EEE8165 : Research Skills and Development for Engineers
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Professor Said Boussakta
- Owning School: Engineering
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
To provide students with skills in research necessary for their individual project.
To provide skills in acquiring, sorting, and critically evaluate information on cutting-edge research areas.
To develop key literacy and communication skills.
To provide key skills in risk assessment.
To evaluate the environmental and societal impact of solutions to complex problems and minimise adverse impacts.
Outline Of Syllabus
Lectures and Workshops will cover the following topics:
Engineering databases: IEEExplore, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and others relevant to the research task.
Technical writing skills.
Preparation of visual material for poster presentation and reports. Presentation skills.
Safety and preparation of risk assessments.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 14:00 | 14:00 | Creation of A1 poster |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Recordings on risk management to mitigate risks associate with a project or activity |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 3:00 | 3:00 | Presenting work at the poster presentation event. |
| Structured Guided Learning | Lecture materials | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Recordings on general ethics in engineering and responsible use of AI tools. |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 2:00 | 2:00 | Formative peer assessment of literature review in a group. |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 10:00 | 10:00 | Writing formatively assessed literature review |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | Lectures on how to review literature, writing technical reports, and creating a poster on a research area. |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 3 | 2:00 | 6:00 | Computer-based sessions introducing Matlab for solving engineering problems. |
| Structured Guided Learning | Academic skills activities | 1 | 30:00 | 30:00 | Searching, sorting and critically evaluating literature |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 125:00 | 125:00 | Independent studying of lecture material, Matlab programming |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The module will have a combination of in-person and recorded lectures. In-person lectures will teach fundamental skills on reviewing literature, report writing, and communication skills. Recorded lectures will focus on the importance of ethics, responsible use of AI tools, and risk management. Students will be able to ask for help from the lecturer of post questions on the Canvas discussion board. The Matlab sessions will be timetabled online sessions due to very large student numbers on this module. This has proven to be an effective method to teach Matlab over the last several years, and students will also have support from PGR demonstrators during these sessions.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Exams
| Description | Length | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral Examination | 30 | 1 | M | 100 | Poster presentation |
Zero Weighted Pass/Fail Assessments
| Description | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Written exercise | M | Literature review - Compulsory exercise for students to learn how to write a short report, word limit 100 words. |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prob solv exercises | 1 | M | Matlab Exercises - Feedback given at the end of each Matlab exercise, which will be beneficial for the individual project module |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The poster presentation will assess the students’ ability to summarise a cutting-edge research area and their communication skills to an audience of experts and non-experts. It will also assess their understanding of the research area.
The zero-weighted pass-fail assessment of the literature review will encourage students to engage with the writing of a technical report, which will be valuable for other modules on the programme, including the individual project.
The formative peer assessment exercise will allow students to learn how to use Matlab to solve general engineering problems, which will be useful for other modules and the individual project.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- EEE8165's Timetable