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Honours projects

Half of your time as an honours student is spent working on a project. Your project work will be supervised by someone who can offer you both general guidance on project work and advice more specific to the nature of the project.

Project topics are described on the Topics web page.

Project Milestones

There are various project deliverables that are due at different points during the year.

Note: The dates given below are subject to change.

Project commencement		Feb 2009		July 2009		Feb 2010		July 2010
Official starting date		2 Feb 2009		6 July 2009		18 Feb 2010		14 July 2010
Choice of topic		20 March 2009		20 Aug 2009		20 March 2010		22 Aug 2010
Project proposal and literature review		28 March 2009		27 Aug 2009		28 March 2010		1 Sep 2010
Introductory seminar		27 March 2009		21 Aug 2009		27 March 2010		12 Sep 2010
Pro-forma thesis		27 March 2009		30 Aug 2009		27 March 2010		12 Sep 2010
Mid-term seminar		14 Aug 2009		20 March 2010		20 Aug 2010		23 March 2011
Draft thesis		1 Oct 2009		28 Apr 2010		1 Oct 2010		28 Apr 2011
Final seminar		9 Oct 2009		30 Apr 2010		8 Oct 2010		4 May 2011
Thesis due		30 Oct 2009		7 May 2010		31 Oct 2010		1 June 2011

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BSc honours students are bound by conditions laid down from time to time by the Science Faculty Honours Committee (of which the DCS Honours Convener is a member). See the Science Honours Working Rules.

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Choice of Topic

By this date all intending honours students should have reviewed the available project topics and submitted to the convener a list of topics, ordered by preference, that they are interested in. Students will be advised of their topic and supervisor(s) early in February.

Project Proposal and Literature Review

By this date all honours students should have submitted a project proposal and literature review to the convener.

Your project proposal should consist of the following:

• A description of your project topic. This need be only half a page to a page of text.
• A project plan outlining the various steps you intend to take along the way to completing your project, and the dates by which you expect to accomplish them. You should also outline contingency plans outlining how the scope of the project might change if various steps prove to be significantly harder or easier than you anticipate.
• A one paragraph description of the research content of the project. Honours projects are expected to prepare the student for more challenging research tasks. As such, projects that purely based on literature surveys or implementation work are not appropriate. Your project must, at least in part, require the application of theoretical or experimental research techniques.

Your literature review must demonstrate an awareness of the major research efforts in the area of your topic and how they compare with what you propose to do. You should think of your literature survey is the first draft of the background topic of your thesis.

Neither the project proposal nor the literature survey will contribute directly towards your final grade, but they will allow your supervisor to gauge your progress thus far and give you appropriate feedback.

 

Introductory Seminar

In this week students will present a ten minute seminar introducing themselves, their projected area and their topic. Your project proposal and literature survey will contain all the content you need to deliver in this seminar.

This seminar will not count towards your assessment, but it will allow you and your supervisor to gauge your progress relative to that of your peers.

 

Pro-forma Thesis

Students should hand a printed pro-forma thesis to the convener and their supervisor by this date. The document should use the supplied LaTeX thesis package and include relevant chapter headings as well as your literature review.

 

Mid-Term Seminar

In this week students will present a twenty minute seminar describing their topic in detail and the progress they have made to date.

 

Draft Thesis

Students should hand a complete draft of their thesis to their supervisor for review by this date.

 

Final Seminar

In this week students will present a twenty-five minute seminar describing their achievements during the year.

 

Thesis Due

Four copies of double-side printed of your thesis must be submitted to School secretary by 3:00 pm on this date for all types of Honours (BIT, BCS, BSeng, and MComp) except the BSc Honours. The BSc Honours students are required to submitted four binding copies of their theses to the reception office of Faculty of Sciences by 3:00pm on this date.