Module:

Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

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Module Title
Module Code	(ITS: CA6014)
Faculty		School
NFQ level		Credit Rating

Description

In the final semester, from May to August, students work on a practicum in the form of a major Natural Language Processing (NLP) research project of a practical and applied nature. Here, students will work individually or in small teams to develop prototype systems to solve a real-world problem. The projects, which may be sponsored by external clients or involve some of the students' or staff's own ideas, typically require feasibility studies followed by the creation of a project plan, and the development of a rigorously validated research experiment in Natural Language Processing. The final research output involves the production of a scientific report/paper. This practicum also permits students to work on projects for external or funding organisations.

Learning Outcomes

1. Formulate a research problem for a given topic in Natural Language Processing (NLP).
2. Demonstrate research project management and research integrity skills.
3. Apply research skills and methods to an NLP problem.
4. Assess the state of the art for a selected research problem in NLP.
5. Implement a solution to a selected NLP research problem as a verifiable software demonstrator.
6. Evaluate a solution to a selected research problem in NLP using the appropriate metrics.
7. Demonstrate a command of scientific writing skills via the production of a practicum report/research paper.
8. Demonstrate research communication and dissemination skills via a practicum presentation (viva).

*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Workload	Full time hours per semester
Independent Study	750	Research Methods and Skills Development, Research Proposal development, Literature Review, Scientific Writing, Data Analysis, Dataset Engineering, Scientific Programming, Research Ethics, Data Protection, NLP engineering,
Total Workload: 750

Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date
Assessment Breakdown
Report(s)	Students will formulate a series of research questions based on a preliminary analysis of the problem domain. This will result in an initial research proposal delivered towards the end of Semester 1.	5%	Sem 1 End
Report(s)	Students will conduct a focused analysis of the state of the art for their chosen problem domain and synthesize a critical literature review for submission in Semester 2.	20%	Other
Research Paper	Students will undertake their practicum under the supervision of a staff member. This may involve working in collaboration with an affiliated industrial partner. The practicum will be delivered in the form of a scientific report/paper at the end of August/September. A defense of their work will take place after delivery of the report/paper.	65%	Other
Oral Examination	Practicum Presentation - Mini Viva: Students will jointly present and defend their practicum research paper and communicate their findings. Marks will be allocated equally although additional marks may be allocated to a student who has been found to have performed exceptionally.	10%	Other

Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; RC1: A resit is available for both^* components of the module. RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module. RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element. ^* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

Practicum (Natural Language Processing)
Students will undertake their practicum under the supervision of a staff member. This may involve working in collaboration with an affiliated industrial partner.The practicum will be delivered in the form of a scientific report/paper at the end of August. A defense of their work will take place after delivery of the report/paper. Student progress, both at a group and individual level, will be tracked via i) an online dashboard containing a rolling supervision log, ii) individual contributions to the practicum software repository. Students will be expected to give the breakdown of their work at each stage of the practicum documentation process via the dashboard.. Students will jointly present and defend their practicum research paper and communicate their findings . Marks will be allocated equally although additional marks may be allocated to a student who has been found to have performed exceptionally.

Indicative Reading List

Books:
None

Articles:
None

Other Resources

None