RESEARCH, PROFESSIONALISM AND INNOVATION - 2025/6
Module code: EEEM072
Module Overview
This module is aimed at forming essential professional skills and competences in research and innovation for master level students studying in programmes relating to computer science and/or electronic engineering. It will therefore serve as an important initial module towards planning and executing the dissertation project through learning about literature reviewing and research methodologies. Furthermore, it will facilitate team building skills through identifying individual strengths and exercising capability through group design work. This experience will also make the student aware of the challenges of working effectively with other people.
Module provider
Computer Science and Electronic Eng
Module Leader
BROWN Tim (CS & EE)
Number of Credits: 15
ECTS Credits: 7.5
Framework: FHEQ Level 7
Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A
Overall student workload
Workshop Hours: 3
Independent Learning Hours: 77
Lecture Hours: 1
Seminar Hours: 5
Tutorial Hours: 4
Guided Learning: 60
Module Availability
Semester 2
Prerequisites / Co-requisites
None
Module content
Indicative module content is as follows:
What is Research and Innovation? Technology Readiness Levels. Literature searching and surveying. Referencing.
Team Skills. Equality and Diversity.
Innovation and impact in original design solutions.
Society, economy, user, culture, environment. Problem solving to meet an end solution.
Health and safety, ethical codes, anti bribery, security and privacy. copyright, intellectual property rights, patenting, referencing and academic integrity.
Industry standards, codes of practice, regulation.
Quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Assessment pattern
| Assessment type | Unit of assessment | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Project (Group/Individual/Dissertation) | Group Design Project | 30 |
| Examination | Multiple Choice Question Examinatoin (2 hrs) | 70 |
Alternative Assessment
For part time students and also students taking reassessment, the Group Design Project will involve an individual planning assignment to identify team organisation to fulfil a design plan.
Assessment Strategy
Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:
- Group Design Project - This will involve working in a team of students within the same discipline area and being assigned a topic relevant to the discipline. A group design portfolio will be submitted and will be clear about the group contributions made as well as allow each member to provide reflection on the awareness of their team skills. The portfolio will include background to design including review of literature, research of market and societal needs, design specification and forward planning. (Learning outcomes 1, 2 and 3).
- Multiple Choice Examination - As the largest assessment component in this module, it will involve an examination of multiple choice questions to test ability relating to professionalism, research and innovation. It's strategy will be to test the individuals discernment of key components in the process of forming new knowledge and transferring to innovative technical solutions with consideration of the wider societal and environmental impacts, while also giving consideration to associated professional practice. (Learning outcomes 3 and 4).
Formative assessment: Formative assessment will be provided in this module in the following ways:
Students carrying out team building exercises and identifying their strengths and weaknesses in a team.
Forming reflective evaluation of their performance in team work.
Inspiration through seminars and online tasks that will challenge students' thought and conscience on matters including equality and diversity, ethics, intellectual properly, anti bribery etc.
Feedback:
Formative feedback will be provided in this module in the following ways:
Feedback through question and answer tutorials held at suitable points in the semester close to submission deadlines.
Feedback from project supervisor when considering research methodologies for the work to be carried out.
Enquiries through email.
Module aims
- With regard to research, this module aims to prepare students for key competences they require in carrying out a project. These include carrying out a literature review and planning a research project with regard to identifying the necessary methodology and ensuring academic integrity in research.
- With regard to professionalism, this module will enable the student to identify the strengths of their character and how they can play a part within a team to carry out and complete an exercise. Working with people will be a key challenge in this part of the module and will bring realisation of how equality and diversity play an important part in this.
- With regard to innovation, this module will familiarise the student with crucial ways in which research links with innovation in order to benefit society, economy and the environment. Factors crucial to forming innovative outcomes include consideration of intellectual property, health and safety and ethics.
Learning outcomes
| Attributes Developed | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Have the ability to conduct a literature review and how to effectively search for relevant academic papers, textbooks and other resources. | PT | |
| 002 | Function effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader of a team. Evaluate effectiveness of own and team performance. | PT | M16 |
| 003 | Design solutions for complex problems that evidence some originality and meet a combination of societal, user, business and customer needs as appropriate. This will involve consideration of applicable health & safety, diversity, inclusion, cultural, societal, environmental and commercial matters, codes of practice and industry standards. | C | M5 |
| 004 | Evaluate the environmental and societal impact of solutions to complex problems (to include the entire life-cycle of a product or process) and minimise adverse impacts. | CK | M7 |
Attributes Developed
C - Cognitive/analytical
K - Subject knowledge
T - Transferable skills
P - Professional/Practical skills
Methods of Teaching / Learning
The learning and teaching strategy is designed to: Enable the student to be equipped with a wealth of online resources that provide substantial guided learning tasks to familiarise with the important skills relating to research, professionalism and innovation. These will be complemented by carrying out assignments throughout the module designed to keep the student engaged with the material they are learning and actively apply it. Team work skills feature as an important feature within the middle of the module whereby it is necessary for students to fully engage in the module and with one another in realising the challenges of being a team member and coordinator.
The learning and teaching methods include:
An introductory lecture
Online guided learning tasks delivered each week to enable self paced learning via learning tasks.
Seminars at suitable points in the semester to help inspire the learning by focussing on real life examples of research, professionalism and innovation.
Question and Answer Tutorials at appropriate points in the semester close to submission of coursework deadlines to help discuss and deepen the contextualisation of the material studied.
Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.
Reading list
https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: EEEM072
Other information
The school of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability, and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills, and capabilities in the following areas: Digital capabilities: Use of academic literature searching will be crucial in forming digital capability to find the relevant literature required and suitable books for reference. Furthermore referencing literature will be required. Assignments will be carried out that require the need and competences to form well presented reports. Employability: Ability to work within a diverse group of people, demonstrating professionalism and an open mind to realising how to reach innovative technical solutions will form a wide breadth of employability skills that are widely transferable. Global and cultural capabilities: Forming intellectual property that is a unique contribution to a global economy alongside the necessary matters of health and safety as well as ethics will be of key contribution to global and cultural needs. These are importantly encompassed in the content studied and explored. Resourcefulness and Resilience: To develop resilience in completing a constant flow of work through a single semester in keeping to the task at hand regularly in order to meet the deadlines set. To ensure that this also is maintained where it involves dependency on working with others and to encourage one another in completing a task that will flourish with resourcefulness. Sustainability: To identify global environmental impacts of technology solutions and how they are to be designed or deployed in a way that will sustain long term.
Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.