CSC3033

• Offered for Year: 2025/26
• Module Leader(s): Dr Marie Devlin
  
• Owning School: School of Computing
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

This module gives students the opportunity to work in a team on authentic, real world challenges. The module takes place over one semester and consists of some career development activities as well as practical application of skills and knowledge relating to modules already studied and new material, tools and techniques presented in a lecture series. Students will be allocated into teams and given a project brief (or a choice of projects) from the following themes i.e. IoT, Quantum, AI and Mathematics, alongside the lectures. Practical sessions will allow students to gain experience with a variety of tools and techniques for planning the collaborative effort and for the creation of project outputs and artefacts to address the challenges outlined in the project briefs. There will be guest lectures from industry for some of the lecture slots. Team membership will be determined by the module leaders and teams will need to make the most of the skills within that team and allocate roles and tasks accordingly.

Outline Of Syllabus

• Professional skills – communication, teamworking, report writing, self and peer assessment, project evaluation, team organisation, roles and responsibilities
• Techniques and tools – Planning a project, tools for collaborative working, building, verification and release of software systems (where appropriate)
• Practical design and implementation techniques for creating a software or hardware artefact.
• Ethical Issues
• Data management, Data ethics, responsible design

Learning Outcomes

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of the module students will be able to:

• Choose suitable tools for data analysis, algorithm testing, software development, communications, version control and project management.
• Identify the typical roles in a multi-disciplinary team project
• Reflect on issues that relate to the planning and execution of a team based development project.
• Critically evaluate common team working processes and activities.

Intended Skill Outcomes

At the end of the module students will be able to:

• Work as a member of a team
• Review a project brief and determine requirements for a solution
• Design, implement, test and evaluate your solution
• Demonstrate practical experience in issues such as team structure, document preparation, project management
• Fulfil appropriate roles within a team and apply mathematical and computing skills to the project work.
• Evaluate own learning, progress and the quality of the solution produced by the team
• Demonstrate technical and report writing

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Category	Activity	Number	Length	Student Hours	Comment
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities	Lecture	24	1:00	24:00	Lectures on professional skills, techniques and tools, project management, design practices, ethics, data management, implementation and testing techniques, report writing etc. as per syllabus.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities	Practical	10	1:00	10:00	Tutorials on version control, testing, programming, design – for artefact creation.
Guided Independent Study	Assessment preparation and completion	40	1:00	40:00	Design, Implement and Test artefact, create documentation.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities	Small group teaching	11	1:00	11:00	1 weekly group meeting – online, module leaders will visit teams for Q&A.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities	Small group teaching	11	1:00	11:00	1 weekly group meeting, in person,. Module will visit teams for Q&A.
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities	Drop- in/surgery	10	1:00	10:00	Weekly, online and in person, 1 staff online, 1 staff in person.
Guided Independent Study	Assessment preparation and completion	20	1:00	20:00	Team preparation of documentation.
Guided Independent Study	Assessment preparation and completion	20	1:00	20:00	Team programming for final submission.
Guided Independent Study	Independent study	39	1:00	39:00	Background Reading.
Guided Independent Study	Assessment preparation and completion	1	15:00	15:00	Preparation of the individual reflective report
Total				200:00

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

This is a practical module with students learning and developing skills in a team environment. Lectures are used to introduce concepts and explore main topics. The practical sessions allow teams to practice software development and use tools and techniques to help them develop their final product. Students are expected to work together to develop an artefact (usually software) and provide accompanying documentation. Regular meetings are held with staff to check progress on the teamwork.

Assessment Methods

Other Assessments

Component	Semester	When set	Percentage	Comment
Reflective log 1	2	M	40	Individual reflective report.
Written exercise 1	2	M	60	Assessed Coursework - solution to problem brief, including documentation.

Formative Assessments

Component	Semester	When Set	Comment
Prof skill assessment 1	2	M	Practical work is formative and students get face to face feedback during the session

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Team assessments require students to work together to produce the project artefact (software, data analysis, models, visualisations or simulations).The individual components are designed to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the problem to be solved and their team role, and to provide a reflection on what they have learned from the module. Peer assessment is employed to identify each individual’s contribution to the team. Details of the deliverables may vary year to year, depending on the project briefs available. Full details of project briefs will be available at the beginning of the module on Canvas.

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/