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The Arthur Brunnschweiler Teaching Laboratory

The Arthur Brunnschweiler Teaching Laboratory

The Arthur Brunnschweiler Teaching Laboratory

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Published: 8 December 2016

A team of three Southampton Students has won a GCHQ sponsored national challenge to hack a purposely built website beating over 250 participants in teams from 11 top UK Universities.

The competition, open to all Universities accredited by GCHQ as “Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Researchâ€? (ACEs) was run in conjunction with Cambridge University and involved attacking and defacing a specially prepared website. The Southampton team of David Young, James Prance and Josh Curry managed the task in the first day of the challenge.

This success follows the individual and team bronze medals won earlier in the year at Inter-ACE 2016 competition and sets high expectations for Inter-ACE 2017 in March next year.

Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Director of Southampton University’s Cyber Security Centre, said “I am very proud to support students capable of such quality in their exploits. In order to maintain our performance at this level, we will recruit more team members for the Inter-ACE challenge in March. Our students in the Cyber Security Centre are very active in external competitions and challenges and we in the centre recognise their value in driving standards upwards. In January we will organise internal workshops and challenges among current students to select more high-quality team members. I firmly believe that this result demonstrates the quality of our education programme in cyber security. Southampton produces students of the very highest calibre in cyber security, so if you’re interested in undergraduate MEng, postgraduate MSc or research PhD in cyber security don’t forget to apply to Southampton.â€?

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OPTO6013 Industrial Dissertation (R&D)

Module Overview

The aim of this course is to develop skills in reading scientific and technology publications, their comprehension and in forming of critical judgement. It will involve independently carrying out a literature research on a set topics from the area of photonics, optoelectronics and optical telecommunications, of relevance to the current and future industrial applications and the effective communication of the findings in a written and as well as in oral  presentations.

The first part of the course is devoted to exploring a broad area of the topic and the current trends, assessed via short executive summary and an oral presentation. The second part consists of a more specialised dissertation which focuses on a particular idea, experimental design or a model, setting out the details and the requirements for a future R&D project and is assessed via a written report.

Industrial dissertations will have their topics set by industrial companies and will be co-supervised by industrial partners. This module serves as preparation for the Industrially Co-Supervised Project/R&D Project OPTO6014 in semester 3.

Aims & Objectives

Aims

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

  • develop ability to present complex material at a suitable level.

Subject Specific Intellectual

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • effectively search the scientific literature, technical reports, papers and books as well as a variety of online resources
  • demonstrate independence in exploring scientific or technology concepts and with the aim of finding practical solutions
  • develop a critical approach to the general and technical literature and the ability to select the most relevant information
  • improve skills in writing a clear and structured report on a scientific topic

Transferable and Generic

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • develop confidence and clarity in verbal communication
  • develop clarity in written communication
  • increase awareness and ability to manage time effectively to meet deadlines

Subject Specific Practical

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • develop document preparation skills including creating figures, equations, tables and a bibliography
  •  process the most relevant information to provide a solution and explanation to a given scientific or technological problem , developing problem solving skills

Syllabus

In the first part, the students will individually research a topic set by their industrial supervisors. The topic, accompanied by short abstract, will be from the current and  upcoming ideas and challenges from the areas such as photonics, optoelectronics, optical telecommunications or related areas. Some may be interdisciplinary and include some elements of mathematics, biology, chemistry, engineering, nanoscience or related technologies and products.

In general, the topics will not be routine, where detailed description is already available in textbooks or have been discussed at depth during lecture courses. The material gathered during from the scientific and technical literature research will need to be synthesised into coherent conclusions. Therefore, scientific judgement would be required in identifying key references, the core concepts and the main findings. This specialised content has to be set and discussed in a broader context of a particular area. Creativity, going  beyond the abstracts are strongly encouraged.

The module aims to set the students on a path to develop initiative as R&D researchers, being able to review and extract from literature the prospects of a particular technology or idea.  It also aims to promote be self-sufficiency,  learning how to manage such tasks independently. While supervisors will be available for consultation, the work will need to be carried out without seeking detailed scientific or technical supervision, help or guidance from academic or research staff.

In the second part, more specialised  topic will have to be researched and the report written, demonstrating again clear comprehension of more technical details, fundamental as well as practical constraints, as well as exercising critical judgement of the findings. The focus of this more technical dissertation is on gaining stronger confidence in exploring independently a particular idea or concept, developing analytical and problem solving skills to plan an experiment or a model to test given idea.  It is also serves as training in time management, in particular working out the right balance between literature research, drawing conclusions and solving the challenges as well as writing up a report. 

Learning & Teaching

Learning & teaching methods

There will be an introductory lecture outlining the details of the module, its timeline, expectations and requirements. Academic/industrial supervisors will be available every week for one hour (office hour) for a drop in sessions, offering general advice and guidance, but not detailed supervision of the work. 

