Reference no: EM132633590

ENG4110 Engineering Research Methodology - University of Southern Queensland

Part 1: Trial Research Proposal

Your tasks in this assignment are to prepare the elements of a Preliminary Research Proposal. This trial proposal would help you to prepare the proposal in your final year Research Project in the courses). You should review the structure of the sample Research Proposal provided in this course. You are likely to use different chapter and section headings, but those in the sample are a useful guide.

You should concentrate on the key elements of Introduction (i.e. idea development, background, literature review, knowledge gap identification and study justification) and Methodology (i.e. project planning, materials and methods, etc.) in this assignment. The research proposal will also require the addition of an abstract and a final version of a brief Literature Review. The literature review needs to be incorporated (as a sub-heading) in the introduction section.

Task 1: Project Topic

Please remember that at this stage, no formal approval of your research topic is needed. Indeed, it is a "trial" research topic for a final year Engineering or Spatial Science Research Project. This process will help you to develop your final research topic selection and research proposal next year in courses ENG4111/ENG4112 or PSG4111/PSG4112.

Task 2: Literature review and project feasibility analysis

You should develop a brief but solid review of literature with a clear focus on your chosen project.

This will help determine the scope of the project and allow you to conduct a project feasibility analysis. During the literature review, you will also be able to ‘borrow' methodology ideas from the reviewed articles. Please remember that the key function of literature review is to identify what WAS NOT done so far. Please do NOT use a simple annotated bibliography from your assignment 1. While the articles found in assignment 1 can form the basis of your literature review, a proper literature review is very different from a simple list of annotated bibliography.

Task 3: Identify the key steps required as part of your project methodology

Identify the key phases of work that will occur as part of your project, and expand on these by adding as much detail as possible. Where possible, identify the individual task descriptions appropriate to each phase. You should also look back at your aim and objectives regularly to ensure that your methodology is addressing these appropriately.

Task 4: Identify the key resources required as part of your project work

This section should focus on access requirements to equipment and laboratory or workshop facilities, site access, data access or involvement of external parties (e.g. survey/interview participants). Please also consider research ethic issues, including the need to obtain any human or animal ethics approvals.

Task 5: Identify the key steps and features of your project plan

Consider your individual task descriptions in the context of Risk Assessments and Special Project Requirements. Then determine a reasonable Project Schedule.

Task 6: Determine your expected outcomes and benefits of your work

You should now clearly articulate what you expect as the outcomes and benefits of your project work.

Task 7: Add the Abstract

Summarise your whole research proposal (i.e. key elements, such as background, knowledge gap, study justification, expected outcomes, all aspects of methodology etc.).

Part 2: Presentation of Research Proposal

Prepare four slides that will sum up your proposal and upload them as a separate file.

It should be prepared towards giving a presentation of no more than five minutes to speak to these slides.

Be succinct and precise in what you say. Do not include a slide on a list of items saying what you are going to say. Similarly, do not include slides on references or "Questions?"

Attachment:- Engineering Research Methodology.rar