Introduction

The honours program in computing is open to students who have qualified for a degree with a major in computing. The normal admission requirement is a GPA of at least 2.5 overall and 2.5 in 300-level units. The program is also open to students who have completed a pass degree in computing at an equivalent level elsewhere.

The program serves two purposes. If you are looking for a career in industry, it allows you to pursue your studies to a more advanced level and to obtain a better qualification. If you wish to undertake research, it provides the normal route to enrolment for an MPhil or PhD.

The program may be taken full-time over one year or part-time over two years. The full-time option is undoubtedly preferable. As an active member of the academic community, you will benefit from the daily interactions with students, staff and visitors, and this will make your time more stimulating, more enjoyable, and more satisfying. However, if other commitments make this impossible, the part-time option is available. There is also the possibility of starting midway through the year, although special permission is needed; starting at the beginning of the year is also undoubtedly preferable.

Requirements

Your formal commitments are to complete five coursework units and a project; the coursework units include a compulsory research methods and communication unit (COMP401). The assessment is 50% for the coursework units, and 50% for the final project thesis. If you are full-time, the normal pattern is to take three course units plus COMP401 in the first semester, and one unit in the second. If you are starting part-time, you should take two in the first semester and at least one, but preferably two, in the second.

Your project is in many ways the most important and challenging part of the course. Full-time students should choose their project by the end of week 1 of the teaching Semester; part-time students within a year. Part of COMP401 will involve giving three seminar presentations and two intermediate documents related to your project. Dates for all of these can be found on the key dates webpage.

A starting point is the list of projects proposed by staff members. You can choose one of these projects, think about possible related projects, or even just realise that you'd like to do something different from all of them. Choose the areas that interest you most, check web pages, and then ask the appropriate staff members for suggestions.

You will be required to email your proposed selection of units and your choice of project to the Honours Convener in accordance with a resolution of Academic Senate by the end of week 1 of your first semester. Since honours units tend to be more flexible, you should arrange a time for classes with the unit convenor in advance of that date.

Supervision

To help you with your project, you will have a supervisor and possibly one or more associate supervisors. Your supervisor will be a member of the Department but an associate supervisor may be from another department, or from CSIRO, or from some other organisation. You should meet with your supervisor at least once a week. Since staff members have little time for chasing errant students, the onus is primarily on you to establish suitable times and to maintain the contact.

Early meetings should focus on preparing a research plan, carrying out the literature search, and ensuring that the required equipment is available. Later meetings will deal with the detailed outworking of the project and, in due course, with the preparation of the final report. It is strongly suggested that you agree on deadlines for various stages of the projects. If you have difficulties with any aspects of your supervision, you should consult the honours convener or, if preferred, the head of the department.

Facilities

If you are a full-time student, you will be allocated a desk with other honours students or within the research group that your project falls. If you are part-time, we shall attempt to find you some (generally shared) space, but this is not guaranteed. You will have access to equipment on the network for honours and postgraduate students. You will be given a code for using the departmental copiers and an allocation for the number of copies that you can make. If you need more equipment, consult your project supervisor and the honours convener.

Available Units

Aside from COMP401, the four remaining course units are drawn from the following groups. All of the units are subject to approval of the honours convener:

• 400-level honours units. These units are designed primarily as honours units, though some may also be taken by postgraduate students. These units may be available depending on the number of students attending.
• 800-level units These are primarily for postgraduate students and are always in the evening. Mixing with part-time students from industry can be interesting, but the classes are larger, and often assume some industry experience.
• 300-level units. If you have not completed all of the 300-level COMP units, you may be allowed to take one of these.
• One-off units. These are provided on an ad hoc basis in response to the enthusiasm of a staff member for a particular topic. They tend to be leading-edge and among the more exciting units.
• Reading courses. A reading course can be designed on an individual basis for a student's particular area of interest in consultation with a member of staff.
• Other disciplines. You may be allowed to take one or two of 400-level MATH, ELEC or INFO units; relevant units from other Divisions; and in exceptional circumstances, units from other universities or other institutions (such as the Conservatorium).

Go to Honours Units for descriptions of 400-level units and Postgraduate Professional Development Program for 800-level units.

A typical pattern is (for a full-time student) to take three units in your first semester plus COMP401, and one unit in your second. For part-time students, the typical pattern is to take two units in your first semester, two in your second, and COMP401 in your third (with the remainder of your third and fourth semesters for your project).

At this point, you should give a complete draft of your thesis to your supervisor. By this stage, after the Research Methods and Communication unit and your various reports, you should be able to have written a well-structured description of what you've done, in an appropriate style. The goal of this draft submission is to identify how the structure might be improved in light of developments or changes in the project, etc.

