MSc Project L7 Dissertation Assessment 1 Brief | UoS

What is Required?

A Master-level dissertation. Wordcount: 10,000-12,000 words plus references.

Learning Outcomes to be Assessed:

Demonstrate deep knowledge and systematic understanding of project-specific theory, techniques, tools and applications as informed by research and practice at the forefront of the discipline, through critical review of current literature.
Combine theory, research and practice at the forefront of the discipline and use it to guide robust and high-quality computational solutions and architectures to solve the problems posed in their project, improving on existing solutions where appropriate.
Ensure that ethical and privacy concerns of data, software and architecture are addressed in their project solution.
Set goals (demonstrated by initiating, planning and undertaking a large project) and identify resources for lifelong learning inspired by the engagement with the project domain

Assignment Brief

You are required to write a research dissertation to report on your project work and the findings obtained. The dissertation should include a critical review of the literature, a detailed description of the methodology and results, as well as a discussion of your findings. A Dissertation template is provided for you on the Brightspace module page with advice on the contents of each section. You may edit/modify this template according to the needs of your own project, but you should generally adhere to its structure.

Your dissertation supervisor will be providing academic support throughout your dissertation writing process by arranging to meet at regular intervals. However, it is important to remember that this is your project. You are responsible for initiating contact with your supervisor, scheduling meetings and making any decisions related to the methodology used.

When writing your dissertation, you must adhere to the following guidelines:

1. The dissertation should not exceed 12,000 words. Submissions that exceed the word count will receive a fixed penalty of 5 percentage points (i.e., 5 marks). In all cases, the penalised mark will not be reduced below a pass level, assuming the work merits a pass.

2. All references and citations must be formatted according to Harvard style.

3. Your report should use a line spacing of 1.5 and a body font size of 12pt.

4. Ensure that your dissertation is submitted as a SINGLE document in both Word and PDF formats with the two filenames matching the patterns SXXXXXX.pdf and SXXXXXX.doc(x), where sXXXXXX is your UCS userid. Ensure that the document is marked with your UoS userid. Your name should not appear anywhere in the file. Submissions made in other formats will not be marked. Supporting data and code files should be included zipped into one file separate from the report, and should allow for to replicate of all the results in your dissertation. If you use data that is openly available, you don’t need to attach it to your submission.

5. Your report will be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin, and any plagiarism detected will be dealt with seriously according to the University’s policy for plagiarism, so paraphrase and cite your references carefully.

6. The use of AI to assist in completing the assessment is not permissible, except for the following tasks:

Proofreading
Media creation for aesthetic purposes
Code assistance, as you would use Google search or StackOverflow (i.e., no substantial code generation from scratch).
Generation of artificial data
Literature resource search (no reliance on summaries or reference generation)

If you have employed AI tools, you must include an acknowledgement section specifying how they were used (the content of this section will not be included in the word count). Select and adapt the appropriate statement below:

1. “I attest that this project did not use AI at any stage in its development or in the creation of any of its components.”

2. “I attest that this project made use of AI in the following ways: ”. You must then use the following table to document your usage.

Assessment Rubric:

The following rubrics will be used in the marking of your assessment:

Assessment Criterion	Max marks	> 75%	50 – 74%	25% – 49%	< 25%
Understanding and Knowledge: The assessment demonstrates systematic and deep knowledge and understanding of the area under investigation, as informed by research and practice at the forefront of the discipline	25%	Fully or mostly fulfilled (18.75 – 25pts)	Adequately fulfilled (12.5 – 18.74pts)	Partially fulfilled (6.25 – 12.49pts)	Minimally or none fulfilled (0 – 6.24pts)
Reading and Referencing: Demonstrates critical engagement across a systematic and fully appropriate range of relevant and current academic, research, policy- and practice-related literature, demonstrating deep and selective reading and initiative along with highly consistent accurate referencing	5 %	Fully or mostly fulfilled (3.75 – 5pts)	Adequately fulfilled (2.5 – 3.74pts)	Partially fulfilled (1.25 – 2.49pts)	Minimally or none fulfilled (0 – 1.24pts)
Critical Literature Review: Includes an effective critical review and synthesis of the relevant literature. A novel research gap emerges from it with research questions worth pursuing.	20%	Fully or mostly fulfilled (15 – 20pts)	Adequately fulfilled (10 – 14.99pts)	Partially fulfilled (5 – 9.99pts)	Minimally or none fulfilled (0 – 4.99pts)

Proposed Computational Solution: Proposes robust and high-quality solutions to address the research questions. The technical dimensions of the solutions proposed are evaluated. Code is submitted and is well documented and runs without issues.	30%	Fully or mostly fulfilled (22.5 – 30pts)	Adequately fulfilled (15 – 22.49pts)	Partially fulfilled (7.50 – 14.99pts)	Minimally or none fulfilled (0 – 7.49pts)
Data Governance, Ethics and Information Security:	10%	Fully or mostly fulfilled (7.5 –	Adequately fulfilled (5 –	Partially fulfilled (2.5 –	Minimally or none fulfilled
Evaluates the ethical, governance and privacy aspects that are relevant to the chosen topic. Any related information or system security considerations are discussed and addressed		10pts)	7.49pts)	4.99pts)	(0 – 2.49pts)
Presentation and Writing Style: High-quality, coherent, and fluent presentation. Adheres to research dissertation structure, communicates effectively to varied audiences, maintains professional standards (e.g., clear headings, consistent font), and respects word limit	10%	Fully or mostly fulfilled (7.5 – 10pts)	Adequately fulfilled (5 – 7.49pts)	Partially fulfilled (2.5 – 4.99pts)	Minimally or none fulfilled (0 – 2.49pts)