Proposal for Short Research Project - LD7028

Importance of Assignment

• Deploy comprehensive knowledge and understanding of appropriate techniques and tools to plan, research and manage a computing technical project

• Systematically identify and analyse a complex computing problem and produce a project proposal to solve it, considering professional, ethical, social and legal issues
• Appreciate and apply appropriate techniques, tools and knowledge to support effective project management, research and advanced scholarship
• Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Demonstrate independent research and enquiry skills at an appropriately advanced level in the construction of a computing project proposal

This is an individual piece of work and you must not work with others to construct your report.  During the semester there are numerous opportunities to seek and get advice and support on your work, from tutors and peers but you must ensure you do not do work for others or copy work from others.

You must adhere to the university regulations on academic conduct. Formal inquiry proceedings will be instigated if there is any suspicion of misconduct or plagiarism in your work. Refer to the University’s regulations on assessment if you are unclear as to the meaning of these terms. The latest copy is available on the university website.

For the LD7028 assignment you must produce a proposal for a short research project. This is the 60 credit project that you will study as part of your postgraduate programme on the module, LD7029 MSc Computer Science & Digital Technologies Project.

• It accounts for 80% of the marks for LD7028
• It is essential preparation for your research project.

As stated, the research project will account for 60 credits (one-third) of your programme of study. Typically, you will spend 600 hours on this project.

Your research proposal will be approximately 2500 – 3000 words and specify the project background, motivation and relevance to your programme of study; its scope, aims and objectives; a plan of the major activities. Your proposal should draw on current and recent research and other appropriate sources of information and cite these sources using a consistent standard referencing system. This proposal should be based on the outcome of the meetings you must have with your potential research project supervisor. Your supervisor will provide individual support and formative feedback during the preparation of your research proposal.

You are advised to following the structure outlined below.  A template is available on Blackboard under the Assessment tab.

Produce a summary of what your project will achieve in one or two sentences, ideally construct a research question.

• Set out and justify, using supporting literature, where your work will fit in the computing body of knowledge.
• Outline and critically discuss what relevant research has been undertaken, in the past, in your area of interest and why this project is necessary.
• Outline and critically discuss why the research will be of value, in the future, and what the anticipated impact of the outcomes will be.
• Outline why you want to undertake this work, some areas to consider are, personal motivation, skills set and career choices.

• Outline and justify the scope of your project – what you intend to do, what you will not include but might be expected by others to be incorporated.
• Outline numbered steps (SMART Objectives) you will have to complete in order to achieve the aims. After each objective outline the deliverable or outcome that will be produced. Outline how you will assess and or measure the quality for that objective. Outline what research method/design you will adopt for each objective and how each method will support one another.
• Produce a task list for all objectives, that defines, task, deliverable, resources (all types) required, skills required, time required.
• Produce a risk log (see example on your Blackboard Assessment tab) for you project.

• Identify and justify a journal where your work would be relevant for publication.
• Identify aspects of the standards for publication in the target journal that you can incorporate into your project proposal, so for example the referencing system, font style and pitch etc.
• Identify, justify and critically discuss any authors, journals where previous relevant research has been published within the last 5 years. There is no fix number, it is your judgement to scope this listing.

Write out a section that discusses, explores and defines all of the ethical, legal, social and professional issues associated with your project, including how you will consider security issues. If you think an area of this section is not applicable to your project, you should justify why this is the case.

Using your task list, construct a Gantt Chart and a Monitoring and Control table (see examples given your Blackboard Assessment tab.

References: these should be primarily used to support your background section and include the latest relevant research in your chosen topic area.  All references in the reference list must also appear within the body of the report.  There is no ideal number of references recommended but a guide might be no less than 10 – 15 sources should be used.

Ethics Form: you should include a completed online ethics form and upload a copy on to the assessment section/ ethics Submission section of BB. You should take a hard copy of this form to your project review meeting, after discussions it may need changes.

Ethical approval must be obtained for all MSc research projects prior to the commencement of your dissertation research. In the case of your LD7028, Research Methods and Project Management, The ETHICS approval is required as part the assignment 1 (research Proposal 80%). Without the Ethics approval your assignment 1 submission is not complete.

Online Research Ethics form can be found on the "ethics and governance Northumbria" website or just simply follow the steps below:

• Then go to the Ethics Online - research ethics approval system
• Then go to the Online Research Ethics and Governance Approval: Access the system at Ethics Online, where this link will take you to the page to sign in with your Northumbria University username and password.
• At the welcome page, please start with "Create a New Submission"
• On the submission page, please complete all sections, for note,
• Faculty is Engineering and Environment,
• Department is Computer and Information Sciences.
• Module Tutor is Professor Hamid Jahankhani
• Named co-ordinator is Professor Hamid Jahankhani
• Please make sure that your Ethics risk level is only GREEN (LOW).

You need to consult your tutor and potential supervisor for advice before submitting ethics approval form. If your ethics is Medium or High RISK, it will not be approved and as a result you will not be allowed to carry on your dissertation until you make sure that your research methodology and data collection is within Low risk.

Then Create and Save to move to the next page where you input all the required necessary details. This is where you need to make sure that your data collection is within the LOW risk.

The research report must be written and presented to an appropriate academic standard for a postgraduate programme of study.

The proposal will be assessed in terms of style, meaning, and the accuracy of spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax.

Correct and thorough referencing of your sources of information is required. You should follow a consistent referencing system, and provide a full reference list and brief references in the text of your answer. ‘Cite them Right’ advises direct quotations should be indicated by quotation marks or indentation, and referenced. Failure to acknowledge your sources or to indicate when you are quoting constitutes plagiarism. You are encouraged to work with each other to discuss the challenges encountered, but you must not work with each other to construct your answers. Action will be taken in accordance with the University regulations if plagiarism or collusion is suspected. This may result in a loss of marks for the assignment or module.