The assessment has two parts: an oral presentation (worth 35% of the final mark), and a written report using LaTeX (worth 65% of the final mark).

The task is to give a talk on the topic of your current research interests, using a series of slides suitable for display via a laptop driven data projector.

MSc Students - the talk will be 10 minutes long, based on your first semester mini-project topic, and will take place in the last three weeks of the Autumn Term.

PhD Students - the talk will be 15 minutes long, based on your current PhD topic, and will take place in the first three weeks of the Spring Term.

The audience for the talks will be the module lecturer (who will assess the talk), the other students taking the Research Skills module, any staff who have an interest in particular talks, plus anyone else you wish to invite. There will be time after each presentation for questions, discussion and feedback.

A short informative title and abstract must be emailed to the module lecturer (j.a.bullinaria@cs.bham.ac.uk) at least two working days before your talk.

Marks will be awarded according to:

1. the effectiveness of the title and abstract (10%)
2. the effective use of slides (and any other props) (20%)
3. how well the talk conveyed the key ideas of the research (30%)
4. the professionalism of the presentation (30%)
5. responses to questions (10%)

The detailed timetable for the talks will be published on the module web-site. Failure to show up and present your talk at the alloted time will result in a mark of zero for it.

The task is to produce a written report containing:

1. a description of how you carried out a literature review for your chosen research topic
2. an overview of between ten and twenty of the most important publications you found, including correct referencing of them
3. an explnation of how you decided which were the most important publications
4. a discussion of any problems or difficulties you had to overcome in carrying out your review, and how confident you are that you have not missed any important publications
5. an outline of your approach for managing your studies, including a discussion of any relevant work/time management issues

The report should be produced using LaTeX and employ an appropriate publisher's house style and style-sheet (e.g., that for Springer's Lecture Notes in Computer Science Series). The reference list should be produced using BibTeX. The report should include at least one table, at least one equation, and at least one embedded PostScript figure. It should be not more than 5000 words long.

You need to submit:

1. the final output of your formatted document (i.e. a print-out of the PostScript of PDF file generated from your LaTeX file)
2. a CD containing all the associated LaTeX, BibTex and other source files (including your chosen style files) needed to produce that document

Marks will be awarded according to:

1. how well you carried out the literature search (20%)
2. the quality of your discussion concerning the process you followed (20%)
3. the quality of the literature overview you produced (20%)
4. your approach to work management and your description of it (20%)
5. how effectively LaTeX and BibTeX were used to produce your report, and how well these instructions were followed (20%)

Hand-in deadline: 12noon Thursday 13 December 2007.

Work should be handed in to the School's reception with the standard cover sheet. You will be given a receipt. For late hand-ins, the mark will be reduced by 8% for each University working day it is late (rounded up to the nearest full working day).