KOLEJ TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN School of Technology

Guidelines For Final Undertaking Projects Year Advanced Diploma

17.05.2010

Students

The project is an important component of the learning and assessment elements of the Final Year Advanced Diploma course. The following are some preliminary information for your guidance. Aims 1. 2. 3. 4. To provide students with an opportunity to carry out a critical, in depth study in an area of particular interest to them. To encourage initiative and investigative reading of background and source materials. To introduce students to research methodology. To require students to manage their work effectively, by successfully submitting a major assignment within a given time frame.

Anticipated Learning Outcome Students will be equipped with the necessary knowledge to undertake a project dissertation. They will be able to: a) b) c) formulate an appropriate research proposal, evaluate and adopt appropriate research methodology, present appropriate level of analytical skills, d) comment, defend and present their findings and conclusions both in the form of a written dissertation and in an interview.

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General Information 1. Every Final Year Advanced Diploma student in the School of Technology must undertake a project and submit a dissertation as part of the requirements of the final year examination. Every student must obtain a Pass in his project and dissertation to satisfy the Board of Examiners for the award of the Advanced Diploma in Technology. A student who fails his project work will not qualify to graduate. The subject matter of the project can be any approved area of specialization related to the course of study. A student may choose a topic relating to solutions of some practical problems or he may select an area of research where the topic is of less direct practical applications. In any case, it must be possible to produce a meaningful end result within the constraints of time and resources available. A student may suggest a topic or select one from a list prepared by the Division concerned. After selecting a suitable topic, the student shall submit all relevant details required in the preparation of his project (project brief) to the Head of Division together with the attached form (proposal form) for approval. The student may be required to appear before the Head of Division to discuss the suitability of the topic chosen. No student shall start the project work without the prior approval of the Head of Division. The student shall commence work immediately after obtaining approval from the Head of Division. The student shall carry out the project work under the supervision of a member of the academic staff (Full-time or Part-time Lecturer) and shall consult him/her for on a weekly basis for the whole duration of the project. The main role of the supervisor is to provide guidance to the student and to give the student as much scope as possible to develop him/ her self. The student shall not expect the supervisor to be personally involved in carrying out the project. The supervisor will also be the examiner for the project. In certain cases, the student may be called for an oral examination.

2.

3.

4.

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In certain circumstances, qualified professionals from the industry may be appointed as supervisors/examiners. Any student approaching such persons to be the supervisor should obtain prior approval from the Head of the School of Technology (refer to the attached form). 5. Each student is required to submit the dissertation in the proper format to the School of Technology not later than second week of January next year. A student who submits after the deadline will be penalised. Each student is to submit two (2) copies of the dissertation, one of which must be the original copy and a CD. All dissertations submitted will become the property of the College. The copyright of all dissertations belongs to the College. Instructions regarding preparation and submission of project dissertations will be given in the later part of this document. The final year project is an important exercise whereby students who successfully complete the project work will be expected to have developed the following skills: (i) Experimental and research methodological practices (ii) Written, verbal, graphical, numerical and design skills (iii) Collecting, preparing, analysing, evaluating, presenting and interpreting various forms of quantitative data (iv) Using computers and computer software packages to perform appropriate tasks.

6.

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Writing Project Brief 1. All Engineering / Building students undertaking Project and Dissertation must write up the project brief for submission together with the project proposal form (refer to the attached). The purpose of the Project Brief is to define the aims and scope of the proposed project. It is divided into the following sections:
a.

Project Title should be short but descriptive Title should be catchy / interesting but must give an idea of what the project is all about. The subject matter of the project can be any approved area of specialization related to the course of study. It is recommended that your title reflect closely and accurately what you are going to research / study. Your title should be focused and specific. Objective of project what do you intend to prove / deliver. Very important that you know what you are going to prove or deliver a scientific study based on book / literature research, a case study / theoretical design based on surveys or engineering theories or a physical product designed and built by you. It is important for you to note that an objective: Should be specific that is, not fuzzy, vague statement such as To know more of Heat treatment Processes or Project Management Should be measurable when possible. Though this is sometimes difficult to achieve. You should put some thoughts into how you are going to measure your objectives, for example, measuring performance improvement of workers. Should be verifiable something you will be able to tell you have achieved. This is especially important when no measure exists for the objective. In such case, some sort of observable evidence must be available to ensure that the objective was actually met. Must be comprehensive that is, it is understandable

b.

