MSc Dissertations Q&A

14/12/2023

Agenda

• General Info about the dissertation allocation, supervision process and timeline

• Questions to me

• Coffee and Cake!

Allocation Process

• Projects are shared with you by end of Feb 2024

• Students submit their ranked preference list of 6 projects by the end of March (deadline to be set ) via a MS Forms (to be shared on Minerva)

• We match you with a project within your ranked choice (trying to maximize your happiness!)

• If you applied for a CRDC or Competition Based project and you did not get answer by the expression of preference deadline, please submit your choices anyway

• Promptly let me know of your CDRC/Competition Bases outcome

• The dissertation allocation will be communicated to the students at the beginning of May 2024

Supervision Info

• Dissertation work starts in early June, after your last exam
• Contact your supervisor before June to arrange an informal meeting  
• You and your supervisor(s) should arrange up to 6 hours of meetings (modalities to be agreed) - do this as soon as possible
• Consecutive meetings should not be more than 2-3 weeks apart
• Your supervisor will monitor your progress
• Students are expected to be on campus during their dissertation work

Good Practice

• Share a short report with your supervisor(s) ~2 days ahead of every meeting
• Practice on using latex with the provided template on Minerva. A very good online tool is overleaf
• Create a project on GitHub to share with your supervisor(s). (ABC for a Data Scientist!)
• Learn how to use GitHub. Very good tutorials here: Atalassian and Software Carpentries

DSA Timeline & details

Sta./Appl.Fin. Timeline & details

Useful Links

Previous Year Projects Description

MATH5872:https://minerva.leeds.ac.uk/ultra/courses/_551438_1/outline/file/_11635764_1

MATH5871: https://minerva.leeds.ac.uk/ultra/courses/_549032_1/outline/file/_11636170_1

Data Science Competition Related to

Climate Change

The competition aims to help researchers estimate the extent of Giant Kelp Forests by segmenting Landsat satellite imagery

https://www.drivendata.org/competitions/255/kelp-forest-segmentation/

Top prize is $7,500

• You can use any language you like (Python,R,MATLAB etc) but there is an additional bonus prize of $3,000 for the top user who makes use of MATLAB a lot.  There can even be a mixture of languages if they like!
• Anyone who wants to mix languages might be interested in this webinar by Mike Croucher https://uk.mathworks.com/videos/matlab-meets-python-amplifying-research-impact-with-cross-platform-integration-1700512365370.html?s_tid=srchtitle_videos_main_13_python
• If you choose MATLAB, In this blog post you can get an idea of how to get started with this competition in https://blogs.mathworks.com/student-lounge/2023/11/29/kelp-wanted-challenge-starter-code/

Your Opinion Matters!

Do you think that Data Skills that you are learning are aligned with the needs and expectations of industry?

Take part in our Data Skills Literacy survey!

This Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) study gives you the voice to influence any skills gaps, shape your curriculum, and improve your employability.

Grab the chance to win £50 Amazon/Love2Shop Vouchers for participating to the survey. You will also be asked to be involved in further interviews/focus groups (incentive of £10 Amazon/Love2Shop vouchers per hour).

Visit my LITE project page for more details.

Your Opinion Matters!

Time for Coffee& Cake!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!