School of Computing

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

 
Projects: The Project Report

The Project Report - Construction Guidelines

Refer to guidelines on what to include in your report to ensure your report addresses the assessment criteria.

Each student is required to prepare a report on the project which he/she has undertaken and to submit two paper copies of the report for assessment. An electronic copy should also be provided. The report is the ONLY basis for assessment and further advice on report writing is available from supervisors and there are a range of texts on the writing of reports in the Edward Boyle Library and local bookshops. Students should have attended the meeting on report writing. Confirmation on the best way to write the report should be sought at the progress meeting.

Please note that reports from previous years may be a useful reference when writing up, but their style may not represent good practise according to the current guidelines.

The target audience for your report include :

  • supervisor and assessor (to assess the report)
  • possibly a third assessor (to confirm/amend awarded grade)
  • external examiners (to confirm/amend awarded grade)
  • future project students (to extend research/analyse content)
Please ensure that you read the guidelines on citing source material.

Submission

Project reports (two copies) should be submitted to the School of Computing Student Support Office. Attach (not bind) a copy of the marked mid-project report to each report. Submit an electronic copy using the SIS submit system. Reports submitted after the deadline will only be accepted under extenuating circumstances.

Double-sided submissions are encouraged. Latex is recommended for the report write-up.

Layout

Latex template

Template files are available at: ~scsfproj/public/latex/

Please see the UK TeX FAQ for general guidance. Also, Andy Roberts has written a Latex Guide.

  • FYP.tex is the 'makefile'.
  • cover.tex is the title page.
  • summary.tex is the summary page.
  • acknowledge.tex is the acknowledgements page.
  • fig1.eps.gz is a figure.
  • chapter1.tex is an example chapter showing how to include figures.
  • chapter2.tex is an example chapter showing how to do maths stuff.
  • appendixa.tex is Appendix A.
  • appendixb.tex is Appendix B.
  • appendixc.tex is Appendix C.
  • refs.bib is the list of cited references.
Amend and include files as necessary.
Edit FYP.tex to include any new files.
Edit refs.bib to add references that are cited in the report body.
Type
  • latex FYP
  • bibtex FYP
  • latex FYP
  • latex FYP

Can use pdflatex directly

Length

A 40 credit project report must be no longer than 50 pages (not including appendices and not including the bibliography/references); the limit for 60-credit projects is 60 pages. Marks will be deducted where students exceed this limit without first receiving the permission of the project coordinator. The report must not spread over more than one volume (a second volume will not be accepted under any circumstances). Program listings should not be included in the report but should be made available to the project supervisor, (preferably online or CD) who in turn will make the listings available to the assessor and external examiners, if needed. Important program fragments may be bound in the body of the report only if the listing fits onto an A4 page.

Construction

The report must be in typescript, sequentially page numbered, on A4, single or double sided with 1in margins. Point size 11 and one-and-a-half line spacing should be used. Two copies must be submitted; each must be bound in School covers with white spiral plastic binding. The staff in the Computing Student Office will provide guidance and materials for binding. The second copy of the report should be a good quality photocopy. Students who are uncertain as to whether their intended method of report production will meet the requirements should show a sample to their supervisor or the project coordinator at an early stage (before they are committed to that method).

One copy of the project report will be retained by the School. The second copy may be collected by the student once the examination process has been completed and any borrowed material including library books and keys have been returned.

Production

Students should not underestimate the time needed to 'type' a report of the length and quality required. When planning the 'typing' of the report allowance should be made for hardware difficulties that could cause delays and for adequate time for proof-reading and correction. Unexpected difficulties in producing reports should be reported to the project coordinator when they occur (and before the submission date rather than after).

Students should use the School printers for only one copy. The other should normally be a photocopy. Students who intend to produce reports on their own word processors should ensure that the print is of sufficient quality (laserwriter quality is not necessary, but lineprinter quality is not acceptable). The report must be produced in black text, but colour may be used where it clarifies figures and/or diagrams. The production of one copy with colour figures and one with black and white is allowed if approved by the supervisor but it is the only case where the two copies may differ; the copies should otherwise be identical. BOTH copies are assessed and any discrepancies between them WILL be penalised. If there is any uncertainty, get (written) approval from the supervisor or project coordinator after giving them a sample printout before becoming too heavily committed to using a particular text preparation system.

