Guidelines on Stage 3/4 Projects

The Project Diary

The Oral Presentation

The Dissertation and Viva Voce Examination

Interim report (MEng Stage 4 projects only)

Progress throughout the Project

• Effort and self-management

  The group and individual projects all require a lot of effort. Each project is equivalent to either three or four modules and hence merits about 15 or 20 hours work respectively each week, averaged over two semesters. Less effort that this is unlikely to enable you to do the job properly, but substantially more effort on its own will not automatically guarantee a high mark unless qualified by the other factors below.

  You will not be able to do all the work required during the nine-to-five working day. You must expect to do substantial work in your own time.

  Commitments for other courses (e.g. assignments, in-course-assessments) may lead to occasional disruptions in the progress of the project, but these should be only temporary and any extended breaks in the work must be discussed with your Supervisor. Good forward planning is essential especially where there are likely to be waiting periods for the delivery of components, construction work in the workshop etc. Evidence will be sought for a systematic and logical approach e.g. developing a task in stages, keeping a diary of progress and regular log of results and an account of questions posed and answered.

• Initiative

  You will be judged on the extent to which you show initiative in tackling the project, including:

  • contributing to formulating the detailed objectives and scope of the project (and showing the ability to adjust these to circumstances if necessary),
  • working independently and taking responsibility for your own work,
  • seeking appropriate advice from your Supervisor or elsewhere for deeper understanding, and
  • making confident use of the library and other resources or external contacts/sources for background or required new knowledge.

• Range of skills displayed and depth of understanding

  To do well in your project you will need to display competence or better in a fairly wide range of different skills appropriate to the project. These might include experimentation, analysis, computing, instrumentation or electronics, assimilation of technical literature, design, workshop/manufacturing, etc. You should be aware of this requirement when framing project specifications and planning the work of the project with your supervisor.

  You are expected to develop a grasp of the project and its individual aspects quite quickly. Sometimes students fail to show a proper appreciation of the purpose of the project even at the end, and this severely limits the mark obtained.

  You will be required to assimilate new knowledge and skills in the course of the project, and also to make full use of previously taught material. Correct application and interpretation of known subjects (involving reference to taught course material and associated textbooks) is expected. Significant deficiencies in basic subjects will result in a serious loss of marks.

  Generally MEng students at Stage 4 will be expected to display greater skill and depth of understanding than that expected of Stage 3 students (MEng or BEng). This reflects the time available for the work, the experience gained at Stage 3, and particularly the prestige associated with the attainment of Master of Engineering.

  The Project Diary

  You are expected to keep a project diary in which you record all the work you do on the project through the year. It is most important that this should be written regularly and should contain everything you do.

  Keeping a technical diary is a skill you need to develop. It will serve you well throughout your career. It is also your record of what you did during the course of the project. You will need it when you come to write your dissertation.

  The Oral Presentation

  During the examination period at the end of Semester 1 you will present your work to date to an audience comprising two tutors and a group of your colleagues. Use it as an opportunity to clarify in your own mind the progress you have made and the outstanding work yet to be done.
  Note: The timing for MEng Stage 3 group project presentations will be set independently by supervisors to suit industrial collaborators, external examiners, etc.

  Oral presentation of a complex subject in a limited time is an important skill which you will require often during your life as a professional engineer. We are all called upon from time to time to present our ideas to others and it is important that we should be able do so in a clear and persuasive way. Use this as an opportunity to practise this vital skill.

  The important points you must cover are:

  • the progress you have made and its relationship to your original plan,
  • the results of your work and their relationship to your original objectives,
  • any changes that you have made to your objectives and the reasons for making them, and
  • the work that is required to finish your project.

  You should prepare your presentation carefully and make use of appropriate visual aids. These might include overhead projector foils and small pieces of equipment; anything to help your audience understand what you are saying.

  The examiners will not only give a mark for the oral presentation. They will also give advice on how it might have been given more effectively and make suggestions on how the project work can be wound up. The second examiner, coming to the work without any preconceived ideas, can often make a valuable contribution in this way.

  The Dissertation and Viva Voce Examination

  The project report or dissertation is the most important product of the work you have put into the project. It is the permanent record of your achievement. It is also probably the biggest and most important single document you have ever written, so it is worth doing well. The importance of the dissertation, and its presentation in the viva, is reflected in the large proportion of the total project mark awarded for it. The viva is used to allow you to present your dissertation to two examiners; one with a detailed knowledge of the work. Use it to bring out its strengths and justify its weaknesses. Examiners will try to discover what you understand about the work you have done and about the underlying theory.

  The Supervisor will explain to the Second Examiner how he arrived at his mark for the student's "progress throughout the project". The Second Examiner will form an independent opinion on the student's initiative, breadth and depth of knowledge (including Stage I and II material), grasp of the project, etc. according to the criteria set out in the marking scheme.

  The format of the Dissertation is laid out in detail in a separate page, together with some pointers on the style to be adopted. The most important points (which apply equally to the Interim report) may be summarised in to the following requirements of a good technical report.

  • Ensure that all the work you wish to describe is adequately covered.
  • Do not pad out the report with irrelevant or trivial detail. If great detail is necessary for the record (for instance, operating instructions for equipment built, structure of an incidental computer program written, etc) but inhibits the description of the work, use an appendix.
  • Write in a clear, impersonal style.
  • Ensure that the objectives of the work described are clearly presented.
  • Write clear, unambiguous conclusions, which must be drawn directly from the work described in the body of the report.

  The Interim Report (MEng Stage 4 projects only)

  During the Christmas vacation you will be required to write a short report covering a topic to be set by your supervisor. It will commonly be a literature review, but could be anything that he considers appropriate such as an exposition of a body of theory or a review of the historical background to a design problem.

  It will be a report of 1500-2000 words (approximately two or three pages), written according to the normal rules for technical writing with a summary, an introduction, the main body of text, conclusions and references.

  The report must stand alone as an independent document, but will nevertheless form the basis of a chapter in your final dissertation. Contents | Introduction | Timetable | Project Plan | What is Expected of You | The Project Diary | The Dissertation | Marking Scheme | Notes on Writing a Dissertation

  This page is maintained by Dr J M Hale

  This page last updated March 2000