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stated in such a way that other people will know what you are trying to achieve. Have you ever left a lecture and felt you have not learned anything? Chances are the objectives were not clearly stated. Should be time-limited. Your project/research is timelimited, so must each of your objectives. In such case, you are reminded not to set objectives that will be too long to achieve like, for example, to establish a relationship between smoking and health Should be attainable that means your objective should be realistic and achievable.
c.

Scope of project should be broad yet specific enough This section will describe the area covered and the depth/detail of the study/project. The project title/objective may be very broad e.g. design of an intelligent-home system you can design and build every apparatus/component or the design can be limited to systems integration which can mean design of a heat treatment process for specific purpose, such as corrosion protection. By defining the scope of the project, you will be able to more accurately convey what you hope to achieve. How do you intend to achieve your objective? Here you must give an idea of how you intend to approach the project by defining the conceptual design (logical path, basis, sequential tasking) and giving broad time-lines (milestone planning, Gantt or Bar chart) towards the completion of the project. An important part of this is the budget/financing of the project if it involves building of prototype. In general, no project should cost more than RM1,000 unless sponsored by a company. What exactly is your contribution? It is very important that you identify your contribution a lot of glitzy projects eg intelligent home system can merely mean you source around for actual existing systems and modify it for your project or you can actually be studying the technical properties of all the equipment

d.

e.

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you wish to integrate and design the interface In the first instance, your contribution is merely limited to shopping around and copying whole scale from existing design whereas in the latter case you will be studying and evaluating technical specifications and developing the technical interface necessary to connect these equipment into an integrated system. In both cases mentioned above, you must specify what you plan to contribute.
f.

Project deliverables you must itemise what you will be handing over to your supervisor for evaluation. This list will be used to check off what you actually deliver. Any other relevant information This will help you and your supervisor to further define areas in your project that are still unclear. For example, which microprocessors to use or what temperatures and times to use in your project to further improve your results.

g.

2.

Research Methodology

You may use the followings methods for your research / project dissertation:
(i)

(ii)

Empirical experiments this is when you want to study a laboratory-based project. The project should contains at least one of the following elements:a) A design study resulting in a set of engineering drawings or an electrical system arrangement and supporting calculations. b) Experimental work where a test rig is designed and made, experiments carried out, and the results analysed and reported. c) A manufacturing problem is identified and a system is designed and put in place to eliminate the problem. Questionnaire is one of the easiest but it is NOT questionnaire if you go to his office and ask him face to face. You can do postal questionnaire, internet survey,

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(iii)

(iv)

telephone interview, shopping complex questionnaire, door-to-door survey, etc. Interview takes the form of asking your respondents faceto-face, and it can be a structured interview, semistructured, or free flow. In this case you are expected to bring along a tape recorder, and with the respondents consent record the interviewing process. Case study is one method least understood by students most merely asked contractors a few questions and wrote the story as a case. A case study involves a lot more than merely asking a few questions you have to know thoroughly the whole issues on study and the case you are investigating it involves you to know in depth, and to discount other factors that are not involved. It also involves great observation on your part, not merely reporting what was told to you.

It is important that the information obtained should be credible, reliable and from reputable sources. While all projects should contain a literature review, projects that confine themselves to that activity alone are not acceptable. You are reminded that plagiarism is a serious offence (tantamount to cheating) and would be subjected to disciplinary actions. Any quoted information should be made clear in the text of the dissertation and placed under inverted commas, italics and fully acknowledged. No duplication of report will be accepted.

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3.

Project Plan and Schedule Whatever you proposed to do, you must try to do it in a timesequence and within the time frame. You may want to identify when you want to do what in a time chart. Your whole project should be worked out so that you have sufficient time to do other assignments, revision for examinations, and resubmission. You should target end of week 12 of the second semester to be the date where you should have finished typing and binding. You should allow some time for your supervisor to read your write-ups, and allow time for resubmission. Normally, you should allow at least 3 days for your supervisor to finish commenting your submission, and to be fair to supervisors, he has the right not to accept your submission, if he finds that all students under his supervision should submit near about the same day. How detailed and meticulous the schedule depends on the level of control you intend to exercise over it.

4.

References Cited It is possible that in preparing the proposal, you may have read some articles, books, magazines, etc that you may want to cite the reference here.

INTERIM REPORT

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By the end of week 13 Semester 1, you are required to submit a 3 chapter interim report to your supervisor for marking. The report includes a chapter on introduction and a chapter on literature review. The third chapter consists of the research methodology / project / flowchart design process. Your interim reports should Describe the progress to date and indicate the next stages of the work showing how you plan to continue with the work.

