Honours in Computer Science

Admission to the Honours program is available to students undertaking a relevant undergraduate degree, e.g. Bachelor of Advanced Computing, Bachelor of Information Technology, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Philosophy. All applications for admission are considered on their individual merits, with admission at the discretion of the School Director. Normally applicants must meet the following minimum criteria, although meeting these does not guarantee admission.

• Completion (or imminent completion) of the requirements for a relevant undergraduate degree.
• Completion of a Computer Science major or equivalent coursework background in computer science.
• Completion of 36 units of courses in computer science or a cognate discipline, excluding 1000-level courses, with an average grade equivalent to Distinction (minimum 70).

The Honours program includes advanced coursework worth 50 per cent of the year, and a major individual project examined by a dissertation, also worth 50 per cent of the year. An Honours grade is awarded on the result of the whole year's work, although the individual course marks will also appear on your academic transcript. Your selection of courses (subjects) and research project is made within the department once your enrolment has been accepted.

Current ANU students

If you meet the above admission requirements, in the later half of Semester 2 (or of Semester 1 if you start your Honours year in Semester 2) you should email the Honours Convener to discuss your intention to apply for admission to the Honours program. You should provide the Honours convener with a copy of your academic results (a transcript or a printout from ISIS) together with a brief note stating that you wish to be considered for admission to the Honours program. Once you identified a project and a supervisor from the School of Computing (or Adjunct) who agrees to supervise you for a 24 unit Honours project, please complete the project registration form. Once your form is approved (which might take a while during busy periods), you will be able to enrol in the appropriate courses (see below) via ISIS in the usual way.

Students undertaking a 24 unit Honours project enrol in the course COMP4550 for their thesis project (Software Engineering students enrol into COMP4540). Note that this course consists of 12 units in each of two successive semesters.

Other applicants

This includes students from other universities and former ANU students.

Applications for admission to the BSc (Hons) should be made online, via the "Apply" button on the BSc Honours webpage. Note that applications to commence Honours in Semester 1 the following year close on 30 November, although late applications may be considered.

You should notify the Honours Convener as soon as possible of your intention to apply and lodge your application as soon as you are able to obtain a transcript of your academic record from your current institution.

As in the case of an ANU student, you will need to identify a project and a supervisor and complete the project registration form before the project can commence.

There are a variety of scholarships available to help you fund your honours studies.

Some scholarships are won in open competition against students across Australia vying to receive funding to study at their institution of choice, other scholarships are specific to ANU, and a few are specific to the Honours program. Some of our partner organisations, for example ASD-ANU Co-Lab, offer funding to students who study an Honours project with them.

Students undertaking an Honours year will take 24 units of coursework and a research project worth 24 units. Courses are enrolled online through ISIS, though permission codes may be required in some cases.

The course COMP4450 (Advanced Computing R&D Methods) must be taken as part of the coursework component of Honours, unless you have done the equivalent COMP2550 previously.

Generally speaking, you enrol in courses with COMP4XXX codes, or possibly in COMP8XXX courses if these do not have 4000-level equivalents. You may be able to count certain 3000-level courses as part of your Honours year, especially if they are relevant to your thesis and for some reason you have not done them before. You may be assigned extra assessment components for a 3000-level course in comparison with the third year students. Permission of the Honours convener is required before you can take any course below the 4000 level.

It is not uncommon that a course offered by a different department (e.g. a course with a MATH or ENGN code) may suit your requirements better than a COMP course. Again, talk to the Honours convener if this applies to you.

It is generally a good idea to consult your Honours project supervisor before the start of your Honours year about courses that may be important, useful or interesting for you.

Half of your time as an Honours student is spent working on a project. Your project work will be supervised by someone who can offer you both general guidance on project work and advice more specific to the nature of the project.

Project topics are described on the School of Computing project opportunities webpage. Note that the list of advertised projects is by default incomplete and only indicative of the research interests of potential supervisors, but may be changed by discussion with the supervisor concerned. It is the responsibility of the applicant to contact potential supervisors in order to discuss possible projects. If you are interested in a particular area, you should also browse the homepages of our researchers, identify topics that interest you and contact the respective people. Your supervisor has to be a current School of Computing academic. You can have supervisors that do not meet this requirement, provided that you have an additional co-supervisor who does.

