Coffee Space

Introduction

This blog plans to capture the experience of doing a Master’s project in a semester during the summer. I’ll make my apologies before this starts as it’ll likely be a stressful experience, but of course that’s in the spirit of it all! I hope this makes for good reading as it should be a genuine account. Obviously I’ll omit any particular details that point people out.

First Lecture

First impressions:

• I was expecting to have a much smaller group of people, I think there were about 60 people. These sorts of numbers compare with the sort of turn out that can be expected from the Computer Science course. It’s about double - something that I really wasn’t expecting to see.
• Another strange thing for me to see was that I was the only white British person there. It seems as thought the distribution doesn’t hold up from Degree to Masters, I have no idea why this is. There were a few familiar faces which should make things easier in terms of discussion. Another interesting note is that they were mostly speaking foreign languages, suggesting they are students from abroad. Again, I have no idea currently why that might be but at some point I might start to speculate as I learn more.
• There was a lot of back-chat to the tutor who I felt sorry for. It seems as though there is a lot of growing up to be done in the room. A lot of anecdotal stories about previous students were shared, such as “the University ate my friends grades and didn’t compensate him” or “a dog at my friend’s final report and the tutor laughed”. I have no time for these stories, there is a process for this which they probably failed to meet the requirements for and decided to scare their friends instead. Good job guys.
• The tutor was very demeaning to the room, trying to make the point that people can’t reference when they think they can, etc. After spending some time in that room , I think I eventually figured out why this was. The inconvenient truth is that they probably can’t.

So, at the end of the session I felt myself feeling that I should be able to have the best project in the room if I put my mind to it and I should really start to make some progress on the project. Time to get some work done and arrange a meeting with my tutor!

Hopefully some more updates to come…

First Mid-Week

Finding the motivation to do the enormous task ahead is difficult with all of the added stress of accommodation, potential PhD funding and family/friend commitments. There sure will be a lot to do over the summer period! I can see how people end up delaying their project workload towards the end and risk failure.

Currently it’s a case of trying to offload workload elsewhere and trying to fully commit to the project at hand, ideally I should be getting four full days in a week whereas currently I think I’m lucky to average two days a week. This is half the expected requirement for doing the project!

Hope to update again soon…

Second Lecture

It’s a bit more clear that there really isn’t much time to master a subject, literally measured in a small number of weeks. I have effectively lost a week due to a series of happenings, it looks as though I really can’t afford to lose more time. Time management is certainly one of the key topics here.

Hopefully more updates…

Third Lecture

I decided not to go to this lecture for two reasons:

A. I’m not sure I could deal with being told how to do things I already know and spend an hour listening to very obvious questions about the project. B. I am completely out of sync with the rest of the world.

Given these reasons, I decided to simply look the lecture slides up online later - worst case I am still able to ask online or in person for help in the unlikely case it is required. It’s a bit of a test and we’ll see how well that will work. Reading the online material revealed exactly the material expected, I think it may have even been from a previous lecture in a previous year’s module. The same talk is probably given to third year BSc students too.

In other news, not as much work on the project has been done as I would like. This effectively means I have lost two weeks so far of a 12 week project. Time to pull the old finger out and get this project fully up to speed. I believe my (and most other people’s) natural tendency is to leave everything to last minute when the stress is really high. I don’t think this project will be very successful unless I manage my time correctly. The holiday is over and the serious work should now begin.

If I also counter for the ~1 week I will lose through the RoboCup World Cup it’s even less. Effectively I have 9 weeks left to complete this project. I think it’s time to get the gant chart out and start planning this out properly!

There is also another commitment I must factor in which is the work I am doing on a University project, so that also will take a fair amount of my time also. That seems as if it will be partially paid, perhaps in the gift of a new laptop (something I fear that I now desperately need!)…

I’ve also arranged to meet my tutor again which is good, although I’ve been warned that they may not be around over the summer so the direction should be settled relatively soon. I’m currently writing a test program as we speak to see what direction it is worth taking the project in next. Again this stresses how very little time I really have in order to complete this project.

Another update soon…

Fourth Lecture

A lecture on Ethics Approval - not something that applies to me so another session wasted. There was as per normal a long list of questions that really didn’t need to be asked, this seems to be a reoccurring theme. Usually this will be a discussion across the room between lecturer and student where the whole class is forced to listen - a complete waste of time for everybody involved. On the plus side I was able to use this time to complete my download.

I haven’t been as good to the project as I should have been, unfortunately trying to setup paid work for yourself is a process that also takes time, as well as a proposal for a PhD. Definitely time now to bring it up a notch, I have a project proposal to hand in the next few days.

More to come in the next few days…

Increasing Productivity

I thought as I do this, it’s worth documenting the exact process for increasing productivity. The following is my process for doing this.

1. List the work to be done.
2. List the reasons as to why work is currently not being done.
3. Attempt to remove reasons why work is not being done.
4. Re-prioritise work in the newly formed available time.

Simple, eh?

For me, the first is:

• Weighted coin problem
• Communicate results to tutor
• Write project proposal
• Pay accommodation
• Start work on forum
• Continue work on SQLite project

For the second, the list is:

1. Procrastination (always number one on the list)
2. Talking to flat mates
3. Playing games
4. Arranging meetings
5. Worrying about things to be done

To remove these, I can do the following:

1. Stop procrastinating by looking at the things to be done and gaining a sudden sense of urgency.
2. Move to a place where my flat mates aren’t.
3. Again, read the sense of urgency.
4. Try to arrange meetings to be short.
5. Organise things to be done so that there is a clear plan instead of a mangle of panic.

Finally, a re-prioritisation:

1. Weighted coin problem
2. Communicate results to tutor
3. Write project proposal
4. Pay accommodation
5. Continue work on SQLite project
6. Start work on forum

Now all that is left is to execute the tasks in order until complete - pretty simple.

Project Proposal Time

Okay, so after getting most of that list completed, it’s now time to smash on with the project proposal. Although I planned to do this within the first week, it’s now one day before it needs to be handed in - so that’s not great.

I propose the following titles:

• Introduction
• Problem Statement
• Background
• Purpose
• Significance
• Methodology
• Literature Review
• Hypothesis
• Scope and Limitations
• Procedure
• Acceptance Criteria
• References

EDIT: Finished it in time. I ended up dropping the “Procedure” section.

Next Steps

Things are looking good currently although I will need to take a break in the development over the time period where I’ll be competing in RoboCup.

The next steps in the project are:

• Completing the test program
• Getting data from the test program
• Deciding on next exploration steps

My next time consuming worries are:

• RoboCup
• Hacking forum software
• NHS VRE system

These things are all happening over the next two weeks, along with my project. Time will, let’s say - become very difficult.

I also need to do the following:

• MOT and Tax my car
• Insure myself on the car
• Accommodation
• PhD application to two places
• Celebrate Birthday

Lot’s of things happening over the next two weeks, someone might look at this list and see it as ridiculous. At some point I may share how on earth I manage to organise all of these things.

Mid-Term Report

Now some drama is out of the way, it’s time to start thinking about the mid-term report. This marks the point where I should be half way through the project - which is not even close to being true, so work must be done. The hand-in is a good solid week of work away on the 12th July, so there is much fun to be had as yet before I submit once again.

By the time of hand-in, I plan to have written the coin weighting program and to have gotten results from the program. I can then look at analysing the results and looking at a next direction. If I am able to complete this, I would be extremely happy if I am able to complete this in time.

Conclusion

So, this has finally been completed. I must first start with an apology, as I stopped updating approximately half way through, which probably describes my work towards the project…