Geospatial Data Science Project

Description

Nau mai ki GEOG693 – welcome to GEOG693. This course comprises a supervised research/technical project and is the final requirement for completing the Master of Geospatial Data Science.
The topic of the project can be proposed by the student or recommended by industry or a university member. Normally, the students will have a general idea of the area in Geospatial Data Science that is most of interest to them, and should discuss with potential supervisors their availability and willingness to supervise. The course coordinator can help directing the students towards corresponding academics based on their interests.

Students are required to have at least one supervisor based at the University of Canterbury. This supervisor can be chosen from any discipline or department. Students are typically supervised by a single supervisor. In some cases, another supervisor may be involved given domain or technical expertise, availability during the project, or as an additional advisor in cases in which the supervisor lacks sufficient experience with geospatial. Non-academic supervisors (for example, individuals from industry or government) are allowed, but a UC supervisor must also be appointed. The supervision scheme in these cases should be discussed and agreed upon in advance with the course coordinator.

The course coordinator will assess 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 fall within the broad field of Geospatial Data Science and incorporate a strong geospatial component (e.g., analysis, mapping). The project report should have a clear geospatial component in the form of use, development, or advancement of geospatial data collection/processing/analysis/visualization methods used to address the research problem and proper maps/cartographic outputs following established cartographic principles.

The course has three stages: research proposal submission, final project submission and final presentation. The structure of the report should follow scientific writing principles (i.e., it should have introduction, methods, results, and discussion sections). There should be proper citation and a consistent referencing style (preferably APA).

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