DSM500 Machine Learning Project Proposal: Retail Sales Forecasting with Time Series Models, Singapore

Your first formal coursework submission for this module is your full project proposal. This sets out very clearly what your Data Science Project will be, and also how you will conduct the project. We expect you to include at least the following:

• project title
• project aims, objectives and research questions (or hypotheses if you have chosen to follow this research model)
• literature context-setting and justification of relevance
• proposed methodology, associated data and/or datasets, and ethical considerations
• anticipated outcomes
• project plan and possible anticipated challenges
• references (at MSc level we expect at least 10 appropriate academic sources).

The purpose of this proposal is to provide a roadmap for the conducting of your research project. It needs to contain appropriate motivation and justification; it needs to be situated within an academic research context; it needs to sufficiently rigorous with a good level of detail as to how you will conduct the research, and it should contain a plan for how you will complete the work in the time available to do so.

The order in which you feel it best to present these different aspects is up to you — you don’t have to use the order presented above — and the choice to include any additional aspects is also up to you. However both of these — the structure choices you make, and the scope of content of the proposal that you include — are part of how your work will be assessed.

You will work from this project proposal in doing the project work in the weeks that follow, to deliver your final project report, which will report on the project work itself and the outcomes, so make sure that this proposal serves that purpose. Examiners will be looking for a clear, concise, complete, and useful document. Shortcuts here will not only result in a lower grade for this piece of work, but will likely impact the final project too.

Proposals are to be submitted as a .pdf. Submissions that do not respect the format requirements will have marks deducted from them.

1.1 Assessment criteria:

Please refer to Appendix C of the Programme Regulations for detailed Assessment Criteria.

1.2 Academic approach in your reports:

You are expected to approach your project work in a rigorous and academic way. While it is fine to use Internet search tools and Wikipedia to obtain background material, it is also essential you use reliable academic references to support your project work.

In your report, you must make sure that you use and cite your reference material appropriately. You can look at the end of any journal or conference paper to get an idea of how to do this. While there is no mandatory referencing approach, you need to be consistent, and you need to provide complete references.

We also expect you to approach the work in an informed and critical manner, and to demonstrate an ability to form views based on evidence (substantiating any strong claims you may make), and to argue in support of your claims.

If you make use of any material that you have not created yourself—whether you use it as is, or make modifications to it—it is essential that you acknowledge this properly. Likewise, you are free to use material from the Creative Commons, but you must respect and adhere to any licensing information that is associated with the material.

1.3 Plagiarism:

This is cheating. Do not be tempted and certainly do not succumb to temptation.

Plagiarised copies are invariably rooted out and severe penalties apply. All assignment submissions are electronically tested for plagiarism. More information may be accessed via: https://my.london.ac.uk/assessment-offence-procedures.

2 Submission constraints

2.1 Weighting:

This coursework is weighted at 15% of final mark for the module. Note that your mark for both of the courseworks together — this proposal, and your final report — taken with their relative weightings, must be a pass, in order to pass the module.

2.2 Word limit:

The maximum word limit for this coursework assignment is 3,500 words (see the below for what is included in and excluded from the word count). There is no minimum length, but reports that are much shorter than 2,000 words are unlikely to contain sufficient material to obtain a strong mark.

You must state an accurate word count (see the below for what is included in and excluded from the word count) at the end of your work. If you do not state an accurate word count your mark will be reduced by 5 marks.

The following will be included in the word count: the content within the main body of text, including in-text citations, references, quotes.

The following will not be included in the word count: the cover page (including project title), table of contents, table and figure content and labels, headings and sub-headings, reference list, abstract (if you choose to include one) and any appendices.

If you exceed the word limit, in line with the requirements set by University of London, we may reduce the mark you receive as follows:

2.3 Submission:

Please Note: You are permitted to upload your Coursework in the final submission area as many times as you like before the deadline. You will receive a similarity/originality score which represents what the TurnItin system identifies as work similar to another source. The originality score can take over 24 hours to generate, especially at busy times e.g. close to the submission deadline.

If you upload the wrong version of your Coursework, you are able to upload the correct version of your Coursework via the same submission area. You simply need to click on the ‘submit paper’ button again and submit your new version before the deadline.

In doing so, this will delete the previous version which you submitted and your new updated version will replace it. Therefore your TurnItin similarity score should not be affected. If there is a change in your TurnItin similarity score, it will be due to any changes you may have made to your Coursework.

When the due date is reached, the version you have submitted last, will be considered as your final submission and it will be the version that is marked.

Once the due date has passed, it will not be possible for you to upload a different version of your assessment. Therefore, you must ensure you have submitted the correct version of your assessment which you wish to be marked, by the due date.