Project Requirements

Co-ordinator Dr Jim Rathmell.

Jobsworth
A part of your education is the ability to comply with and fill-out forms. It's part of what engineers and most other people do. A discussion of why this is a good thing is best left to another time and place.

A friend told me ...
Your friend is wrong. Read these web pages. These web pages and the Project Co-ordinator are the guide as to what is or isn't required.

For Semester 2 Projects, you can suggest your own topic or choose one from the list of topics that are announced on the advertised date. Before the advertisement of the topics, it is a good idea to browse previous-year's topics for titles and descriptions of the topics likely to be offered by each staff member this year. Once advertised, you should read the descriptions and compile a short list of topics that you are interested in undertaking. It is a good idea to talk to the staff member proposing the topic to get more information. You will also get an idea of how many other students may try to pick the same topic.

Topic selection (for Semester 2)
Assuming you are not suggesting your own topic, you must submit your Preference form by the due date, else you will miss out on the allocation and get whatever is left.

The allocation will be announced a couple of weeks after the submission of the topic-preference form. Every effort will be made to allocate to you a topic from your list. However, we have a limited number of supervisors and many students, so please don't be disappointed if you miss out on what you ask for. If many people want the same topic, the WAM (AAM) will be used as the decider. When allocating project topics, consideration will also be given to distributing supervision load evenly among staff members so that each staff member has approximately the same number of students.

You don't have to do the topic allocated to you! You can always change it.

Suggesting your own topic
You are encouraged to suggest your own topic, however, a member of the School's academic staff must approve your topic and act as notional supervisor. So, you will first need to find an appropriate academic from this School with an interest in your area, and convince them to take you on. Where the topic is to be supported by an academic from another school or an industry associate (and possibly carried out at their premises), a supervisor from the other school or company must also be nominated. This external supervisor may be you main supervisor in terms of working on your project, but your internal supervisor from this School is your listed supervisor for administrative purposes. The marks for your project are determined by your School supervisor, in consultation with your external supervisor(s).

As these topics are decided at the same time as the normal topics, you should make enquiries about them at the same time as the offered topics appear.

If you can convince a supervisor to take you on, then do not submit a topic preference form. Instead you will need to submit an Own Topic form, describing your topic and signed by the supervisor plus the external supervisor(s) if you have one. You will need to submit this in the same way and to the same deadline as the ordinary topics.

Be advised that, if the project is with your work, it needs to be one that your company will remain interested in for the duration of the Project and that a part of it is your own work. Also, the external supervisor(s) for your project must be able to be contacted to discuss the outcomes of the project.

Project confirmation
Once you are allocated to a project, you need to see your supervisor and then submit a Project Confirmation form. Failure to do so may lead to delays in your project. Such delays will NOT be grounds for extension.

The purpose of this form is threefold:

This is straightforward if you remain with the same supervisor; you simply need to get agreement from your supervisor. It is also wise to tell the Project Co-ordinator of your new project title.

To change supervisors, you need to complete a Change of Topic form. This requires the signed approvals of your old supervisor and your new supervisor, the title of your new project and a very good explanation as to why you want to change. Your change of supervisor is NOT valid until confirmed by the Project Co-ordinator.

Note that, as time goes on, it becomes increasingly harder to change topics. Also, note that your old supervisor telling you that you were going to fail is NOT a good-enough reason to change.

You should have the first meeting with your supervisor(s) no later than the first week of semester. Most students will start working on their project much earlier than that.

It is your responsibility to inform your supervisor(s) of any problems that you are having with your project, equipment, etc.

It is your responsibility to see your supervisor(s) a minimum of once a week initially and thereafter at a rate agreed to by the supervisor(s).

If you are having difficulties contacting your supervisor, tell the Project Co-ordinator Dr. Jim Rathmell.

Group work
Many topics require work with a group of students. This is to be encouraged, however, some points must be noted.

The treatise must be written by yourself and must clearly state what part of the project you did and what your partner(s) did. It is fine to have sections of your treatise jointly- or wholely-written by other members of your group. It must, however, be made obvious which sections are not your own. Such sections would only be included in your treatise for clarity of explanation and not for credit.

