Overview of MInf Degree Programme and Project

In the MInf degree, in addition to regular taught courses, you will undertake a substantial independent research project during your fourth and fifth years. Your undergraduate course work in Year 3 and Year 4 will be largely the same as for the Bachelor's degrees. Please see the Web pages for those years for more information. In Year 5, you take Master's-level course work, and work on a research project. For the final word on the course requirements, you should consult the Degree Programme Table for the MInf degree.

For any questions specifically about the MInf project, please ask the MInf Project Organiser of your year: Don Sannella (Year 4) and Kyriakos Kalorkoti (Year 5). For all other MInf questions please ask the MInf Year Organiser of your year, Mary Cryan (Year 4) and Mahesh Marina (Year 5).

General Information On the Project

The project involves both the application of skills learnt in the past and the acquisition of new skills, on a substantial piece of independent work. The types of skill required vary from project to project, but six main areas of work are required:

Projects are intended to allow students to demonstrate their ability to organize and carry out a major piece of work. The relative amounts of time spent on the above areas will obviously vary. No project consists of just implementation or experimentation: much careful thought and planning is required in advance. Project topics span the range informatics, so that students can choose projects which they find useful and interesting, and goals are usually flexible so that students can work to the best of their ability.

It is important to spread the project work over the two years. Although you will have coursework deadlines over this period, you should make sure to keep your project going at least at a quiet throughout all four semesters, as steady progress is far more likely to result in a satisfactory project than erratic jumps. Students are encouraged to keep a log-book in which they record all work done on their project and the time spent.

Each student is assigned one (or occasionally two) supervisors, who not only provide technical advice, but also assist in planning the project. Students and supervisors should meet frequently and regularly, preferably each week during semester time.

Third Year

In this year, you will select the project that you will work on in Years 4 and 5. You may select a project proposed by a member of academic staff, or propose your own. You will select your project using the same Web-based system as that for students performing Honours projects. See the Honours project page for more information about the selection process.

You will receive email during the semester with instructions for how to select a project. Although you will be selecting from from the same list provided to Honours students (unless you propose your own), you should discuss with the proposer if their project might be appropriate as an MInf project, or extended/revised to be so. Also check that the proposer would be willing and available to supervise it as an MInf project, as they would be supervising over 2 academic years.

You should also consider proposing a project in your area of interest. If you find someone interested in negotiating a self-proposed project with you, and willing to commit to this, the deadline for proposing it can be extended if you inform the project coordinator.

Fourth Year

In the fourth year, you take MInf Project (Part 1) and a further 80 points of courses typically at level 10. There is a sortable list of courses available from the main teaching page.

Fifth Year

Transitional Arrangement for Academic Year 2013-14:

In the fifth year, you will typically take Level 11 (Master's level) courses. You should take 60 points of courses, usually 3 per semester. There is a sortable list of courses available from the main teaching page. You should be looking at courses whose "Typical Year Taken" is 5.

Also in the fifth year, you take the MPP2 course, in which you do the bulk of work on your project, and write the project report. Your project report is assessed by two markers, and that mark serves as the mark for the MPP2 course. See the MPP2 web page for more information. During this transitional year the organiser for the MPP2 course is Kyriakos Kalorkoti

Academic Year 2014-15 Onwards:

In the fifth year, you take MInf Project (Part 2) and a further 80 points of courses typically at level 11 ((Master's level). There is a sortable list of courses available from the main teaching page.


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