DATA3710 IT project in practice Course description

In this course, students will complete an IT project at a relevant company, public organization or non-profit organization, either individually or in a group of up to five students. The workload for the project should correspond to two days a week over a twelve-week period during either the Spring or Autumn semester. If the project is completed in the summer, the workload should equal four days a week over a six-week period.

Students will work on a product or service that is relevant to the client(s), or develop and implement new functionality for a technology already in use by clients.

In addition to the projects on offer, students can find their own projects within a relevant company, public organization or nonprofit. In this case, it is the student's responsibility to find a supervisor for the project within the external organization. All student-initiated projects must be approved the course coordinator before the start of the project.

The elective course will only run if a sufficient number of students a registered.Projects are subject to availability; students who have DATA3710-90 as a mandatory course on their study plan will be prioritised in the event of limited projects.

The teaching is organised as scheduled work sessions. During the work sessions, the students shall practise the subject matter that is presented. Some of the teaching will comprise problem-solving practice, where implementing numerical algorithms is a natural component. The content of the practice includes discussions and cooperation, and individual practice on assignments. Between the scheduled work sessions, the students must work individually on calculating exercises and studying the syllabus.

No requirements over and above the admission requirements.

After completing this course, the students have the following learning outcomes, defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student should:

• have an overview of the different phases of developing IT solutions in a company or organization
• have an understanding business processes and organizational structures
• understand their own role in a business or organization.

Skills

The student can:

• apply theoretical knowledge of IT development into a concrete, real problem
• plan, implement and solve practical problems connected to IT projects
• apply technical principles for developing IT solutions that can solve one or more real problems.

General competence

The student can:

• define a problem and suggest possible solutions to the problem
• understand the importance of organizational dynamics and working relationships
• practice professional communication both in writing and orally.

Supervision by an internal and/or external project supervisor. Students will write a report describing the project and what they have gained from participating in the project.

Projects are selected/distributed at the start of the semester.

The following work requirements are mandatory and must be approved in order to prepare for the exam:

• A project outline that describes how the group will organise their work on the project.
• A standard learning agreement must be entered into between the project provider / supervisor and the student(s), and this must be approved by the course coordinator before the project can start.
• Three meeting minutes from supervisory meetings during the project period.
• An oral mid-term presentation, individual or in groups (max 5 students), 10 minutes + 5 minutes Q&A.

The deadlines for submitting the project outline and minutes of the meetings will be presented in the teaching plan, which is made available at the beginning of the semester.

Written project report submitted at the end of the semester. Individually or in a group (max. 5 students), 4000 words (+/-10%).

In group work, the students' individual contributions should be reflected in the report. Normally, everyone in the group receives the same grade, but in exceptional cases, individual grades may be awarded based on the assessment of the project supervisor(s) and the head of the programme.

The exam result can be appealed.

All aids are permitted, as long as the rules for source referencing are complied with.

Grade scale A-F.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence.

Skills

The student is capable of

• using the derivative to model and analyse dynamical systems.
• explain how the integral may be used in order to calculate quantities such as areas, volumes and work.
• discussing numerical methods for solving equations.
• discussing methods for solving systems of linear equations by means of matrix calculations.
• accounting for the number of solutions a system of linear equations has.
• solving equations which involve complex numbers.
• discussing the ideas behind some analytical and numerical methods which are used for solving first order differential equations.
• explaining key concepts such as iteration and convergence in relation to numerical methods.

Knowledge

This requires that the student is capable of

• determining exact values for the derivative and the antiderivative using analytical methods.
• using the definitions as a point of departure for computing approximate numerical values of the derivative and the definite integral and assessing the accuracy of these values.
• using the derivative to solve optimization problems.
• calculating sums and products of matrices, inverting matrices and determining determinants.
• performing calculations with complex numbers.
• solving equations by implementing numerical methods such as the bi-section method and Newton method.
• using Taylor-polynomials for approximating functions and determining the error for certain numerical methods.
• solving separable and linear differential equations using anti-differentiation.
• finding numerical solutions to initial value problems using the Euler method
• implementing basic numerical algorithms by means of assignment, for and while loops, if tests and similar.

General competence:

The student is capable of

• transferring a practical problem into a mathematical formulation, so that it can be solved, either analytically or numerically.
• writing precise explanations and motivations for using procedures, and demonstrating the correct use of mathematical notation.
• using mathematical methods and tools in numerical problems solving.
• using mathematics in communicating engineering issues.
• assessing the results of mathematical calculations.