Page 1 of 5    SIT340/740 Research and Development in Information Technology Assignment 2 Guideline Assignment 2: Final Report (60 marks) After you have done the literature survey, you will identify an unsolved problem in the area. You will develop your own method/strategy/algorithm to solve the problem. You will develop a working system/program to validate your idea. You will set up different evaluation criteria to measure your method/strategy/algorithm. You will compare your method/strategy/algorithm with existing method/strategy/algorithm based on the evaluation criteria. Then you will write a comprehensive final report based on the work you have done. Due: 11:59pm, Friday, 02 June 2017 Submission: You must submit an electronic copy of your assignment in either Acrobat (.pdf) or Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) via CloudDeakin. Delays caused by student’s own computer downtime cannot be accepted as a valid reason for late submission without penalty. Students must plan their work to allow for both scheduled and unscheduled downtime. It is the student's responsibility to ensure that they understand the submission instructions. If you have ANY difficulties ask the Lecturer for assistance (prior to the submission date). Copying, Plagiarism: This is an individual assignment. You are not permitted to work as a part of a group when writing this assignment. Plagiarism is the submission of somebody else’s work in a manner that gives the impression that the work is your own. For individual assignments, plagiarism includes the case where two or more students work collaboratively on the assignment. The School of Information Technology treats plagiarism very seriously. When it is detected, penalties are strictly imposed. Deakin University uses Turnitin as the program that allows you to check whether there is any unoriginal material in your work, please refer to http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/clouddeakin/help-guides/assessment/plagiarism. Additional Requirements and Notes 1. Any text, table, figure, and code adapted from any source must be clearly referenced. 2. All assignments must be submitted through CloudDeakin. Assignments will not be accepted through any other manner without prior approval. Students should note that this means that email and paper based submissions will ordinarily be rejected. 3. Submissions received after the due date are penalised at a rate of 10% (out of the full mark) per day, no exceptions. Late submission after 3 days (including weekend and public holidays) would be penalised at a rate of 100% out of the full mark. Close of submissions on the due date and each day thereafter for penalties will occur at 11:59 pm Australian Eastern Time (UTC +10 hours) with Daylight Saving. 4. No extension will be granted. 5. Assignments are normally marked and returned within two weeks of the due date. Assignments that are submitted after the due date will normally take longer to mark and return. As this unit does not have exam, the marks of assignment 2 will not be released until the final grade is certified by the University. Page 2 of 5    Guideline The essence of this unit As the unit title indicates, research and development is a problem solving exercise, differing it from software implementation or project management. You are expected to think, think hard, and make innovative contributions to the problem. You are not expected to invent anything brand new, but it will be great if you could incrementally improve any unsolved problem. The structure and length of this final report The recommended structure of the final report should include these parts, and in this order: 1) Title (not exceeding ten words using only letters and avoid using hypens and any punctuations); 2) Abstract (a 100 word summary of this report); 3) Introduction (the problem statement, the motivation of this work, the importance of this work - around 300 words); 4) Related work (a condensed summary of existing solutions, which were presented your first assignment. State what their drawbacks are, from the point of view of the above defined problem statement - around 400 words); 5) Your new solution (the framework of your solution, assumptions and limitations, and all the details of your solution. Explain why your solution is expected to be better than others under the same conditions - around 1000 words); 6) Evaluation of your solution (analysis, simulation, and comparison with the previous solutions. You will develop a working system/program to validate your idea. You will set up different evaluation criteria to measure your method/strategy/algorithm. You will compare your method/strategy/algorithm with existing method/strategy/algorithm based on the evaluation criteria - around 1000 words); 7) Conclusion (a summary of your contribution and an overview of future work. You should highlight what the major qualitative and/or numerical highlights of the analysis in the previous section - around 200 words); 8) References (a minimum of 20 references). The length of the final report is around 3,000 words. (Note: Please consider the above suggested words-allocation as an average choice; you can totally define a new words-allocation by your own. You have a maximum of 3000 words, which allow you to show your capability of creating and demonstrating a new idea and presenting it well. If you are confident that you can present everything in less than 3000 words, that is ok; otherwise, you have more space to earn marks. The length does not make you lose any marks; but insufficient content does.) How to write abstract? Remember that you have 100 word limit so please use simple language to summarise the problem and your innovative solution. This is the best chance to attract readers' attention. How to write introduction? The introduction should be sufficiently self-contained to comprehend the essence of contribution for people generally working in I.T. area. They should be able to correctly understand what the important aspects of the contribution are, and how good the contribution is. The problem statement needs precise definition. Conditions, context, assumptions, and limitations of the research done should be briefly stated. The introduction should therefore attempt to present a full version of the report in a concise, readable, and intuitively clear form. Page 3 of 5    How to write related work? Since you have done your first assignment, this part should not be difficult for you. It is a condensed summary of existing solutions. It should collect known results relevant to the problem stated, whether or not they are used in your solution. You should state what their drawbacks are, from the point of view of the above defined problem statement. How to write your new solution part? You should present your solution in a plain way that it can be easily understood. You should give the framework of your solution, assumptions and