Electrical and Electronic Engineering

School of Engineering

MSc Project & Dissertation

Guidelines Handbook

2023-2024

1     MSc Project Guidance

The following sections gives information about how the MSc projects are run in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at Newcastle University,  and there is also some guidance on the preparation and submission of the final MSc Dissertations / Report and your final Demonstration / Viva.

2 MSc Project Overview and Milestones

The MSc project is a substantial and extensive piece of work undertaken in Semesters 2 and 3.  It involves carrying out an investigation into an interesting and potentially challenging topic in the area of electrical and electronic engineering.

The project is intended to give you a major opportunity to implement the newly found knowledge, advanced skills, and understanding that you have gained on the MSc programmes at Newcastle by applying them to a significant and advanced practical problem.

The project is assessed via two components.  A Technical Report which is an extensive piece of writing that describes the full scope of the project, from its initial aims and objectives, through the requirements of the project, design of the simulation work, software, or practical experiments, to the analysis and evaluation of the work and results, and the final conclusions. The other is the Demonstration / Viva to your two examiners.  Further information on these assessments is given later in this document.

All students will be supervised by an appropriately qualified academic with expert knowledge in the subject area of the project.

The preparations for the MSc project begin towards the end of Semester 1 when students choose their project subject areas.  This is explained further later in this document.  Once the project areas have been allocated at the beginning of Semester 2, it is expected that students will meet with their supervisors to clarify exact projects and to receive some guidance and assistance in the initial research for them.

Immediately after the Semester 2 exam period, students should be working full time on their project until near the end of August.  At this point the Demonstration / Viva will occur, and the MSc Final Reports will be submitted.

The milestones of the MSc project are as follows:

•   Project selection at the end of Semester 1.

•   Project allocation in February of Semester 2.

•   Background research into the project completed by the end of Semester 2.

•   After the end of Semester 2 exams full-time project work begins.

•   Viva / Demonstration towards the end of August.

•   Project Dissertation / Final Report submission at the end of August

3 MSc Project Selection

Near the end of Semester 1, MSc students will be asked to select their MSc projects.  A list of project areas / strands for each MSc course will be made available, and a project strand will be allocated to you according to the preferences that you select on the project selection form.  You can also propose your own project.  If you wish to do this, you need to define the project and discuss this with a potential academic supervisor.  If the academic thinks this project is suitable for an MSc and can be completed within the project timescale, this can be written on the project selection form instead of the different strands.

Deliberately, the initial project areas / strands are very generic, and the actual project undertaken is finalised though discussion between the student and the allocated supervisor of that project strand.

After the selection deadline has passed, everyone will be informed in February of Semester 2 as to which project strand they have been allocated and who their academic supervisor will be.

The projects are allocated according to the preferences that you indicate on the project selection form.  In general, we aim to ensure that the vast majority of students get projects in their chosen area.  However, in some cases a second or third choice of project topic may be allocated.  This is to ensure an equal loading on staff and a fair availability of project help to each student.

Please remember that the Individual Project module is worth 60 credits towards your degree classification, so it is well worth investing some time and effort in defining a project that suitsyou.

3.1 Early Phases of the project in Semester 2: Background Research and Theoretical Development

The early work in your project in Semester 2 should mainly involve background reading, allowing you to become familiar with important publications in the area of your project.  This will allow the development of an understanding of underlying theory and then its exploration using simple simulation work and standard modelling techniques.  Student performance will be monitored by the supervisor via regular meetings.

3.2 Project work in Semester 3

During Semester 3 you will be working full time on your project, and during this period you will address the specific project allocated to you based on the background work that you carried out in Semester 2. Project progress is your responsibility; your supervisor is there for help and guidance but no more.  They cannot be expected to contribute sizeably towards your progress.  Seeking out information is a skill to be cultivated, and if successful, is rewarded within the assessment.

In your project planning, please be aware of the resit exam period which is at the beginning of August as this may impact your project.  For 2023-2024, the resit period is between the 8th  and 16th  August.

If undertaking practical work, effective, neat practical work is expected.  For example, an untidy bundle of components and wiring is not a professional way to proceed to a final design, although rough prototypes can be useful.   Equally, clear, well annotated, and documented software / simulation work is also required if the project uses these.

4 Breakdown of the Project Assessments

As previously mentioned, the project is assessed via two components: a Final Technical Report, and a Demonstration / Viva.

The percentages of the overall module marks for these two components is shown below:

Demonstration / Viva                  30%

Final Technical Report                 70%

4.1 Demonstration / Viva

Your project demonstration and Viva will take place during August, and you will be examined by both your supervisor and a second examiner.  The process will  last 30 minutes.  The Demonstration / Viva is your opportunity to show off your work and demonstrate that you have achieved the stated objectives of your project.  You should expect your supervisor and second examiner to ask detailed questions about your project at this stage.

4.2 Final Technical Report

The Technical Report must be submitted by the end of August.  Instructions for completing the technical report can be found later in this guide.  You may find it useful to submit parts of your work to your supervisor in advance for feedback on content and literary style.

Advice: You should make sure that your Project Demonstration / Viva and Technical Report cover any major contributions you have made, without resorting to the trivial.  Equally, if your supervisor or others have contributed, this should be acknowledged.

NOTE: It is essential that the deadlines for submission of work are adhered to.

Procedures for applying for extensions are explained in the general Postgraduate Taught handbook.

5 Guidelines

5.1 Demonstration / Viva

The Demonstration / Viva is an important opportunity to show off your work and show exactly what you have achieved during the project.  The exact format of the demonstration will vary slightly depending on whether your project involves mathematical analysis, simulation studies, or practical hardware.

IMPORTANT: The Demonstration / Viva should not be considered to just be another presentation.  You are not expected to prepare a long PowerPoint slideshow.  PowerPoint or Word may be used if appropriate to present the aims and objectives of the work, and certain results (for example, if simulations take a long time to run or it is impossible to configure hardware in good time), but within the Viva you should focus on the software or hardware you have developed in detail, demonstrating how it works, and evaluating whether your solution meets the aims and objectives of the project.  You need to prove you did the work yourself and understand it.

As this is the end of your project, within the Viva you should expect your supervisor and second examiner to ask numerous detailed questions about your project. The duration of the Demonstration / Viva is 30 minutes.

A copy of the Demonstration / Viva marking scheme will be made available on Canvas.

5.2 Final Technical Report

The Final Technical Report is to be submitted towards the end of August.  ONE electronic copy of your technical report is to be submitted via Canvas.

Instructions on how to do this will be circulated to you one month before the submission deadline.

Note: The School cannot help with typing or word-processing arrangements because of the number of students involved.

Excessive length in project reports is to be avoided. Under no circumstances should the length of the technical report exceed a total of 8,000 words: excluding figures, tables, reference list, and appendices.  As previously mentioned, students are requested to focus on the major contributions of the project, rather than trivial aspects. Careful planning of the report is therefore required.

Where necessary, it is the responsibility of the student to ascertain whether their sponsor requires a copy of the dissertation, and if so, to provide the copies.

The general form. and style. of the technical report should follow closely the practice adopted in papers published in the IEE Proceedings or IEEE Transactions. Full details, including guidance on formatting, will be uploaded onto CANVAS before the start of Semester 3.

The following sections must be included in your Final Report:

• Abstract

The abstract should be a paragraph, limited to 50-200 words, which should concisely summarise what was undertaken during the project, the main findings, methods of working, results, and conclusions.

• Introduction

This should include a description of the background to your project as agreed with your supervisor, including an overview of the subject and discussion of any essential theories.  You should also define the aims and objectives of the project.

• Literature Review

The literature review is a review of the previous work published in related areas, it is not just a list of references, although a list of references must be present at the end of the report.  Each reference must be complete enough to allow a reader to find it without assistance).  This section should include a detailed review of important publications (textbooks, research papers, web-based information, technical data sheets, etc.). It is not enough to just describe what is in the papers, you must also give your own critical review of the content, such as summarising what appears to be the consensus for the best approach to a particular problem, and under what conditions it may be the best, etc.

It is suggested that the literature review be 1,500 -2,000 words.

Beware of plagiarism.  The great majority of the Literature Review should be in your own words.  Even if you are using your own or modified versions of the source authors words you must ensure that a reader of your review is clear as to the source. For advice, please see thefollowing link:

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/academic-skills-kit/good-academic-practice/referencing/

• Theoretical Background / System Description

This section should give a clear overview of the system you are working on, looking at the key fundamental theory which you rely on later in the Hardware / Simulation and Results and Discussion sections.

• Hardware / Simulation Details

This section is very project specific.  It should be clearly describing any simulation  models created or practical work undertaken.  It is very important that the reader has a clear understanding of what has been created, key settings, etc …  so that any results and discussion presented can be fully understood.  Include diagrams, graphs, and / or photos, etc … to support your description.

Where you have used material used on a previous project, or it is available in the online software libraries, please clearly identify this. For example, if a hardware platform. or simulation model was provided for you to use, and you developed your work from this, this should be clearly stated and explained.

Where open-source software resources or software libraries have been used, this is often acceptable, but this should be clearly indicated in your report.  Be very clear to distinguish your own personal contribution on the project from these readily available resources.

• Results and Discussion

This section should include a complete record of the results obtained to prove the model / system created.  A thorough discussion of these should also be shown. To achieve high marks, comprehensive and fully justified critical analysis is expected.

• Conclusions

This section should summarise the results and finding of the project undertaken and it   should relate these back to the original projects objectives. The performance should be critically evaluated and how it could be improved in the future.

• References

Your citations should be numbered within the report and a list should be provided  in the same format as in IET Proceedings (or IEEE Transactions).  In the style. of IET  Proceedings and IEEE Transactions, the list of references is placed at the end of the report in the form. of a list, numbered in the order cited (i.e., referred to) in the main text.  Within the text of the report, the matching number is placed in square brackets when the reference is first discussed, and again whenever the reference is used to support what you write. Therefore, it would be advisable to make a record of all the details of a paper when you read it for the first time, to save you having to go back to find it again later.

Google Scholar / IEEE Xplore can help you find relevant technical research papers.

5.3 Plagiarism

The University makes use of software which can detect and identify instances of plagiarism in assessed work.  In recent years, a growing number of students have found themselves in difficulties duetothisas a result of submitting coursework which has been copied, in whole or in part, from the work of fellow students or previous assessments.  On occasion this has been done innocently, the student not realising they were doing anything wrong.  However, whether innocent or not, the presentation of another's work as your own (plagiarism) is against the rules of the University and is not acceptable.  It is likely to result in penalties for both the student using the copied material and also for the student providing the source of material.

Instances of plagiarism, cheating and the fabrication of results are taken seriously by the University and may result in disciplinary action being taken.

The University’s procedures for assessment irregularities can be found at:

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/student-

progress/policies/procedures/academic%20misconduct%20%20irregularities/

5.4 Self-Plagiarism

Can I Plagiarise Myself?   Yes! Every time you submit work for an assessment it should be fresh work - no one (including you) should have already submitted the work (or similar work) for an assessment at Newcastle or elsewhere. Otherwise, it may be possible for someone to gain double credit for the same piece of work and that is unfair and dishonest.