Newcastle University

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

In this module students will apply, in a practical situation using synoptic assessment, material covered in the co- requisites. As such it will provide a coherence to all material covered in Stage 1.

Aims

By the end of this module students will have gained further experience in, and a knowledge of the basic concepts of all stages of the software engineering lifecycle, both as individuals and as members of a team, namely requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and maintenance, building on the experience gained in Programming Portfolio 1. Emphasis will be placed on the development of programming skills. An active learning, problem-based approach is adopted.
Students will be given a series of practical problems that relate to various stages of the software engineering lifecycle. Supplementary lecture materials will introduce the topics to be tackled, and how to tackle them, but these topics will relate to aspects of the material presented in one or more of the co-requisite modules Computer Systems Design, Information Storage and Retrieval, and Fundamentals of Computing, thus giving students practical enrichment of that material, and/or to specialisms that can be studied at Stages 2 and 3 (HCI, Security, Bio, Games, Software Engineering, Data Analytics), thus enabling students to gain a flavour of what is available in the later stages of their programme of study and allowing them to make an informed choice towards the end of Stage 2. Students will have gained further awareness of the legal, social, ethical and professional aspects of being a practicing software engineer.

Outline Of Syllabus

Students expand their knowledge and experience in all stages of the software engineering life- cycle.

Lectures and tutorials expand upon general principles of:

The building blocks and structure of computer programs

Data structures, collection classes, generic types and iteration

Time, space, speed trade-offs in program design

Understanding programming abstraction

Exploring and realizing higher level abstractions

Error checking/programming with exception handling

Recursion with examples from sorting and searching

Event Driven Programming

Design patterns: immutability, factories, singleton, composition.

Students will gain further insight into the legal, social, ethical and professional aspects of being a software engineer

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

After completing this module students will be able to articulate, at a basic level, the wider engineering context that applies to developing complex software systems. They will be able to:

Explain the relationship between data abstractions and computer memory.

Identify opportunities to use abstraction for code refactoring to promote efficiency and maintainability

Outline the advantages and disadvantages of different programming approaches (abstractions, data structures, program flow)

Describe the impact on resource usage (time, space, processor) of their design decisions

Summarise the legal, social, ethical and professional issues arising in real situations.

Report on the processes involved in developing software as part of a team

Intended Skill Outcomes

After completing this module students will be able to tackle all aspects of the software engineering lifecycle, and will be able to

•       Translate a design into well formatted, well documented, efficient piece of software using appropriate abstractions
•       Develop and deploy an appropriate error handling strategy for their software
•       Choose and use appropriate storage mechanisms for data
•       Evaluate online sources of supporting material
•       Schedule their work effectively
•       Reflect on their role as part of a software development team

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures materials will be used to introduce each project, and aspects of software engineering, particularly programming. During their independent study time, students will review online materials providing further support for development of programming skills. They will also use this time tackle the problems set, as individuals or in teams.

For each topic/problem students will provide a software artefact that contributes to their portfolio of evidence of the activities they have undertaken.

The lectures and practical sessions will provide support for developing the skills they need for these activities.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Students will produce a portfolio of evidence that they have mastered practical skills in software development applied to a variety of problems chosen to reflect real world applications but targeted at the skill level of the students when the work is set.

Three software artifacts equivalent to 3000 words total will be required. Each artefact will also contain a reflective report on the skills gained. These artifacts will be undertaken either as individuals, or as part of a team.

Students will be given a range of formative exercises to introduce them to relevant tools, develop their understanding of programming concepts and provide them with the opportunity to gain experience through practical application.

General Notes

N/A