Measure your progress against the project plan and schedule (as in the proposal the Gantt chart), and comment if you are within the scheduled time, ahead of schedule, or that there were rather many unforeseen obstacle to be accounted for. You are expected to produce the progress drawn on agreed base timeline, highlighting specific activities that are delayed, and if possible, the reasons for such shortcomings. If you are behind schedule, you are to propose various measures to get your project back on track. You may also specify specific assistance within which your supervisor, or the Head of Division, can do to help you.

Problems you encountered while executing your project, and how you have / will overcome them. Your supervisor will comment on the content of the interim report and may require that you carry out further work and re-submit the report before proceeding with the project. That could happen, for example, if there was insufficient evidence of background research. You must obtain the approval of your supervisor before proceeding with the project.

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STUDENT-SUPERVISOR LOG-BOOK The main purpose of this log-book is to make sure that all interaction with your supervisor is recorded and properly documented as an evidence to show that supervisors perform their supervision accordingly, and students are guided properly. As your supervisor guides you, you are to record down exactly his comments, ranging from praise for work well done, to specific task you are required to do before you see him next. Once you have completed such remarks, the supervisor will verify by placing his signature there, and a next appointment can be fixed. Your log should consist of Date, venue, starting time, and ending time of the meeting. Reasons for missed appointment as fixed earlier, if any. What were being discussed, what was commented, and what was to be done before the next meeting. Appointment for next meeting. Signature, as verification, of the supervisor. The students are not expected to follow blindly all that the supervisor requested, but to weigh if the request for work falls within your own proposal, your aim, your objectives, etc. Though it is not likely to happen, we do not expect students to carry out a personal research for the supervisor, and that the students should have the privilege to decline / oblige. The supervisors will be advised here to detect any submission / draft / write-up that do not fall within the aim / objectives of the dissertation. Students, being students, will source for all types of information, and whatever was read that has a faint indication to building industry, will be copied, or quoted, in your dissertation. It is important to ask why this information is required in your dissertation and that it is important is not good enough. It must be related to what you have to study, or want to study. It should fit your

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objectives, and it shouldnt be important information included just to beef up the pages of your dissertation. The student-supervisor log-book sheet is given in the centre of this booklet.

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Broad timeline to be observed The broad timelines to be observed and incorporated into your own project timeline is as follows:a.

Project briefs must be submitted and approved with the project proposal form by the end of week 2 Semester 1. This means that by that time you would have discussed the project with your supervisor and the proposed project brief has been accepted by him. The project brief will be assessed and given marks in the interim assessment. Should the submission of the dissertation brief be delayed by more than 1 month without any reasonable excuse, the student may be barred from this module and will have to repeat it the following year. An interim report of your project dissertation to be submitted to your supervisor for evaluation at the end of week 13 Semester 1. Your supervisor will evaluate your interim report and marks will be awarded. Late submission will be penalised and the project may be awarded an F (fail) grade. In the event of an unsatisfactory interim report submission, the student may be allowed to resubmit an improved interim report. Resubmitted interim report, however, can only be given a minimum pass grade or original F grade. The completed project and the final draft dissertation must be submitted to your supervisor for evaluation by week 11 Semester 2. The project will have to be presented in a formal oral presentation with a question and answer session to the supervisor before the end of week 12 Semester 2, at a date to be confirmed by your supervisor. Final submission of the dissertation will be not later than week 14 of Semester 2. In the event of an unsatisfactory dissertation submission, students will be awarded an F (fail) grade and may be

b.

c.

d.

e.

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allowed to resubmit an improved dissertation. Resubmitted dissertation, however, can only be given a minimum pass grade or original F grade.

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FINAL SUBMISSION GENERAL INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF FINAL YEAR ADVANCED DIPLOMA PROJECT DISSERTATION Every student in the Second (Final) Year of an Advanced Diploma course in the School of Technology must carry out a Project under the supervision of an academic staff of the School. Each candidate is required to submit to the Head of School a dissertation on the project that he/she has undertaken not later than week 14 in semester 2. Every candidate must obtain at least a Pass in his/her Project and Dissertation to satisfy the Board of Examiners for the award of the Advanced Diploma in Technology/Advanced Diploma in Engineering. In submitting their dissertations, all candidates must observe the following requirements/guidelines to ensure that uniformity is maintained. Candidates who deviate from these requirements/guidelines without prior approval from the Head of School will be penalised. 1. Format of the Dissertation 1.1 The dissertation is a technical report on the project that the candidate has undertaken over a period of approximately six months. The report should comprise of about 10,000 words and may include photographs, tables, drawings, graphs, flowcharts, computer programmes, etc. which must be clearly annotated. 1.2 The dissertation should be typewritten with double spacing on one side of the paper only to suit a folder of A4 size. The following margins should be observed: Left hand margin : 35mm Top margin : 25mm Bottom margin : 25mm Right hand margin : 25mm

