Course Title: Minor Thesis/Project

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Minor Thesis/Project

Credit Points: 36

Course Coordinator: Dr. Xiaodong Li

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 9585

Course Coordinator Email:xiaodong.li@rmit.edu.au

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

Grade Point Average of 3.0 and Research Methods COSC2149.

Course Description

This course is the masters by course work minor thesis/project.
For more information on the Minor Thesis/Project see the Program Information Book, available from http://www.rmit.edu.au/csit/mc061

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

A minor thesis is a substantial work of supervised research or development, requiring the equivalent of about four months full-time work from start to finish. A thesis involves:
• Identification of a task or problem;
• Search and review of the relevant literature;
• A proposed, implemented, and critically analysed solution or partial solution to the task or problem; and
• A written report describing the problem, the relevant literature, the solution, and its relation to other work in the area.

Overview of Learning Activities

Each student chooses an academic staff member as the supervisor to work on a research project.  To successfully complete the thesis, a student must demonstrate research skills: ability to undertake research under supervision, ability to present the research in a written form like that used for published papers, and ability to present the research in an oral seminar.
A minor project is a piece of research or developmental software engineering. It involves the development of a high quality implementation of software to meet the requirements developed by the supervisor. The report includes descriptions of the software specification, design, and testing.

Overview of Learning Resources

For extra support with study organisation, assignment planning or learning skills you may wish to contact any of the following:

Learning Skills Unit:
For appointments - ring 9925 4488 or go to Bldg 93, level 3
For drop-in, no appointment needed - go to HUB Bldg 12, level 4

CS&IT Teaching & Learning Advisors:
For appointments go to http://inside.cs.rmit.edu.au/staffbooking/ & click on Jeanette Holkner, Cecily Walker, Kath Lynch or TLA

Overview of Assessment

Masters minor theses are assessed on the final report and on the merits of the report as a research publication. Each report is initially examined by an external examiner
Masters projects are assessed by an examiner, usually from within the school, who reads the documentation, and test-drives the software that has been developed.
For more details on the assessment criteria and process see the program information book.

See Assessment Tasks (part B course guide for this Teaching Period) for assessment details, including deadlines, weightings, and hurdle requirements. For standard assessment information relating to Computer Science and IT courses see: http://www.rmit.edu.au/compsci/cgi