Research Project

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Formulate research questions and associated hypotheses.
• Analyse data and other evidence, and present your results in a dissertation
• Familiar with a range of quantitative and/or qualitative modes of scientific enquiry.
• Conduct a review of the relevant literature.
• Understand how to plan a research project in GIS or Remote Sensing to address those research questions.
• Source appropriate data sets (primary and/or secondary) and devised a suitable schedule of analysis, which may involve fieldwork.
• Produce a final report in the approved format.

There is no formal teaching associated with the Dissertation. Students are allocated to an individual advisor with whom they meet regularly in the summer term and over the summer vacation. In some cases, it is expected that the supervision arrangements will involve a ‘pairing’ of a university-based supervisor with an externally based supervisor in industry or the public sector. Both supervisors provide advice on the GIS and remote sensing component of the thesis, whilst the university-based supervisor provides advice on the design, organisation, implementation and writing-up of the Dissertation.

• Broad principles guiding the structure of the dissertation and choice of topic are as follows:
• The detail in which the research should be conducted, and the novelty of the results, should exceed what you would expect from a typical undergraduate project.
• The research is conducted on a novel question, often associated with a larger research project being conducted by an industrial or public sector organisation.
• The project is a piece of quantitative research, not purely descriptive.
• The project is centred on one, or a few, question(s) or hypotheses; i.e. the research is towards answering specific questions, not simply “looking at” an aspect of science.
• The project clearly sets up methods (observations, analysis, statistical techniques) designed to address the hypothesis.
• The project can be focused on existing data, or require the collection of new data, or can aim to develop and test a new method.
• The project begins with a literature review on the general area of the research question(s), providing you with the background to understand the issues associated with the research. The literature review also provides material suitable for the introduction to the dissertation.
• Because the project is a novel piece of research, it might fail to reach the goals set. This does not constitute a failed MSc project. It should be clear why the project ran into problems, and the dissertation can still critically assess the research and the reasons for the failure. This is particularly applicable to projects that aim to develop new laboratory or analysis techniques.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.