SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING

FOOD 5127/CEIC 8320

RESEARCH Project

SESSIONS 1 & 2, 2006

Welcome to your research project!

Please find following a course outline that provides you with information about:

Page

· COURSE STAFF 3
including a list of students and their supervisors, so that you can find out
the person with whom you will be working,

· COURSE INFORMATION 4
giving general information about the subjects, their relationships and aims

· ASSESSMENT 5
providing details of assessment components, work books, and prizes,

· ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM 9
defining requirements for intellectual honesty

· COURSE SCHEDULE 12
providing a timetable for your course components

· RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS 12
offering assistance on seminars and thesis

· CONTINUAL COURSE IMPROVEMENT 12
describing our efforts to improve the course each year, and

· ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 12
including details of School policies, health and safety and cleanup.

I will be your contact for the TWO projects CEIC 8320/FOOD 5127.

Jayashree Arcot

Co-ordinator of Masters Coursework programs (8033, 8016)

Course staff

You will be supervised by a member of academic staff in the school either in Session 1 or Session 2. Please contact academic staff in the to discuss possible projects and confirm topic and supervisor by week 2 in session 1 or session 2 depending on your enrolment in the course. Regular meetings with the supervisor then on are important for reviewing your progress.

Your academic supervisor will assist you in your project and should be the first point of contact to obtain information or resolve problems relating to the performance of the project. Please contact the course coordinator (Jayashree Arcot: j.arcot@unsw.edu.au, Ph: 9385 5360) for assistance with administrative details relating to the course.

The supervision of the project is left to the academic staff member, who has control over all aspects of the project. The responsibility for progress in the project is yours alone; your supervisor will give you advice and arrange workspace, chemicals and equipment.

Course information

The research project allows you to undertake original research in food science and technology, with guidance from a member of academic staff.

You are encouraged to think critically and analytically, in order to achieve creative solutions to problems. More than in any other part of the learning program, you will have the opportunity to develop skills for locating, evaluating and using relevant information. Research is carried out independently, within a collaborative and multidisciplinary framework. You will improve your communication skills by delivering oral presentations and by writing of a thesis that describes your work.

You will need to spend considerably more time than that allocated in order to get on top of your research project. The research project is 25% of your total program for the year.

Assessment

The research project is assessed on the basis of the skill demonstrated in scholarly enquiry and the effectiveness of communication, both written and oral:

FOOD 5127/CEIC 8320

Seminar 20%

Thesis mark from supervisor 50%

Thesis mark from assessor 30%

The seminar mark will be averaged from submissions by all staff. Supervisor and Assessor report forms which indicate assessment criteria and weightings will be provided during the induction in week 1 session 1 and 2.

Scholarly enquiry means an ability to locate, assess, organize and, ultimately, make use of information. In the research context, it includes the ability to test ideas and, at the highest level, to formulate them.

You are required to keep workbooks in which full and complete details of all research are recorded. The workbooks must be submitted along with the thesis at the end of the session and an electronic version of your thesis, along with key data files, must be submitted on an archival CD within one week of the submission of the thesis. The thesis will be awarded a mark of zero unless adequate workbooks are maintained and an archival CD is submitted.

For your personal records, keep copies of all the documents you submit.

You are required to clean up your work areas before you finish the research project. Your marks will be withheld until the work areas are clean and the cleanup certificate has been signed by the Laboratory Manager of your work areas.

Final dates for different components of your research project are as follows:

School due dates for projects starting in Session 1

Session 1 2006 Week	Coursework Masters Research Project FOOD5127/ CEIC 8320
1 to 2	choose topic
3	Introductory talks
4	*outline
6
9
11	*intro+lit review
11 to 14	Seminar I
13
14
Break	complete most experimental work
	To submit thesis by end July/start of session 2

School due dates for projects starting in Session 2

Session 2 2006 Week	Coursework Masters Major FOOD5127/CEIC 8320 12UOC S2 only
1 – 2	choose topic
3	Introductory talks
4	*outline
9
10	*intro+lit review
13	seminar
14
Summer session	*first draft, 8 December 2006 *Bound thesis 31 January 2007

*Submit this work to the School Office by 1pm, Friday, of the appropriate week. The office will keep records and will pass the work to your supervisor.

