1. Lecture 10: Directing the studies
Study regulations
Examination
This is the last lecture, both of the guided tour at Aalborg University and of the course.
It is about how the studies are directed or controlled at Aalborg University, and this is done by the study regulations and the students knowledge are investigated at the examinations.
Please move on to the next slide.
Duration: 21 min.
Associated Professor
Lars Peter Jensen
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

2. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
General regulations
When looking at the study regulations we start at the most general level, where The Danish government has maid some general regulations for all engineering educations in Denmark, both bachelors and masters, and on top of those the faculty of engineering and science have made some general regulations for all engineers educated at Aalborg university.
You can read those general regulations on the next two slide’s which I will not comment orally, so just move ahead in your own time until slide five.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

3. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
No oral comments
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

4. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
No oral comments
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

5. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
General regulations
Sector’s, lines or specialization’s
Objectives and content
Based on these general regulations each study board describe what the students have to learn. The first level are the sectors lines and specializations, which is 2-3 semesters from a specific education closely connected to form a kind of unit that all the student’s on the sector, line or specialization has to follow. On the figure you can see an example from the study board of electronic and information technology. The first year is a basic study year, and then the study board offers two sectors for the next 3 semesters. The 6 and 7’th semester offers 8 lines and the 8’th to 10’th semester hold a lot of specialization possibilities.
Lets take an example from one of the specializations from this study board that are open for foreign students. It start on the 8’the semester and has a length of three semesters providing the students with an international master degree.
It is described by objectives and content and you can see it by moving to the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

6. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
4.6. INTELLIGENT AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
Objectives and contents of the specialisation
The objectives of the specialisation in Intelligent Autonomous Systems are summarised as follows:
to provide students with knowledge in modelling of mechanical systems such as
spacecraft, ships, and mobile robots,
enable the student to apply modern methods of control to problems related to
autonomous systems,
to analyse methods of state observation, parameter estimation and sensor fusion in
mechanical systems,
to provide students with a comprehension of supervisory control, fault-tolerant
control and fault detection,
to let students analyse software architectures for autonomous systems.
The courses include necessary general theoretical topics within process control for
autonomous systems but modules are also made available in scientific communication and proficiency in English language for those who need it.
As you can read the objectives and content are sort of mixed in a list of learning objectives and tasks for the students.
At the bottom you can see that because this is an international master education there are both courses in technical issues and in scientific communication and proficiency in English language.
Read the slide in your own time and then move to the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

7. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
General regulations
Sector’s, lines or specialization’s
Objectives and content
Specific semesters
Theme
Within these blocks called sectors lines etcetera we have a specific semester.
It will have a theme, and there is a more detailed description of purpose and content of that semester and its courses, like you can se when you move to the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

8. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
SPRING Semester – Intelligent Autonomous Systems
THEME: Modelling and Control
PERIOD: 1 February - 30 June
PURPOSE:
To give knowledge and comprehension of optimal and robust control theory.
To give the students the ability to analyse modern control methods for multi
input/multi output systems.
To give students the ability to apply modelling methods and control synthesis for
advanced mechanical systems.
CONTENTS:
The project is based on a problem of control and supervision of an autonomous system. The model of the mechanical system has to be derived. The vital part of the project is the choice of the set of actuators and sensors for onboard application. Different control strategies have to be investigated and compared. The supervisor system responsible for autonomy onboard has to be designed. The chosen solution has to be implemented on a real time platform and tested, either by the computer simulations or dedicated hardware.
COURSES:
Courses will be given in the field of modelling of mechanical systems, supervisory and
fault tolerant control, and modern control theory.
EXAM:
The external oral examination is based on the prepared project documentation. Each student is marked according to the 13-scale.
This is the first semester of the specialization in Intelligent Autonomous systems, that is the 8 semester in a International Master of Science education, running in spring semesters.
The theme for the whole semester is Modeling and control.
The purpose is a list of learning objectives for the students, and in the content it is tried to explain more about what the frame for the projects should be, both in terms of what kind of problems the students might work with, like in this case the control and supervision of en autonomous system, where it is a demand to derive a model of the involved mechanical system. It is a vital part of the project to chose actuators and censors for onboard application, and the students should try more than one control strategy and compare to chose the best suited. They should also design a supervisory system and implement both this and the control system on a real time platform and test it, either on the dedicated hardware or by computer simulations.
This is a very huge task and to help the students getting started with the theory and methods , project unit courses are given in modeling of mechanical systems, supervisory control, fault tolerant control and modern control theory.
The examination is external, which means that the censors are from outside the university, either from companies or from other universities. It is an oral examination based on the project documentation, that is the project report and the oral defend, and although it is a group examination the students are marked individually according to the Danish 13-scale.
Please move to the next time when you are ready
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

9. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
General regulations
Sector’s, lines or specialization’s
Objectives and content
Specific semesters
Theme
Projects
Besides the theme their will be some proposals for projects, that the students can do. Based on these descriptions and often and oral presentation from the supervisors the students forms groups (5-6 persons) and chooses one of the project proposals for their project within the semester.
Please move on to the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

10. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
Model based tracking for navigation
Background
As part of an ongoing research project (with Computer Science AAU and The Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences) an autonomous vehicle is developed which navigates autonomously in the field. The aim is to reduce the inputs to the field and monitor the growth of the individual plants, thereby providing obvious environmental and economic advantages over more traditional farming.
Purpose
It is important in such applications to both navigate accurately in the field but also to be able to identify individual plants. The aim in this project is to use perspective images captures from a camera mounted on the front of the vehicle to provide estimates of structure of the crop rows as well as position of the individual plants. The focus will not be on the image analysis but on sensor fusion with non-vision sensors mounted on the vehicle e.g. wheel encoders, differential GPS as well as integration of information about the known structure of the field.
The aim is to use all available information on the autonomous vehicle in order to achieve the best possible estimates of the vehicle and individual plant position (in the order of cm).
Methods
The project will include:
Modeling of vehicle system and plant pattern in the camera image
Prediction of the crop structure based on the system models as well as previous measurements (images and
data from sensors)
Estimation of vehicle position and orientation as well as plant position
Algorithms are simulated in the laboratory on simple setup.
If possible the algorithms are applied to data acquired in the field.
To continue the examples from the specialization in intelligent autonomous systems i present this project proposal.
As the last of the lectures was about projects and project proposals i will not comment this proposal in detail but leave it to your self to read it and maybe you will categorize it.
If you want my opinion on categorization of this project proposal you can click on number 2 loudspeaker after making your own judgment.
…..
This is a project concerning very specific problems and it is a very free project concerning solutions, so it is close to a problem project, but because it is a development and research project the vehicle can’t be change much and there are a lot of other constraints according to instruments, so it is slightly turned towards a discipline project as well.
Please turn to the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

11. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
General regulations
Sector’s, lines or specialization’s
Objectives and content
Specific semesters
Theme
Projects
Courses
For each semester there will also be a list of courses, most of them related to the projects but also some more related to the study in general. Every one of these courses has its own specific description, as I told you in the last lecture.
My example continue on the next slide.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

12. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
Study related courses (SE):
Fault Detection and Automated Systems
Modelling of Mechanical Systems
Controller Structures
Modelling of Mechanical Systems II
Engineering Responsibilities
Project related courses (PE):
Robust Control
Optimal Control
Supervisory Control
Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic
Again this is from the first semester of the specialization in Intelligent Autonomous systems, that is the 8 semester in a Master of Science education, and at this high end of the education it some times happen that some project relevant courses are named study related courses because they are given for more than one specialization, like in this case where all the study unit courses except for the one about Engineering responsibilities might be helpful for the specific project, like the one about autonomous vehicles.
About the project related courses you can se by comparing to the list from the semester description of the theme that this specific version of the semester there are some extra courses.
The reason for this is that the theme are more or less locked in the study regulations until next revision, but the project proposals and specific list of project unit courses are to be taken as an example, that might be changed a bit from year to year by the semester group, which is the group of teachers responsible for the development and running of the semester, that I told you about in the last lecture.
This was all about directing the studies by the use of study regulation. If you want to now more about the specific regulations, you can find them all on the homepage of the specific study boards, that again are found on the home page of Aalborg University.
When you move to the next slide I will change the subject to examination.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

13. Assessment - the hidden curriculum
The aim of the study
goals
objectives
Teaching and learning methods: PBL and project work
Forms of the exams and criteria
The last item of this lecture is examination or assessment which is a kind of hidden curriculum in the Aalborg model. What is interesting is how the aims of the study, its goals and objectives is assessed continually during the project work and finally at the project exam, and how these things affect each other.
Please move on to the next slide
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

14. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
Basic assumptions
Examination is dominating the students learning approach
Criteria for examination are crucial for the learning process
Reflection is a basic part for the learning process
Usually it is assumed that students direct their learning to match the exam which means that the criteria for the examination will be crucial for the learning process.
Another important part of the learning process is reflection, so if this is a part of the examination it will improve the learning process.
We then have to be careful about our assessment and examination to match the goals we want the students to achieve by making their project.
This means that if we want the student to get a deep understanding of the theories and methods they uses, then we have to ask questions that challenge this understanding and force the students to reflect, in stead of just checking wheater the student can use a specific method.
This is in fact what i told you at the last lecture, that the supervisor should do at the weekly meetings, so the students gets used to this kind of assessment and direct their own learning approach in the direction of a deeper understanding of the theory and methods.
This is then of course also the kind of questions to be asked at the final examination after each project period.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

