broad plan of work. The student’s name, ID number and the supervisor’s name should also be included in the proposal. It should be submitted before the end of Week 2 of the semester. This proposal must be approved by the supervisor before the start of the project. A copy of the proposal agreed upon with the supervisor must be also sent to the course coordinator. An approved project proposal is a hurdle requirement for the project, without which will lead to the failure of the project.
In conjunction with the supervisor, a plan of work will be developed and agreed. How the work proceeds from then will depend on the nature of the project and the resources required.
The enrolment is 12-points over one semester. The size of a project may vary, however, as a rough guide, a student should expect to spend the equivalent of 260 hours (12-points) of work on the project, which includes a report that reflects work commensurate with the entire assessment of a coursework subject.
If the project is not finished by the end of the semester, we may recommend a "WH" grade (withheld) subjective to the supervisor’s agreement. However, this treatment is temporary, and will terminate 6 weeks after the enrolment period expires without further notice. In this case, your unfinished project will be given an “N” (failed). The students are strongly recommended to complete their projects within the enrolment period to avoid failure and repeated enrolment.
The actual size of the report depends on the nature of the project, but it should not exceed 40 single-spaced A4 pages (excluding bibliography or references, appendices, table of contents and list of figures). Exceptions to this rule can be made if they are justified by the nature of the project. If you think your project constitutes such an exception, you will need to discuss the case with your supervisor for an alternative page limit.
One hard copy is required to submit to your supervisor before the end of semester, as well as an electronic copy for plagiarism detection.
It is important that the report contain a complete account of the work done. In general, the report should contain:
It is vital that the report contains a complete account of the work you have done: in particular, you may use an appendix to clarify your personal original contribution and to distinguish it from ideas and results that you have taken from the literature. Make it clear in the Introduction what your own achievements and contributions are and how much time you spent on your project.
With scientific writing, organisation and structure is half of the task, and so considerable effort should be invested in detailed outlines before any text is composed. Changing outlines is quick and easy; rewriting text is time consuming.
The supervisor can advise on all aspects of the preparation of the thesis, and check through the draft if received with ample notification. However, the student is reminded that it is not the supervisor's responsibility to write or re-write all or part of the work. Note that as a student, you are being examined not only on research innovation and organisation ability, but also on your ability to present and defend ideas. Conformity to conventions, both scientific and grammatical, is important.
A reasonable thesis structure is as follows:
The recommended font sizes are 14 point for headings, 12 point for sub-headings and 11 point for text. Essential footnotes are normally placed at the foot of the page to which they refer. Number pages consecutively, including pages carrying diagrams, photographs, maps, etc. Diagrams should be computer drawn and included as graphic files directly into the document. References must be referred to in the text, and listed in ascending order in the bibliography following a standard and consistent format.
The “Declaration of Originality” must be on a separate page and contain the following wording:
I < student name > declare that this report is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institute of tertiary education. This report does not contain material in whole or in part from another person’s work, or from any other source such as the Internet, published books or periodicals without due acknowledgement given in the text.
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(student signature)
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Date (day, month and year)
The Abstract on a separate page should not exceed 400 words.
Appendices are not intended as a means to “pad-out” a sparse thesis with peripheral material, or to circumvent the page limit in an “obese” thesis. They serve as a repository for useful products of the research (e.g., documentation including installation of a program and a detailed example run of the program) which are not an integral part of the main body of the thesis. Where the raw data of a thesis cannot be extracted directly from the test figures and tables, it is essential that they be tabulated in an appendix. In short, appendices preserve valuable information which might otherwise be lost, but the report should be able to stand without them. Long, detailed program code should be put on a CD ROM or floppy disk in the back of the report, rather than listed in appendices.
The main deliverable in the project will be the report, plus a demonstration of any hardware/software developed if applicable. The supervisor may also request an oral examination in the form of an interview or a presentation.
While materials from the Internet, published books and articles are good source of information, students should be extremely vigilant against plagiarism when write their reports. Plagiarism can be easily detected with the submitted electronic copy of report. Plagiarism will lead to the failure of the project and may result in disciplinary action against the student. Please read this article for a good guidance against plagiarism.