Assignment:

Write a Technical Evaluation Report for a Specific Technology (1200+/-10% words)

Final Submission Deadline:

Semester 2, 13.00 Monday, 22nd April, 2024

Assessment Task

Research background:

Significant technological advances over the past decade have changed the way people live, work and interact with each other, and have provided some solutions to address aspects of global issues like climate change, overpopulation and aging society. Yet, many of these developments either have happened behind closed doors in research laboratories or became so quickly ingrained in industries and people’s daily lives that they often have gone unnoticed. These emerging technologies promise major benefits to society, the economy and the environment, however, they are also disruptive to some extent. It is crucial, therefore, to critically evaluate new technological advances to determine their effectiveness.

Below are some of the main technological innovations that have emerged in recent years:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) in medical care: AI in intensive care units (ICU), AI in surgery

• Biomimicry and robotics: soft robots, insect-sized robots, jellyfish-like robots

• Dexterous robots: dexterous robotic hands

• Telecommunications: visible light communication (VLC)

• Sustainable energy technology: bio-batteries, smart grids, energy harvesting technology

• Smart fabrics: acoustic fabrics, sensor-embedded garments

• 3D printing: 3D printing for wearable sensors, 3D printing for flexible electronics

• Eye-tracking technology: human-computer interaction control, eye-tracking for assistive application

Choose and evaluate one specific technology from the list above.

The report should

• provide general and specific background information about the chosen technology, and indicate the purpose of the report;

• review relevant literature which summarizes and evaluates the development of the features or technical specifications of the chosen technology;

• identify criteria from the literature review and/or operational principles to evaluate the chosen technology, and provide a rationale for your chosen criteria;

• describe how the technology works to achieve its purpose and show specific functions it can perform;

• use at least two criteria to evaluate the chosen technology, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses using specific evidence and provide an overall conclusion.

Core Task Requirements

All core task requirements must be fulfilled. Failure to fulfil any of the core task requirements means a points deduction from the final assessment grade. You may fail if your report does not meet all the core task requirements.

You must

• address all aspects of the task;

• use at least two evaluation criteria;

• write 1200 +/-10% words excluding abstract, contents and the reference list;

• use between 7 to 15 English sources with at least 5 being academic sources;

• cite and reference all sources using the IEEE referencing style;

• include 7 sections: abstract, contents, introduction, operating principles, evaluation, conclusion, and reference list;

• use at least 1 diagram, chart, image or graph to describe operating principles;

• submit all four relevant portfolio tasks.

Assessment Details

• Assessment Type: Individual

• Learning Outcomes assessed: B, D, E

• Percentage of Module Mark: 60%

• Where to submit: Upload to the designated Dropbox on the EAP111 Learning Mall Page (submission in the wrong drop box will receive a score of 0)

• Academic Integrity Offence: Submission of previously submitted work by yourself or others results in a ‘0’ and an Academic Integrity C, D or E penalty.

• Submissions cannot be changed once the deadline has passed. It is a student’s responsibility to check the correct file is submitted and that it can be opened.

Formatting Requirements

All written assessments must use the following formatting requirements:

• File Type: MS Word .DOC or .DOCX

• Filename: EAP111_Technical Report_Student ID (e.g., EAP111_Technical Report_1911111)

• Font Type: Tahoma

• Font Size: 10 - 12

• Line Spacing: 1.5

Assessment Timeline

Semester 1

Week 2: Release of Task Sheet

Week 7: Submission deadline for PT1 Introduction (Monday 13:00)

Week 9: Submission deadline for PT2 Operating Principles (Monday 13:00)

Feedback for PT1 released (Friday 13:00)

Week 10: General class feedback for PT2 Operating Principles

Week 11: Tutorials for revised PT1 and PT2

Semester 2

Week 3: Submission deadline for PT3 Critical Evaluation (Monday 13:00)

Week 4: General feedback for PT3 Critical Evaluation

Week 5: Submission deadline for PT4 First Draft (Monday 13:00)

Week 8: Tutorials for PT4 First Draft

Week 9: Final Draft submission deadline (Monday 13:00)

Further Details

Marking and Feedback

• The final draft will be assessed based on the marking descriptor at the end of this task sheet.