You are required to submit

1. three hardcopies and
2. a pdf version

of a written project report by 10.00 am. Later sections give advice concerning your presentations and the format of your final report. Here are some basic requirements:

• The report should be printed on A4 paper, single-sided, with a clear font such as Times Roman 12 point. A good size for margins is 2.5 cm top and bottom, 2 cm on the right and at least 2.5 cm on the left (maybe more, depending on the binding process).
• The title page should contain the project title, your name, the purpose of the project (it is submitted as part of the honours requirements), the submission date (month and year), and the department (Department of Computing, Faculty of Science, Macquarie University).
• The next page should contain an abstract.
• A page may be included for acknowledgements.
• The table of contents should list the chapters, sections and subsections (if any), each with their page number. Do not subdivide any further.
• A separate list of figures, tables and code segments may also be included at this point.
• The chapters constitute the main body of the report. In all, they should occupy about 40-60 pages (single-spaced). Writing more than 60 pages will typically not be looked on favourably by your examiners.
• A list of references, and possibly an annotated bibliography, should follow the main body. References should use the commonly used styles (author and year).
• Appendices may be added, containing relevant but secondary material -- for example, program listings. This helps to keep the main part more focused.

Project Milestones

As stated above, your project is worth 50% of the honours assessment. It also provides the main evidence of your ability to do research; it is therefore particularly important if you are planning to do a research degree. Specific dates will be given for each year, but the following are the essential milestones, including the interim presentations and reports submitted as part of COMP401:

1. Semester 1, week 1: Project and unit selection. The sooner you select your project, the better. Choose it in the previous December or January, if you can. You will typically begin working on it in February. By the end of week 1, you must have chosen it and register it with the honours convenor, who will need to know the title, the supervisor, and the associated research group. You will then belong to that research group and will be expected to attend its seminars. You must also select all the units you will attend this semester.
2. Semester 1, weeks 5+6: Initial presentation and proposal. The initial presentation should be backed up by a written proposal (see details in COMP401). The aim of this is to demonstrate that you have a viable proposal and to provide staff with the opportunity to comment on it. You should also set up a webpage. This webpage only needs to be fairly basic: it should contain your name and a few details about yourself, preferably a photo, and most importantly (from my point of view) a link to a PDF version of this project proposal. When you submit your progress and final reports, these should also be linked to your webpage. Of course, you can make a more elaborate webpage if you like. To see how to set up a webpage from your account here, read this.
3. Semester 2, weeks 1+2: Progress presentation and report. The initial progress presentation should be backed up by a written progress report (see details in COMP401) including a literature review. You must also select all the units you will attend this semester.
4. Semester 2, Monday of week 10: Thesis draft. You are required to submit a complete draft of your thesis to your supervisor.
5. Semester 2, Monday of week 12 of semester (10am): Final report. You are required to submit three copies of a final written project report to the honours convener.
6. Semester 2, week 12 of semester: Final presentation. You will give the final presentation at a departmental seminar, describing what you have achieved.
7. Approx. two weeks after semester 2 examining: Bound thesis. Individual examiners may provide lists of corrections required to be made to the final version of the thesis. These corrections must be made by the student in consultation with the supervisor, and the corrected copies returned to the Honours convener. Your grade will not be relayed to the University administration until the necessary corrections to your thesis are completed to the satisfaction of the Honours convener and the Head of Department.

Project - Marking Criteria

Projects will be marked according to the following criteria, with percentages showing the proportion of the marks that might be allocated to each:

• 10-20% : Literature review.
• 30-60% : Quality of the work achieved, including the quality of the programming and the results.
• 10-30% : Creativity, originality, insight.
• 20-25% : Presentation of the report.

The actual percentages will depend on the nature of the project, but will normally be chosen from the given ranges and will add up to 100%. At the time of your initial presentation, you will be asked to consult with your supervisor and nominate the values that you consider most appropriate. On completion of the project, the three examiners will be asked to follow that recommendation.

Assessment

As stated at the start, assessment is based on 50% for the coursework units and 50% for the project's thesis report. The Department considers this assessment, and then awards a standardised grade for Honours in accordance with the following University Senate table:

These guidelines should not be interpreted too rigidly. On the contrary, marks up to 2% either side of a category division should be interpreted as "borderline -- closer evaluation needed".

An overall mark is obtained by summing the marks for the individual components multiplied by their weights. If you take more than four course units (not including COMP401), your best four marks will be used. The overall mark provides a provisional indicator of your performance. However, as indicated above, your final grade will be decided only after a thorough review of all aspects of your work by the Department. Your final grade will reflect your performances in each component.

Diego Molla-Aliod, Honours Convenor