LES10A2X0 Engineering Mathematics 3/4

General Instructions for Project Assignment

These instructions are prepared for both the courses LES10A220 and LES10A230. On these courses, the project assignment topics are either given by the lecturer or selected by oneself. Unless something else has been agreed with the lecturer, the assignments are done individually, and it includes two submissions: practical work and the final report.

The practical work includes a problem that is solved by computational means. With some assignments this can be done using pen and paper, but in most cases, this is easiest done using computational software like Excel or Matlab. Unless certain software is identified, student can choose what tools to use. When using a computational software, the student must show understanding on the applied method and significance of obtained results. Typically, the applied script or code should be submitted as attachment.

The structure of the final report should follow the IMRAD-structure (abstract, introduction, methods (math), results, discussion). Most of the engineering and scientific publications follow this structure  or its variation, including the theses at LUT University. Unless something else has been agreed on, the formatting of the document can be freely chosen. The main parts of the final report can be          described as listed below. Include at least these parts to your final report.

1.    Cover page with the name of author(s), date of submission and the title of your report. The title by itself is a very compact description of the report. You can also include your student  number(s) when the report itself is not public, like in course project assignments.

2.   Abstract gives an overview of the motivation, approach and key findings of the report. No  mathematic formulas or graphs here, unless a graphical abstract is requested. The abstract typically has 1-3 paragraphs and not more than 250 letters.

3.    Introduction describes the problem the report tackles. It typically includes some generic      introduction and background to the topic, your motivation, and goals for the work. No          mathematic formulas or graphs usually included here. The length of introduction is typically up to one page.

4.    Methods chapter describes the methods that have been utilized in preparing the report.

This includes the theoretical approach as well as key math applied in any analysis included to the report. Here you present and discuss all the tools used to obtain the results. On the          courses in question the length of methods chapter is typically about one page.

5.    Results chapter presents the obtained results and possible applications derived by your methods. This part often has several diagrams, tables, and other figures presenting the results. On these courses the results can also be supplemented with highlights from the performed analysis. This part elaborates how the results and data has been dealt with. If this part becomes very large, it can also be separated into an independent chapter. On the courses in question the length of results chapter is typically about two pages.

6.    Discussion reflects on the report findings and describes their significance. It also discusses challenges, innovation, and other aspects of particular interest. Any flaws or issues you have identified, should be discussed here. Further, possible implications of the results concerning future work with on the topic should be discussed. This chapter can be summarized with a    short conclusion of the report. This part can also be expanded into separate chapter if necessary. However, in this context that is typically not necessary. On the courses in question the length of discussion chapter is typically about 1½ pages.

7.    References. When you need to refer to sources outside your own report, use proper references. This allows the reader to see what kind of sources you have used and to check  deeper into your sources. Further instructions in making references are presented below at “Guide to making references” .

Overall, the total length of a report done by a single student is about five pages, unless else has been agreed with the lecturer. As this provides a very limited space, the author of the report should use     very compact expression. The focus should be on essentials while irrelevant discussion should be       avoided. After references it is possible to add appendix to the report. The appendix might include      extra graphics, complete data sets, written code, outputs of an analysis software, etc. The appendix  can have several parts and it is not included into the total pages of the report.

Guide to making citations

Overall, the so called “Harward system” is used in making citations. In this method, citing to the scientific paper of Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen published in 1935 and titled    “Can quantum-mechanical description of the physical reality be considered complete?” would be   done as (Einstein et al. 1935). Alternatively, as part of the text, the citation could be formulated as: “Einstein identified in his work (1935) that…” The list of references will be organized based on the  name of the first author and the publication year as follows:

(Einstein et al. 1935)      Einstein, A., Podolsky, B., Rosen, N., 1935. Can quantum-mechanical

description of physical reality be considered complete? Physical review 47 (10), s. 777.

The part that is in parenthesis acts as an identification that is used to order the references and make finding the right source faster. After the identification comes a list of authors, the publication year    and title of the publication, followed by the journal name it was published in and the page number   of the publication in the journal and the issue number. When a book is cited, the following format     can be used:

(Kreyzig 1999)                 Kreyzig, E., 1999. Advanced Engineering Mathematics. 8th ed. Singapore.

John Wiley & Sons. 1156 sivua. ISBN 0-471-15496-2

In addition to the basic information, the book reference includes the book edition, place of printing, publisher, number of pages and the ISBN number of the book. While citing to a book (or very extensive journal paper), it is good to mention the page(s) the information can be found at. Here an example: “4th  order Range-Kutta method (Kreyzig 1999 p. 947).”

Formal citation is typically not made to a source that cannot be confirmed. For example, lecture as an event is typically a situation where the spoken word is not available for review later. However,  such event can be cited in the similar manner an interview would be cited. Here an example:

(Paatero 2020)                Paatero, J., 2020. Lecture in Engineering Mathematics, Lappeenranta, 17.2.

In case the lecture was recorded and shared online, it can be cited as an online material. When           online materials are referred into, it is important to identify the author and the time of publication. If author as a person cannot be identified, then an organization can be identified. As a last resort, the   webpage address can be used to identify the author. If the date of publication is unavailable, then      “n.d.” should be marked as for “no date” . The last time the source has been checked will be added in brackets, as well as where the source was available. Sometimes the web addresses will be overly complicated with non-necessary parameters and those can be omitted from the reference if the page works correctly without them. Example of an online source:

(Aalto-yliopisto 2022)    Aalto-yliopisto, 2022. Citation Guide: Making a bibliography. [Cited

26.4.2022] Available at:https://libguides.aalto.fi/

c.php?g=410674&p=2797572

When a referred source has several authors, two authors can be separated with “and” . Three or         more authors are referred into by writing out the first author followed by “et al.” This abbreviation is from the Latin expression “et alii” that means “the others” . If the same author has several publications on the same year, they can be differentiated by adding after the year a letter “a”, “b”,    “c”, etc.

Evaluation principles of the final report

The final report will be evaluated on a scale 0-100% that will be converted to a fraction of its maximum points. The evaluation has two main components. The first 50% of the grade results from the practical work and how well the given assignment has been achieved. This part will always be    assignment specific. The second 50% results from how well the work has been reported. Below are main details about evaluation of the report quality.

Abstract and Introduction (10%)

-      Does the introduction describe what is being done? How well does the topic work? How successfully was the scope of the report narrowed down?

-      Does the introduction reflect on the topic in general, including its implementation and applications, etc.? Does the abstract properly capture the essentials of the report?

Methods (10%)

-      Does the methods-section describe motivate the choice of methods and their implementation on a general level?

-      How successfully the student has described the applied methods in terms of mathematics and possibly applied models and/or simplifications? What methods are chosen to evaluate the obtained results?

Results (10%)

-      Does the report describe the obtained results? Can the results be easily understood?

-      Does the report discuss uncertainties of the results or otherwise analyze the results? Discussion (10%)