CIV6410 - Research practice in civil engineering - 2019

0 points, SCA Band 2, 0.000 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Engineering

Organisational Unit

Department of Civil Engineering

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Jeff Walker

Coordinator(s)

Professor Jian Zhao

Unit guides

Offered

Clayton

  • Second semester 2019 (On-campus)

Synopsis

The goal of the unit is to introduce graduate researchers to the practice of research. It is founded on perspectives from the Philosophy of Science (PoS) which addresses questions of what science is and what it means to be a scientist. The unit firstly introduces the structure of scientific arguments and aims to demonstrate how a knowledge of this structure can enable critical thinking and scientific communication. The unit also aims to make graduate researchers aware of the complex social process that modern science is and introduce them to aspects such as research funding, planning and budgeting research projects, research metrics, technology development and commercialisation, intellectual property and patents, current socio-political views of science and scientists, etc.

Outcomes

At the successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

  1. Critically review scientific arguments to identify research questions, discern inductive arguments leading to hypotheses and deductive arguments leading to valid experimental tests.
  2. Generate a research proposal by applying the hypothetico-deductive framework to a research problem, formulating a research plan, assessing material and human resources required for the research, justifying a research budget.
  3. Appreciate prevalent sociological perspectives of science and reflect on their consequences for publicly-funded scientific research, such as research quality assessment and metrics.
  4. Appreciate the steps involved in developing and commercialising technology and the value of scientific skills in this process.

Assessment

Continuous assessment: 100%

Students are required to achieve at least 75% in the in-class component, and at least 65% in the assignments to achieve a pass grade in the unit.

Workload requirements

2 contact hours per week time-tabled, up to 2 hours of other group meetings/workshops and 8 hours per week on average of homework reviewing online pre-class study material and working on assignments.

See also Unit timetable information