Plagiarism
Any use of the words or ideas of another, unless properly cited, constitutes plagiarism and academic misconduct. Also, cited work does not count as an achievement or contribution. It is wrong to use 'cut & paste' unless you also use quotation marks and give a reference. This applies equally well to diagrams and figures, as well as text. If in doubt, cite it. Refer to The University web site on academic honesty [1] for more information.

Plagiarism is something that is particularly checked for in group work. All of the treatise must be your own work, except where appropriately cited. Many people who fail the Project do so because of an adverse plagiarism finding.

Project Plan
You are required to hand in a Project Plan.

The Project Plan is a breakdown of all the tasks, both administrative and engineering, that are required to complete your project, together with the time allocated to each task and the ordering of these in time. The idea is that you know what you have to complete each week in order to complete the overall project on time. There will always be the unexpected, but by careful planning you will be better prepared for these. To quote Dwight D. Eisenhower: 'Plans are nothing; planning is everything'.

A necessary starting point in doing a project plan is to think about what your project involves. Various software packages are available to help you draw up a plan, or you can simply use paper and pencil. There are various books in the Library on project planning.

This is to ensure that you are aware of what is required in your project and will strongly influence the management component of your assessment. Discuss this with your supervisor. The Project Plan contributes 5 marks towards the management component of assessment.

Draft treatise submission
You are required to hand in a draft treatise.

The treatise draft can be either a draft of Chapters 1 & 2 (nominally the Introduction and Background) or an outline of the whole treatise. There are various books in the Library on the writing of and the structure of a treatise.

This is to ensure that you have started writing your treatise early and will strongly influence the management component of your assessment. Discuss this with your supervisor. The draft treatise contributes 5 marks towards the management component of assessment.

Collecting your Treatise after marking
Of the two copies of your treatise that you hand in, the School keeps one and you can collect the second copy after marking is finished.

You can collect the second copy of your treatise from the Level 4 EIE Office on or after the Monday after the Faculty Meeting to review final results. You can also review the component marks of your Project, including presentation and management components.

To collect your treatise and review Project marks, you must present your SID card or an authorization from the person whose treatise you are collecting.

First three pages
The first three pages of your treatise are prescribed to be:

Do not adulterate the Title Page. Just fill in the information requested. Note that the supervisor is your School supervisor. This Title page is available on the Forms web page.

As the intellectual property is vested with you and as your treatise is NOT an official publication of The University and as The University does NOT endorse your treatise, you must NOT use the official crest of The University of Sydney.

As required by School policy, students need to submit a signed Statement of Compliance with all work submitted to the School for assessment. This page must be the second page of your treatise. This page is available on the Forms web page. For the nature of the work, you should fill in `Treatise for Engineering Project' or `Treatise for Interdisciplinary Project'.

The third page in your treatise is required to detail the specific achievements and contributions that you have made during the project. This should be a clear, precise and concise statement which will allow any reader to immediately judge the level and significance of your work in isolation from any background literature survey and in isolation from any other members of your project group. This page must be signed by you. It should be no more than one page. For more information, see the Treatise Guidelines.

Note that, in your one-page Statement of Achievements, your having learnt something is NOT considered an achievement. This learning needs to be applied in order to achieve a significant achievement. In the case of groupwork, it should also say what you yourself achieved and what the group as a whole achieved.

Clearance/Returned Property form
When you submit your treatise, you must also submit a form signed by your supervisor(s) or appointed nominee to certify that you have returned borrowed materials, cleaned-up equipment and lab space, etc. In the case where you have several supervisors, assume that you need signatures from each unless told otherwise. This Project Clearance form is available on the Forms web page. You MUST hand this form in even if you didn't borrow anything!

Don't expect your supervisor(s) to be waiting for you at the time you want to get your forms signed and hand in your treatise. Supervisors have a range of demands on their time, such as teaching other classes, meetings, etc. It is YOUR responsibility to have contacted your supervisor(s) ahead of time and arranged a time to have these signed.

