MRES IN MODELLING BIOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE MAIN RESEARCH PROJECT

A list of last years summer project proposals can be found here.

A list of last years PhD project proposals is also available from here.

TIMETABLE

Hard copy of the Projects should be submitted to the supervisors and the course administrator. A complete electronic version should be sent to the supervisors, course directors and to the CoMPLEX administrator. Please make sure you have a cover page with the title of your essay, the names of the two supervisors, your name and the total word count.

CHOOSING A PROJECT

1. In keeping with the philosophy of CoMPLEX, all projects should have two supervisors, one with biological expertise and one with expertise in the mathematical or physical sciences. At least one of the supervisors must be at UCL.

2. Projects cover all the topics within the remit of CoMPLEX. They include the general areas of the collaborative research presentations, though care must be taken to avoid significant overlap by any student between a report written on one of these and the main project (see 8 below). The basic principle is that no student can receive credit twice for the same material. If in any doubt students should seek guidance from the course directors.

3. A list of possible topics will be circulated. Students can choose any of these. Members of the course steering committee will be happy to offer advice and assistance in making choices. It may be possible to modify the project outline to suit the particular interests of the student subject to agreement by the supervisors. In exceptional circumstances, it is possible for students to arrange their own project but this would need to be approved by the course directors.

4. Completed projects are expected to contain a significant amount of original research (see 19 below). Students and supervisors should ensure at the outset that this is a realistic goal within the constraints of the chosen topic.

5. Two or more students can undertake projects in the same general area. The final report must however be each individual's own work and must make clear their own individual contribution to the research carried out. Any material that is drawn from elsewhere (including other students, textbooks, journals, public domain software etc) must be clearly identified and its source cited. Students' attention is drawn to the UCL regulations regarding plagiarism, displayed in Wolfson House. In case of any doubt regarding these matters, students should seek the guidance of their supervisors and/or the course directors.

6. Students must submit two choices from the approved list of projects, indicating their preference. The final selection of projects will require endorsement by the course organisers. If the project planned differs from the outline in the list of projects, students should indicate the nature of the differences. The deadline for submission is 5pm 11th May 2007, with choices sent to .

PROJECT PROPOSAL

7. Once a decision has been made, the student should set out a more detailed account of the research proposal. Supervisors are not required to sign this unless a project has been chosen which is not on the official list. This proposal should ideally be one page of A4, and must be no more than a maximum of 2 pages in a font no smaller than 12 point Times. This should be submitted to complex@ucl.ac.uk before the oral presentation (see 9 below).

8. The proposal should describe the background to the project, make a scientific case for carrying it out, state the goals against which the project will be assessed (see 13 below), outline a timetable and provide a summary of the resources required. Students should not forget that supervisors' time is a resource, and that supervisors may well be at conferences for a significant part of the summer: plan accordingly. The proposal should indicate the relationship (if any) between the proposed project and any of the essays already written by the student. If the project is in the same general area as one of the essays, the project proposal must clearly demonstrate how the project will differ from previously submitted material (see 2 above).

9. Students will give a brief oral presentation, 10 minutes talk, 5 minutes for questions, on their proposal, on June 4th 2007.

10. The work carried out to choose a project, prepare a proposal and present it orally will be assessed as part of the generic skills component of the course.

PROJECT REPORTS

11. Students will submit a report on the work undertaken for their project by 5pm, 31st August 2007. Students should submit complete paper copies to the supervisors and the CoMPLEX administrator and electronic copies by email to the course directors and the CoMPLEX administrator. In the latter case, the electronic version must include all of the material in the paper copy, preferably in a single file.

12. The regulations state that the maximum length of the report is 30,000 words. This is understood to be the upper limit and reports significantly shorter than this can still achieve maximum marks. The word count does not include figures, tables, displayed equations or references, nor supplementary material in appendices. Students are thus encouraged to ensure that the main part of the report is clearly focused, and that detailed material that would distract from this (eg technical mathematical derivations, computer program listings, DNA sequences etc) are placed in an appendix. In case of uncertainty, the advice of supervisors and/or course directors should be sought.

13. The report should refer back to the project proposal, and indicate to what extent the original goals have been met. However, it is accepted that in any kind of research project, the outcomes cannot be predicted in advance. It is therefore, in principle, possible to envisage a project that attains none of its original goals but still achieves maximum marks (though this should not be seen as an excuse to set unrealistic goals, see 19i and ii below). In such a case it is imperative that the student clearly indicates why it was not possible to attain particular goals and how the project was modified in light of this. Students are strongly encouraged to seek advice of supervisors and/or course directors in such cases.

14. Computer animations, or other types of media, can be included as part of the report, as long as satisfactory arrangements can be made for the board of examiners to view such material.

PROJECT ASSESSMENT

15. The project is worth 40% of the total MRes mark.

16. Each project report will be read by the two supervisors and an independent assessor. They will each write a brief assessment on the specially designed assessment form and assign a percentage mark and a project grade. If they so wish, the two supervisors may produce a single joint assessment and mark with individual marks and an agreed overall mark. The external examiner will be given an opportunity to read all the reports and to confirm his/her agreement with the assigned mark (but will not give an independent mark themselves).

17. The grading scheme used throughout the whole MRes is the standard University of London master's one:

18. Examiners should satisfy themselves that the report is the work of the candidate (this is perhaps best done during the viva), and should take into account the following points:

• English style, spelling and grammar
• the readability and coherence of both the written and the verbal presentations
• the difficulty and novelty of the subject
• the amount of supervision the student received
• the level of originality and innovation involved

19.To justify grade C or higher there should be evidence of all of the following

1. the candidate understands the biological background of the project, and has formulated a clear biological problem to investigate.
2. the candidate has chosen appropriate methods from the mathematical and physical sciences to address the biological problem.
3. the candidate is aware of the relationship between the biological and mathematical parts of the subject.
4. the candidate has carried out some original work of their own that makes a contribution, no matter how minor, to existing knowledge. In assessing this aspect, examiners should bear in mind the limited time available for the project, and the fact that negative results are as valid as positive ones.
5. the candidate has presented their work in a clear and logical fashion, has indicated its relationship to the existing body of published work and has given appropriate credit to relevant sources.

20.Grade A should only be awarded where the project contains evidence of novel results, techniques or ideas that the examiners judge are of a standard worthy of publication. This does not imply that the project must be deemed to be publishable without requiring further work.

21.Grade D should be awarded if the material, though correct, is judged to be wholly copied in a purely mechanical manner.

22.Grades A, B or C may be awarded subject to minor corrections being made by the end of October 2007.

23.Reports longer than 30,000 words (not including appendices, tables and program listings) should be penalized.

24.Penalties for late submission: 5% (compounded) of the awarded mark will be deducted for each working day or part thereof. This will be waived in the case of exceptional circumstances (supported by appropriate documentation). Note however that students are expected to plan their time sensibly, and take appropriate precautions to back-up and safe-guard their work. In most cases, computer failures, virus infections or similar will therefore not be regarded as sufficient excuse for late submission. Students must back up their work at regular intervals.

25.Account should be taken of any relevant medical or personal problems. The intention is to allow each candidate to show what they are capable of, not to make them jump through hoops!

ORAL PRESENTATION

26. Students will give a final oral presentation (10 minutes, plus 5 minutes for questions) on their project on June 4th 2007. Although this does not have a formal mark attached to it, it will be taken into consideration in the assessment of the project report, particularly in borderline cases and for the generic skills component.

ORAL EXAMINATION

27. Every student will undergo an oral examination by the board of examiners, which includes the external examiner). This will take place on the day of examiners' board meeting at the end of September and can cover any aspect of the course.