[Academic] FAO: fourth year project supervisors

[Kevin Peter O'Donnell]

With apologies for broadcasting a long message, this email is intended for the attention of FYP supervisors only. Hit delete if you are not involved.

The project students have submitted a 'literature survey' as part of their project preparation. Although not formally assessed, this review usually informs the final report. To establish a common structure for the review, or preview, the students received these instructions via MyPlace a week before the deadline:


Essentially we (The Supervisors) are carrying out a 'sanity check' to establish that you understand: 

1) the physics involved in the project; 
2) the current state-of-the-art of the topic area; 
3) how you intend to make progress (i.e. what will you actually do to achieve your aims?) 
and 4) how success will be measured. 

I expect you to be able to do all this on a single sheet of A4, or less, with an additional sheet for important key references, some of which may already have been supplied to you.

Since these are early days, the survey is not expected to be complete by any means. However it will usually form the basis of the first chapter of your Final Report, and is worth some thought at this time.


I have scanned and briefly annotated the copies that came to me via MyPlace. They will be distributed to supervisors through the internal mail system next week. You may find it helpful to discuss the comments and any further points you may have with your students at this time.

Please note the following general points:

1) Rather few students (~20% of 50) thought to include the name of their supervisor in the heading. This will be a requirement in future.

1b) A few students forgot to include their own names and/or a project title.

2) The quality of scientific writing by our student is generally low, with excessive use of jargon, vagueness of expression and wooly logic being common faults.

3) A surprising number of students don't know how to quote references in a standard format.

Points 2) and 3) should be addressed in future by PH355 Physics Skills.


Any questions, please email me. Thanks again for your co-operation in this exercise,


Kevin


K.P. O'Donnell
Professor of Semiconductor Spectroscopy
University of Strathclyde
SUPA Department of Physics
John Anderson Building 8.20
107 Rottenrow East
Glasgow G4 0NG
Scotland, UK

Tel (office), Voicemail (after N rings): +141 548 3365 
Tel (lab): ++ 3458, 2309 
Fax: +141 552 2891
http://ssd.phys.strath.ac.uk/index.php/Main_Page

The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263










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