Except in the case of illness or other extenuating circumstances, assessment items will not normally be accepted after the due date. In the case of the thesis, this means that the student will fail the subject. If any assessment item, e.g. the thesis, is accepted after the due date without any extenuating circumstances, the student will be VERY heavily penalized for every HOUR that it is late. You MUST meet deadlines for submission of assessment components.

This is a quote from School policy:
'The deadline for submission of Masters Coursework research projects is fixed by the course coordinator and cannot be changed by the project supervisor. Requests for extensions must be made through a formal application for special consideration through the school.'

Project outline

The student should submit a draft of the project outline to the School Office. The project outline (maximum 5 x A4 double-space typed pages) is a basis for discussion of design of the project with the supervisor. It should contain:

· Background and justification for project

· Principal aims

· Methods and experimental design

· Expected outcomes

· Timetable for the project consistent with the School due dates

· List of instruments, equipment, raw materials, chemicals, assistance, etc required.

Introduction and literature survey

The student should submit a double-spaced draft of the thesis Introduction and Literature Survey to the School Office. The Supervisor will assess, correct and give general guidance on content and style of writing. This draft will be further refined for inclusion in the bound thesis.

Laboratory logbook

Each student is required to maintain a bound laboratory book with numbered pages in which all activities related to the project are to be recorded in ink, as they occur. It is the primary record and must not be re-written to improve neatness. Do not tear out any pages. Computer print-outs, printed methods and data tables may be pasted into the laboratory log book. Activities to be recorded cover library and literature work, ordering and collection of materials and chemicals, phone calls, surveys, meetings and discussions relating to the project and bench work. The laboratory logbook is to be signed and dated periodically by the supervisor or, if absent, the coordinator.

The laboratory logbook is submitted with the bound thesis.

Seminars

The seminars will be presented at the end of sessions 1 and 2. Only one seminar presentation is expected from each student.

Students are expected to contribute to discussions by way of questions and comments on other students’ presentations. The development of skills both in the asking of pertinent questions and answering them is vital to your professional development. It is not solely for staff to comment and ask questions.

• Seminar presents research objectives, background literature and proposed experimental plan and methods. It is a 15-minute seminar: 12 minutes presentation, then 3 minute discussion.

• Attendance of students at all seminars is compulsory.
Marks will be lost for non-attendance.

Seminars are marked by all academic staff and students in attendance, on the basis of half marks for content and half marks for presentation. In assessing content, critical assessment of literature/results and the ability to answer questions are considered. In assessing presentation, the level, extent and relevance are considered.

Good performance in seminars is especially important, since it gives a strong impression of your abilities to academic staff (and other students!). In the outside world, skillful presentation of yourself and your efforts is a crucial aspect of success. Your supervisor will help you plan and organize the seminar(s).

First draft of the thesis

Drafts should be submitted to the supervisor 4-6 weeks before the due date to allow time for corrections, editing and general guidance on how to conduct scientific writing. Failure to do this may result in a poor quality thesis that will be downgraded by the assessor.

Bound copies of the thesis

The student submits the bound thesis to the School Office. The number of copies varies. There is a minimum of two: one copy to the School, one to the supervisor. If other people are involved, they also get a copy: one to a co-supervisor and one for each industrial partner.

Archival CD

The original thesis files, plus a copy of the thesis in pdf format, plus copies of relevant data and image files, should be burned on an archival quality CD and submitted within one week of submitting the thesis. An archival CD is provided at no cost to each student and detailed instructions for preparing the CD are given on the School help website (http://tinyur1.com/chzhu). The purpose is to retain a copy of your research work for later reference and in case of any legal issues in the future.

Academic honesty and plagiarism

The University of New South Wales views plagiarism extremely seriously, and there have been several court cases involving plagiarism at Australian universities. Please take careful note of the summary provided below by UNSW for guidance of students:

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the presentation of the thoughts or work of another as one’s own.* Examples include:

· direct duplication of the thoughts or work of another, including by copying material, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document (whether published or unpublished), composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, web site, Internet, other electronic resource, or another person’s assignment without appropriate acknowledgement;

· paraphrasing another person’s work with very minor changes keeping the meaning, form and/or progression of ideas of the original;

· piecing together sections of the work of others into a new whole;

· presenting an assessment item as independent work when it has been produced in whole or part in collusion with other people, for example, another student or a tutor; and

· claiming credit for a proportion a work contributed to a group assessment item that is greater than that actually contributed.†

For the purposes of this policy, submitting an assessment item that has already been submitted for academic credit elsewhere may be considered plagiarism.