Layout of Project Reports

The following layout is strongly recommended, as consistent presentation will strengthen the examiners' overall impression of well-organised project work. Marks can be lost for poor presentation if this format is not observed.

- Title Page

The title of the project report together with the student's name, degree programme and session (e.g. 1998/99) must be clearly readable through the 'window' of the front School cover. At the foot of the title page the following statement is to appear :

"The candidate confirms that the work submitted is their own and the appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others

I understand that failure to attribute material which is obtained from another source may be considered as plagiarism."

Students must sign this declaration.

[The 'window' is 108mm wide, 58mm deep. It is in the centre of the page so that there are 120mm below it and above it, and there are 50mm on its left and 52mm on its right.]

Download a Word front page template. When using this template, please ensure that the paper size for your printer is set to 'A4', otherwise the titles will not be fully visible through the 'window' once the report is bound.

- Summary

The Summary is to be set out on a separate page and be a concise statement of the problem you set out to solve. It should be no more than one A4 page.

- Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are optional but if included they should be on a separate A4 page and include, where appropriate, reference to any contribution made by others to the project.

- Contents Page(s)

The contents page(s) should list the title of each chapter of the report and the sections or sub-sections within chapters together with their page numbers.

- Body of the Text

The body of the text will consist of any appropriate number of chapters which will themselves be sub-divided into sections and sub-sections. Chapters should start on new pages. It is important to avoid excessive sub-division and the use of too many levels of headings and sub-headings and too many levels of numbering. Again there is a need for balance with the key test being readability.

Cross-Referencing
To assist the reader it may be necessary to cross-reference appropriate sections in the report and this can be done by page number, section number or section name. It is easier to use one of the latter two as page numbering is only available towards the end of the report preparation process. Whichever of the section cross-reference mechanisms is chosen it must be used consistently.

- References

See below.

- Appendices

The inclusion of Appendices A, B and C is compulsory.

Appendix A should be used to identify whether or not the project achieved personal objectives. Students should reflect on the project process rather than the project outcome(s). Typical content would include accounts/assessment of what went well/badly and what would be done differently given the opportunity. It is expected that no more than one page is required.

Appendix B should provide a brief record of materials used in the solution that are not student's own work. Such materials might be pieces of codes made available from a research group/company or from the internet, datasets prepared by external users or any preliminary materials/drafts/notes provided by a supervisor. It should be clear from Appendix B what was used as ready-made components and what was developed as part of the project. Students should include Appendix B even if no external materials were used.

Appendix C should provide a brief summary of how ethical issues which arose during the project were addressed. Details on what might be considered to raise an ethical issue can be found here.

Other appendices are optional and, if used, should be identified by a sequential letter and a title, for example, Appendix D The Job Market Questionnaire ... Appendix E Examples of the Use of the Model.

References

Please also refer to the discussion on citing source material.

Bibliography Section

All sources must be cited within the body of the text and listed in ONE separate section after the body of the report and before the appendices. Footnotes or reference sections for individual chapters are not acceptable. Practise in the identification of references varies. (The ACM has a recognised style for computing literature.) Whatever format is chosen it should be consistent throughout the report. A recommended style for School of Computing projects is given at the end of this section.

The two most used listing styles are:

  • Alphabetical by surname of first author
    • by subsequent authors if first author is the same
    • by date if all authors are the same
  • Citation order
A reference should be sufficient to find a text. Each reference should include :
- Author(s)
- Date of Publication
- Title of Work

For a BOOK/(Chapter in a book) the reference should also include:
- Publisher
- Chapters/Pages (if applicable)

Fores, Sarah, Proll, Les & Wren, Anthony, (1999), An Improved ILP System for Driver Scheduling, in: Computer-Aided Transit Scheduling, Wilson, N H M (editor), pp.43-62, Springer Verlag.

Sonka, M, Hlavac, V & Boyle, R D, (1998), Image Processing, Analysis and Machine Vision, 2nd edition, PWS.

For an ARTICLE the reference should also include:
- Title of Volume (and eds. if applicable)
- Page Numbers

Clark, Martyn & Fores, Sarah, (2000), Strategic Teaching for Strategic Students , School of Computing Research Report Series Report 2000.24

Simpson, L, (1996), Do decision makers know what they prefer?: MAVT and ELECTRE II, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47(7): pp.919-929.

For a URL the reference should also include:
- URL
- Date of last visit by you

Fores, Sarah & Proll, Les, (1998) Driver scheduling by integer linear programming - the TRACS II approach, FTP:ftp://ftp.comp.leeds.ac.uk/scs/doc/reports/1998/98_01.ps.Z [16th March 2001]

Proll, Les, (2001)Constraint Programming and OR Home Page, URL:http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/sacm/ [15th March 2001]

Note - references should not be predominantly web-based as generally these are not refereed. If a web reference refers to work published elsewhere, you should give the full published reference.

Citing from within the text

The 2 most frequently used ways to cite references from within the text are:
  • Give each reference a unique number


    In [4] we see how the work of the Transport Scheduling Unit within the School of Computing at the University of Leeds has influenced driver scheduling using many different mathematical and heuristic techniques. Specific uses of column generation techniques within a mathematical programming framework for solving scheduling problems are discussed in [2] and [3].
     

    [1]Clark, Martyn & Fores, Sarah, (2000), Strategic Teaching for Strategic Students , School of Computing Research Report Series Report 2000.24

    [2]Fores, Sarah & Proll, Les, (1998) Driver scheduling by integer linear programming - the TRACS II approach, FTP:ftp://ftp.comp.leeds.ac.uk/scs/doc/reports/1998/98_01.ps.Z [16th March 2001]

    [3]Fores, Sarah, Proll, Les & Wren, Anthony, (1999), An Improved ILP System for Driver Scheduling, in: Computer-Aided Transit Scheduling, Wilson, N H M (editor), pp.43-62, Springer Verlag.

    [4]Proll, Les, Constraint Programming and OR Home Page, URL:http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/sacm/ [15th March 2001]

    [5]Simpson, L, (1996), Do decision makers know what they prefer?: MAVT and ELECTRE II, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47(7): pp.919-929.

    [6]Sonka, M, Hlavac, V & Boyle, R D, (1998), Image Processing, Analysis and Machine Vision, 2nd edition, PWS.

  • By author


    OR problems attempt to aid a decision making process using different, often problem specific, techniques. Simpson (1996) compares different approaches to solving multicriteria decision making problems, whereas Fores and Proll (1998) and Fores et al (1999) discuss a particular application of a mathematical programming solution technique.
     

    Clark, Martyn & Fores, Sarah, (2000), Strategic Teaching for Strategic Students , School of Computing Research Report Series Report 2000.24

    Fores, Sarah & Proll, Les, (1998) Driver scheduling by integer linear programming - the TRACS II approach, FTP:ftp://ftp.comp.leeds.ac.uk/scs/doc/repo rts/1998/98_01.ps.Z [16th March 2001]

    Fores, Sarah, Proll, Les & Wren, Anthony, (1999), An Improved ILP System for Driver Scheduling, in: Computer-Aided Transit Scheduling, Wilson, N H M (editor), pp.43-62, Springer Verlag.

    Proll, Les, Constraint Programming and OR Home Page, URL:http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/sacm/ [15th March 2001]

    Simpson, L, (1996), Do decision makers know what they prefer?: MAVT and ELECTRE II, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47(7): pp.919-929.

    Sonka, M, Hlavac, V & Boyle, R D, (1998), Image Processing, Analysis and Machine Vision, 2nd edition, PWS.

    For more than three authors note that the format 'Jones et al' should be employed in the text with all authors included in the citation in the listing of the references at the end of the text.

The style recommended for projects within the School of Computing is to cite by author and order references alphabetically. Whatever style is adopted please ensure that it is consistent throughout the report.

Page Numbering

The pages preceding the body of the text i.e. from 'Summary' to 'Contents' inclusive should be sequentially numbered in Roman numerals. All the remaining pages should be numbered in a single sequence of Arabic numerals.