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Students who
wish to commence honours project work must meet the following minimum
requirements:
-
fulfil the requirements for one major at B.Sc.
level; and
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obtain an overall CAP of at least 3.50; and
-
have accumulated 100 MCs.
Objectives
The Honours project consists
of a systematic study and elaboration of a topic. It is
intended to
-
give students the opportunity to work
independently;
-
encourage students develop and exhibit aspects of
their ability that may not be revealed by the usual written
examination;
-
foster skills that will be of continuing
usefulness in their later career, such as
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determination of relevant sources;
-
critical analysis of source material;
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organization of relevant material;
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presentation in written form;
-
presentation in spoken form.
Individual
Project
In an Individual Project,
a student either chooses a topic from an approved
list or proposes one based on his interest. An
account of the knowledge gained is given in a project report. The work is done
under the guidance of a supervisor.
Click
here for the guidelines on
completing
an
Individual Project.
Project cum
Seminar Group
In a
Project cum Seminar Group, a
number of students are allocated with the same topic will work
together with the supervisor but will each submit a final report upon
completion.
Objective
Introduced since
AY2007/08, the structure of Project cum Seminar Group complements the
existing format of Individual Project and it is aimed at
majority of
the
students.
Apart from strengthening
the department’s ability to handle the surge in number of Honours
students, one important purpose of introducing this new project
structure is to widen the training of students to cover more “skills”
from the current approach which is “content oriented”. While Mathematics
content of such projects is obviously still essential, students are
expected to put in more effort to improve their communication and
presentation skills of academic subjects and the ability to work within
a team.
Eligibility
Students who start project
work in
2007/08 and 2008/09, and who have CAP below 4.25 would be asked to
participate in Project cum Seminar Groups. Students in the same cohorts
who have CAP greater than or equal to 4.25 would be given the option to
choose between working in a Project cum Seminar Group and an individual
project.
Students who start project work in 2009/10 and later, and who have CAP below 4.00 would be
asked to participate in Project cum Seminar Groups. Students in the same
cohorts who have CAP greater than or equal to 4.00 would be given the
option to choose between working in a Project cum Seminar Group and an
individual project.
Click
here for the guidelines on
completing
work in a
Project cum Seminar Group.
Students who opt for
Individual Projects will follow the assessment process for
Individual Projects.
Writing the Report
Notes &
Referencing in the Report
Principal original sources of the material for the project should
be consulted as far as possible, in addition to accounts that may be found
in textbooks or surveys. All sources that have been used should be
explicitly noted in the
report.
The status of the results in the project, whether they are new and obtained
by the student or whether they are obtained by others, should be
stated.
Report
Summary
A student, in consultation with the supervisor, should write a
summary of about 300 words on the nature and scope of the project. The
summary should be bound with the project report. It should contain a
statement highlighting the contributions made by the student.
The statement should include, if
any,
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the student's own ideas, own results, own proof, own
interpretations, own examples or counterexamples, own computer
programmes which he/she does not obtain from other sources. The relevant
parts of the written thesis which contain such contributions should be
explicitly stated.
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improvements made by the students on existing theorems, proofs,
etc. found in books or papers. The sources from which the results are
improved upon should be mentioned explicitly.
A suggested format for the summary is appended below. Some examples of the
Statement of the author's
contributions are also included.
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SUMMARY
(Nature
and scope of the written report)
........
(Statement of the author's
contributions)
Example 1.
Theorem 3.5 is new and is a partial converse of the Buck-Cai
Theorem ([2], page 124). Theorem 4.1 is a slight generalization of
Theorem 1.6 in Bukhill ([3], page 96), and the proof is modelled on
Bukhill's proof.
Example 2.
In [5]
it is stated, without proof, that the converse of Theorem 3.2 is
false, and this is substantiated by a counterexample, see Example
5.3. In the proof of Theorem 4.2, I have made use of a perturbation
technique which avoids the lengthy calculations used in ([5], page
135, and [8], page 436).
Example 3.
I have
obtained a new representation (Theorem 3.2) for the multivariate
B-splines which is analogous to the divided difference
representation in the one-dimensional case. A comparison of the
computational efficiency of the methods available for the evaluation
of multivariate B-splines and their integrals is studied in Section
3. Two computer programmes have been written and they are included n
the Appendix.
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Pointers for Oral Presentation
Things to do
Before the presentation:
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Identify the main results and main ideas in your
thesis. Focus on them
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Try to put across a few main ideas to give the
"flavour" of your project
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Prepare and organize presentation aids in advance
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Make sure your notation is consistent throughout the
presentation
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Draw diagrams, give tables and plots to help bring
across the ideas to the
audience
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Have a practice presentation with a friend (not your
supervisor)
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Time yourself, allowing the audience plenty of time
to read each OHP slide.
During the presentation:
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Give an outline for the presentation
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Highlight the main results. Give motivation as to
why you think they are interesting
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Give some applications and/or connections with other
topics you know of
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Speak clearly and maintain eye contact with the
audience
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Be enthusiastic about your presentation
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Work out some examples during the presentation to
illustrate definitions, Theorems...
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Make sure the audience can follow the presentation
to some extent; be prepared to pause and clarify if the audience looks
puzzled
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Use only 35 minutes for presentation and leave some
time for questions
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Give a brief summary before concluding the talk
Things not to do
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Write up a set of notes and read them out loud word
for word
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Introduce lots of definitions and notation
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Carry out proofs in full detail
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State a long list of Theorems and Lemmas
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Stand right in front of the overhead projector all
the time
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Give excessive details of proofs without the main
idea
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Cram everything in the thesis into the
presentation
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Go over time
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Rush
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Try to say in 35 minutes everything you have learnt
in the previous 6 months
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Pretend to know everything
Reading Materials on giving effective
lecture/talks
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Chapter 3 of "Handbook on Teaching" by Daphne
Pan et al, printed by NUS
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"Effective Presentation"
by
Pat Levy, Longman
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"The
Art of Lecturing: Some Practical Suggestions"
by Clark and Clark, Cambridge,
Heffer
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"Handbook of Writing for Mathematical Science"
by N.J. Higham,
SIAM
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