Guidelines For Submission of End Of Project Deliverables

 

Revised for 2024

This note applies to all EEE and EIE final year students doing individual projects with EEE supervisors. Those with DoC supervisors should obey DoC guidelines as specified by SCIENTIA, using its deadlines.

Please follow all these guidelines carefully to make sure that you gain credit for your project.

The typographical format of your final report - page margins, font size, etc, is not precisely specified, but should be neat and easy to read. Font size in the range 11-12 and line spacing 1.1-1.5 is normally acceptable. The report must consist of A4 sheets printed double-sided. See the project guide for report structure, which should be followed precisely unless otherwise instructed by your supervisor. The new Overleaf/latex template v1.20  defines preferred typographic layout. Please see the guidance on Ed D about using this.

The official deadline (as published in the project guide) applies to electronic submission of PDF reports (< 100MB size, prefer < 20MB) via the EEE app submission link. You are also required to submit your report to The Blackboard FYP module for your stream (the identical PDF that is submitted via the app), for official Turnitin Plagiarism checking. You may submit before time to this link and check results yourself. Submissions after the deadline will only be accepted for full credit if Mitigating Circumstances are agreed. You are strongly advised to let us know by submitting the intranet Mitigating Circumstances form as soon as you know of the circumstances, whether or not you are in fact late.

Electronic reports can be submitted multiple times before the deadline. Please do this with drafts as they get bigger to ensure you are familiar with the submit process. You are advised to monitor report size and use PDF compression for PDFs larger than 20MB. It should normally never be necessary to exceed this size.

The EEE app submission is precisely timed: after 23:30 without Mitigating Circumstances permission => mark capped at pass mark. The Blackboard link submission is not precisely timed but we require your report submitted there ASAP (typically within one hour) of the app deadline.

 

Software submission

If your project is software and has a deliverable that can easily be run as a standalone program on a PC you will want to submit code via a cloud repository such as Github (which now allows free private repos - should that be needed). Ensure that both markers have access if they wish. Reference the repo link clearly on your report. Note however that your markers will not necessarily have appropriate computer systems on which to run your software, so you cannot assume that markers will set up and run software demos themselves. Also, it will be expected that demo code continues to change until the time of your presentation.

Demonstrations

Supervisors and 2nd markers of both software and hardware projects will normally wish to see a demonstration of your project. Demonstrations are integrated into your presentation, or Poster session interview. For presentations: we do not allow extra time and expect a well-rehearsed demo typically between 1 and 3 minutes for projects that have a software or hardware deliverable. Longer demos are allowed but conside carefully whether the loss of presentation time to the demo is appropriate in your case.

Plagiarism

Wherever your report contains someone else’s arguments and ideas then that person must be acknowledged in the text and a source reference provided at the end of the report. Passages copied directly must be placed in quotations: it is not acceptable to make a few wording changes and submit someone else’s work as your own. Intellectual borrowing is an essential part of scholarship and is perfectly acceptable so long as the debt is clearly acknowledged. The plagiarism statement must be included (and assumed signed by you, although we do not require physical signature) as second page of your report PDF.

Final destination form

Please fill this in via the link on the FYP app.

 

Project submission Checklist/FAQ 2024

 

  1. Note the modified Plagiarism statement which states how you have used LLMs (for example chatGPT)  if you have used them. Please change this as instructed and insert in your report as page 2 (you may format it differently).
  2. Report submission via the app will open at 4 days before the published date, and the deadline is 23:30 on the published date (MEng or BEng).
  3. One second late means 40% capped mark, so make sure you do not submit close to the deadline. Do not rely on non-College internet. If College internet in the department has an outage around the deadline allowance will be made.

·       You should expect that the app submission process may take up to 5 minutes and allow for this.

·       If the app is not working (this is very unlikely)  a before deadline submission to Blackboard elec70017 / elec60017 will be accepted as proof of on-time submission.

·       If you submit your report by mistake after the deadline you must e-mail me explaining your circumstances, and whether you wish a version you submitted before the deadline to be used for assessment.

·       If you believe you have late (e.g. – not agreed in advance) mitigating circumstances for after deadline submission, submit your report to the app ASAP, and submit your circumstances to the Senior Tutor. Also e-mail me.

  1. You can submit via the app multiple times before the deadline. It is a good idea to make one “safety” submission of your report more than 1 hour before the deadline.
  2. Please compress your report PDF to < 20MB if possible before submission, see note.
  3. When you submit your report, you can use the upload form to change your project title. Check your title on the list, and confirm a new title if needed with your supervisor. Note that when you change your title, the corresponding change on the list will be delayed by up to 24 hours due to database synchronisation.
  4. You must submit your final report version to Blackboard for Turnitin checking – you are allowed to do this (only for Blackboard) after the submit deadline. You may submit earlier versions for checking. Multiple submissions are allowed.
  5. Note the list of second markers is available via the list on the web pages.

 

Project Presentations & Demo (MEng) Checklist & FAQ

  1. If you have a Mitigating Circumstances project report extension you will not (without special permission from your supervisor) attend the presentation session: reports are normally required to be marked before presentations. In that case a possibly remote presentation will be arranged after your report submission.
  2. The normal running order within your presentation is available here, together with assessment guidelines. Running order may be changed at any time by staff. If you need a non-standard running order you can ask staff in your session (ask your supervisor). It is usually possible, but you cannot count on this unless all staff and stuents in the session have been informed. You are required to attend the whole session (unless you have very specific circumstances - in which case staff in the session may allow you to be absent for part of it). "I need more time to prepare my presentation" is not specific circumstances.
  3. Some analytic FYPs do not have very interesting demos. In that case de-emphasise the demo but something is normally required (a purely mathematical FYP for example could not have a demo). Videos are fine for demos. It is up to you whether live or video demo is best - live can be more impressive but remember if live it must be slick and well-rehearsed.
  4. See the web guidelines for presentations.
  5. AV setup. If you use laptops you should be able to change over  using the external feed: do this during the previous student's questions to allow immediate start when they have finished (you will however need to grab the radio mic from them if you use it). Be careful with videos which often will not display via HDMI output from macs. If you run your presentation from the lectern PC you should load it on during the previous student's questions or at the start. In that case you will need to decide under whose login the presentation session will run becasue there is no time to chnage who is logge din.

 

Project Posters & Demo (BEng) Checklist & FAQ

  1. If you have a Mitigating Circumstances project report extension you will not attend the poster session and will give a "virtual" poster (or in-person if you and the marker prefer) after your submission. you will be allowed (if you want it) at least 3 days for this, and a paper poster is not required, you can use a laptop screen etc.
  2. The poster session will be 10:00-14:00 on 27th June 2024 - but please check with your supervisor whether they will be able to attend this. If they and you agree some alternative time it is still required that you attend the poster presentation (other staff will want to see your work). Mitigating Circumstances permission to miss the poster session may be posisble if this is needed.
  3. Some analytic FYPs do not have very interesting demos. In that case de-emphasise the demo but something is normally required (a purely mathematical FYP for example could not have a demo). Videos are fine for demos. It is up to you whether live or video demo is best - live can be more impressive but remember if live it must be slick and well-rehearsed.
  4. Power will be available where the posters are presented: you can set up hardware on tables there if this is feasible.
  5. See the web guidelines for posters. Note that the Poster interview (as in a conference poster) will be flexible and determined by your markers.
  6. I will e-mail you on before the report deadline a College P.O. allowing you to produce your A2 Poster via College printing services. Refer to them for details of how long they will take (48 hours would be normal to be safe). You can use private services if you wish, but this will not be paid via the department.

 

 

Tom Clarke, June 2024