Knowingly permitting your work to be copied by another student may also be considered to be plagiarism.

Note that an assessment item produced in oral, not written, form, or involving live presentation, may similarly contain plagiarised material.

The inclusion of the thoughts or work of another with attribution appropriate to the academic discipline does not amount to plagiarism.

The Learning Centre website is main repository for resources for staff and students on plagiarism and academic honesty. These resources can be located via:

www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism

The Learning Centre also provides substantial educational written materials, workshops, and tutorials to aid students, for example, in:

· correct referencing practices;

· paraphrasing, summarising, essay writing, and time management;

· appropriate use of, and attribution for, a range of materials including text, images, formulae and concepts.

Individual assistance is available on request from The Learning Centre.

Students are also reminded that careful time management is an important part of study and one of the identified causes of plagiarism is poor time management. Students should allow sufficient time for research, drafting, and the proper referencing of sources in preparing all assessment items.

* Based on that proposed to the University of Newcastle by the St James Ethics Centre. Used with kind permission from the University of Newcastle

† Adapted with kind permission from the University of Melbourne.

If you take an idea or a few words of text from a source, it is sufficient to reference the fact by inserting a reference number (numerical referencing system) or the name of the author and year in brackets (Harvard referencing system). If you take more than a few words from a source, the text should be placed in inverted commas or a different font/style, so that it is clear that the words you use are not your own, and the text should be referenced as before.

Only work carried out during the period of the thesis project can be included in the thesis. Any student who carried out vacation work with a research group in the School is required to make a clean distinction between work before and after commencement of the thesis. A student may reference work carried out previously.

All assessment items, including the thesis, should be submitted with a signed assessment cover sheet declaring that the work is free from plagiarism:

I declare that this assessment item is my own work, except where acknowledged, and has not been submitted for academic credit elsewhere, and acknowledge that the assessor of this item may, for the purpose of assessing this item:

Reproduce this assessment item and provide a copy to another member of the University; and/or,

Communicate a copy of this assessment item to a plagiarism checking service (which may then retain a copy of the assessment item on its database for the purpose of future plagiarism checking).

I certify that I have read and understood the University Rules in respect of Student Academic Misconduct.

Signed: ....................................................date:

Course schedule

No experimental work is to commence until all safety requirements have been completed. Please contact your supervisor and the Safety Secretary for information relating to safety issues. Students are expected to enroll in the safety awareness course offered by the Faculty. Contact Sandra Twomey (stwomey@unsw.edu.au) in the school office to enroll.

In addition to submitting assessment items by the dates already given, supervisors will arrange a schedule of work tasks by agreement with the student.

Resources for students

Your supervisor will advise you of books, journal articles and websites where you may find information as a starting point for your research project. After that, it is your responsibility to search out and evaluate information. The Physical Sciences and Biomedical Sciences Library is helpful and can assist you in learning the techniques of information searching and retrieval (info.library.unsw.edu.au/web/services/teaching.html). The Web of Knowledge (www.isinet.com), the Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) and the School wiki (wiki.ceic.unsw.edu.au) are useful.

See handouts given during the induction for further information on seminars and thesis

Continual course improvement

Student feedback is taken seriously and continual improvements are made on the basis of feedback from students, supervisors and external reviewers of our courses. A meeting is held with students each year to discuss course improvements and we will ask you to complete a feedback form when you submit your thesis.

If there are any problems, we would like to know about them. Many problems can be rectified simply and long-term solutions can be planned to more difficult problems.

If you would like to make any suggestions for improvements, please contact the course coordinator either by email (j.arcot@unsw.edu.au) or by telephone (02 9385 5360).

We want to make your research project an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for both you and the staff of the School.

Administrative Matters

Notices for research projects will be sent by email to your student email address. You should check regularly for notices.

A policy document is available on the School website (www.ceic.unsw.edu.au), covering issues such as attendance, procedures for submission of assessment items, late submission of assessment items, and advice concerning illness or misadventure.

Information on relevant Occupational Health and Safety policies and expectations can be obtained from the Risk Management Unit (