Miscellaneous Matters


With reference to CP4101 site and EE4001 portal

Project Selection

The Project Administration System allows you to browse through all projects available for selection in a given semester. Do keep track of this website closer to the project selection period.

The projects offered by the academic staff may differ in breadth, depth, degree of difficulty and expectations. Some projects may be part of a large research or development project while others may be a self-contained individual project.

The project you choose should be consistent with the aims of your degree programme, your area of interest, and should be in-line with your future ambitions of pursuing higher degree. Some students are better suited to well-defined and relatively safe projects that provide scope for demonstrating proficiency with a low risk factor. Other students are better advised to tackle harder, riskier projects that require a high degree of research content. Not every project is suitable for every student.

Each proposal will indicate constraints in order to help you to make an informed choice. Some projects may impose a minimum GPA requirement. Do consider the project nature and project keywords and shortlist a set of projects that are suitable for you. The potential supervisors will be happy to offer advice on the suitability of a project, given your individual background, strengths and ambitions.

Remember that it is important to balance ambition and realism when making a choice. Once you have been allocated a supervisor, there may be opportunities to refine the project idea and to focus on these issues in more details, so it is not necessary to have addressed all of these issues at this early stage.

Students who are away at NOC/SEP in the current semester and due to return the next semester (when project is scheduled to start) may also select a project online (in the current semester). Alternatively, the student can discuss via email, or face-to face, with their potential supervisor about a project that he/she wishes to take, and register immediately upon his/her return from NOC/SEP.

The following details should be supplied to Winnie, once an agreement is reached between the student and the supervisor:

Name and Student Number
A copy of supervisor's consent
Project title
Project ID

The system will be updated accordingly.

The conversion of NOC-related work to FYP is not permitted (regardless how good the NOC project work may be). Students are not allowed to do FYP concurrently with SEP/NOC.

Project Execution

FYPs are usually open-ended in nature, giving students the flexibility in judiciously selecting viable alternatives, and challenging them to innovate in terms of initiating new concepts and designs. The assessments are spread over two semesters and students are given formative feedback to improve on the execution of projects.

Once the project allocations have been posted, you should contact your supervisor to arrange an initial meeting (and arrange for regular meetings with your supervisor thereafter). The meetings may be brief once your project is underway but your supervisor needs to know your work progress. If you need to talk to your supervisor between meetings and cannot locate them in their office, you can leave a note, or send them an e-mail asking them to suggest their availability. When you meet your supervisor, you should have prepared a written list of points you wish to discuss. Take notes during the meeting so that you do not forget the advice you were given or the conclusions that were reached. Students can expect supervision of at least up to half an hour a week or an hour a fortnight. Meetings may be conducted in groups, depending on the kind of project and the number of FYP students working under the supervisor.

It is a good habit to send a report at least once every 2 to 3 weeks about the progress of the project which may comprise of your understanding of the problem and deliverables, literature survey, initial design/comparison of designs etc. These periodic reports would help you in writing the CA report at the end of first semester into the project and also in writing the final report.

Plagiarism

The University takes a serious view on plagiarism.

Students should adopt this rule: “You have the obligation to make clear to the assessor which is your own work, and which is the work of others. Otherwise, your assessor is entitled to assume that everything being presented for assessment is being presented as entirely your own work.”

Please refer to the guide by NUS Libraries and Office of the University Registrar's Office page on Acceptance Record, in particular, the NUS Code of Student Conduct for more information and guidelines.

Intellectual Property

For the University’s policies relating to Intellectual Property, please refer to NUS Enterprise.

Other cases

Once a student has started a project, he is obligated to finish it within the prescribed time frame unless a leave of absence is granted (due to medical reasons or any other extenuating circumstances). There is no provision for extending the FYP on any other grounds.

If a student fails to submit his thesis and/or does not turn up for the final assessment, he/she is deemed to have failed the FYP. Students who receive a fail grade in their FYP will, subject to approval, be allowed to take another semester to complete their existing project and go through the entire examination process. Alternatively, the student may undertake a new project, in which case the project is to be completed over two semesters.