• Feedback will be provided in line with university regulations (Policy links available in XJTLU UG Handbook p.68).

Academic Integrity and Late Penalties

Assignments must all be individual pieces of work.

Plagiarism

• Plagiarism (copying directly from the source without proper citation), collusion (working with others or copying directly from your peer when you are required to work individually) and any other instances of academic dishonesty will be penalised. Penalties range from capped scores to an award of 0 (zero). In the case of plagiarism penalties depend on how much is copied

This assessment will penalise a lack of Academic Integrity using the following rules:

•5-20% of words copied from sources / other students = AI B Penalty (10-point deduction)

•> 20% of words copied from sources / other students = AI C Penalty (possible 0 score)

Please refer to the XJTLU Academic Integrity Policy on Learning Mall on the EAP111 module page for further details. Please note that Academic Integrity penalties change according to assessment types. The university uses Turnitin to

check your assignments for possible plagiarism and collusion.

Lateness

• Work submitted after the deadline will receive a penalty of 5% for each day late, up to a maximum of 5 working days.

Writing Coursework Portfolio:

As part of your writing coursework, you are required to complete a portfolio that includes the following four components:

Portfolio Task 1 (Introduction): An introduction of the topic (the chosen technology) and also a review of previous research into the technology, its historic development, and evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses.

This section should:

• have a specific and descriptive title;

• provide general background information about the topic and explain its importance;

• provide a literature review to discuss existing studies related to the technology and where possible to explore criteria used to evaluate the technology; focus on describing how the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen technology were measured;

• provide a rationale for or purpose of your research;

• have a clear thesis statement including the aim of the research and the evaluation criteria;

• cite and reference at least 3 academic sources using the IEEE referencing style;

• have a length of 400 +/-10% words.

Portfolio Task 2 (Operating Principles): The general operating principles to describe how the chosen technology works, and the specific working procedures demonstrated in diagrams or figures.

This section should:

• include 2 descriptive section headings of general and specific working principles;

• demonstrate the technology’s operating principles using diagram(s) or figures with appropriate captions;

• cite and reference at least 1 source using the IEEE referencing style;

• have a length of 150 +/-10% words.

Portfolio Task 3 (Critical Evaluation): An evaluation of the chosen technology using the criteria to assess its strengths and weaknesses with the support of examples and (statistical) evidence.

This section should:

• use at least two evaluation criteria, either from the literature review or two criteria of your own;

• provide a definition of any technical terms and an explanation of the criteria;

• provide the rationale for the choice of criteria;

• include a topic sentence and a concluding sentence for each paragraph;

• include an evaluation of both strengths and weaknesses of the technology;

• cite and reference at least 3 academic sources using the IEEE referencing style;

• have a length of 400 +/-10% words.

Portfolio Task 4 (First Draft): A full draft of the technical report evaluating the chosen technology, including all the required sections from the abstract to the reference list.

This section should:

• be a complete draft and include all the 7 sections: Abstract (100 to 150 words), Contents (indicate the page number of each section), Introduction and Literature Review, Operating Principles, Critical Evaluation, Conclusion and Reference List.

• cite and reference between 7 and 15 sources (with a minimum of 5 academic sources) using the IEEE referencing style;

• have a length of 1200 +/- 10% words.

Advice on completing writing coursework:

• Preliminary Research: At the initial stage, you may start to research several different technologies before you decide on one to write about. This will help to ensure you choose a topic of interest to you and one which has a sufficient number of relevant sources.

• Online Research Resources: You may wish to use online encyclopaedias, such as Wikipedia and Britannica

to get a basic understanding of the topic and identify key words to search for sources. However, you cannot

use such resources as references as they are unreliable or unauthorized web-based resources. Other

unauthorized resources include personal blogs, articles without authors and comments by users.

• Academic and Non-academic Sources: Your sources should be as authoritative as possible. You should try to use a variety of sources including academic sources (such as journal papers, scholarly books, conference proceedings, academic reports, etc.), industry sources (such as technical manuals and patent documentation), as well as specialist sources (such as industry magazines and articles by expert journalists).