DATA3900 Bachelor Thesis Course description

One half year of university studies (30 ECTS), in addition to the international summer schools general requirement. The requirement needs to be met by the application deadline.

After completing this course, the student should have the following learning outcome:

Knowledge

Upon successful completion of the course, the candidate will have the knowledge of:

• the specific cautions and pitfalls that should be taken into account through the entire research process, particularly when using tools from statistical analysis.
• practical problems in different fields of science, ranging from fundamental and natural sciences to social sciences and engineering.
• how statistical analysis can be used for uncovering the features and properties of a specific set of data.
• the main features and techniques one should be aware of for data collection.
• programming languages applicable to data analysis and modelling.

Skills

Upon successful completion of the course, the candidate will be able to:

• translate problems into research questions and evaluate it is soundness
• propose a first design of experiments to approach specific research questions.
• have a critical insight about the quantitative analysis presented in a research question, approaching authors’ interpretation about the presented results, e.g. in what concerns the correlation between different variables, their possible functional relations and the statistical significance of the overall results.
• develop a computer framework to generate surrogate data sets with particular statistical features, as numerical experiments for testing specific data models.
• apply statistical analysis and mathematical modelling techniques on data from their field of study.

General competences

Upon successful completion of the course, the student

• will be able to construct and establish a research plan
• will be able to carry out the basic quantitative analysis of its results.
• will be able to read a research article with a critical perspective and identify its structure and quality from the scientific point of view.

This course will feature lectures and lab work to provide both theoretical and hands-on content. Students will work in groups of up to five students or individually to complete assignments given to them. The students will supplement the lectures and lab with their own reading. All classes are prepared to be taught on campus, but can be moved online at the discretion of the instructor.

The following coursework is compulsory and must be approved before the student can take the exam:

Students will select a research paper of their preference from a list of papers, or chosen by them (under the guidance of the teacher), and study it carefully according to the contents learned in the theoretical classes.

The examination will evaluate how well is the student able to explain the content of a research paper, particularly in what concerns the identification of its most important parts (research problem, methods and take-home messages) as well as a critical view on the paper. To this end, the examination will be done in two steps:

• An individual oral exam where the student presents a critical perspective of his/her selected article, out from a list of articles provided at the beginning of the semester, presenting the main content of the paper. For the oral presentation the student may use slides, notes or other material, but should be able to show acquaintance on the matters he/she is presenting as well as some knowledge about the technical details behind the main content. The oral examination counts for 50% of the final grade.
• An individual written summary with 1 to 2 pages (weight=50%) on the selected article, where the student should prove his/her ability in extracting what is fundamental in the paper, separating it from complementary details.

Each exam must be assessed to E or better for the course as a whole to be given a final grade.

A project assignment in groups (3-5 students). The project assignment is divided into the project report and the project presentation. The final grade is given on the basis of an overall assessment of the project report and the project presentation.

The grade of the project report can be appealed. If the grade of the project report changes as a result of the appeal, a new presentation must be held. The presentation part of the exam can not be appealed.

All.

Grade scale A-F.

Two examiners will be used, one of which can be external. External examiner is used regularly.