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1.3 The dissertation should be properly bound with a suitable cover/folder, and with labels indicating the Title, Candidates name, Course and Year on the face of the cover/folder. For the hardcover copy, the spine of the cover must also be labelled with the Title, Candidates name, and Year. These are shown in Appendix A. 1.4 The first page of the dissertation should follow the format as shown in Appendix B. 1.5 The rest of the dissertation should follow the following format: (i) Declaration (ii) Acknowledgement (iii) Summary / Abstracts The summary should give a simplified, clear and precise description of what have been carried out in the project. The abstract should give information on the research problem that was studied, the method used to study the problem (including information on the type of sample), the result, and major conclusions. The abstract should provide enough information to the examiners about your research as well as information to other readers so that they may decide whether to read the entire dissertation. It should normally be not longer that one page. (iv) Nomenclature (if applicable) (v) Table of content This should list out the title of each chapter and section/sub-section with corresponding pages properly shown. (vi) Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter should give the background on why / how the project was chosen. It should introduce to the reader the existing technologies / products / services / methods and how it proposes to improve / modify on these. In other cases, depending on the nature of the project, this chapter should provide the theoretical background appropriate to the subject

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(vii)

matter under study. This chapter should also give the outline of the approach in undertaking the project. Literature review. Usually two or three chapters reviewing previous work (theory/ies and /or previous evidence). These chapters should review what has been written on your topic emphasised that a critical review should show that the writer has studied existing work in the field with insight. The main point is that a review should provide the reader with a picture of the state of knowledge and of main questions in the subject area being investigated.

Subsequent chapters. Theory, recording of observations / surveys, analysis and interpretation of data / results, etc. These chapters are the core part of your dissertation and will consist of the research findings expressed by texts, figures, tables, charts, graphs and the like. It is absolutely important for candidate to present their results clearly. (ix) Final chapter: Conclusion Conclusion and recommendations for future work. Candidates must be able to tie very closely with their introduction chapter. Candidates must be able to comments on their own objective and state whether your investigation proved or disproved your research hypothesis. Candidates should provide recommendations for further studies as to what should and should not be done. Perhaps a development of a conceptual model of a framework can be inserted in this part of the conclusion chapter.
(viii)

(x)

Reference Care should be exercised in the use of reference works. Whenever a reference is made to a book or an article in the list of references, this should be indicated by quoting the number, in parentheses, of the book or article as appeared in the reference list.

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The list of references should be provided at the end of each relevant chapter. Candidates should not reproduce verbatim passages or sentences from reference materials without comment criticism or examination of its application to local conditions. Where materials from such reference works are quoted they should be made clear in the text of the dissertation and placed under inverted commas and in italics. The method of referencing should be the name and date system (Harvard system). The order of the elements (including upper and lower case and punctuation) of a book references is: AUTHOR, (Date), Title. Edition. Place: Publisher. Numeration within item (if only a part is cited.)This should consist of a list of books, articles from journals or web site in the order in which they are referred to in the dissertation. Each reference should consist of the following information: Name(s) of author(s), Title of book or article, Publisher and Year of publication (or edition). e.g. 1Reference made to a book. William D. Callister, Jr. Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2006. e.g. 2Reference made to an article S.K. Spurgeon: Non-liner Control for Uncertain Systems Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part 1, Vol 208 No 14 1994 pp 205213 e.g. 3Reference made to a web site http://www.eriebronze.com/sand_casting.asp (xi) Appendices (if any) Computer programmes, data sheets, standard

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theorems/formulae, list of manufacturers/suppliers, etc. 1.6 If a survey to obtain data and opinion has been carried out, the results of the survey should appear in the dissertation with a critical appreciation of the results. 1.7 The following declaration should be included in your dissertation: DECLARATION: The project submitted herewith is a result of my own investigations. All information that has been obtained from other sources had been fully acknowledged. I understand that plagiarism constitutes a breach of College rules and regulations and would be subjected to disciplinary actions.

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2.

