Projects

Projects 2019-2020

The final year project is an extremely important component of most degree programmes.  As well as carrying a significant number of marks, it is used by external examiners to decide borderline cases, it is used by lecturers when writing job references for students, and it is used when deciding on admissions to postgraduate study and research.  It is the component which, more than any other, provides an opportunity for independent and original work.

TIMELINE

Below you can find the different steps involved in the semester 2 final year project process.

1. Tuesday 12th  November 2019 :                              Project Blitz, 3-4pm in MY129, Aras Moyola.
2. Mon 11th - Wed 13th November 2019:              Discuss project topics with potential supervisors
3. Wednesday 20th  November 2019:                        Submit preferences on Schoolmaster.
4. Monday 25th November 2019:                                 Assignment of Student-Supervisor pairing
                                                                                                           
5. Thursday 6th February  2020 :                                  Submit a project plan
6. Thursday 2nd April 2020:                                             Give a 15 minute presentation to staff and students.
                                                                                                            Cheese and wine reception after final presentation.
7. Wednesday 8th April 2020:                                        Submit the final version of the project report to School 
                                                                                                            of Maths office before 4pm.         

MORE DETAILS

Project Topics

You can discuss project topics with potential supervisors.  Some supervisors will have lists of topics that they are willing to supervise a student on (made available e.g. on their webpage or on their door).  Most supervisors are usually also willing to discuss ideas of the students.
Contact supervisors by email, knock on their doors, chat to them after lectures, but make sure that you talk to several people.

Project Blitz

To help with the discussion of project topics, we will have a project blitz at 3pm on Tuesday 12th November, 2019.
The format is that potential supervisors each give a three-minute presentation on possible project topics that they could supervise.  All project students are encouraged to attend!
The slides from the event will be available on your project Blackboard module.

Registration on Schoolmaster

Students should sign up on the Schoolmaster website in order to submit their (agreed) project proposals.  To do this, you:

1. Go to the Schoolmaster sign up page
2. Sign up (with your NUIG email)
3. Enrol (on the Welcome page, with your student ID)
4. Submit proposal titles and supervisors on your enrolment page.

N.B. Be sure to pick ***4*** different supervisors that you are willing to work with.  There are no rankings.  You will receive an email with the full list of supervisors.

Student-Supervisor Pairing

The algorithm that we use to do the pairings attempts to minimize the number of students with four approved agreements that do not get a supervisor among those four.  There is no guarantee that you will get assigned one of your proposed supervisors, but your chances are best if you choose four different supervisors on Schoolmaster.
The pairing will be published as soon as the number of projects that each supervisor will supervise is determined.
Every supervisor has a fixed number of projects that (s)he will supervise and so popular supervisors will have their quota filled quickly.

Project Plan

The project plan is supposed to be a short document (not more than three pages).  
As the name suggests, it should outline the plan for the project work; and it should give a description of:

• The area/problem to be studied.  Give a description aimed for a non-expert.
• The aim for the outcome project.
• Techniques that will be used, if applicable

Marking

The project plan will be marked and contribute to the final grade.

Submission:

Submit by emailing a copy to your supervisor.

Draft Report

You need to submit a draft of your project report to your supervisor.  This draft will then be checked for plagiarism using software like Turnitin as well as manually.  Even though most or all of the cases of plagiarism have been done in good faith, there will be penalties if plagiarised portions are present in the final report, see the University's plagiarism code of practice.  Thus, it is important that this is addressed before the final submission.

After the plagiarism check, the student and the supervisor meet to discuss if any rewriting needs to take place to ensure that the final report is free from plagiarised work.

It is very important to note that the student is solely responsible for the submitted report.  The check is a help for the student to submit work free from plagiarism issues, but not a guarantee that no issues remain.

Final Report

Three bound (spiral binding suffices) printed copies of the final report should be handed in to the School office and an electronic copy should be emailed to your supervisor and noelle.gannon@nuigalway.ie by 4pm on the deadline date.  A penalty (typically 5%) will be applied to late submissions.  This report will count for 90% of the final mark.  It is fine for the final report to re-use material from the project plan.  Details on the required format for the final report are given below.

Presentation

All students will be required to give an up to 15 minute presentation on their project.  There will be up to 5 minutes of questions from examiners and the audience.  The presentation will count for 10% of the final mark for all students.

FINAL REPORT FORMAT

The final report should be typed and normally of the following length (excluding the title page, bibliography and any computer printout):

• Masters students: 25 to 35 pages (maximum 40)
• Undergraduate and Higher Diploma students:  20 to 30 pages (maximum 35)

The cover page of the final report should contain (in this order):

• The title of the project
• The full name of the author
• The type of project, e.g. "Final Year Project' or 'Higher Diploma Project' or 'Masters Project'.
• NUI Galway
• The full name of the supervisor
• The month and year of submission

The next page should contain these words, and the submitted copies must be signed:

I herby certifiy that this materal, which I now submut for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of (degree or higher diploma or masters) is entirely my own work and had not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged with the text of my work.

Signed: _____________________________________      ID No: _____________________     Date: _________________

It is important that the final report conveys clearly to any reader the extent to which the work was independent and/or original.  The report often includes three main sections (which are often subdivided):

•  The introduction:  a clear explanation of the context, motivation, objectives etc.
• The body of the work: an account of the main results, including maybe some proofs, examples/counter-examples, algorithms....
• The conclusion:  a summary of what has and has not been achieved, suggestions for further work.

Assessment Procedures

The typed reports will count for 90% and the presentation will count 10%.

WORKSHOPS

There will be some workshops organised for the benefit of the project students.  Some topics that will be covered are:

• Plagiarism and academic good practice
• The LaTeX typesetting system
• Mathematical software