COMPUTER SCIENCE HONOURS

Associate Professor Dr. Stephan Chalup

Computer Science Honours Coordinator
Discipline of Computer Science and Software Engineering
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, The University of Newcastle
Room: ES227; Tel: 02 492 16080; Email: stephan.chalup@newcastle.edu.au
3 June 2014

Why doing Honours?

Honours is a great degree.
There are many advantages in doing Honours:
Honours sounds good and stands for a highly respected degree.
o Only the good students can do CS Honours (entry conditions)
o One year (if fulltime) that proves that you are among the best students
o Improved employability
o Completes your professional CS education through higher level lectures and a project
Honours thesis: Provides you with a taste of research.
o Opens paths to research, e.g. Masters/PhD programmes
o Provides opportunity to publish (can improve your track record for scholarship applications)
o A completed thesis shows that you possess a high degree of personal initiative and that you
have acquired writing, organisational, and research skills. This is a highly desirable proof of
ability for many future jobs.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates | www.newcastle.edu.au

Bachelor of Computer Science Honours Program

The CS Honours program at the University of Newcastle consists of
I.) 40 Units: A major one year project COMP4251 & COMP4252 (two
parts)
II.) 40 Units: A combination of several directed elective courses from
Computer Science, Software Engineering and other selected
disciplines (details of your individual program composition have to
be discussed with the Honours Coordinator)
The program may be undertaken in two semester full-time or four
semester part-time study and can be started at either S1 or S2. It must
be completed within 3 years.
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/policy/000962.html

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Some Relevant Online Details and Policies

The new Bachelor Honours Policy gives general details on End-On
Honours and the examination
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/policy/000990.html
Specific details for the Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) are
available in the Undergraduate eHandbook and the relevant program
schedule
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/program/10043.html
The Research Code of Practice for Students Enrolled in Honours Degrees
Guideline is available at
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/policy/000653.html

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

COMP 4251 & 4252 Honours Project

The Honours project consists of two parts:
Part 1: COMP4251 (20 units) Start of project, planning, literature review, research
methodology, proposal and presentation
Part 2: COMP4252 (20 units) Completion of project and submission of research
thesis
You can start in Semester 1 or 2 with your Part 1.
You can only commence Part 2 after Part 1 has successfully been completed.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

COMP4251 Honours Project Part 1

Content (brief summary): Comprises planning and start of a substantial project usually involving
a literature review, general research methodology together with a theoretical and/or practical
investigation of a computer science problem. The project work is embodied in a research report,
and presented in a seminar.
Assessment items (brief summary):
Presentation: It should include topic, goals, background (literature review), results achieved so far
and research plan for the whole project including Part 2 (COMP4252).
Length: 30 mins + 10 mins for discussion/questions.
Intermediate report: Before the end of week 10 an intermediate report should be presented to the
project supervisor. The aim is to have a realistic and well-supported project proposal and plan
developed. It should contain:
Project title, project definition and description
Literature review (at least 5 references)
Discussion of possible outcomes of the project
Plan for the whole project (including preliminary timeline and milestones).
Length: At least 10 pages. It will be marked by the project supervisor and returned to the student.
See details at http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/COMP4251.html
June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

COMP4252 Honours Project Part 2

This course is the second part of the CS Honours project.
It requires that Part 1 (COMP4251) was successfully completed first.
Part 1 and 2 together comprise a substantial individual research project usually
involving a literature review together with a theoretical and/or practical investigation of
a computer science problem.
In part 2 students complete their project building on the foundations and the plan
developed in part 1. Under the supervision of a member of the academic staff, the
student will write a research thesis in the style of the discipline (minimum 50 pages
and 25 references).
See details at:
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/COMP4252.html
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/course/COMP4251.html
June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Examples of 4000 level special topics courses that have been

offered previously (each 10 units)
Advanced Algorithms (Ljiljana Brankovic)
Advanced Compilers (Mike Hannaford)
Advanced Complexity Theory (Ljiljana Brankovic)
Advanced Machine Learning (Stephan Chalup)
Computer Vision (Stephan Chalup)
Distributed Operating Systems (Frans Henskens)
Graph and Network Structures and Algorithms (Joe Ryan)
Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (Pablo Moscato)
Software Reusability (Huilin Ye)
Please check the CSSE bb portal or ask the Honours
coordinator about the 4000 level courses planned for 2014.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

What topic can I choose for my Honours Project?