ActivityDescriptionHours
Seminar1 hour introduction to the module per semester
Project supervisionconsultation and office hours 11
Project supervision2 review meetings 2

Assessment

Assessment methods

MethodHoursPercentage contribution
Executive summary-20%
Presentation-25%
Industrial specialised dissertation-55%

Referral Method: By re-write of the project report and re-viva (the original progress report mark will be carried forward)

Students must get at least 50% mark to pass this course and progress to take Industrially Co-Supervised Project OPTO6014. The students who fail to meet this target will revert to taking the general OPTO6012 project. Furthermore, they have the following referral arrangements.

By first Monday (9 am) of the Supplementary Exam period the students will need to submit:

1) their specialised industrial dissertation and

2) Power Point (or a similar format) file containing presentation of the main results of the first, more general part of their literature research.

If the specialised dissertation was submitted and marked, improved and amended version has to be submitted. There will be no oral presentation of the results. 

Division of marks:

Resubmitted report 50%, PPT presentation file 50%, 

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OPTO6014 Industrial Project (R&D)

Module Overview

The topics of research projects will be decided by collaboration between an ORC or P&A supervisor and an industrial supervisor based in a local company. Topic areas will include  different concepts in photonic materials and in design, fabrication and testing of device-oriented applications in photonic technology.

Each student will work under a supervision of a senior research/academic staff member and a representative of the company involved. A project will start with a meeting between a student and their supervisors, where technical goals, a workplan and the schedule of work will be agreed. This plan will be written up by a student, checked by his/her supervisors and then submitted for approval to the Project Course coordinator. The research work will be performed primarily within the University at the ORC or P&A labs or offices. Regular meetings will also be arranged with the industrial supervisor to report the progress and confirm the plan for the next period. While the daily supervision will be done by the academic supervisor , the contact with the industrial supervisor and the feedback from them on the performance should prove valuable and the students could, for example, ask for a letter of reference upon successful completion of their MSc R&D projects

Weekly meetings will then take place throughout the project duration with a supervisor or, if a supervisor is unavailable, a delegated deputy. The Project course coordinator will need to be notified about such arrangements and know the names of those temporary deputies. Following the research part of the project, a report will be written up by a student that will cover both the results achieved as well as covering in-depth their relevant physics and engineering background. An additional short report covering the relevance of the project work within the context of the company’s future plans will make up part of the final assessment.

The students should aim to complete all research and data analysis by the end of August to allow sufficient time for writing up reports. The deadline for submitting the reports is the end of September. In case of late submission, the standard, University approved penalties will apply, except for well justified cases. Any such extensions have to be requested in advance and in writing to the Project Module coordinators.

A part of the project for all students is the “industrial showcase” which involves interaction with the relevant industry (photonic technologies) giving a flavour of the business aspect of the technology to the students. The students learn how to conduct a SWOT analysis to evaluate the performance of a business and are asked to write a short essay. The industrial showcase takes place during the Easter holiday and includes a full week of interacting with local industry. The assignment should be completed within 15 days after showcase week. The industrial showcase work is independent of the student’s industrial project work, and is common to both the industrial and standard MSc project modules.

The aims of this module are:

  • develop advanced practical skills and enhance in-depth understanding of relevant background knowledge and in a chosen specialist subject
  • embed the correct approach and methodology for independent work carried out in a research-led environment, with a focus on the applied and R&D side, in particular within the cleanrooms and optical labs of the ORC
  • train in technical and hands-on research skills to gain technology insight into concepts covered during taught courses to prepare for a career in research and development.
  • Introduce the students directly to the business aspect of research.

Aims & Objectives

Aims

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

  • Important scientific and technological principles relevant to a chosen topic of a project
  • use and applications of specialist tools, equipment and techniques used to design, fabricate, test or characterise the materials or devices developed in a project
  • The basic principles of operation of the components used, both in terms of the scientific as well as the technical background
  • Current state of the art, including the research advances as well as in device or fabrication capabilities, relevant to a scope of a project
  • Relevance of research to industry, feasibility study of taking ideas out of the lab to be ready for potential commercial exploitation

Subject Specific Intellectual

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • have confidence and practice in gaining new knowledge and understanding through critical reading of research resources such as scientific papers or books
  • discuss their results, review methods used, draw conclusions and plan future work
  • apply the newly acquired knowledge to solving specialist design or characterisation problems
  • Demonstrate the ability to assess and discuss the research part of the project to evaluate the viability of potential new devices and therefore learning to encompass the principle of concept to device.
  • Assess the commercial importance of a research project within a given industrial context

Transferable and Generic

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • Experienced in a range of practical and experimental lab-based skills
  • Present specialist technical information in written and verbal forms
  • Able to work independently on a significant research project
  • Able to defend the results and the report in front of senior scientists who will explore both the fundamental and practical understanding as well as abilities.

Subject Specific Practical

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to:

  • Operate and control specialist tools and processes with the cleanroom environment
  • Fabricate photonic devices with due care paid to health and safety and current operating procedures relevant to a cleanroom environment
  • Write a project dissertation that will provide a coherent, logical and accurate description of the work carried out and capturing the most important achievements of the project

Learning & Teaching

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment

Assessment methods

MethodHoursPercentage contribution
Dissertation (final)-50%
Report (mid-term)-16%
Presentation-16%
Industrial review-10%
Assignment-8%

Referral Method: There is no referral opportunity for this syllabus in same academic year

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