Geospatial Science and Technology Project

Description

Nau mai ki GEOG693 – welcome to GEOG693. This course comprises a supervised research project that runs over the summer and is the final requirement for completing the Master of Geospatial Science and Technology.

The topic of the project can either be proposed by the student, or offered by a staff member in the School of Earth and Environment (or outside SEE or even the industry if it is necessary due to the topic’s focus). Normally, the students will have a general idea of the area in Geospatial Science and Technology that is of interest for them the most, and based on that they will talk to a few potential supervisors about their availability and willingness to supervise them. The course coordinator can help directing the students towards corresponding academics based on their interests. The course coordinator will also be assessing whether the research topic is appropriate for this course, in terms of level, amount of work required and quality.

The topics that are acceptable for this project should belong to the wider area of Geospatial Science and Technology, or from a different area but incorporating a strong geospatial component (for e.g. analysis, mapping and so on).

The students are supervised each by a single supervisor. In some cases, there might be a need to have a supervisor plus an advisor, especially in cases where the supervisor lacks sufficient basic understanding of e.g. GIS). The supervision scheme in this case will be discussed and agreed upon in advance with the course coordinator.

The project report should have a clear geospatial component in the form of geospatial data collection/processing/analysis/visualization methods used to address the research problem and proper maps/cartographic outputs following established cartographic principles. There should be proper citation and a consistent referencing style (preferably APA). The structure of the report should follow scientific writing principles (i.e. it should have introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections).

The work done by the student on the project should be original. Plagiarism, if identified, will result into student failing the course.

The course has three stages: research proposal submission, final project submission and final presentation. Each of these are assessed by both the supervisor and the course coordinator.

The overall aim of the course is to allow students to apply the diverse knowledge they have gained throughout the PMGST on a topic of interest, and gain transferrable skills on scientific research, scientific writing and communication of research outcomes.