Advanced Information Systems

Programme of Study

First Half Session

This course is mandatory:

Adaptive Interactive Systems - This course looks at how to automatically personalise systems to users. It introduces the latest techniques from areas such as User Modelling, Adaptive Hypermedia, Recommender Systems, and Persuasive Technology. It covers various application domains, such as personalization in e-commerce and health-care. You will learn how to design, implement and evaluate adaptive systems.

In addition, students will take three courses from the following electives (some courses will not be available every year, others may be made available):

Semantic Web Engineering - This course introduces fundamental knowledge and technologies of the Semantic Web (next generation of the World Wide Web), including ontologies, as well as related applications.

The Electronic Society - This course provides grounding in the field of e-commerce, e-health, e-science and e-governance, with case studies illustrating the infrastructures, models, and activities in various industrial and public sectors.

Data Mining & Visualisation - This course provides an overview of Data Mining Technologies and looks at their applications in commercial contexts; for example the management of business relationships within an E-Business context. The course covers Data Trend and Pattern Detectors, Abstraction Formation, Data Integration, and Qualitative Modelling and Reasoning. Data Visualisation, User Variability and Preferences, and Interface Design are also studied.

Natural Language Processing - This course provides an overview of the techniques used in Natural Language Processing. It covers formal aspects such as Linguistic Models of English, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics, and it also covers practical applications such as Grammar Checking, Machine Translation, Database Interfaces, Report Generation, and Dictation. Modern techniques are also covered, such as the combining of the symbolic approach with the statistical approach (based on the analysis of large corpora).

Second Half Session

All of the following courses are mandatory:

E-Business Strategies - This course, delivered in collaboration with the School of Law, covers essential business strategy and associated legal issues in e-commerce. The course is designed to develop entrepreneurial skills, so that students know how to identify a market niche, find a solution, legally protect it, and develop it into a viable business.

Advanced Computer Science Workshop - This course delivers practical experience in the technical issues involved in creating a software prototype that can be showcased to better attract commercial or scientific funding. It comprises a team effort to plan and develop such application, from the initial requirements specification to the finished product. At the end of the module, members of the Industrial Management Group will come to look at your developments (including your business plan or your case for support) and give you feedback. They are playing the role of venture capitalists/research panel reviewers; your aim is to show them that your idea is viable and would be worth funding.

Technological, Scientific and Market Research - This course is a preparation for the Summer Project. Students work together with an assigned academic supervisor to outline the scope of the planned project, and then to identify specialist areas where knowledge required to undertake the project may be lacking; relevant background reading is then undertaken to gather the required expertise. Students also review the latest existing work which is closely related to the area of their dissertation topic, and examine competing offerings in the marketplace; this work is then critically analysed, identifying strengths and weaknesses. This course is assessed by a Dissertation.

Summer Project (Dissertation)

Candidates who complete the above programme at an appropriate standard will be allowed to progress to the project stage. Candidates who fail to achieve the standard for progression to, or who elect not to proceed to, the project stage shall be awarded a Postgraduate Diploma if they have achieved the appropriate standard for that award.

The Summer Project is taken under the supervision of an assigned academic supervisor in the department. The project will require creative, analytical and practical skills. The project typically involves the development of a substantial piece of software, and its evaluation.

Assessment

Assessment is by course work, by written examination or by a combination of these as prescribed for each course. The Summer Project will be assessed by project implementation and by a Dissertation. The degree of MSc shall not be awarded to a candidate who fails to complete the Summer Project at an appropriate standard, irrespective of their performance in other courses.