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A fire engineering project to be undertaken within one of the Departments of Engineering.
The project is very different to other courses in the fire engineering programme. It is not based on formal lectures, laboratories and tutorials, but instead allows the student to explore a problem that interests them under the supervision of an academic staff member. The project is one alternative to completing the MEngSt(Fire) programme; it is an individual two-semester-long research exercise equivalent to two 15-point courses.
The fire engineering project is designed to provide students with an opportunity to:undertake a substantial and challenging fire engineering project,develop independent research and problem solving skills,derive an appropriate methodology for the chosen problem,individually plan, perform and deliver, within project and budget constraints,analyse and interpret data from literature, survey, or experimental work and sharpen communication skills through the writing of a project report, writing a conference paper and through an oral presentation to peers.
ENGR403
This course is offered in ‘Block Mode’.There is one block of two days in 2020 and another block of two days in 2021. The blocks allow new students to observe senior students present their research papers at a Fire Engineering Student Conference while learning about research components, techniques, practices and technical writing. For senior students, an oral defence and presentation of their research paper at the conference is the culmination of each fire engineering project. Attendance at the first block course is a pre-requisite to enrolling in the fire engineering project.The important notes on the course and its outcomes are:Enrolment for ENFE682 is not until 13th July 2020. However, guidance on research practices and technical writing is scheduled for April 2020. Interested students should attend the first block course, as it is a pre-requisite to enrolment and will aid the preparation of the project proposals, due on 13th July 2020. There may be circumstances in which a full-time campus-based student can complete their project to a shorter time-scale and deadlines will need to be revised as appropriate.There may be opportunities for the conference papers to be presented in a public forum (e.g. the annual FPANZ conference) and/or technical reports to be submitted as papers to journals. In such situations it is expected that such submissions would be completed with direct involvement of the project supervisor/s and that credit be appropriately shared between the contributors.
Anthony Abu
Charles Fleischmann , Daniel Nilsson , Dennis Pau and Andres Valencia
The project provides a flexible framework within which you can choose to work on almost any fire engineering-related problem. It is essential that you choose a project topic that interests and excites you. Project topics can come from:• Academic staff within the fire engineering discipline in the department will nominate topics that are related to their interests and which they feel provide a suitable vehicle for a master’s project. In some cases industry partners will be involved in project supervision. A list of project topics is available from the ENFE – Fire Engineering LEARN website and the project coordinator. If any of these topics interests you, talk to the appropriate academic staff member.Please note that this list of projects may not reflect current interest of the fire research group, so it is prudent to speak to an academic staff member before selecting one.• Alternatively, students may have their own area of interest and would prefer to design a project based on their own ideas. In this case the student should approach a suitable staff member, who has expertise in the area concerned, to discuss how a suitable project might be defined.Every project must be supervised by a member of the department’s fire engineering academic staff. It is your responsibility to reach an agreement with a suitable academic staff member to be the project supervisor. Please note, however, that not all staff members are necessarily available to act as supervisors for all prospective project students and that supervisors are strictly to serve as guides, and not project collaborators.It is your responsibility to develop suitable project content and deliverables and present them in a comprehensive proposal (a requirement for enrolment into the fire project) and to submit the completed proposal to the course coordinator by the deadline (course enrolment date).
The project assessments are structured to follow the process of completing a research project and presenting your results at a conference: “The University of Canterbury Fire Engineering Conference 2021”. Students are responsible for all costs associated with the production of the proposal, progress report, technical report, full conference paper and oral presentation. NOTE that the University of Canterbury will pay for experimental work conducted at its campus if required for the successful delivery of a project.Project ProposalThe project proposal should clearly describe the specific research being undertaken, state its relevance and outline the steps to achieving it. It should be at least six pages in length, but not exceed ten pages. It should comprise an introduction or background to the study, its aims and objectives, a methodology and a provisional project implementation plan that clearly identifies the tasks that need to be completed for a successful project, with an assessment of potential obstacles. The proposal should also state the costs involved in the project, present a timeline for completion and state potential outputs of the study. A reference list should also be included.Progress ReportAt the end of the first semester after enrolment (November 2020) students should submit a progress report, not exceeding fourteen pages. This is to ascertain smooth running of projects and to address problems that may have developed since the proposal. The report should expand on the background to the study and provide a more comprehensive literature review on the research topic. It should clearly state changes to the scope or objectives of the project and subsequent changes in methodology and output, if necessary. A progress summary should also be included; typically, this includes preliminary analysis, results and deductions.Technical ReportThe technical report is a compilation of the technical content of the project. It is primarily to serve as a reference document for future research. It should comprise an executive summary (one-page), a brief introduction to the project (two-pages), brief conclusions and recommendations for future studies (two-pages) and descriptions of the adopted methodology, analyses, results and discussions (up to 30 pages).Full Conference PaperThe full conference paper for the fire engineering project (ENFE682) should be limited to a maximum of ten pages. It should include an abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions and references. Two digital copies (one Microsoft word and one PDF) must be uploaded via LEARN on the due date. Full papers will be published in the Fire Engineering Conference 2021 Proceedings.Microsoft Word templates for the proposal, the progress report and the full conference paper will be supplied and you will need to strictly adhere to these templates/formats.The Fire Engineering Conference 2021 Programme Committee (i.e., two or more reviewers from the engineering academic staff) will grade the full paper. Each reviewer will base their marks on the standard of the report organisation, layout, and design, grammar and spelling, and, most importantly, the overall ability of the student to communicate their ideas in a written form.Oral PresentationAll oral presentations will be 20 minutes long with 5 minutes for questions. The Fire Engineering Conference 2021 Programme Committee will assess the quality of the oral presentation. Marks will be allocated for pace, clarity and length of presentation, use of audio-visual aids, organisation of the presentation, confidence and knowledge in answering questions from the floor.Oral ExamAs a requirement to completing the fire engineering project, students will defend their individual projects in an oral examination, which would normally be on the day after the Fire Engineering Conference 2021.
Projects are only available to MEngSt(Fire) students. The standard project spans two semesters and is worth 30 points. However, one- and three-semester long projects worth 15 and 45 points, respectively, may be available; although these are only available to full-time students under special circumstances. A full project proposal and attendance at the first block course are requirements to enrolling in any of the projects.
We will formally seek feedback from you on the success, or otherwise, of the fire engineering project, and on our performance as contributors. This feedback is very important, both for us and the department, as we try to evaluate and improve the fire engineering programme, as a whole. We will also appreciate informal feedback as the project progresses.
Domestic fee $2,393.00
International Postgraduate fees
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
Maximum enrolment is 15
For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .