Introduction

The Part IIB project is a major feature of the Engineering Tripos. It is intended to be demanding, to test your skills to the uttermost and to give you opportunity to prove that you are of MEng standard. You should, by the start of Michaelmas term, have determined what your project is, who your supervisor is and already spent some time during the long vacation thinking about the project.

Some students, with projects strongly linked to industry, may have already completed a substantial body of work, such as a programme of tests. For all students a guideline to the amount of effort expected in the coming academic year is that project work should occupy you for some 15 to 20 hours per week throughout the year.

Good time management is essential to ensure that your project grade does not suffer as a consequence of too much concentration on the modules, or vice versa. If you find that your project work seems to be in the doldrums, do not let matters slide. Discuss the situation with your supervisor.  If your project work continues to concern you after discussions with your supervisor, contact your Director of Studies as a matter of urgency.

Overview

Project work must be planned to take account of your other workload (e.g. module coursework). You may need to spend several weeks in each vacation on project work, catching up on experiments/design/computing and drafting your reports. Experimental work and any substantial computing should be completed before the beginning of the Easter term, leaving the Easter term for consolidation and writing up. 

During weeks 7 or 8 of the Michaelmas term, you are required to give a short oral presentation to staff and other students working on projects in the same general subject area.

At the beginning of the Lent term you are required to submit a brief technical milestone report. 

A technical abstract and main final project report are submitted at the end of week 5 of the Easter term.  You make a final presentation of your project work in weeks 6 or 7 of the Easter term.  These usually take the form of ‘mini-conferences’ with all presentations in a subject group taking place on the same day, with all staff and students in that group in attendance, and in some cases external guests (e.g. from industry).

Aims

There is considerable diversity among Part IIB projects and the learning experience will differ between projects. This does not necessarily mean that one project topic is better, another worse, but it does imply that each project is likely to fulfil only a selection of the general aims of project work, which are to enable students to:

• undertake a major piece of connected work of engineering significance;
• exercise initiative in a technical context;
• appreciate the problems of planning an investigative, experimental or computational task;
• develop skills in modelling and analysis in situations where the appropriate assumptions are not known a priori;
• learn how to search the literature efficiently for relevant information;
• develop further design skills, including application to the design of experimental apparatus;
• practise the reporting of a major piece of work and appreciate problems of appropriate selection of matter to be reported.

Relationship with your supervisor

The working relationship with your supervisor is central to achieving these aims, and for this reason your College authorises up to 1 hour per week formal supervision associated with the project.  In practice, you and your supervisor may prefer a more flexible structure.  In any case, your supervisor is expected to submit a termly report, which you can view on CAMCORS. 

Should you have any concerns over supervision arrangements, try first to resolve them with your supervisor.  If they persist, contact your director of studies.