Learning Outcomes
This module aims to prepare students for conducting an independent research project leading to a dissertation and to provide them with an appreciation of research and business skills relating to their professional career, including literature searching and evaluation, technical report writing, and an introduction to business enterprise, financial and management accounting and investment appraisal. As a precursor to their project students individually select an area of Computer Science, or Electronic Engineering, or Computational Finance and perform the necessary background research to define a topic and prepare a project proposal under the guidance of a supervisor.
After completing this module, students will be expected to be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of professional, business and ethical issues that affect the work of the computing and electronics professional
2. Conduct an academic literature search, and report conclusions and proposals from this making appropriate use of summarising, paraphrasing, citations and references.
3. Understanding the structure of businesses in the UK and world-wide, ranging from multi-nationals down to SME's (small and medium enterprises), and be aware of how to prepare and submit an effective job application to them.
4. Understand the basics of setting up a new business enterprise or reviewing and existing business by constructing or evaluating a business plan and financial and management accounts.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of how scientific research is conducted, reported, reasoned about, and evaluated, and how it is distinguished from pseudoscience
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and elements of scientific experiments
7. Write a formal project proposal which contains an outline solution to the problem, and which clearly defines the scope of the MSc project, its goals, the methodology to be undertaken, and the criteria of its evaluation
Outline Syllabus
Project Proposals
. Identifying a research topic
. Finding and reading related work
. Report writing, citations and references
. Using [digital] library services and search tools
. Planning and managing a research project
. Plagiarism
Career planning
. Elements in the job application process
. Business planning, financial and enterprise skills
. Effective time and project management
Businesses and Enterprise
. Types of commercial organisation and their business and financial structures
. Financing companies, business plans and cost headings
. Budgeting, cash flow and investments appraisal
. New Present Value and Discounted Cash Flow calculations
. Business viability evaluation
Research Methodology
. Principles of the scientific method
. Scientific theories: predictive power, falsifiability, empirical validation, and economy of account
. Scientific and controlled experiments: bias, placebos, double-blind methods, variables
. Inductive vs. deductive inference
. Common logical fallacies
. Dissemination and peer review
This module aims to prepare students for conducting an independent research project leading to a dissertation and to provide them with an appreciation of research and business skills relating to their professional career, including literature searching and evaluation, technical report writing, and an introduction to business enterprise, financial and management accounting and investment appraisal. As a precursor to their project students individually select an area of Computer Science, or Electronic Engineering, or Computational Finance and perform the necessary background research to define a topic and prepare a project proposal under the guidance of a supervisor.
After completing this module, students will be expected to be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of professional, business and ethical issues that affect the work of the computing and electronics professional
2. Conduct an academic literature search, and report conclusions and proposals from this making appropriate use of summarising, paraphrasing, citations and references.
3. Understanding the structure of businesses in the UK and world-wide, ranging from multi-nationals down to SME's (small and medium enterprises), and be aware of how to prepare and submit an effective job application to them.
4. Understand the basics of setting up a new business enterprise or reviewing and existing business by constructing or evaluating a business plan and financial and management accounts.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of how scientific research is conducted, reported, reasoned about, and evaluated, and how it is distinguished from pseudoscience
6. Demonstrate an understanding of the principles and elements of scientific experiments
7. Write a formal project proposal which contains an outline solution to the problem, and which clearly defines the scope of the MSc project, its goals, the methodology to be undertaken, and the criteria of its evaluation
Outline Syllabus
Project Proposals
. Identifying a research topic
. Finding and reading related work
. Report writing, citations and references
. Using [digital] library services and search tools
. Planning and managing a research project
. Plagiarism
Career planning
. Elements in the job application process
. Business planning, financial and enterprise skills
. Effective time and project management
Businesses and Enterprise
. Types of commercial organisation and their business and financial structures
. Financing companies, business plans and cost headings
. Budgeting, cash flow and investments appraisal
. New Present Value and Discounted Cash Flow calculations
. Business viability evaluation
Research Methodology
. Principles of the scientific method
. Scientific theories: predictive power, falsifiability, empirical validation, and economy of account
. Scientific and controlled experiments: bias, placebos, double-blind methods, variables
. Inductive vs. deductive inference
. Common logical fallacies
. Dissemination and peer review
- Module Supervisor: Ramy Hammady