MA498      One Unit
Dissertation in Mathematics

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

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The Dissertation in Mathematics is an individual, substantial project as an introduction to mathematical research methods. The student will investigate and study an area of mathematical research or application of advanced mathematical techniques, give a presentation, and finally write a report on their findings. The project may include some programming. The dissertation topic will normally be proposed by the Department.

A minimum of 15 hours of lectures/seminars across the Autumn and Winter terms.  The ratio of lecture time and seminar time varies each week. Seminars do not include personal supervision time, which is scheduled independently with student supervisors.

Several seminars will include presentations by members of the Department of Mathematics on proposed topics for dissertations that they would be interested in supervising. Additional seminars will cover important aspects of writing a dissertation in mathematics, including: what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, the use of libraries for research, electronic research, general aspects of writing mathematics, and preparing a manuscript using mathematical text processing software (in particular, LaTeX). Each student will be assigned a supervisor who will monitor their progress and provide appropriate guidance thorough the WT, ST, and over the summer.

Research report

Students will be expected to produce an initial report in week 6 of WT, on which feedback will be given. This report should normally form part of the final dissertation after feedback is taken in to account.

Detailed suggestions for reading will be provided by the supervisor.

Presentation (10%) in Winter Term Week 11

Dissertation (90%) in August

Assessment is primarily based on the Dissertation, an electronic copy of which must be submitted by late August or early September (exact date to be specified later). The report may include some software relating to the project. Detailed information about the required format for this submission will be provided during the Seminars. At the end of Winter Term, each student will produce a presentation on the topic of their dissertation. The presentation will be graded and worth 10% of the course grade. Students will be given support in the seminars on how to prepare, how to present and what is expected, and will be given the opportunity to practice presentations.