In addition to the more specialised options in the final year, you undertake a substantial, year-long project that contributes significantly to your final degree. You are free to choose your project topic yourself; you can follow your own interests, whether personal or professional – perhaps creating a database or website for a sports club or business you have links with.
Recent topics include systems for predicting pit-stops in motor racing and for classifying dolphin whistles. Computer game and music-based subjects are always popular, as are projects involving digital video and graphics manipulation such as incorporating virtual reality special effects in real video scenes.
When you have an idea of the area in which you want to do your project, you are matched to supervisory tutors on the basis of the tutors’ research interests. This means that you benefit from the wide range of faculty interests, and it is often in the final-year project that undergraduates find the particular research interest that leads them on to further study.
Prizes are awarded annually for the best computer science/IT project – sponsored by the British Computer Society – as well as for the best artificial intelligence and best multimedia projects. For more information, refer to Prize-winning student projects.
Undergraduate student Will Towle talks about his final-year project: