MCS Individual projects are allocated towards the end of term two, begin in earnest after exams in term three and continue until mid-September.
Once you have registered your project preferences (see below) the allocation of students/supervisors will be made. The allocation process takes account of several factors:
If you chose from the published proposals (provided by supervisors) your first choice of project cannot be guaranteed since individual supervisors can only take responsibility for a limited number of projects. In some cases you may be allocated the project but another member of staff will be assigned to supervise it. Failing this, you may be allocated one of your alternative choices.
To be announced.
Selection of projects occurs towards the end of term two. You should start looking for and talking to supervisors a few weeks before the deadline. Using the Individual Projects Database you will look at the projects suggested by members of staff. If you are interested in a project you should approach the supervisor to discuss. Then, following the instructions given on the database page, register your preferences for projects. Supervisors will respond via the database and the allocation will be made. We offer the following tips for finding a project.
You may already have industry experience or contacts in a sector that interests you. If you have an idea for a project that you would like to undertake in collaboration with an industrial partner this is a very real possiblity.
First, you should approach the industrial partner and develop the idea for the project. Next, come up with a short outline of the proposal (a page or two) and submit it to the Individual Projects Administrator. They will evaluate your proposal and if it is feasible they will inform you and suggest members of staff who may be interested in supervising you. You may, of course, investigate possible supervisors yourself but you should wait until you know the project will be accepted before approaching them. The process is as for any other student-proposed project from there on.
You should ensure you have the cooperation of the industrial partner before submitting your proposal for consideration.
Your supervisor has a dual role as your advisor but also as one of your assessors. Cultivating a good working relationship will assist both of you in producing a good project.
As well as your supervisor, a second marker will assess your project. You supervisor will arrange the second marker, usually picking someone with knowledge and experience relevant to your project. Second Markers should be decided by the end of August. Most of the second markers will not have followed the project throughout and will only have a short time to see a demonstration. For this reason they will rely heavily on the report to judge the quality of your work. You should appreciate that the course external examiner, who plays a crucial role in the final recommendation, has only the report by which to judge your project performance.
You should read the following guide to the expected contents of your project report. Project report contents and qualities..
Your project will be assessed on the criteria described here.
Upon completion of your project you will submit two hardcopies (one for your supervisor and one for your second marker) and an electronic copy (PDF or PostScript) via CATE. You will also be required to submit a tar file containing other material e.g. source code. If you have produced software as part of your project you must meet with your supervisor to demonstrate it shortly after submission.
For more details of how to present and submit your report see here.
With you hardcopies you must also provide your Library Clearance Form and a completed contact details form. The Library Clearance is available from the main desk of the library and certifies you do not have outstanding library books. Your degree will not be awarded without this form. We also ask you to provide details of your destination (employment, further postgraduate studies etc.) with your CATE submission. A text file form.txt is available on CATE as a given file for the submission. Please fill in your details and submit it with your electronic copy and tar file.
You must arrange to demonstrate any software you have developed to your supervisor and second marker. The demonstration should occur no later than one week after the project submission. The exact date and time of the demonstration are decided by your supervisor, second marker and you. A demonstration of your software is a requirement of the project and must be fulfilled.
If your supervisor is away during the demonstration period you must arrange to demonstrate to the project administrator in that time and to your supervisor at a later date.
You might like to prepare a short planned demonstration - a tour of the software - but also be prepared for your supervisors to ask for certain features to be shown more thoroughly. They might even want to play with it themselves.
Each year one or more projects that have acheived Distinction grade are awarded the Project Prize. The reports for these projects are published here and are a good guide to a quality project.
The winner of the 2005-2006 MCS Project Prize was:
Marta Chaves - Theorem Proving Using NAND Expressions (supervised by Dr. Krysia Broda)