The MBC information booklet - RMIT University

Chapter 11: Minor Thesis/Project
11.3.5 Choosing a
Topic and
Supervisor
11.3.6 What Should I
Expect From My
Supervisor?
11.3.7 What Should My
Supervisor
Expect From
Me?
11.3.8 What Happens
if There is a
Conflict?
50
Students should go to https:inside.cs.rmit.edu.au/student/pgrad_projects/.
In rare cases you may wish to work on a topic about which no lecturer is familiar enough
or prepared to supervise you. If this is the case, you should see Dr. Michael Winikoff and
he may be able to organize a system of technical advisors and supervisors.
Your supervisor should:
• be familiar with the masters by coursework regulations;
• agree to a schedule of meetings at which they will give helpful guidance and
comments;
• assist you in identifying and obtaining relevant literature;
• take the initiative in raising problems or difficulties as appropriate;
• read all papers relevant to the topic before meetings and be prepared to discuss
these; and
• read and return drafts promptly with appropriate comments.
You should:
• be familiar with the Masters by Coursework regulations;
• attend scheduled meetings at which you will discuss guidance most helpful to your
needs;
• take the initiative in raising problems or difficulties as appropriate;
• maintain progress in your work as set out by your supervisor, including presentation
of written materials;
• prepare the thesis for examination as per this document and the regulations; and
• notify the University and your supervisor of any change of name, address,
telephone number, or other circumstances which might affect the progress of your
studies.
If you encounter conflict between yourself and your supervisor, please approach Dr.
Michael Winikoff in the first instance.
11.3.9 Ethics The thesis should be consistent with ethical guidelines. These guidelines require that
candidates do the following.
• Ensure that results are accurate.
• Describe any limitations of experiments and any considerations that may have
affected their outcome.
• Provide enough detail to allow other researchers to reproduce experiments,
including (where relevant) method, sources of input data, and so on.
• Retain code and data used to perform experiments, or alternatively, retain original
output and records of experiments.
• When reporting the work of others, describe it fairly and accurately.
• Not plagiarise the work of others, published or otherwise, or imply that published
results are new work. For more information on plagiarism see
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/students/integrity/
• Report negative as well as positive results.
• Not deliberately make misleading statements of any kind.
11.3.10 Summarising After you and a supervisor have approved a topic and informed Dr. Winikoff of this
choice, you should set up regular appointments with your supervisor. The recommended
sessions are a weekly 1-hour meeting for full-timers, and a fortnightly 1-hour meeting for
part-timers. It is vital that you get into a pattern of consultation. Dr. Winikoff will routinely
contact all students and ascertain that there are no problems and that consultation is
taking place.
1. Clearly define the parameters of your thesis. Know what it is you intend to do and
equally importantly what it is you will not do (for lack of time or otherwise).
2. Next, develop with your supervisor a table of contents for the thesis. This should
specify what the primary, secondary and ternary section headings will be.