Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Information Technology
Offered	Berwick First semester 2010 (Day) Berwick Second semester 2010 (Day) Caulfield First semester 2010 (Day) Caulfield Second semester 2010 (Day) Clayton First semester 2010 (Day) Clayton Second semester 2010 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2010 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2010 (Off-campus) Gippsland Second semester 2010 (Day) Gippsland Second semester 2010 (Off-campus)
Leader(s)	Associate Professor Jon McCormack

Synopsis

This unit is a research unit and a requirement for the FIT Honours degrees. Due to the nature of IT, a wide range of Honours project types can be offered to students. Some project components are of a practical nature and may involve some software development and/or experimentation, while other components are of a more theoretical nature.

Objectives

At the completion of this unit students will have:

• demonstrated knowledge and understanding in the area of their chosen research project.
• acquired necessary skills to plan and undertake rigorous independent research.
• acquired comprehensive research skills in the IT field.
• developed the capacity to engage in critical thinking and analysis.
• demonstrated the ability to communicate research activities and findings.

Developed attitudes that enable them to:

• have confidence in their ability to undertake independent and individual research.
• have confidence in their abilit to plan and execute an individual research project.

Developed the skills to:

• find and analyse current research literature;
• critically evaluate research findings;
• Identify open problems in current research;
• Identify promising new research directions based on previous results;
• Define feasible projects based on such problems;
• Set realistic timelines and intermediate deliverables for a research project;
• Communicate research results in a variety of forms, including informal oral presentations, written reports, seminar presentations and poster presentations.

Demonstrated the communication skills necessary to:

• communicate reseach ideas effectively in oral and written form;
• collaborate effectively with their supervisor.

Assessment

Research Proposal: 5%; Literature Review: 10%; Interim Presentation: hurdle; Final Presentation: 5%; Thesis (normally 10,000 - 20,000 words): 80%

Contact hours

Regular meetings with supervisor(s) over the course of the semester.

Prerequisites

Admission to the Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) or Bachelor of Business Information Systems (Honours) or Bachelor of Information Technology and Systems (Honours) program.

Co-requisites

FIT4005

Prohibitions

CPE4000, CSE4000, IMS4000

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/units/fit4126/