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EPM930 MSC Dissertation Introduction Workshop

This document provides an overview and guidelines for students completing their MSc dissertation project. It discusses project selection, supervision, assessment, deadlines, plagiarism policies, and submitting a technical report. Students must complete an individual academic project worth 60 credits as the culmination of their MSc degree.

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ali.haj.agh.uk
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19 views21 pages

EPM930 MSC Dissertation Introduction Workshop

This document provides an overview and guidelines for students completing their MSc dissertation project. It discusses project selection, supervision, assessment, deadlines, plagiarism policies, and submitting a technical report. Students must complete an individual academic project worth 60 credits as the culmination of their MSc degree.

Uploaded by

ali.haj.agh.uk
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EPM930 MSc Dissertation

Introduction to the Module


MSc dissertation

• Major individual academic work

• ‘window to your degree’

• 60 academic credits

• Module specification (on Moodle)


• Let’s see what is inside…
Progression to project
• You can only start working on the project when Assessment Board
makes a decision that you can proceed to project
• i.e. when you pass all the modules
• There are exceptional circumstances

• If you secure summer industrial placement:


• If this was done using University advice/guidance, we will know of it
• If this was done on your own, you have to let us know using the EC system
• Both ways: this is very much encouraged, and you will start the project in
September when you complete the placement
Time and deadlines
STAGE SUMMER 2023 AUTUMN 2023

Project Selection 1 May 2023 1 May 2023

Preliminary Report Early July 2023 Late October 2023

Project thesis final submission Mid September 2023 Mid December 2023

Examinations Sep / Oct 2023 Dec 2023 / Jan 2024

Graduation Ceremony January 2024 July 2024


Project selection
• A document will be shared with you with project topics

• Let’s see the document from last year…


Supervision
• Academic staff member acts as supervisor/advisor for your project
• The project is yours – the supervisor’s role is to:
• Help you define project objectives – this is what preliminary report is for
• Help you manage the project ambition
• It is important not to do too little and also not to do too much
• Help you get the right balance between creative work / literature review /
discussion and analysis
• Help you prepare the thesis and the presentation
• Supervisor is also responsible for marking the work
Assessment and marking
• Work done during the year / project management (weight 0.35)
• Preliminary report
• Motivation and initiative shown
• Professionalism in communication, attendance at meetings, preparation for the
meetings
• Independence
• Quality of the project work (0.5)
• Assessed by project thesis/report
• Thesis content and thesis structure and presentation are assessed
• Presentation and examination (0.15)
• 30 minute examination of the project
• Presentation of the project outcomes
• Level of knowledge and understanding demonstrated in the examination
Very important – remote work and visa status
• For great majority of projects, work is done remotely, i.e. in the space
of your choice – there are no timetabled sessions
• It is possible to have sessions with the supervisor online
• It is possible to have examinations online

• HOWEVER:
• Remote work has major implications on your visa status
• Make sure you understand fully these implications – ask the visa team if in
doubt
• We have had a case of a student losing their visa because of remote project
work
• You will still get a degree, of course
Visa advice – please make sure you know the
rules!

• email [email protected]

• Student visa Responsibilities: https://studenthub.city.ac.uk/help-and-


support/visa-advice-for-international-students/responsibilities

• Graduate Immigration Route: https://studenthub.city.ac.uk/help-and-


support/visa-advice-for-international-students/working-in-the-uk
Two important events
• Association for Project Management (PM) – online session
Wednesday 15 March 2023 1-2pm

• Industrial speed networking event, Wednesday 29th March 2023,


5pm-8.30pm, Northampton Suite
• Join us for an evening of structured Speed-Networking with industry
professionals, who will share their career experience and discuss potential
project opportunities
• You will meet employers in small groups and have the opportunity to meet
each employer in a speed-networking format
• At the end of the event there will be an opportunity for informal networking
Rules, advice, regulations, writing a technical
report

• MSc project handbook – on Moodle

• Let’s see what is inside…


Abstract
• Around 200 words
• Start with a clear sentence describing the project (“This document
presents literature survey for Stage 3 Individual project in …”)
• Add one or two sentences highlighting the importance of the
analysed science/technology
• Outline what is in the document
Abstract – the ‘caterpillar method’

Detailed residential energy consumption data can be used to offer advanced services and provide
new business opportunities to all participants in the energy supply chain, including utilities,
distributors and customers. The increasing interest in the residential consumption data is behind
the roll-out of smart meters in large areas and led to intensified research efforts in new data
acquisition technologies for the energy sector. This paper introduces a novel model for generation
of residential energy consumption profiles based on the energy demand contribution of each
household appliance and calculated by using a probabilistic approach. The model takes into
consideration a wide range of household appliances and its modular structure provides a high
degree of flexibility.
Language
• Avoid use of personal pronouns (“I have done this…”)
• Use passive voice instead
• Check your spelling!
• Use the supervisor, friends of professional proofreader to improve the
quality of the language
• If you had early feedback from the supwrvisor that language has to
improve, start writing the thesis early
Use of figures

Make sure the figures are of good quality. Add a caption for each figure, and make sure
To refer to the figure in the text.
Use of figures

If a figure is taken from another document, make sure to include a reference.


Use of references – point out to further
reading

References should not be used to identify where the ‘text came from’, but to point to further reading
Avoid putting the references at the end of a paragraph.
Online references
• No wikipedia, howstuffworks.com, or similar editable
web sites, please!
• Ensure there is a title to the web page, and to put the
date when you last accessed the web document.
• Example:

Opnet Simulator web page, http://opnetprojects.com/, 29


Nov 2019
Common mistakes
• Very short sections
• A section (e.g. 2.4.1...) should be at least 1 page long
• A chapter should be at least 10 pages long
• Use of someone else’s diagrams and graphs
• Should be avoided, especially for basic diagrams
• If necessary, reference should be used
• “I will put the references once I finish writing”
• Include references while you write, not at the end.
• Use references to point out further reading, not at the end of paragraphs to
identify where the text has been taken from
Read the handbook, please
• It is on Moodle

• It gives more advice on how to structure the report, how to write the
introduction, and how to use references
Plagiarism, AI, academic misconduct
• We have very high expectation in terms of the integrity of the project
work
• Plagiarism is assessed using Turnitin software
• Similarity index is calculated comparing with 1000s of documents on multiple
databases
• Each case is considered separately – a high similarity index (over 25%) does
not necessarily mean academic misconduct
• Authentication of authorship of the work is done using the
presentation and examination
• Project cannot be passed without the examination
• During the examination you will be asked to defend statements from your text
and will be asked to explain the work in more detail – you can only answer
these if you have done the work yourself.

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