Module: Professional Computing
Module code: XJCO1911
Year:
2022-2023
Assignment: Coursework 2 – Technical Report (Individual)
Assignment weighting: 10% Due: by 6th December 2022 Turnitin submission on Minerva
Learning objectives
• Carry out a directed literature search and prepare properly formatted references.
• Be able to write a technical report with well-reasoned arguments, using credible sources and cited appropriately and in written form to a professional standard.
• Present yourself as a computer science professional who is aware of relevant legal, social, ethical and professional issues that affect the discipline.
Brief
A technical report is a formal report designed to convey technical information in a clear and easily accessible format. This coursework is designed to allow students to explore an area of Computer Science that interests them and explore this interest through practical work and directed research activity towards an individual goal. The aim is to develop professional report writing skills to prepare for future academic studies and professional careers.
Scenario
You are a consultant who has been asked to prepare a short technical report on an emerging research-led innovation in Computer Science. Your client is a financial investor interested in understanding how Computer Science will shape the future so that they can decide which technologies they should invest in. They are particularly interested in the impact that computing can have on climate change and recognise that some computing technologies may increase global energy consumption while other technologies might help reduce energy consumption and reduce waste, greenhouse gasses etc. The research-led innovation may be in the form of a new technology, a new method or a new way of doing, or thinking about, computing.
Your client would like to know how the research-led innovation could impact on specific industries or parts of society. They would like to understand how this technology will impact on “net zero” targets. You are free to choose a Computer Science research-led innovation of your choice and to choose a specific industry or part of society. For example, you might choose to research and report on the impact of machine vision on supermarket shopping or the impact of data science on the fairness of democratic elections. In all cases your client wants to know the current state of the art and your projections for the short (1-2 years), medium (5 years) and long term (10 or more years) in your chosen area. Your report should include an assessment of the possible positive and negative impact on climate change. It will help them decide where to make investments.
Whatever you pick, they want a clear explanation of what you have chosen, why it is of interest, explanations of technical terms, evidence of effective research, your thoughts on future opportunities and a discussion about legal, ethical, social and professional issues. You are expected to draw on and apply the techniques and understanding you have acquired on this module.
An initial list of suggestions for research-innovations included:
The creation of intelligent machines that can reason about their task
Understanding sentiment and emotion in social media posts
Applications of graph theory to scheduling
Use of cloud architecture for massive scale simulations
Application of virtual reality to games in real-life locations
Use of AI to diagnose cancer, COVID-19 etc. from medical images
Your task
This must be original work following the University guidance for academic integrity. See the Module Handbook for further details. Do your own work, do not choose topics similar to friends, never use essay cheat sites and never, ever copy and paste anything at all from the Internet.
Choose an area of Computer Science that interests you. You may have strong ideas already, may have been inspired by visiting the School of Computing on an open day or reading about its research on the Web (https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/computing-research-innovation) or have started to look at look at second and third year optional modules
(http://webprod3.leeds.ac.uk/catalogue/dynprogrammes.asp?Y=202021&P=BS-CS). Focus on a specific field, technology or issue that you think will have an important impact on digital society and the digital economy. Investigate your choice following the guidance for how to research and form your own conclusions from the evidence you have found. Present your report following the guidance on technical report writing below. This should be an individual choice and students are expected to each choose and work on something different.
You should have reasonable access to information about the research-led innovation. You may do this by asking researchers, by accessing one or two key research papers but should also make sure that you can draw on a good range of literature. You can discuss your choice on Teams to make sure that your research-led innovation is novel and feasible to study.
Write a technical report of around 1,000 words that presents a summary of the research-led innovation, the industry or part of society that you are focussing on and the evidence that you have found. You will need to describe your chosen industry or part of society and the research-led innovation using language suitable for an intelligent but non-technical reader. Your report should be built on evidence drawn from multiple literature sources of good quality and you should contribute your own views based on your analysis of the evidence. Your conclusion should reflect on how your chosen research-led innovation will impact on your chosen industry or part of society. Make sure to follow the Technical Report structure below.
The best approach might be to do some initial feasibility investigation to narrow you’re your choices to topics that really interest you. Do some unstructured reading around the topics of interest and do a mindmap to help structure your thoughts. You might then find one article or paper that you can read in depth to form a first iteration view and you could then write a rough sketch of what you want to cover in your report. Your second iteration would then be more structured – use a small number of key words that you can use to search and refine this as you discover what works and what doesn’t. Build a bibliography with notes on each good reference including writing useful sentences and paragraphs for your report. In a third iteration you should be able to pull the majority of the report together. Make sure to leave time for a fourth iteration where you can polish your report, check it for completeness, consistency, a coherent argument and good English, presentation and references.
Assessment Criteria
Your assignment should demonstrate that you can:
• Identify, understand, select, use and cite relevant literature
• Investigate, understand and explain a computer science topic
• Form an independent critical view
• Structure a discussion based on your analysis to reach a well-argued conclusion
• Demonstrate an ability to present your work in the format of a technical report.
Your report should:
• Be logically structured
• Use good English
• Include accurate and consistent referencing • Use correct spelling and punctuation.