Submission of the Dissertation In submitting their dissertations, all candidates must observe the following procedures and requirements. 2.1 Two copies of the dissertation and a CD are to be submitted by each candidates as follows: One original copy - hardcover One photocopy - comb-binding One CD containing 2 folders one folder contains the Abstract and the other the Fulltext of the dissertation, pictures and video (if any). Note that: (a) The Abstract should contain the following information: (i) Title of the project (ii) Name of the Author (iii) The Abstract. (b) The fulltext should contain the information: (i) Title (ii) Author (iii) Declaration (iv) Abstract (v) Table of Content (vi) Fulltext (includes graphics, programmes, etc.) (vii) References (viii) Appendixes. following

images,

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(c)Label the CDs submitted information: (i) School (ii) Division (iii) Academic Year (iv) Registration Number (v) Name (vi) Title

with

the

following

The candidate normally makes one copy for his/her personal keeping. He/She may make an extra copy for his/her supervisor. Multiple computer printout copies are not acceptable. 2.2 All dissertations will become the property of the College upon submission. 2.3 The copyright of all dissertations belongs to the College.

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Appendix A Format for the face and spine of the cover/folder < Title of Dissertation > Spine (Hard cover copy only) < Name of Author > < Academic Year > example: 2009/2010.

< Title of Dissertation >

BY < Name of Author >

< Name of Division > SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN COLLEGE KUALA LUMPUR

< ACADEMIC YEAR >

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Appendix B Format of the first page of the Dissertation < Title of dissertation > by < Author > Supervisor: < name of supervisor >

Project dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Advanced Diploma in Technology (< course name >). Division of < > School of Technology Tunku Abdul Rahman College Kuala Lumpur

< academic year >

Copyright 2011 by Tunku Abdul Rahman College. All rights reserved. No part of this dissertation may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Tunku Abdul Rahman College

Advisory Notes

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1.

In undertaking the project each student should endeavour to: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) Co-ordinate and integrate his/her knowledge in the various subjects he/she has studied relating to the project. Analyse scientifically all factors involved in problems faced in the project. Develop initiative in the preparation of the project and make judgements which can be justified. Elicit a critical appreciation of the overall result. Compile and present a realistic and proper technical report.

2.

Students are encouraged to undertake experimental-based and/or analytical-based projects. For literature review type project, a critical review of a number of original published papers from journals must be included, not just extracts from papers.

Assessment The student will be assessed on the project work and the dissertation as follows:(i) Overall understanding of the project/knowledge of the subject matter. (ii) Initiative and ability to carry out the project independently. (iii) Enthusiasm, original work, laboratory / experimental / computer / fieldwork involved and the overall effort put in the project. (iv) Presentation, command of English and editorial ability. (v) Ability to analyze, interprets, draw meaningful conclusion and provide critical appreciation of the overall result.

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IMPORTANT The college would like to stress the importance of the following issues: 1. SAFETY Students must make every effort to ensure the safety of themselves and the people around them (classmates, laboratory staff, lecturers, etc) when performing experiments. Failing to do so may result in undesirable consequences such as permanent injury / disfigurement. 2. PLAGIARISM It is important that students respect the right to intellectual property of others. Students who copy work from any source (books, research papers, internet, other institutions, etc) without referencing would have committed plagiarism and would be severely reprimanded and his/her dissertation would be awarded an F (fail). Sources of all works quoted must be clearly stated.

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Assessment Strategy 100% continuous assessment comprises the following: Assessment Area Part A (30%)
(a)

Assessment Criteria

Submission of research / project proposal (10%)

(b)

Submission of interim report (20%)

Students understanding of research/ project process and research methodology and schedule. Students ability to select relevant and important sources of information. Time management and the appreciation of research process, definition of project objective/ problem statement, planning/ approach to solve problem statement. Effort shown in work in progress as indicated in the log book sheet. Candidates ability to comment and relate literature review to the proposed research / project.

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Assessment Area Part B (70%)

Assessment Criteria

Final submission of the To assess the following criteria: project dissertation (70%) Candidates overall understanding / knowledge of the project Actual laboratory / research / experiments / computer / fieldwork done Candidates ability to analyse data and resolve problems Candidates ability to meaningful conclusion draw

Candidates ability to discuss findings and recommend further research studies Presentation skills and ability to explain dissertation content / project and answer questions posed.

Report writing and presentation style / layout /arrangement (incl. Command of language, references, bibliography, etc)

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Project & Dissertation Marking Scheme Contribution Threshold Marks Semester 1 Part A : 30% Semester 2 Part B : 70%

50% (based on 50% (based on 100%) 100%) To Make Good the During semester 1 unsatisfactory holiday interim report To Make Good the unsatisfactory dissertation submission Viva For those below threshold marks after the resubmission. (1st week of semester 2) During semester 3 (after semester 2 examination) For those below threshold marks after resubmission. (After semester 2 examination) For those with grades A and A- in the total project marks.

Viva for A and Agrades

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