Project milestones

There are various project milestones and deliverables that are due at different points during the year.

Note: The dates given below are indicative and are subject to change.

BSc Honours students are bound by conditions laid down by the Science Faculty Honours Committee (of which the CS Honours Convener is a member). See the College of Science Honours Handbook.

Start date

Before the start of the semester, all intending honours students should review the available project topics, agree a proposal with the intended supervisor and complete the project registration form. The absolute deadline for late applications is the second Friday of the ordinary teaching semester, but it is strongly recommended that you complete the project registration earlier - before the semester starts if possible. If your proposed research involves the collection of data from human participants you will have to apply for ANU Human Ethics approval prior to beginning data collection. Please discuss this with your supervisor and initiate the approval process as early as possible as it may take longer than 8 weeks to get the approval.

Introductory seminars

Students will present a five minute talk introducing themselves, their projected area and their topic. The audience will mostly consist of their fellow students and supervisors. This normally takes place in week 5, 6 or 7 of the semester (after the mid-term talks from students who started in the previous semester are completed). The introductory seminar will not count towards your assessment.

Draft thesis

Students must hand a complete draft of their thesis to their supervisor for review by three weeks before submission at the latest. It is very important to get detailed feedback on the thesis in time to make revisions. Supervisors should note that providing timely feedback on the draft thesis is an important part of their job. Do not attempt to leave large parts of writing up your thesis until the last few days: it takes longer than you think, and extensions of time to submit will only be given in exceptional circumstances beyond your control. You will find instructions on the wattle page on how to submit your draft thesis.

Poster presentation

Students will present a conference-style poster summarising their research for an interested, but non-expert audience. This presentation will be scheduled for Week 10 of the second semester of the project and is worth 10% of the overall grade.

Thesis due

One paper copy, double-side printed, of your thesis must be submitted to the School administrator by close of business on this date for all types of Honours (BIT, BCS, BSc Hons, BAC, BSEng, PhB and MCOMP). We will take care of the binding. You must also submit the PDF version of your thesis to the Honours convener via the respective Wattle page, as this is the form in which it is distributed to examiners. If you are overseas or interstate and are unable to submit a paper copy of your thesis, you only need to submit your thesis online via the respective Wattle page. The thesis counts for 90% of your overall project mark.

The thesis submission deadline is rigid. Significant penalties apply for lateness and can affect the class of your degree. Typical penalties are 5% per business day late.

Constructive feedback

As part of the weekly Honours seminars, you are required to give constructive feedback to the midterm presentations and final seminars of your fellow Honours students. The ability to give an unbiased critical assessment of other researchers work is an important part of being a researcher. Listening to other students presentation and critically evaluating them will provide you with a broad knowledge of the whole spectrum of research being conducted at the School of Computing. It also gives you important insight into how to give a good presentation and how not to, and will help you give better presentations yourself. Constructive feedback can be submitted via wattle after each seminar and counts for 2.5% of your overall project mark per semester, 5% in total.

You can explore projects proposed by potential supervisors on the School of Computing project opportunities webpage.

There are projects available for all levels of research, including short projects, summer scholarship projects, Honours projects, Masters and PhD projects. All potential research students at any level are urged to browse it.

If you see a project that looks interesting, email the potential supervisor about it. Don't be afraid to discuss possible variations to the listed project: what appears on the web site is generally more of a suggestion than a rigid specification.

You don't have to be constrained by what you see on the project website, which is by default incomplete. If you have something that you would like to work on as a project, then feel free to contact potential supervisors (check the websites of our academics for their research interests) and discus and identify a project that is of interest to you and your supervisor. Remember that projects may also be supervised by people outside the College, or even outside the University: from CSIRO/Data61 or ASD for instance, provided you have a co-supervisor who is part of the School of Computing.