There are different options:
1.) You can come up with your own idea and ask our academics in the
Discipline of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) if they
can supervise it.
2.) You can discuss options of offered or recommended topics with any
academic in CSSE (It is worth checking what they are doing in their
research, what research centres and groups exist and what publications).
In any case you should contact the CS Honours coordinator (A/Prof. Stephan
Chalup) and discuss your plan before you start enrolling.

Please check the CSSE blackboard portal and the CSSE Honours board for
relevant announcements.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Honours Project Supervisors and Research Areas

10

A/Prof Ljiljana Brankovic

Security of Statistical Databases
Privacy Preserving Data Mining
Algorithms and Complexity
Graph Theory
Dr Regina Berretta
Operations Research
Heuristics and Metaheuristics
Evolutionary Optimisation
Bioinformatics

A/Prof Stephan Chalup

Machine Learning
Computer Vision and Medical Image Analysis
Computational Intelligence and Autonomous Robots
Computational Neuroscience and Affective Computing

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Honours Project Topic Areas

11

A/Prof Frans Henskens and Dr Michael Hannaford

Bioinformatics, Computational Neuroscience
Distributed Operating Systems
Computer Networks and Grid Computing
Australian EEG Database
Programming Languages
Dr Yuqing Lin
Combinatorics
Graph Theory
Software Engineering
Software Reuse

Dr Alexandre Mendes
Bioinformatics and Data Mining
Combinatorial Optimisation
Operations Research
Robotics

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Honours Project Topic Areas

12

Prof Pablo Moscato

Bioinformatics, Data Mining and Data Analytics
Evolutionary and Memetic Algorithms
GPU-Based Supercomputing
Graph Theory and Visualisation
Dr Shamus Smith
Advanced Interfaces and Haptic Interaction
Game Technology
Multi-touch Surfaces
Virtual Reality
Dr Joe Ryan
Combinatorics
Graph Theory

Please consult the above academics about possible CS Honours projects in their research areas.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

University Level Admission

13

Typically, the applicant has a completed CS undergraduate

degree (or equivalent) and a GPA of 5.5 (soon 5.0) or higher.
If WAM is extraordinary in 3rd year, this benchmark can be
modified. We are interested in people who can do very well in
projects.
The discipline will assess the eligibility of the admission based
on transcript of academic record.
Application forms are available at
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Divisions/Services/Student%20and
%20Academic%20Services/Student%20Administration/Forms/
ApplicationDirect.pdf
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Divisions/Services/Student%20and
%20Academic%20Services/Student%20Administration/Forms/
DirectAdmissionFormGuide.pdf

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Faculty Level Admission

14

In addition a brief application at the faculty level is required. It will

have to address the following points:
Program for which you are seeking entry
Proposed semester of entry
Proposed title of your Honours project
A brief project proposal
Reason why you wish to undertake Honours
A proposed program of courses that you wish to undertake
(this part should be discussed with the Honours programme
convenor).
A signed declaration: I declare that the information in this
application form is correct and complete to the best of my
knowledge. I agree that if I am accepted into the Honours
program as a student I am bound by the statutes and standing
resolutions of the University of Newcastle.
This application will have to be accepted and signed by the
proposed supervisor, HoS and PVC (or representative). Please
contact the Honours coordinator for details.
June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Scholarships and Financial Support

15

There can be be various options of financial support, e.g.:

Computer Science Honours Scholarships
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/scholarships/ENGB_040.html
Honours Scholarships
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/scholarships/honoursscholarships.html
Alternatively or in addition there can be support by specific
larger research projects, industry supported funds, or
professional societies. These options occasionally occurred in
the past and would have to be investigated individually.

June 3, 2014

A presentation to CSSE undergraduates| www.newcastle.edu.au

Please dont hesitate to ask

questions now or any time later.

CRICOS Provider 00109J | www.newcastle.edu.au