In the third year of this Software Engineering degree, you’ll develop greater intellectual freedom, both as an individual but also in tackling a challenge in collaboration with others.
With modules focusing on developing your personal specialism in software engineering alongside stretching your collaboration skills and a final course-specific module, at the end of this year, you’ll have experience working in multidisciplinary teams and delivering a substantial development project.
Programming Tools
You will identify an opportunity to improve the software production process, devising a tool that will refine developer workflows.
Contexts can vary, but could include utilities for development operations, standalone computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, debugging extensions for an integrated development environment (IDE), content pipeline automation utilities that leverage generative artificial intelligence, or similar.
You will need to explore contemporary software engineering practice, bringing a critical eye to the day-to-day tasks of developers to identify and articulate the “need” for your proposed tool. You will also need to explore the frameworks and environments of your chosen context so that you can effectively build upon it. To support you in your endeavour, you will receive support with defining and working with application programming interfaces and in the conventions typical of such programming tools. Notably, how to adhere to system standards, license conditions, and platform specifications.
Renewing the focus on the human element of computer systems, you will also consider lessons learned from the literature on user experience design and design science more generally. The tool you build must be deployable, and you must demonstrate that it is fit-for-purpose and compliant with system requirements. You will also need to refactor the architecture of your solution to ensure that it is robust and performant.
Research & Development: Proposal
In this module, you’ll plan and commence an individual ‘major’ research and development project in computing. You can choose to conduct primary research centred on or supported by a novel computing artefact, or practice-based research with significant technical depth.
The development of your written proposal will include identifying an opportunity, critically reviewing relevant literature, setting a hypothesis and designing a mode of data collection, while considering all ethical implications, as well as prototyping a novel and substantial computing artefact.
Research & Development: Dissertation
On this module, you’ll continue your individual ‘major’ research and development project. Building upon the proposal you submitted, you’ll further develop your prototype computing artefact into a potentially deployable solution. In doing so, you’ll deepen your knowledge of software engineering, the use of advanced research tools, technical writing and academic conventions, as well as the interpretation and visualisation of results from statistical analyses of quantitative data.
Under the supervision of a subject-matter expert, you will: realise a novel and substantial computing artefact; execute your research and development; and critically analyse your results, disseminating your findings through a written academic dissertation. You’ll also present your insights to peers alongside a demonstration of the final computing artefact, referring to the potential impact of your project, any ethical concerns, and potential future work.
Digital Innovation
You will develop your commercial awareness and entrepreneurial mindset.
You will consider knowledge and skills that are equally applicable to setting up your own business, establishing yourself as a freelancer, or for use as an employee in a business or organisation. This will help you to further develop your goals, values, and employability skills, as well as to explore options available to you.
You begin by critically evaluating market opportunities, exploring how businesses can operate, and comparing how intellectual property can be managed through granted rights, contract, trade secret, and incorporation. Contexts will vary, but could include products and services across a wide range of digital contexts. You form teams around enterprise opportunities to devise a project proposal. You will then be immersed in practical learning where you identify an opportunity for innovation and develop your own concept through a pre-production process.
Branding, cash flow modelling, enterprise planning, developing intellectual property, and more will feature to culminate towards an investment-style pitch in which you present your proposed product or service.
Major Collaboration
In this module, you’ll leverage your experiences from the prior stages of the course to deliver a substantial collaborative project. You’ll work in a multi-skilled team to design and implement a potentially innovative product or service.
Typically, this will be the continuation of your previous project, but it could also be a newly proposed project that satisfies a real need, a response to a market opportunity identified by the University, a live brief from or collaboration with industry partners or research teams, or a solution to a problem presented by an external stakeholder.
You will continue to put into practice the ethically-informed methodologies you have explored in previous modules. Contexts can also vary but could include: enterprise solutions; mobile apps; installations; games; web applications; robots; immersive experiences; software development tools; and more.