A compulsory and important part of the 3rd year course consists of a project, which represents one course unit. The selection of the topic for this project should be made well before the summer break. Students are expected to have selected a project by the end of the second term of the second year and to work during the summer break in the preparation of the first report, which is submitted at the start of the first term. Penalties are applied for lateness and failure to register a project in time does not constitute a justification for late submission. A condition for getting the degree in Electrical Engineering is to have passed the project IN THE FIRST ATTEMPT. If you fail the project, for whatever reason, you WILL NOT get an accredited degree.

 Since you are going to spend considerable time doing your project and its mark represents a large part of your final assessment, you should choose the subject of your project carefully. If you feel strongly motivated with the subject you will be thinking of new ideas, designs and calculations at any possible oportunity and this will undoubtedly help you achieve your best. If on the contrary, you are not motivated, it will be difficult for you to get the necessary level of concentration and dedication that you will need for creative work.

 Students should maintain regular contact with their supervisors throughout the duration of the project. A weekly meeting during term time is usually the norm. Work in the project can start as soon as the subject is agreed with the supervisor. During the summer the students should at least gather background information, do the necessary literature search, prepare a suitable plan to do the work and prepare the first report which must be submitted at the start of the first term.
Students should ask their supervisors for advice in the preparation of reports, their contents and style and adequate format for the references. They should also ask for advice in the preparation of the presentation material and in its delivery. Ideally all students should have at least one rehearsal session of the presentation with their supervisor.

Students will be asked to keep a logbook to take notes of their own ideas, notes from literature searches, notes of meetings and discussions with the supervisor, developments, designs and calculations and in general, to document all the work done in the project. All entries to the logbook should be dated. Supervisors may ask to see this logbook at any time and it will be used in part to decide the 'project work mark', which, together with the reports, viva and oral presentation marks will contribute to the final mark of the project. The logbook doesn't need to be of any particular type. Any book with fixed pages (not removable) will do. The logbook must be given directly to the supervisor for inspection at the end of the project and will be returned to the students afterwards.

Students should submit a first report (of about 2000 words or approx. 10-15 pages of text), at the start of the second week of the first term. This report, which represents 5% of the total mark of the project, should contain: a cover page, a signed declaration of authorship and originality, an Abstract, an Introduction surveying the background to the work, a section describing clearly the objectives of the project and a section suggesting a suitable approach to the problem and methods to be used - including a detailed time scale planning of the work ahead. References written in an adequate format should also be included. General guidelines on writing and presentation of the reports are given below. Read also the warning on plagiarism below.

TWO COPIES OF THE FIRST REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY 4 p.m. Monday 2nd October 2006 via the Departmental Office, Room 705

This report will be returned to the students, after it is marked.

Late submissions of any report will normally incur in loss of marks unless a properly justified extension of the deadline has been previously agreed with the Project Co-ordinator. Students should also have the support of their supervisors when asking the Co-ordinator for an extension. Penalty for unjustified lateness will be 5% of the mark for the first week of delay (or part of) and 10% per week afterwards.

The progress of the work undertaken during the autumn term is described in a second report, which is submitted in the second week of the second term. This report should have a MAXIMUM of 3500 words and since it is a progress report, emphasis should be on the description of the work done so far, and on the expectations and plans to finish the work. Background or introductory material should be kept to a minimum and should be included only if it is necessary for the understanding of the work done. The report should have a cover page, a signed declaration of originality, an Abstract and an Introduction. The main body of the report should be divided into chapters or sections containing a description of the work done, with special emphasis on the personal contribution, and including a detailed planning for the remaining work. The report should finish with a list of references, written in an adequate format. General guidelines on writing and presentation of the reports are given below. Read also the warning on plagiarism below. This report will be marked in conjunction with a SHORT VIVA organised by the supervisor and with the participation of the second assessor. Marks from the report and the viva constitute 15% of the overall project assessment.

TWO COPIES OF THE SECOND REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY 4 p.m. Monday 15th January 2007 via the Departmental Office, Room 705

During the penultimate week of term, a day will be devoted to a SERIES OF BRIEF LECTURE PRESENTATIONS OF EACH PROJECT, GIVEN BY THE STUDENTS. This year's project presentation day is scheduled for:

A brief abstract must be submitted before the talk (date for this to be posted). This abstract will be written and printed using a web facility and details will be given at a later date. The abstract explains the most important aspects of the work realised. It should summarise the objectives of the project, the work done and the results obtained, indicating particularly and clearly, the personal contribution of the student. A copy of this abstract should also be included in the final report.

The presentations should be prepared in PowerPoint and will be projected directly from computers installed in the rooms. They will be marked by a panel of members of the academic staff for contents and style. The purpose of the presentation is to show the quality of the student's work in the project and the amount of work and effort involved. The audience will be composed by other students and members of the staff, which are not necessarily experts in the subject, so the presentation should be designed with this in mind. It is important that it is clear to the audience, and in particular to the members of the marking panel, the extent of your personal contribution and amount of work and effort involved in your project. Graphics and animations can be used effectively to show your work but only when used in moderation. Excessive use of fancy graphics and animations can be annoying to the audience and usually are counterproductive, since these are often used to disguise a lack of substance.

The time allocated for each presentation is 15 minutes including questions (you have to plan for a 10-min talk with 5 min for questions). In the time available for the talk, only about 10-15 PowerPoint pages can be sensibly used. A detailed timetable for all presentations will be available a few weeks in advance. Supervisors will be prepared to give students advice on suitable forms of presentation and should also help students rehearse their presentations. The presentation contributes 15% towards the final project assessment. Giving a presentation is a compulsory part of the project and if this is missed for any justifiable reason, it will have to be given at other date to be fixed. Unjustified absences will carry a 10% penalty in the final project mark, above the loss of the 15% allocated to the presentation.

