Use the Tab and Up, Down arrow keys to select menu items.
Engineering Research Project
The third professional year project is very different to all other final year courses. It is not based on formal lectures, laboratories and tutorials, but instead allows you to research a problem that interests you under the close supervision of an academic staff member. The vast majority of students who undertake the project find it a very rewarding experience.Students who are wishing to pursue future postgraduate study will see the project as an excellentopportunity to sample the postgraduate research environment, and to explore possible avenues future research.The majority of students will enrol in the semester 2 project course, ENCN493X1. Some studentsmay enrol in the full year project course, ENCN493X, but only for special circumstances that require an approval from the Third Pro Coordinator. Both courses are worth 30 points or 0.25EFTS.All projects, with a few exceptions due to special circumstances, are undertaken in pairs. Thisapproach has a number of advantages. Firstly, group projects enable more ambitious projects to be tackled; secondly, the skill of working as part of a team is seen as very important by future employers; and thirdly the number of projects (and accompanying resources) that need to be made available is substantially less than if the projects were done individually.The culmination of the project is the CNRE Research Conference 2021 to be held at the end of theacademic year. This conference attempts to emulate the type of environment you would encounter if you attended a conference either as a professional engineer or as a researcher. You and your partner will present the results of your work to an audience of your peers, academics and possibly industry representatives, and you will have the opportunity to hear about the research of your fellow students. In keeping with our intention to emulate a real conference there will be an invited keynote speaker to launch the conference.
Upon completing this course, you will have achieved the following learning objectives, eachof which are associated with the specified UC andWashington Accord graduate attributes: Formulate an open-ended research question or hypothesis(Washington Accord WA2, WA12), (UC EIE3, EIE5) Critically evaluate published literature in the field of a research project to assess its novelty and impact (Washington Accord WA2, WA12), (UC EIE3, GA2) Choose appropriate research methods after considering a set of potential options (Washington Accord WA5, WA12), (UC EIE3, EIE5) Work as a team to execute a research project within stipulated time and budget constraints Washington Accord WA1 WA2, WA4, WA9, WA11) (UC EIE1, EIE3, EIE5) Write an academic paper summarising the findings of a research study(Washington Accord WA10), (UC EIE2, EIE4) Orally present and defend research findings at a technical conference, (Washington Accord WA10), (UC EIE2, EIE4)
EMTH210, ENCI199, ENCN201, ENCN213, ENCN221, ENCN231, ENCN242, ENCN253, ENCN261, ENCN281, ENCN301
ENCI493, ENCI494, ENCN494
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Reagan Chandramohan
Lourdes D'Coutho
One of the objectives of the project is to provide you with the experience of working within a research environment. In order to make this experience more realistic the project will attempt to simulate the process of undertaking research that leads to the presentation of your results at a research conference. This conference, the “CNRE Research Conference 2021”, will be held at the end of the academic year. Each project team will prepare a concise conference paper to be included in the conference proceedings, and deliver an oral presentation at the conference itself. Full details regarding the conference will be provided towards the end of the year.The assessment for the project is based on this conference model and details of the assessmentschedule can be found in Appendix A. The milestones associated with the assessment are listed in Appendix B.The oral presentations will be judged by expert panels and prizes will be awarded for the most outstanding presentations.Attendance at the conference is compulsory for all students. Please put the date and time in your diary now.Assessment of the project will take a number of forms and will involve the supervisor, an independent assessor (someone not on the supervisory team) and an oral panel. In addition, the student members of the project team will provide the supervisor with guidance on some aspects of the assessment. In general terms the assessment is designed to address three key areas: research quality, communication ability, and professionalism. Some of these aspects will be judged on the team performance while others will be based on individual performance. In addition, the supervisor of each project will form a judgement on the individual contribution of each student to the project outcomes and may, if they see reason to do so, adjust the marks of each student, up or down, to reflect this.Artificial intelligenceYou may use Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and DALLůE in your research, as longas you use them ethically and responsibly, by strictly adhering to the instructions provided below.These instructions have been designed to fulfil three key objectives:Although these broad instructions are applicable to most projects, you are encouraged to have adetailed discussion on the appropriate level of AI use in your specific project with your advisor. You are ultimately responsible for the work you submit. The unauthorised use of AI in your work will invite disciplinary action.AI tools may be used to assist in the process of finding, collating, and summarising knowledge ona particular topic. Nevertheless, it is your responsibility to verify the authenticity, accuracy, andcompleteness of this information. Bear in mind that information provided by the current generation of AI tools can be incomplete, incoherent, misleading, and biased at best; and outright incorrect at worst. Hence, you will find it helpful to constantly challenge them and ask them to justify their statements.Research is inherently a creative process, and AI tools cannot yet match the complex reasoningabilities of human beings. Hence, although you may use AI tools to assist in the process of conducting your research like developing a work plan, choosing suitable methods, interpreting data, and drawing inferences, you are advised to be sceptical and cautious of its responses. You may seek and consider the inputs of AI tools, but you must finally rely on your own intuition and experience to make all research decisions, for which you will be completely responsible.Relying entirely on AI tools to conduct your research will inevitably result in poor quality outputsand consequently, a low grade. It will also defeat an important learning outcome of this course,which is to develop your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.You are not permitted to use AI tools to write the paper (or even parts of it) on your behalf, although you may use them to help edit your own writing. In other words, you must assume the role of the author, although you may delegate the editor’s role to AI. In more practical terms, you must not use AI tools to generate original text that you then either copy verbatim or paraphrase into your paper.You must, instead, transfer thoughts and ideas originating in your mind into words yourself. Youmay then use AI tools to correct your spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and improve your writing style, to better communicate your own original thoughts. When using AI tools in this manner, you must check to see that it has not altered the substantive message contained in your original text, bearing in mind that text generated by AI can often be incoherent and contradictory.You may use AI tools to help generate your figures, but you must ensure that the figures are neatand professional, and meet all the requirements for placement in a scholarly article. The use of AImust be acknowledged in the caption of the figure.You must mention the specific AI tools you used in your research, and the manner in which theywere used, in the Acknowledgement section of your paper. Failure to adequately disclose the useof AI in your work could lead to disciplinary action. If your assessors have any reason to suspectthe unauthorised use of AI, they may invite you to an interview and ask you to explain what youhave written to them. They will then use your responses to ascertain whether or not to initiatedisciplinary action against you.You may seek inputs from AI tools on the design your poster and presentation slides, and to generate any graphics contained in them. You must, however, rely on your own creativity and design skills to make all final design decisions. You must also write all the words contained in them yourself. As in the paper though, you may use AI tools to edit the words you have written. The specific AI tools and the manner in which they were used must be disclosed at the end of your poster and presentation.
Domestic fee $2,393.00
International fee $12,000.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .