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Course Syllabus

Master 2023/2024

Mentor's Seminar

Type: Compulsory course (System and Software Engineering)
Area of studies: Software Engineering
Delivered by: School of Software Engineering
Where: Faculty of Computer Science
When: 2 year, 1-3 module
Mode of studies: offline
Open to: students of one campus
Instructors: Konstantin Y. Degtyarev
Master’s programme: Software and Systems Engineering
Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 40

Course Syllabus

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Abstract

The course (seminar) 'Mentor Seminar' (Rus. Семинар наставника) is offered to students of the Master Program 'System and Software Engineering' (specialization code 09.04.04 'Software Engineering', trajectory 'System and Software Engineering 23/24') in the Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Computer Science (FCS) of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE). The second part of the course (2nd year of studies) serves as a continuation of the corresponding seminar of the 1st academic year as a part of MS curriculum pool of Core seminars. In its second year, it is a three-module course (semester A quartile 1 thru semester B quartile 3; 8 + 12 + 20 hours are set aside in modules 1-3 of the academic year, correspondingly; in English, refer to https://www.hse.ru/dbs/education/UnitedWorkPlan_6522530605_6522532066.pdf). As already mentioned earlier (1st year of studies), the seminar can be considered as an orienteering course developed to assist graduate-level (Master) students to acquire knowledge and skills needed to fulfill the project's (essential part of the Plan of Studies) requirements successfully, understand the place of software development within the project engineering process, perform a search for academic and technical information on a chosen topic(s), plan effectively research (project) work, oral and writing presentations as an activity that accompanies a specialist almost anywhere in his/her professional life. The seminar stipulates both class activities ('semi-lecture', discussion format) and, to a greater extent, self-study (independent work) that relates to topics under consideration. Despite the small number of hours planned, the seminar is held virtually up to the terminal stage of the Master thesis's text preparation. Individual topics of discussion may vary depending on the issues that arise in the process of communication with students.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • To present and discuss the main features of the project (or, coursework) carried out by the students of the Master's program and drafting of the final report (Master thesis), covering the results of the project obtained during the 1st and 2nd years of study (potentially, the topic can be changed, so in that case only 2nd year set the stage for the scope of the thesis defended in June'24). The learning objectives are attained through the employing combination of 'half-lecture' presentation of the material (with use of accompanying slides), discussion of the viewed provisions and ideas with the students, brief oral statements of students themselves (narration of their achievements, plans, and thoughts concerning the project activity), course-specific reading and self-study associated with the preparation of the material for the Master's Thesis
  • To lay a reasonable basis for more systematic and successful work of students on the project (Master's Thesis).
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Understands the peculiarities of Master's thesis work, the peculiarities of the conducted research, the importance of preparing a work plan
  • Can effectively utilize time to discuss details of work with potential supervisors (mentors)
  • Understands the importance of the stage of systematization of what has already been done on the given topic, can clearly formulate the specific features of the work to be done
  • Is able to use the library's e-resource catalog to search for necessary and useful publications related to the subject of the work
  • Understands the peculiarities of writing an Abstract and its structure
  • Is able to identify those national and international standards (IEEE/ISO/IEC) that should (can) be used in carrying out the work
  • Understands the relevance and the need to schedule meetings with the project supervisor (mentor)
  • Understands the need to clearly state the goal of the work (aim) and the tasks to be accomplished (objectives)
  • Is able to present a well-defined work (project) plan, understands the need to periodically check the compliance of the work performed with the stages of the prepared plan
  • Understands the need to complete all assigned tasks (objectives), which should lead to specific measurable results
  • Understands the systemic nature of the work (research) being conducted, the bounds of the research and the interrelationships of the individual stages of the work
  • Understands the structure of a project (research) proposal (Project Proposal), is able to prepare a concise and understandable text of each of its sections
  • Can clearly and concisely present the results of the prepared project (research) proposal (Project Proposal) in the form of a presentation, can confidently answer questions, conduct a debate
  • Can vividly and clearly present partial results ( certain fully completed sections) of the course work (project) in the form of a presentation, can confidently answer questions, conduct a discussion
  • Understands the difference between needs and requirements, the transition from needs to requirements (form of representing the transition)
  • Understands and is able to apply in practice key (SMART) criteria in setting and checking the implementation results of work (project) tasks
  • Understands and can realize the peculiarities of presenting the details of the completed project in the text of the work (Master’s dissertation)
  • Can vividly and clearly present partial results (certain fully completed sections) of the Master's dissertation
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Тopic 1 (1st year of studies)
  • Тopic 2 (1st year of studies)
  • Тopic 3 (1st year of studies)
  • Тopic 4 (1st year of studies)
  • Тopic 5 (1st year of studies)
  • Тopic 6 (1st year of studies)
    no comments
  • [part_2] Discussion: The concept of needs and requirements. Some aspects of requirements engineering (2nd year and partly the 1st of the seminar)
  • [part_2] Discussion: Specific aspects of graduate thesis’ text preparation (2nd year of the seminar)
  • [part_2] Short presentations of certain parts of the Graduation thesis (Master's project) of the 2nd year of studies (2nd year of the seminar)
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking The result obtained at the end of the 1st year (1st part of the course)
    The ultimate grade gained on the results of work in the first part of the course (first year of studies, module 4)
  • non-blocking Pre-defense (parts of a completed final Master's thesis - text) / FE2text
    FE implies the arrangement of the project's pre-defense – this involves the preparation of a report (part of the ultimate version of the coursework; details will be provided during the academic year / explanation of what is required) in electronic format (pdf-file)
  • non-blocking Pre-defense (part of the completed final Master's thesis - presentation) / FE2pres
    Presentation of fully completed parts of the final report (2nd year final paper/project)
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2022/2023 4th module
    1 * The result obtained at the end of the 1st year (1st part of the course)
  • 2023/2024 3rd module
    0.4 * Pre-defense (part of the completed final Master's thesis - presentation) / FE2pres + 0.6 * Pre-defense (parts of a completed final Master's thesis - text) / FE2text
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Biggam, J. (2015). Succeeding with Your Master’s Dissertation : A Step-by-step Handbook (Vol. Third edition). Berkshire, England: McGraw-Hill Education. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=939824
  • How to Write a Master's Thesis, Bui, Y.N., 2013
  • IT project proposals. Writing to win, Coombs P., 2005
  • Research and technical writing for science and engineering, Qiu, M., 2022
  • Research projects and research proposals : A guide for scientists seeking funding, Chapin P.G., 2008
  • Software engineering : a practitioner's approach, Pressman, R. S., 2020
  • Software engineering, Sommerville, I., 2016
  • Technical writing and professional communication : for nonnative speakers of English, Huckin, T. N., 1991
  • Terttu Orci. (1996). A Guide to Writing a Master’s Thesis.
  • Writing your master's thesis : from A to Zen, Nygaard, L. P., 2017

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Doing your master's dissertation, Furseth, I., 2013

Authors

  • Петрухина Анастасия Сергеевна
  • Degtiarev KONSTANTIN Iurevich