| Unit name | Masterclasses and Placements |
|---|---|
| Unit code | COMSM0031 |
| Credit points | 40 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Theo Tryfonas |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Computer Science |
| Faculty | Faculty of Engineering |
Members of academic staff, industrial visitors and prominent external speakers from academia, government and industry will deliver masterclasses where candidates will go far deeper in pursuit of specialised topics from a wide range of themes of both technical and social nature. The format of the master-classes will adapt to requirements of specific topics, e.g., in-class delivery in combination with visits to industrial facilities where needed or on-site delivery at an industry partner.
In many cases, a masterclass will give students an ideal opportunity to explore in depth how social and technical approaches can work in combination to solve TIPS challenges at scale. For instance, together with Bath’s Hinkley Point C Supply Chain Innovation Lab, we will develop a masterclass on Supply chain resilience, trust and assurance. Other example masterclasses include: Privacy-at-scale: extending multi-party computation to thousands of nodes (Prof. Nigel Smart, Bristol), Security ergonomics for large-scale cyber-physical systems (Dr. Barney Craggs, Bristol), Handling large-scale security incidents and post-attack recovery (Vodafone), Correctness by Construction: Building Software that Matters in the Real World (Altran), Social and ethical aspects of security (TU Darmstadt), Secure IoT (KU Leuven), Cohort visit to Security Operations Centre (IBM). Each masterclass will be for a duration of 1-2 days (taught in a block mode).
Students will be required to take at least three masterclasses delivered by academics (2 days each) and two delivered by industry (one day each). The masterclasses will vary each year, but we will ensure that masterclasses cover the four key challenges:
The masterclasses will be complemented by students undertaking two placements of two weeks each, one in an industry or practice organisation and one in an academic research group at Bristol or Bath. The placements will provide students with hands-on experience of working on TIPS-at-Scale problems in industry and research settings. These placements will help shape their understanding of practical challenges and research issues, and, together with masterclasses, provide a strong basis for their research proposal.
Aims
This unit aims to deepen student’s understanding from the unit Socio-technical Foundations for TIPS-at Scale, via short, focussed learning/research experiences delivered by subject experts.
Upon successful completion of the unit students are expected to:
This unit will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions and placements as detailed in the description above.
Masterclasses by academics will be delivered over the course of 2 days. Masterclasses by industry may be delivered directly by the industrial partner, and such sessions will be usually be arranged for a single day.
Students will be appropriately briefed for each masterclass, and after each masterclass there will be time for them to prepare/work on their reflective logs.
100% coursework@
Masterclasses and placements will be assessed through a portfolio of reflective logs (review papers or position essays of 1500 words each), normally one per masterclass and placement, where students will summarise the knowledge gained (in case of masterclasses this will include a brief review of state-of-the-art while in case of placements this will summarise the practical knowledge acquired) and provide a critical analysis of the topic covered by the masterclass/placement.
Students will be given opportunities to discuss their reflective logs throughout the course of this unit and thereby receive feedback on their progress.
Reading and other material will be provided in a timely fashion prior to masterclasses.