Delays in treatise hand-in
The penalty scheme is intended to balance student fairness, administrative ease and a trade-off between extra time available and penalty incurred. A penalty of zero (0) marks per day will be ruthlessly applied to the first two calendar days after treatise hand-in, thereafter a penalty equivalent to two (2) marks per calendar day will be applied to treatises that are submitted late. This means that the penalty for late submission on a Monday is 6 points more than the previous Friday. Note also that you can only submit your treatise during EIE Office working hours. This penalty is subtracted from your total Project mark, not just from your Treatise mark.

Note that a treatise handed in during the first two days after the date, for which there is no penalty, is still considered late and that this may be taken into account in your management mark.

Extensions, whereby lateness does not incur a loss of marks, will not be granted except in truly exceptional circumstances, such as a recent death in the immediate family, or serious illness or misadventure.

Applications for extension are by way of the usual Special Consideration form, with documentation.

You know now that problems such as the printer being overloaded or not working, or your dog eating your hard disk, are not unexpected. You should account for such eventualities in your schedule. They are unlikely to be acceptable reasons for an extension. Indeed, these have already been allowed for in the penalty scheme.

Difficulties with your scheduled Presentation time
Project Presentations will be scheduled in the first couple of days of the examination period. These are advertised on the Project web page. It is your responsibility to be aware of the date and time that your Presentation has been scheduled. If you have a conflict with your scheduled time, you can negotiate a change with the Project Co-ordinator. This must be done no later than 2 weeks before your scheduled time.

If you miss your scheduled Presentation you will receive zero marks for this component of the unit assessment, unless your documented Special Consideration form is accepted. If accepted, a re-scheduled time will be negotiated between yourself and the appropriate staff members.

Email Contact
Notifications about this Unit of Study are via these web pages and by email. You are required to have read these web pages. Check the Project web page regularly.

Email about various aspects of the Project will be sent, from time to time, to your MyUni account. If you are in the habit of using another account, simply re-direct your mail from your MyUni account to your usual account. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that this re-direction is valid. Be advised that problems with email, such as invalid re-direction aliases and insufficient memory with some commercial accounts, will stop you receiving notifications about the Project. If you haven't had email about the Project recently, find out why.

Starting Early
Although the Project is a first- or second-semester unit, most students start before then. Passing your current semester units is a priority, but that shouldn't stop you from reading some background and getting on top of your project by the start of the semester of your project. Many students have by then done their background review. Once you have been allocated a topic, discuss this with your supervisor.

Intellectual Property
Copyright of your treatise is vested with you. The rights to the intellectual property contained within are also vested with you, the student, except for that intellectual property contributed by your supervisor(s) and/or others. If you are concerned about this, define the various intellectual contributions in writing with your supervisor(s) before you start. Some third-party projects might have special requirements about intellectual property, but this will be stated at the outset. Where you are doing a project with your employer, you are free to give away your rights as you see fit. See The University of Sydney (Intellectual Property) Rule 2002 [2] for more detail.

Inclusions and supplements
If a disk and/or CD are to be included in your treatise, these must be securely enclosed in a pouch attached to the inside back cover. Both copies of your treatise must include these.

If you choose to bind your treatise in two or more parts, because of size, then you must hand in two of each part. Both copies must be identical.

Format of Treatise
You are directed to read the Treatise Guidelines, on these web pages, for details on this.

You must use the prescribed format for the first three page of your Treatise: Title Page, Statement of Compliance, and Statement of Achievement. No discussion.

The use of colour printers is often wrongly thought to be called for by some students in illustrating some graphical concepts. In most cases this is not necessary and serves merely to give the impression that the treatise is a 'triumph of style over substance' (P.J. Keating). Assume the reader is colour-blind! Indeed, some readers will immediately suspect the use of colour is an attempt to distract attention from deficiencies. The University does NOT recompense expenditure on printing. Don't leave the decisions of whether to print in colour, or of how many pages of colour, up to the Copy Centre: you can end up with a bill of over a hundred dollars!

Let me say that again: printing in colour is RARELY (read never) necessary and merely serves to show that you were more concerned with appearance rather than content! This especially applies to having colour section headings.

 

The unit assessment is based on three components:

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