limitations, and all the details of your solution. Explain why your solution is expected to be better than others under the same conditions. It is good to clearly and concisely present the key idea before discussing any steps of your method/strategy/algorithm. Remember that a figure may be worth a thousand words. Important new concepts, and new ideas, can be illustrated by examples and figures as appropriate, to help the reader in understanding them, and to demonstrate your own understanding of these concepts. Examples should not be trivial, but meaningful and helpful. How to write the evaluation part? The evaluation could be analytical, by simulation, or by implementation. Analytical analysis could provide, for example, the proof of validity of the major ideas of your solution. You should give analysis, simulation, and comparison with the previous solutions in this part. You will develop a working system/program to validate your idea. You will set up different evaluation criteria to measure your method/strategy/algorithm. You will compare your method/strategy/algorithm with existing method/strategy/algorithm based on the evaluation criteria. Graphs or tables are good way to illustrate your evaluation results. How to write conclusion? Conclusion part is a summary of your contribution and an overview of future work. You should highlight what the major qualitative and/or numerical highlights of the analysis in the previous section. Recommended reading • Ivan Stojmenovic, "Editor's Note: How to Write Research Articles in Computing and Engineering Disciplines," IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, pp. 145-147, February, 2010. Page 4 of 5    Marking Criteria The final report will be marked using the following marking criteria: 1. (4 marks) Abstract - It concisely summarises the problem and your solution. The length of the abstract is within 100 words. 2. (4 marks) Introduction - It clearly defines the problem statement, gives the motivation of this work, highlights the importance of this work, and briefly introduces your solution. 3. (4 marks) Related work - It covers representative existing solutions and gives an analysis on their drawbacks. 4. (15 marks) Your new solution - It precisely describes the framework of your solution, assumptions and limitations, and all the details of your solution. 5. (25 marks) Evaluation of your solution - It quantitatively and/or qualitatively presents the analysis, simulation, and comparison with the previous solutions. The evaluation criteria are clearly given. The evaluation results are clearly presented. 6. (4 marks) Conclusion - It provides a summary of your contribution and an overview of future work. 7. (4 marks) The final report is clearly structured according to the guideline, nicely presented, and well written. The length of the final report is within the scope given in the guideline. References are correctly cited and formatted. 8. (5 marks) * Bonus points: The report gives the theoretical proof that can demonstrate the effectiveness of your solution, in addition to the experimental evaluation. The bonus points are not affected to the penalty from late submission. The bonus points could be given regardless how many marks you receive according to the marking scheme. That is, you could reach 65 marks in total for this assignment if you get full mark based on the marking scheme, if you are working really hard! :-)    (The detailed marking scheme is shown in Table 1)                              Page 5 of 5    Table 1. Marking Scheme. Assignment Task 2 (60%=60 Marks) Criteria Excellent Good Marginal Not Shown 1: Summarise A Report In An Abstract It concisely summarises a narrowed problem and its solution (4 Marks) Narrow down but not sharp (2-3 Marks) General scope no specific focus (1 Mark) No abstract (0 Mark) 2:Write an Introduction It clearly defines the problem statement, gives the motivation of this work, highlights the importance of this work, and briefly introduces the solution (4 Marks) Narrow down the problem but not sharp (2-3 Marks) General scope without specific focus (1 Mark) No introduction section (0 Mark) 3: Conduct A Survey For Related Work It covers representative existing solutions (including most related work) and gives an analysis on their drawbacks (4 Marks) It covers existing solutions on a narrowed problem and gives an analysis on their drawbacks. But no most related work is pointed out (2-3 Marks) It only covers general existing solutions, but does not focus on related solutions (1 Mark) No related work (0 Mark) 4: Provide A New Solution It precisely describes the framework of the solution, assumptions and limitations, and all the details of the solution (13-15 Marks) It describes the framework of the solution, assumptions and limitations, and most details of the solution (10-12 Marks) The solution is not narrowed down, or no specific technique is detailed. For example, only source codes are pasted without explanations (5-9 Marks) Generally describe existing solution, but provide no new solution with technical details (0-4 Marks) 5: Conduct A Experimental Study It quantitatively and/or qualitatively presents the analysis, simulation, and comparison with the previous solutions. The evaluation criteria are clearly given. The evaluation results are clearly presented (20-25 Marks) General numeric results are provided. But no sufficient evaluation criteria, for example, evaluating only one metric. The results are presented (15-19 Marks) No numeric results are provided. But some case studies are given to verify the proposed solution (8-14 Marks) No case study. Or only use numeric results from existing work to demonstrate the solution (0-7 Marks) 6: Give A Conclusion It provides an excellent summary of the contribution and an overview of the future work (4 Marks) It provides a good summary of the contribution and an overview of the future work (3 Marks) It provides a marginal summary of the contribution and an overview of the future work (1-2 Marks) No conclusion (0 Mark) 7: Present A Report using Suitable Structure and Writing Skills. The final report is clearly structured according to the guideline, nicely presented, and well written. The length of the final report is within the scope given in the guideline. References are correctly cited and formatted (4 Marks) The report structure is complete. The presentation is easy to follow. References are correctly cited and formatted (2-3 Marks) The report structure is incomplete and presentation is hard to follow. References are not correctly cited and formatted (1 Mark ) No structure, for example, no separated sections (0 Mark) 8: Bonus Points The report gives the theoretical proof that can demonstrates the effectiveness of your solution, in addition to the experimental evaluation (4-5 Marks) The report draw some theoretical conclusion from the experimental results (1-3 Marks) No any theoretical analysis (0 Mark)