Supervisor briefing notes (projects)

Part II project Supervisor information and guidance

Expectations

Supervising a Part II project is a slightly more involved process in comparison to supervising a course.

In the first instance supervisors will be working on a 1 to 1 basis with their student. The student will need to follow supervisors guidance on their research as well as the Part II project instructions.

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/part-ii/projects

Supervisors should ensure that they make themselves very familiar with these guidelines. Part II Projects provide 25% of the total marks awarded in Part II. Therefore, it is important that students receive careful attention from their project supervisor. If a project looks as though it might be headed towards any issues, supervisors should inform the student's DoS straightaway.

Students vary enormously in the level of project supervision they require, and the load is never even throughout the duration of the project. Supervisors should make regular progress enquiries even during periods when not much supervision is needed. If a student has more than one project supervisor, please be sure, at all times, who is responsible for monitoring progress and reporting to the DoS.

Project Structure

Supervisors will be the main person to give feedback to the student about their work. This feedback will need to be given prior to each submission. Supervisors should be aware of the important dates page:

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/part-ii/projects/dates

It is helpful if a basic version of the project is working as early as possible. A really-basic version could form part of the preparation for the main project. It is important that the main deliverable is working during Lent Term since students need time to conduct their evaluation and write their dissertation. Supervisor feedback on a working demonstration would be of benefit to the student and would be helpful when the students write their progress report due at the beginning of February. The evaluation is an important component of a successful project so please help the student by suggesting ways that the project can be evaluated and ensure they structure their work towards a good evaluation, rather than merely producing a working project.

People involved and Marking

There are various people that will have some involvement with the student and their project. These are outlined in the table below:

To explain the scenarios above:

All students will have a Director of Studies, this is a Computer Science expert who is affiliated with the College the student resides at.

Each student will need to find their own project supervisor. A project supervisor can be a PhD student, a Post Doc, a lecturer, member of research staff, or an external professional. The Part II students will be directed to the Part II project suggestions page to find project ideas and supervisors:

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/part-ii/projects/project-suggestions

A UTO supervisor (University Teaching Officer) for the purposes of the Part II projects is a member of the faculty, an affiliate lecturer or a recently retired member of the Computer Science faculty. It is the UTO Supervisor that will oversee the marking of the students alongside an examiner in the summer. If the Supervisor of a project is not a UTO, the supervisor will need to nominate one that would be suitable, making sure that they agree to oversee the marking of the project in the summer and the Supervisor should inform the Teaching Office who the UTO supervisor will be. If a supervisor needs any assistance in finding a UTO supervisor, please contact teaching-admin@cst.cam.ac.uk. Any supervisor that is also the students Director of Studies will need to find an alternative UTO supervisor to oversee the marking.

The project Checkers are members of the faculty, and they represent the Head of Department to ensure the students project is acceptable, appropriate and completion is attainable. They can make comments to the student via Moodle about the students Phase 1, 2 and 3 submissions in Michaelmas term and after the presentations in Lent term only. Their comments are likely to be minimal and they are to flag up any concerns with the students DoS and Supervisor. Project Checkers formally sign off project proposals, on behalf of the Head of Department, as required by the Tripos Regulations. Project Checkers also provide a departmental backup for cases where the Director of Studies at a College is inexperienced. Students will be assigned to Project Checkers initially on a random basis.

Each project will also be marked by an Examiner in June. The examiners are impartial to the student and their project throughout the year. The Examiner and the UTO supervisor will discuss and agree on the mark to be awarded.

For further information on marking please view:

 the Part II Projects Marking Proposal and the assessment page:
https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/part-ii/projects/assessment
 

For Marking and Classing:
https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/teaching/exams/marking-and-classing

Supervisor Report

You will be asked to write a report which will be discussed by the UTO Supervisor and examiner. This report will need to be received on the next Wednesday after the student has submitted their dissertation. Each student will also receive this feedback about their work once marking has been completed.

Experiments with Human Subjects

If a student's project interacts in any way with human subjects the student should request approval from the Laboratory's Ethics Committee by submitting an online application for ethics approval. Please read the Ethics Committee guidance.

Non-disclosure

A supervisor may, if they wish, sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in a personal capacity in order to help supervise a project with confidential content. However, please ensure that everything that is submitted for examination is unrestricted. The Examiners will not sign NDAs. The source code for the project that is created or substantially modified must be submitted along with the dissertation itself. However, libraries or other bodies of code that would be required to make the project run do not need to be submitted and could be subject to NDA. Please note that both the supervisor and the student sign any NDA in a personal capacity and that this does not impose any liability on the University.

Dissertation

Please make sure that the dissertation meets the required structure and has sufficient material in each chapter to match the expectations of the marking scheme. It is expected that the Supervisor and the DoS will both read drafts of the dissertation before it is submitted. Please ensure that the student allows sufficient time both for you to read the dissertation and for the student to make changes before it is submitted.

CamCORS Supervision Reports

Project supervisors are formally appointed by the student's Director of Studies at their College. Supervisors should register on the CamCORS supervision reporting system and file a report at the end of each term that includes the hours of supervision given. Payment for supervision will generally be approved by the DoS or Senior Tutor at the College shortly afterwards. Supervisors should ask the student's Director of Studies if they wish to know the mark awarded to a project they have supervised.