Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Formulating an appropriate research question, conducting literature reviews, understanding elements of a research proposal, evaluating the real-world impact of a research question, understanding design and statistical analysis of research experiments. Examines safety and ethics guidelines in conducting research, effective and ethical communication of research findings, and policies of scientific contributions. Special emphasis is given to effective oral and written communication of scientific material that may arise from thesis work. Covers a variety of issues that may arise in various stages of conducting research projects, such as conflicts of interest, patents, authorship guidelines and EDI.

COURSE DETAILS:

Course Format

Lectures and Tutorials will typically focus on topics such as knowledge base for engineering, impact of engineering on society and the environment, ethics and equality and lifelong learning. They often also focus on Design, teamwork, communication skills and professionalism. This lecture will typically consist of:

• Presentations by the instructor
• Discussing topics and providing opinions
• Attempting examples and investigating case-studies.
• Group working
• Student Presentations
• Working on the Design Project

Attendance at lectures & tutorial is expected and will sometimes be recorded.

Design Projects

There is a substantial design project for this Course. Students will work in teams to design an engineering solution to a problem. Your final mark for the Design Project will be based on the overall group mark but will be adjusted based on your individual contributions and teamworking skills. These will be assessed by peer review and identification of individual contributions. For students who are significantly under contributing to the Design Project, there may be a large adjustment in your Design Project grade following consultation with the entire group and the instructor.

Further details on the Design Projects will be available in Canvas.

Communication Methods

Canvas

 It is your responsibility to regularly check Canvas for new documentation, any changes to dates or communications. Important information will be provided here and it is your responsibility to keep up to date with this information. It is recommended you ensure you turn notifications on for announcements.

Tentative Course Schedule

Week	Date	Topic	Who	Assignments Due Dates
1	7-Jan	Introduction to Graduate Studies and Engineering Research	JS
2	14-Jan	Key Elements of a Research Proposal in Engineering Part I	JS
3	21-Jan	Key Elements of a Research Proposal Part II	JS
4	28-Jan	Research Tools and Design of Experiments	CS	1 Page Research Proposal
5	4-Feb	Design and Statistical Analysis of Experiments	CS
6	11-Feb	Literature Review and Peer Review	PP	Research Design and Analysis assignment
7	18-Feb	Reading Break
8	25-Feb	Ethics and Safety in Conducting Research	CS	Literature Review
9	4-Mar	Preparing Journal Papers	PP	Full Research Proposal
10	11-Mar	Evaluating Real-world Impact of a Research Question	CS
11	18-Mar	Effective Presentation Skills	PP	Draft Paper
12	25-Mar	Intellectual Property	PP or JS
13	1-Apr	Student Presentations	ALL	Full Paper & Presentation
14	8-Apr	Student Presentations (if needed)	ALL	Revised paper/slides

 

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Course Outcomes

After completing this course, students will be able to:

·      Understand and apply key principles involved in conducting engineering research

·      Understand the critical elements of a research proposal and apply this knowledge

·      Analyze a research question critically, and evaluate the real-world impact of answering that question

·      Demonstrate the ability to conduct literature review

·      Demonstrate the ability to understand when and how to obtain ethics approval for a research project

·      Understand how to design experiments,  choose proper statistical analysis and apply the appropriate methodology to one’s own research topic

 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: