CP7UA11O - Conducting a Literature Review on Proposed Research Topic

At this stage, you will choose a prospective dissertation supervisor, who will support you throughout the duration of the module in preparing and evaluating element 2 (i.e., dissertation proposal).

After the successful completion of this module (your dissertation proposal is approved), you will continue to work with your supervisor who will guide you on your MSc dissertation project (in a dedicated semester for MSc Dissertation module), following your dissertation proposal developed through this Research Method module.

·      On the cover page of your report please clearly state the name of your supervisor. Any submission without the confirmation of supervisor selection will not be marked.

·      Any late submission shall be deemed to have failed to submit to assessment

Your choice of topic and dissertation format must be relevant to your course of study and agreed as such by your supervisor. A general overview of a topic with references to literature is not a research proposal and will not suffice. Broadly speaking, there are some basic types of projects:

·   Design and build

The main activities include the development of a well-designed software system for carrying out a particular task required by the project: requirements analysis, specification, program design, implementation, system testing, documentation and maintenance.

·   Experimental

These projects involve the investigation and evaluation of a new piece of technology. This may involve a substantial amount of (software / hardware) implementation and the application of scientific measurements and investigations to ascertain its properties and usefulness. Such a project will necessarily have a report which will describe the theoretical foundations of the technology, a description of the implementation and the experimental procedures used and an analysis of the results, together with an assessment of the relationship between the project work and other published work.

·   Theoretical

·   Literature analysis

This literature-based studies may follow a systematic literature review methodology and aim to answer a specific research question. The work can be placed in a defined context and a critical judgment of the work can be made regarding its value, quality and contribution to theory and practical application.

Important notes for students on MSc Artificial Intelligence course:

·   Your dissertation project must be on certain Artificial Intelligence topic(s) that incorporates sufficient Artificial Intelligence elements/components in your research.

·   Your dissertation project is restricted to undertake practical work of some sort, most typically achieved by the creation of an artefact as the focus for covering all or part of an implementation lifecycle. Dissertations based solely on literature review activity and/or user/market surveys are not acceptable.

·      On the cover page of your report please clearly state the name of your supervisor. Any submission without the confirmation of supervisor selection will not be marked.

·      Any late submission shall be deemed to have failed to submit to assessment