Module overview
The Individual Project is a learning experience that enables you to carry out research and bring together many of the concepts that you have learnt over the first two years of the course as well as the knowledge and skills learnt during part III.
You will conduct your project through careful planning, research and execution of the tasks whilst developing critical judgement, communication skills and competence in your subject area. The work from this project will provide you with the opportunity to produce information or results which can be of immediate value. Further details are provided in the Individual Project Student Guidance, which is available on Blackboard. This guidance may be updated from ime to time, and includes information generally on how to plan the project, and on milestones, important dates, and deliverables.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Managing processes for the effective planning of self-learning and improvement of own performance
- Designing and testing skills; preparing, processing, interpreting and presenting data, using appropriate qualitative and quantitative techniques and computer software
- Extracting data pertinent to an unfamiliar problem, and applying solutions from an appropriate wide background.
- Communicating ideas and arguments effectively in a variety of written and oral formats
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- Problem solving, planning and meeting deadlines
- Using information and communication technology to acquire, collate, process and analyse data
- Selecting, gathering, evaluating and synthesizing information from a range of sources
- Completing the risk assessment process
Full CEng Programme Level Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- As part of the student-supervisor interaction, students plan and record their meetings with the supervisor, taking feedback as opportunity to direct self-learning and development needs
- In the analysis and interpretation of the individual project results, students must evaluate the impact their solutions to the complex problem has on the environment and society, including matters from the broader context outside their subject area
- As part of the individual project, students must identify and analyse ethical concerns related to their subject area and make reasoned ethical choices based on professional codes of conduct, e.g. human participation, dual use of technology, conflicts of interest
- As part of the individual project, students must adopt holistic and proportionate approach to the mitigation of security risks that can impact negatively the project, e.g. data loss or theft, protection of data shared by external partners, data with personal information
- Students must be able to communicate effectively to a technical audience as part of the individual project report and to a non-technical audience as part of the poster presentation, evaluating the appropriateness of the chosen method
- As part of the individual project, students must demonstrate the ability to select and apply appropriate materials, equipment, engineering technologies and processes for their chosen research topic and be able to recognise and discuss their limitations
- As part of the individual project, students must apply an integrated approach to study the multi-faceted aspects that may influence or be influenced by their choice of methods, showing understanding of the system of systems approach
- As part of the assessments, students must formulate and analyse complex problems in their respective discipline to reach sound and substantiated conclusions in cases when data are available or information is uncertain or incomplete, choosing the appropriate approach that involves first principle or engineering judgment
- As part of the assessments, students must demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of classic engineering principles and disciplinary knowledge relevant to their chosen subject area and demonstrate critical awareness of recent developments and the wider context in engineering
- As part of the individual project, students will use practical laboratory and workshop skills to study certain aspects or design considerations of the complex problem
- As part of the individual project report, students must select and critically evaluate technical literature to identify a gap in knowledge to solve a complex problem relevant to their discipline
- As part of the individual project report, students are assessed on the selection and application of the appropriate methods and techniques to a solve a complex problem, and discussion of the limitations of the techniques employed
- Students make use of risk management process throughout the project duration to mitigate risks associated with particular activities of the project, e.g. access to experimental laboratories for manufacturing and testing, submit jobs to queue on high-performance computing facilities, receiving data from external partners, IT failure and data loss
- As part of the assessments, students must propose design solutions that are innovative and original to solve their complex problem and that include wider considerations such as health safety, societal and and codes of practice
Syllabus
Dependent upon the subject of the project
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include
- Regular interaction with supervisor to discuss project aims and progress.
- Lectures on
- Module briefing
- Risk assessment process
- Information skills
- Projects aims and objectives, academic integrity
- Literature Review, time management and organisation
- Report writing, poster presentation and oral questions
- Laboratory training as required by the project
Learning activities include
- Learning through reading, note taking, problem solving, independent research, and (depending on the
chosen project), design, use and validation of models (numerical or analytical) and experiments.
- Learning through the independent production of reports, poster, delivery of presentation and response
to oral questions.
- Learning through written and oral feedback from the supervisor.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Independent Study | 270 |
Lecture | 10 |
Project supervision | 20 |
Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
General Resources
Individual Project Student Guidelines (available on Blackboard).
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Report | 90% |
Poster Presentation and Oral Examination | 10% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Report | 100% |
Repeat Information
Repeat type: Internal