Two copies of the final report, bound with the Departmental facility if this is available at the time, should be submitted at the end of the second term. This report must be typed or produced on a good quality printer. One copy will be returned later to the student. The report should have a MAXIMUM of 8000 words and is marked by the supervisor and second assessor. Other internal and/or external examiners may also examine it. Read also the warning on plagiarism below. The final report will represent 50% of the overall marks for the project and is assessed considering the following aspects:

THE THIRD AND FINAL REPORT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY NOON Friday 23rd March 2007 via the Departmental Office, Room 705

Final reports should be well structured and should start with a cover page, followed by a copy of the abstract submitted at the time of the presentation. This should be followed by one page containing a signed declaration of authorship and originality. This page should be followed by a Table of Contents and then by the rest of the report. The main body of the report should be divided into sections or chapters, starting with an Introduction describing the problem and its background, motivation of the work, and clearly listing the objectives or aims of the work and the results obtained. This will be followed by intermediate sections as appropriate, describing the theory, and personal contributions and designs, and a clear and detailed presentation of results. All these should be written making appropriate use of references in an adequate format, so it is absolutely clear what is a personal contribution of the author and what is reproduced from existing sources. The report should end with Conclusions and a properly prepared list of References. The final report should be self-contained and should give a clear description of the problem tackled, the objectives of the work, the methods used to solve it, the results obtained and the student's original contribution. All these aspects will be of importance when the report is marked. General guidelines on writing and presentation of the reports are given below.

All reports should follow strictly the guidelines about plagiarism mentioned before. Reports can include listing of computer programs or parts of them, either in the main text or in the appendices when absolutely necessary. However, a clear indication should accompany these listings indicating the authorship of these programs and the extent of any modification introduced by the author on someone else's programs. Wherever software is included, it will be subjected to assessment based on its clarity and on the following of standard norms about software design, apart from any results obtained with its use. For detailed instructions on how to document computer programs see here.
The format of all reports should be uniform and follow the specific guidelines detailed next:

Front Cover

The front cover should be prepared using the form available here. This form can only be accessed within the College and will produce a printed page in one of the laser printers available to undergraduates.

Abstract

The report should have a one page abstract summarising the objectives of the work, the contents of the report and indicating the most relevant aspects of the work done. For the final report the students should use here the abstract of the project prepared for the presentation or a slightly updadted copy. Guidelines to write an abstract are here and you can also see the examples: example 1, example 2 and example 3.

Declaration of Authorship and Originality

A signed one page declaration as described above should be included next. Print, complete and sign the form available here.

Table of Contents

A table of contents should be prepared and included at the beginning of every report.

Introduction

All reports should include an introduction describing the problem, its background, the objectives of the work, the work done and the results obtained.

Intermediate Sections

The main body of the report, where the actual work and results is described, should be divided into sections. Specific advice regarding what to include and how should be sought from supervisors.

Conclusions

This part of the report should describe the conclusions drawn from the work. This section is particularly important in a final report where it should give a clear description of what is important in the work done, indicating clearly the personal contribution. There should also be a description on how well the initial objectives of the project have been met. Initial and intermediate reports should also include in this section a description and planning of the work ahead.

References

The report should end with a list of references. These should be listed in an appropriate format, as that used in IEEE publications or other standard research journals. See examples here. References should be numbered and these numbers used throughout the report to refer to them. --> See warning about plagiarism below.

Binding

Only the final report needs to be bound. Intermediate reports can be submitted either stapled or with a soft cover as for ordinary course work, and should also be handed in via the Departmental Office (room 705). Reports will be bound, if possible, using the Departmental machine available through room 705. Two copies of the final report must be submitted and you should bind both with sufficient anticipation to avoid last minute overcrowding, which can result in delays in submission with the corresponding penalty.

Plagiarism: A Warning

To include in the reports any material from other sources than the original work of the author and not properly referenced constitute plagiarism and will be severely penalised. This applies to text, figures, computer programs and drawings. All these should be properly referenced when taken from other sources. Normally it is also unacceptable, even if proper references are given, to copy textually from other sources, unless textual reproduction is absolutely necessary. In such case, use should be made of quotation marks to make absolutely clear that the sentence is copied textually. All reports should include a signed declaration of authorship and originality. This form should be printed, completed and signed and bounded with the rest of the report.

Students must be aware that the importance of the project mark is much more than the one unit it represents and this is considerable: one unit in the third year represents 14.3% of your total 3-year degree mark (or 9.1% if you are in the 4 year course). Prospective employers pay particular attention to the project mark and the evaluation of the student's performance in the project normally constitute a major part in letters of recommendation written by members of the staff in behalf of the students.

NOTE: The word limits mentioned above are the maximum allowed, they are not a fixed requirement. Quality counts more than quantity. These limits will be enforced and overlong reports can be penalised unless the supervisor agrees to the extension.

• It is good practice to discuss and agree IPR before the project starts;
• Undergraduate students should sign the Agreement to Assign IPR if they and/or their tutor thinks it is necessary;
• If an undergraduate student does not wish to sign the Agreement to Assign IPR form when the supervisor considers it is needed then the student should not undertake the proposed project.

For further details, problems or doubts contact me by e-mail: a.fernandez@ee.ucl.ac.uk
phone: extn. 33029   or   020 7679 3029
or personally at room 1107.

F. Aníbal Fernández
Third year project co-ordinator