The Third Year Dissertation offers each student the opportunity to increase their depth of study into a particular area of renewable energy in line with their specific interests. It offers each student the chance to develop an idea, design or test a device, review the literature, work with a local company or carry out another reasonable renewable energy related piece of research. The dissertation might be in a specialist area where you want to develop your career, a plan for a piece of kit or just something that you would like to dig a bit deeper into. Students will be provided with a list of possible topics each with an attached supervisor at the beginning of the year. All students are welcome to come up with their own topic so long as they can find a supervisor on the academic staff. Students are encouraged to have an external supervisor where appropriate, and this is especially encouraged where the student is working with an external organisation. Every student on the module will (and must) have a personal supervisor available for one-on-one tuition throughout the year. Students are expected to plan meetings with supervisors on a regular basis. Evidence of supervisor meetings will be required to demonstrate these have occurred, along with other evidence of the student taking a proactive approach to the management and delivery of their project.
Prerequisites: ENE2008 Project Management and Accounting
This project provides students with the opportunity to carry out individual research. Students are presented with a list of possible project titles at the beginning of the academic year or can develop their own topic as long as a member of academic staff agrees it is suitable as a topic. This is typically by agreement between the individual student and an academic supervisor or the module convenor. The module convenor will provide feedback as to the suitability of a proposed topic and advise as to possible supervisors. The dissertation module begins in week one of term one and continues through term two, with final submission at the beginning of term three. Students are expected to work on dissertations consistently through term 1 and term 2,accounting for periods of low and high activity depending on their selection of optional modules, Students are also expected to work over Easter, since they will not have revision for exams.
INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILOs) (see assessment section below for how ILOs will be assessed)
On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
Module Specific Skills and Knowledge:
1 demonstrate in-depth knowledge of a specific topic of relevance to the renewable energy discipline in the dissertation report;
2 autonomously plan, manage and make effective use of, suitable resources such as software aids, laboratory facilities and equipment, field stations and sites and literature search facilities.
Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge:
3 think creatively and integrate advanced subject specific knowledge and understanding from previous modules into the analysis and solution of a challenging problem or topic;
4 critically analyse the important aspects of a design problem or research topic;
5 assess the merits of a number of solutions or outcomes, taking into account conflicting factors;
6 initiate and undertake searches for information related to a design task, evaluate it and devise actions for progression toward milestones;
7 recognise the existence of pressures and constraints on project, policy or device design in renewable energy;
8 display applied project management skills;
Personal and Key Transferable / Employment Skills and Knowledge:
9 extract, filter and process information from a wide range of sources;
10 display professional oral presentational skills;
11 illustrate improved report writing skills to the extent that reports are of a professional standard; 12 defend your reasoning and conclusions against probing questioning.
SYLLABUS PLAN - summary of the structure and academic content of the module
The module convenor provides a briefing session on suitable topics, conduct of study, assessment methods, supervisor-student relationship, budgets, milestones and deliverables. An individual dissertation project is undertaken on a subject related to the course. You keep a detailed diary / logbook of your expected and actual work and this should be reviewed by your supervisor throughout the project duration.
At the end of term one, you must submit a project planning submission, which will typically be a short document comprising:
- a description of the planned work, its intended outcomes, the method you plan to apply at the date of reporting and any resources that will be needed;
- a Gantt chart identifying the key tasks that have been and remain to be completed and indicating your planned timeframe for when they will be carried out;
- an assessment of the risks that might arise in completion of the dissertation, and possible mitigation strategies
- a list of references consulted in discharging the project activity to the date of reporting.
The project is a major part of the course and aims to develop abilities in the following areas:
- understanding of a problem;
- execution of a project in a logical manner;
- awareness of health and safety legislation;
- awareness of design standards and codes of practice;
- decision making;
- data gathering;
- data analysis;
- problem solving;
- appropriate selection and usage of information technology;
- questioning of basic assumptions and critical analysis of results;
- communication of ideas with written and spoken word;
- efficient utilisation of information retrieval services
- Consideration of the further development of the study.
