Research Project in Software Engineering (DAT640 / DIT640)
Course-PM
You must self-enroll to submit your planning report and final report. Click here to self-enroll.
Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering
- Contact Details
- Course Purpose
- Course Design
- Learning Objectives and Syllabus
- Entry Requirements and Application Procedure
- Project Openings
- Examination Form and Instructions
Contact Details
Course Responsible: Gregory Gay (ggay@chalmers.se)
Course Purpose
Research Project in Software Engineering (DAT640 / DIT640) is a (semi-)elective course that allows you to get credit for completing an academic research project.
Students in this course develop in-depth theoretical and practical understanding of a selected problem area in software engineering. Through a research project, students develop a contribution that advances the state-of-the-art in this area.
This course can be taken either as an elective or a semi-elective. It stretches over two study periods, either SP1-2 or SP3-4. It is recommended that you take the course in SP1-2 of the second year.
Course Design
This course is formed mainly by an individual research project (1-2 students) conducted in collaboration with an academic supervisor. In this project, students must apply and extend their knowledge of software engineering concepts.
Students are expected to identify a research challenge with practical significance, develop research questions to address, formulate an appropriate research method, rigorously collect data, analyze that data to develop answers to the formulated questions, and communicate their findings.
Language of instruction: English and/or Swedish
Learning Objectives and Syllabus
After completing the course, students should be able to:
1: Knowledge and understanding
- apply in-depth knowledge of software engineering and, in a scientifically correct way, relate this knowledge to current research and development work
- choose and state one's reasons for selecting their project method with respect to the chosen software engineering problem
2: Competence and skills
- critically, independently and creatively identify, formulate and address complex software engineering issues
- plan, execute, and evaluate the research project
3: Judgement and approach
- create, analyze, and critically evaluate different technical solutions to the chosen research questions
- observe and discuss ethical and societal aspects of the research and development work, both pertaining to how the work is carried out as well as the topics it explores/develops
Entry Requirements and Application Procedure
A project can either be completed alone or in a pair of students.
To be admitted to the course the student(s) must:
- Have completed 30 credits at the master's level, including Advanced Requirements Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering, Quality Assurance and Testing, and Project Management,
- Identify an academic supervisor who is committed to supervise the student and monitor the progress towards the learning goals,
- Provide a planning report that clearly defines the research problem, research questions, related work, and proposed methodology for the project.
Students get admitted on approval of the planning report. The subject of the proposed project should be in the field of software engineering.
The planning report must be submitted at least one week before the semester begins.
The planning report template can be found here.
If the report is approved, you will be registered through Ladok. You do not register for this course through universityadmissions.se.
Click here to submit your planning report (Spring 2025, LP3/LP4).
Project Openings
You can seek out a project yourself - you do not need to wait for a project to be posted here.
Examination Form and Instructions
The course is assessed through an individual written report and a demonstration of the project results. The final report is a written document containing a project description, background, related work, research questions, research method description, results, and discussion (including threats to validity). The report should be accompanied by a demonstration of the main results of the project to the examiner (who will be assigned when your proposal is approved).
A template for the final report can be found here.
Normally, students submit and present before the start of the subsequent study period (e.g., if you take the course in SP1-2, you should submit before SP3 starts). However, there is not a fixed deadline for the final report and presentation.
You must have approval from your academic supervisor before scheduling the presentation or submitting the report. You arrange a presentation time yourself with your examiner and supervisor.
One week before the presentation, you must submit your report here (Fall 2024/25, LP1/LP2).
In order to pass the course, both the final report and the demonstration have to be approved. The final grade in the course is decided from the grade of the final report, and requires passing the presentation.
- The report is graded on a scale of U, 3-5:
- A 3 indicates that you have met all learning objectives of the course, as documented in the syllabus.
- To achieve a 4, the report should additionally be:
- Detailed and well-written (clear language, lacking grammatical issues or typos).
- Demonstrate clear understanding of software engineering theories, methods, and tools, including reflection on the research methods chosen and their alternatives, as well as their limitations and threats to validity.
- To achieve a 5, the requirements for a 4 must be met, and in addition:
- Include critical reflections on the problem, the decisions made, challenges encountered, the potential impact, and the ethical considerations of the work undertaken.
- Include, if possible, a well-documented replication package containing code and data.
- The presentation is graded on a scale of Pass/Fail.
Course summary:
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