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cm3203_final_report

CM3203 Final Report

You must submit a final report worth 95% of the total project mark, which should cover the background and context of the problem, clearly specify the problem you solved, the methodology and approach of your solution and an evaluation. You also have to submit a complete set of the deliverables developed for the project, including any source code, data and results relevant to your work. This involves the development of some tangible piece of software, hardware, system design or theoretical result. It need not necessarily be a usable finished product. Instead, it could be, for example, an extension of an existing system or a prototype built as part of a feasibility study. Deliverables do not necessarily have to be programs but could be in non-executable form, for example, a theoretical result. This must be submitted at the end of spring week 12 (see the exact deadline for the final report listed in PATS).

Please see your initial plan, in which you should have clearly outlined the aims and objectives and, with that, the deliverables for the final report. Your supervisor and/or moderator may have left additional comments on your plan on PATS to tell you whether these deliverables are suitable and what they expect for the final report. Your deliverables may be adjusted based on your findings since the initial plan and in discussions with your supervisor. Note that you must agree with the supervisor on any significant changes to the original plan/proposal. Generally, discuss carefully with your supervisor what you should include in the final report.

Contents and Structure

The final report should be at most 25,000 words long. The word limit is a maximum for the main body of the report, not a target. Enough information such that a competent computer scientist can understand and reproduce the work should be given in the report, and any appendices or supplementary material (both do not count towards the word limit).

A possible structure for your final report is as follows:

Title Page Support
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
1.Introduction Main body
2.Background
3.Methodology / Approach / Specification, Design and Implementation
4.Results and Evaluation
5.Conclusions and Future Work
6.Reflection on Learning
Appendices Support
References

Note that this is only a suggestion, and you can adjust the chapter headings and structure to suit your project. Especially you may want to consider adapting Chapter 3 to something that more specifically reflects the specification and solution of your problem and potentially even split it into multiple chapters. Please discuss the structure and contents of your report with your supervisor.

Project Report Writing

Here we give you some brief guides and further reading material to help you produce a good project report. A good report presents your project work concisely and effectively. It should contain various materials relevant to your work in respect of your project; it should be organised into a logical framework; it should be supported by written material that follows well-established academic conventions in a consistent fashion.

An important point to remember is that the report should describe your work. Large chunks of bookwork describing standard material are unnecessary. You should refer to such material, assuming that your reader is a competent computer scientist, and a lot of it can be summarised with further details in suitable references. The guidelines here are arranged roughly in the order you need.

Your project supervisor will guide you on what it is reasonable to expect a project in your chosen topic to deliver. However, all projects must justify all decisions made at every research stage and develop appropriate deliverables, including the choice of approach.

Submission

You must submit your report with all supporting material by the deadline on PATS in the final report tab for your project.

Note that the main report file must be a PDF file. Please see the Submission Guide for information about submitting a report via PATS. Also, ensure the project title and the project description on PATS matches the project title and the work in the report (you can use the abstract from the report for the project description).

Also, consider Project Publication details about how to publish (or not) your project online in the PATS archive.

Assessment

Before you submit the final version, you should discuss the report with your supervisor, who can give you general guidance on the structure and what to write as feed-forward towards the final report assessment. Make sure you arrange this well in advance of the submission deadline so that you can agree upon a timeline for this, and there is enough time for your supervisor to look at a draft. You may, for example, discuss an outline of the report with chapter and section headings with your supervisor and later on discuss specific questions you are having on the content.

The final report is worth 95% of the module's total mark. After the submission deadline, your supervisor and moderator assess the final report independently, giving an individual mark out of 95. A combined mark will be agreed upon based on the individual marks between your supervisor and moderator in a separate discussion after the individual marks have been given. A total mark for each assessor will be computed as the sum of their initial plan (out of 5) and final report mark (out of 95). If these two marks differ by more than 10, a third marker will be appointed to decide upon a final mark based on the individual and combined report marks. If the two marks differ by less or equal to 10, the sum of the mark agreed upon by the supervisor and moderator (out of 95) and the average initial plan mark (out of 5) will be the total mark for the module. After this process, an external examiner will check the report marks, and the exam board will confirm the marks. You will then receive your official mark for the module via SIMS. Once you have received your mark via SIMS, you can ask your supervisor for informal feedback on your work (e.g. contact them by e-mail). Before then, your supervisor or anyone else cannot confirm your mark.

The criteria for assessing the final report are listed below. Please read these carefully, as it will help you see what your assessors will look for in your report. Also, take into account what you promised to produce for the final report in your initial plan, your supervisor's and moderator's comments on this on PATS, and any further discussions with your supervisor (as you may have changed the deliverables from the initial plan in discussion with your supervisors, etc).

Assessment Criteria

Your supervisor and moderator will assess your final report according to the following criteria/skills:

  • Problem and background
    • Understanding of the problem and the aims and objectives of the project
    • Awareness of the background of the problem
    • Detailed analysis of the problem, suitability of approach towards solving the problem
  • Solution to the problem
    • Approach and design
    • Solution, implementation
    • Use of and justification for appropriate tools/methods
  • Evaluation
    • Testing and validation
    • Critical appraisal of results
    • Achievement of agreed overall deliverables given in the initial plan for the final report (or a justified modification of these)
  • Communication and project management skills
    • Written communication skills
    • Project planning, control and reflection
    • Interaction and work with the supervisor

The scale for this assessment is:

  • Fail (0-29%) - Incomplete solution: poor understanding or ability to apply the skill; solution is incomplete or irrelevant.
  • Marginal Fail (30-39%) - Needs significant improvement: limited understanding or ability to apply the skill; solution demonstrates some awareness of the problem.
  • Pass (40-49%) - Meets minimum expectations: basic understanding and application of the skill; solution meets minimum requirements.
  • Adequate (50-59%) - Meets expectations with some issues: competent understanding and application of the skill in common situations; solution is good with some issues.
  • Good (60-69%) - Meets expectations: competent understanding and application of the skill; solution is good with only minor issues.
  • First Class (70-79%) - Meets expectations to high standard: demonstrates exceptional proficiency, readily applying the skill in complex scenarios and potentially optimizing its use; solution shows initiative, critical thinking, and a well-developed approach.
  • High First Class (80-100%) - Exceeds expectations: excels in using the skill independently and possesses a deep understanding; solution potentially contributes to the field's advancement through innovation or research.
cm3203_final_report.txt · Last modified: 2024/03/19 22:12 by scmfcl