Word Count (1,000 words)
The 1,000 words is for the main text from the start of the Introduction to the end of the Conclusion (i.e. excluding title page, summary, table of contents, pictures, tables, diagrams, acknowledgements, references, bibliography etc.).
Note that, the marker is not required to read or mark beyond the limit of the word count; they will typically allow a 5% margin of error but no more than that.
Technical Report Structure
Your report should have the following sections
Section Details
Title page Must include the title of the report, the author (you) and the date. Please also state word count excluding tables, pictures, diagrams and references.
Summary A summary of the whole report including important features, results and conclusions. Your Summary should be no longer that 250 words but these do not count as part of the total word count limit.
(NB this is the equivalent to an Abstract in an academic paper or report)
Contents Number and list all section and subsection headings with page numbers
Introduction State the objectives of the report, the research-led innovation and chosen industry or part of society. Briefly describe why this is of interest and how you have investigated it. The Introduction leads straight into the report itself.
The sections which make up the body of the report Divided into numbered and headed sections. These sections separate the different main ideas in a logical order.
You will need to decide on appropriate sections yourself but a good structure might be to provide a more detailed description of the research-led innovation, present the results of your investigation, discuss legal, ethical, social and professional issues relevant to your chosen industry or part of society then review the opportunities in the short, medium and long term.
Conclusions A short, logical summing up of the theme(s) developed in the main text.
References Details of published sources of material referred to or quoted in the text These should follow the Leeds Harvard referencing standard here
https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/1402/referencing/50/leeds_harvard_introduction
Bibliography
(if appropriate) Other published sources of material, including websites, not referred to in the text but useful for background or further reading. These should also follow the Leeds Harvard referencing standard.
Acknowledgements
(if appropriate) Any people who helped you research or prepare the report, including, for example help with proof reading.
Appendices
(if appropriate) Any further material which is essential for full understanding of your report (e.g. large scale diagrams, computer code, raw data, specifications) but not required by a casual reader.
Further Guidance
This guidance on writing a technical report from Sussex University is very helpful: www.sussex.ac.uk/ei/internal/forstudents/engineeringdesign/studyguides/techreportwriting This guide explains the commonly accepted format for a technical report; explains the purposes of the individual sections; and gives hints on how to go about drafting and refining a report in order to produce an accurate, professional document.
The guidance includes:
Appearance The appearance of a report is no less important than its content. An attractive, clearly organised report stands a better chance of being read. Use a standard, 12pt, font, such as Times New Roman, for the main text. Use different font sizes, bold, italic and underline where appropriate but not to excess. Too many changes of type style can look very fussy.
Tables, pictures and diagrams These can help make your report easier and more interesting to read. You should always include a reference to any tables, pictures or diagrams that are not your own work otherwise this counts as plagiarism. In the main text you must always refer to any diagram, graph or table which you use. Label diagrams and graphs as follows: Figure 1.2 Use case diagram for a VR Game
In this example, the second diagram in section 1 would be referred to by “…see figure 1.2…”.
Label tables in a similar fashion:
Table 3.1 Summary of key issues with online game addiction
In this example, the first table in section 3 might be referred to by “…with reference to the key issues with online game addiction provided in Table 3.1…”
Headings Use heading and sub-headings to break up the text and to guide the reader. They should be based on the logical sequence which you identified at the planning stage but with enough sub-headings to break up the material into manageable chunks. The use of numbering and type size and style can clarify the structure as follows;
3 Methods of harnessing wave energy
3.1 Shore-based systems
3.2 Deep-water systems
3.2.1 “Duck” devices
3.2.2 Rafts
Page numbers Do not number the title, summary or contents pages. Number all other pages consecutively starting at 1
Marking Scheme for Technical Report (10%)
4 3 2 1 0
Title page
Starts with a clear title page stating required information with good layout
Summary
Gives a summary of the whole report including important features
Summarises results and conclusions
Contents
Has numbered and listed all section and subsection headings with page numbers
Introduction
Clearly states the objectives of the report
Briefly summarises the research-led innovation and the industry or part of society.
Briefly describes why this is of interest
Briefly describes how the author has investigated it
Report body
Gives a clear explanation of the chosen computer science research-led innovation
Gives a clear explanation of the chosen industry or part of society
Shows understanding of how to identify, select, use and cite relevant literature
Summarises relevant legal, social, ethical and professional issues
Evidence based projections for the short term (1-2 years)
Evidence based projections for the medium term (5 years)
Evidence based projections for the long term (10 or more years)
Overall, forms a well-structured discussion based on an analysis of the evidence
Conclusion
Reaches a reach a well-argued conclusion based on previous discussion
Provides a short, logical summing up of the theme(s) developed in the main text
Forms an independent critical view and summarise the potential impact
Makes evidence based recommendations
References
Includes high quality of reference sources
Ensures all references comply with Leeds Harvard formatting
Report Writing and Presentation
Written in paragraphs of between three and five sentences
Uses good English, correct spelling and punctuation
Has an appealing visual presentation, layout and design
Total marks available – 100
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