PURPOSE
ADMINISTRATION
DURATION
COURSE
CODES AND ELIGIBILITY
ACADEMIC
TRANSCRIPTS
The School has two courses to provide opportunities for research in
computing by talented undergraduate students:
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Basic Undergraduate Research in Computing |
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Advanced Undergraduate Research in Computing |
The aim of these two courses is to foster intellectual exchange and collaboration between undergraduates and academic staff members. It allows undergraduates to participate in active research at the School of Computing, and to experience at first hand the challenges and exhilaration of discovery and invention. Students will be working at, or near, the frontiers of computing research and this will complement their coursework.
Students will conduct research under the supervision of academic staff members of the School of Computing. Typically, the research involves the following activities: problem identification, literature survey, attending research seminars, proposal and implementation of solution, evaluation, and documentation and presentation of results.
The relative importance of each of the above activities can vary widely depending on the chosen research topic (from basic research to applied research to application development). The emphasis in CS2288 is to build up a good research foundation. With this foundation, CS3288 involves a more substantive independent research project. Students taking CS3288 will not have to do CS3101/CS3102 as CS3288 will be used to satisfy the CS3101/2 project requirement of the School of Computing.
The final target of these courses will be a UROP research report that will be evaluated through an oral presentation. The oral presentation will be in August for CS2288. For CS3288, the oral presentation will be held at the same time as that for CS3101/2 project presentations.
Both courses will be administered by a UROP Coordinator, under the Office of Special Programmes in the School of Computing.
These research courses shall start in the first week of Semester I vacation (mid-Nov). Students will do 6 weeks of full-time research during the Semester I vacation. During the first 7 weeks of the following Semester II, students will spend about 3 hours per week on related readings and seminar attendance. The programme comes to a temporary halt for the rest of Semester II to enable students to prepare for and take their Semester II examinations. The student then continues for another 9 weeks of full-time research during the Semester II vacation, at the end of which he/she will submit a paper for publication in the Proceedings of the National Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (NUROP) Congress. The NUROP Congress is held annually in September.
Course Codes, Eligibility and Registration
Only students with good academic results (with a minimum CAP of 3.2 and/or B grade in relevant subjects) may apply to join the UROP courses.
A student can only do one UROP course (CS2288 or CS3288) during each academic year. Registration is done off-line, and students will not be able to use the online registration system for this.
A student intending to take the CS3288course, must have completed CS2288 with a recommendation from the supervisor/mentor. It is preferable (but not compulsory) that the research topic undertaken in CS2288 be related to the project proposed for CS3288. This is to allow CS2288 to serve as a foundation for the more substantial CS3288 project. Exemption from the CS2288 pre-requisite may be granted by the Office of Special Programmes.
Under the Modular System, a student taking CS2288 will have to register for the usual load of each semester. It is not counted in the workload computation since it is done mostly in the vacations.
The CS3288 course shall be read in lieu of the CS3101/2 project module. CS3288 does NOT figure in the workload computation for the first semester. However, it will be factored in the workload computation as 2 courses during the July-October semester.
Students taking CS2288 or CS3288 will be permitted to read at most one module during the Special Term in May-June. If a student wishes to read two modules (in addition to CS2288 or CS3288) during the Special Term, he/she must have written approval from the Office of Special Programmes in the School of Computing.
The Office of Special Programmes will supply the names of CS3288 students for offline pre-registration for the July-October semester . Students doing CS3288 are expected to continue working on the project after Semester II until end of the following Semester I, during which they will write a report and give a presentation as required of other students taking CS3101/2.
A student who has completed the CS2288 course will have his/her transcript credited with 4 modular credits (one module for those in the transition system), and an appropriate grade (from A+ to F). A student who has completed CS3288 course will have his/her transcript credited with 10 modular credits (two modules for those in the transition system) and the appropriate grade (from A+ to F). The grade obtained for both courses will be used to compute the CAP.
A student can withdraw from a CS2288 or CS3288 course by the second week of Semester II (i.e., second week of January) without any penalty. Likewise, a supervisor/mentor can terminate a project by the second week of Semester II. A student can request a change of supervisor if his/her project has been terminated by his/her supervisor by the second week of Semester II. This is subject to the consent of the new supervisor and the UROP Coordinator.
No withdrawal/termination/change of supervisors will be allowed after the second week of the Semester II. A student who withdraw from the CS2288/CS3288 after this date shall be deemed to have failed in the course. Any special request for exemption from this rule will be dealt with, on a case-by-case basis, by the UROP Coordinator in consultation with the Office of Special Programmes.