Teaching Block 2

During Teaching block 2 you will spend the majority of your time completing your project. There will be Q&A sessions at the beginning of the second teaching block and various workshops but most of the contact time will mostly be between you and your supervisor.

Other activities during this term will include:

Writing Workshops
Library Workshops
Poster Workshops

As always, see the schedule for up-to-date information.

Managing your project

One of the biggest challenges of the project isn’t the research or the ideas - it’s managing your time across 15 weeks, without regular classes. The key to success is to have a strong project plan that you treat as a living document and keep updating.

One tip is to think of the project in terms of Minimum Viable Product, Beta and Final Release. What do you need to do to get to each milestone? Start with the hand-in date and work backwards, allocating time to the different tasks you need to do, including all the writing tasks.

For example, if you are planning to do user testing, how long will that take to write up, and what do you need before you can start testing (this will be something to test, but also knowing who you’re going to test it on and how).

If you’re someone who finds the idea of unstructured time daunting, make your structure. We recommend meeting with a group of friends who are also doing a final project at least once a week, to talk about what you’ve been doing, what’s going well and what’s challenging. This should be a group of people you can be honest with - and you might also plan to work with them on campus.

If you want more support managing your project, the Study Skills Team have tutorials, drop-ins and workshops to help.

Timetabled events in TB2

Library Workshop

In Week 14 you can meet the Computer Science Subject Librarian, who will give you advice on how to start your research, how to find quality sources, what resources the library has got and even how the librarians can find papers, articles and research for you.

CALD Writing Workshops

The Centre for Academic Language and Development run workshops specially designed for Computer Science students, to give you tips about writing an academic report and give you a chance to get feedback on draft work. They are optional but strongly encouraged.

You have been randomly allocated to sessions in Weeks 21 and 23 and we recommend you go to both sessions. If you can’t make the one in your timetable and want to swap sessions, email the CALD team with your name, your programme, the session you want to leave and when you’re available.

We will send you more information nearer the time.

Writing retreats

These are optional sessions in Weeks 19 and 22 we put on because we find them useful for our own work. They are an opportunity to dedicate a few hours to writing, in a quiet environment with snacks, surrounded by other people. Mike and Sarah will be there, doing our own writing, so if you have questions, we can help.

Bring your laptop, headphones, water bottle and a plan for what you’d like to get done.

Project Poster Day - 2nd April 2025

This is a chance to meet your Second Marker for the first time, talk to them about your project and ask them what they expect to see in a project like yours. It’s also a chance to talk to other academics, students and guests about your project, and get valuable feedback you can use to make your dissertation even better, as well as see what other students have been working on.

Poster Day is optional, but we strongly recommend you attend, as it’s a chance to integrate outside feedback into your project to show off the incredible work that you have been doing.

There will be a workshop in Week 20 to help you make your poster, and we will print the posters, so it will not cost you anything.

If you want to see examples of previous student posters, some of the posters that won prizes in 2024 are on display outside MVB 1.11/a, and there is a folder of example posters in the Unit Team Class Materials section.

We will send you details of who your seconf marker is a few weeks before Poster Day so you can arrange a time to meet them. Please note: if you do not attend Poster Day, your second marker is not obliged to meet you at another time; if they will be away from work that day, they will arrange a different time to meet you.

What to expect at Poster Day

The session is similar to poster fairs at academic conferences. The standard set-up is your poster on the board on a table with space for a laptop. The room will be full of other students’ posters, and will invite all the CS staff as well as students from Years 1, 2 and 3, the CS Conversion degree and PhD students, who hopefully want to ask you questions about your work. You should proactively approach people and ask if they want to know more about your work - and do take time to walk around the room and ask other students about their work, because the more students can talk about your projects, the better your reports will be. This is an opportunity to try out different ways to frame your work.

Make sure you have something to take notes with, and note down the questions every asks you, or the comments they have, because these are things you can add to your report. Make notes of which ways of describing your project works best, so you can use it in the viva.

How to prepare

Practice your ‘elevator pitch’ - the short run-through (3-5 minutes) of what makes your project interesting. What is the real-world difference your project could make to the world? What surprised you? What are the key findings so far - and what do you hope to achieve? This is worth spending time on, as it will be useful for you in the viva, job interviews and your future. Make sure this is aimed at people with no technical expertise, because you can always get more specific when you’re asked to. If you can, practice this with a friend.
If you’re bringing your laptop to demo your project, practice how you will do that.
If you want to use the opportunity for user testing, bring consent forms, project information sheets and practice how you will ask people to get involved.
Think about the questions you might want to ask your Second Marker and any academics you might meet.
If you left space on your poster to add results, or want to change things, we’ll have glue and Sellotape – make sure you bring what you want to stick onto it!

What to bring and wear

Dress comfortably, especially with comfortable shoes, as you will be standing for a long time. Wear loose, comfortable clothing - a good dress-code is ‘smart-casual’. It can get hot in BBS, so don’t come in a jacket!
We will have bottles of water and snacks available, but bring your own water bottle and snacks.
If you’re bringing laptops, tablets etc, have a charger with you.

Finally, make sure you pace yourself on the day. If you have people waiting to talk to you, it’s fine to ask them to give you a minute or two to write notes of your previous conversations, or ask them to come back later if you need a break. Plan to try to talk to people about your project for a period of time, then walk around and talk to other people about their projects/sit somewhere quiet and process the conversations for a while, and then repeat. Treat it like a marathon, not a sprint!