15. Examination - practice
Peer group
Project group
Supervisor and (external) censor
So how is an examination carried out?
The Peer group is seldom used after the first year, but there it plays an important role as it takes part in the assessment by asking questions to the other group, enhancing the peer assessment.
An often used model is : first the group that are examined present their project and its results – both why and how they have done. It is a kind of oral defence of the project and every student in the group shall present something, approximately 10 min for each student.
After the presentation, there is a short discussion about how it was done in order to help the students improve their presentation skills, and then there is a break where the examination team decides what mark they will give the project at the moment. This is a mark based on the written report and the ”defence” of it that the students just have made. It might be regarded as an average of what this group is able to accomplishes by half a years project work at this specific semester.
Then there is a general discussion of the report, typically about the why’s, like why have you chosen this method in stead of this, or why filter the signal before it reach the computer. Typically this is a kind of discussion where all the members participate.
There will also be more individually questions checking the students professional skills regarding how they have done in practice and it is often questions that challenge the students understanding. The questions might be given after the general discussion or mixed with it when the discussion is taken along with the report like one chapter at a time. Essential for the questions is that the student that gets the question can use 5-10 minutes to answer it demonstrating in he’s or her own words how deep they have understood the theory or method used. At a typical examination there will be about 2-3 of these questions as they are only samples of the students deep technical knowledge like in any other examination.
It is allowed to use as much as three quarters of an hour to examine each student, but it is more normal to use about ½ hour as an average. This is both for the general discussion and the individual questions, and it is not as if one student are examined for ½ hour in a row. It is more like there are asked several questions and the student answering switches for each question.
There is often 5-6 students in a group, so the examination time will be one hour for presentation and about 3 hours for discussion and questioning, and there is a total time limit of five hours. During such a long examination it is difficult to concentrate all the time, so normally there will be at least two breaks in between before the examination is finished.
Then the student waits outside when the individual marks is given by the examination team, based on all what have happened and what was written in the project report.
After the presentation the examination team have already given an average mark based on both the written documentation and the oral defence. Now they look at each student as an individual and judge their presentation, their part in the discussion and how well they have answered the individual questions. Based on how well they performed in the presentation, how often and how well they participated in the general discussion and the level of the answers to the individual questions each student is marked individually.
This is normally not very difficult as to mark the students relatively to each other. An example: There is often a middle group in the group, like 3 persons and perhaps one person slightly better and 2 persons slightly worse. What sometimes is a bit difficult is to make the specific mark. In the mentioned case you might have doubt about whether the middle group should be marked 8 or 9, which again means that the bottom of the group should have 7 or 8 and the best student 9 or 10.
Then you can use the mark for the project report and the presentation to adjust the level. It would be nice if the average of the individual marks is almost the same as the report mark, given for half a years work. So if you think the project was to 9, then you should give 2 times 8, 3 times 9 and one 10.
This might seem difficult, but it is not and at Aalborg University new supervisors will be given an experienced censor to help the first time, or they might become censors for an experienced supervisor.
Please move on to the next slide
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam

16. Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam
Points
Criteria and methods of self and peer assessment has to be integrated in the summative examination
Evaluation/reflection has to be part of the learning environment
Supervisor has a role to play in facilitating students peer assessment
I will end this discussion of examination by resuming some points:
If we want to enhance the students learning approach and lead them to a deeper understanding by making projects, then criteria and methods of both peer and self assessment has to be an integrated part of the examination.
In Aalborg this is enhance both by questions at the meetings with the students and at the first year the students are taught methods for self and peer assessment of both their oral presentations in the group and their written working papers
Reflection plays an important part of the learning environment and is enhanced continuously by the questions ask by both the supervisors and the lectures of courses when they act as instructors after the lecture when the student group do exercises.
The supervisor have a role to play to facilitate the students peer assessment, because he or she can encourage the students to assess them self within the group.
This was all for my guided tour at Aalborg University concerning our special way of using Problem Based Learning throughout all the engineering educations. I hope you have got an idea of why and how we do things and is able to see the learning possibilities for the students. Thank you for your attention I hope you will participate in the discussion on the course forum.
Lecture 10: Directing the studies - study regulations, exam