MATH4062 (G14FMD) Financial and Computational Mathematics

2023

Table of Contents

School of Mathematical Sciences MATH4062 (G14FMD) Financial and Computational Mathematics 2023 ........................................................................... 1 Role of the Supervisor...................................................................................................................................2 Computing Resources .................................................................................................................................... 2 Progress Report and Feedback ................................................................................................................2 Assessment .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Submission of Final Report.........................................................................................................................3 Plagiarism ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Assessment Criteria........................................................................................................................................4 Feedback on Dissertation ............................................................................................................................ 4 English Language Courses .......................................................................................................................... 5 LaTeX ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Dissertation Write-Up Presentation......................................................................................................5 Reassessment Arrangements....................................................................................................................5 Research Conduct and Ethics....................................................................................................................5 Further Questions ............................................................................................................................................5

MATH4062 (G14FMD) Student final report assessment guidelines.......... 6 Written presentation / Introduction (30%)....................................................................................7 Structure ...........................................................................................................................................................7 Clarity .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................10 Technical background (10%) .................................................................................................................11 Depth and progress (20%) ......................................................................................................................11 Understanding and interpretation (20%).......................................................................................11 Development and results (20%) ..........................................................................................................12 Overall mark......................................................................................................................................................13 Student Initiative (marked by supervisor only)..........................................................................14 How does it contribute to the final report mark?...................................................................14 What is it?.......................................................................................................................................................14 Student’s Oral Presentation Assessment Guidelines................................................................16

Role of the Supervisor

The supervisor will introduce the project and the main objectives, but you are expected to take ownership of the project and drive it in directions of your choosing. The supervisor’s role is to help your progress by looking through and commenting on your ideas. They may suggest books and papers for you to read and will give advice on tackling the project. He or she will also advise you on writing the final report. However, the project is your project and your supervisor is not expected to set detailed week-by-week tasks, solve the problems or write the project up.

Computing Resources

It is anticipated that the majority of students will be able to access computing software which may be required for some projects, e.g., R, Matlab, C++ and install them on their local machines. These can also be accessed online via https://matlab.mathworks.com/ (for Matlab) and colcalc.com (R, C++, Python). If you have any concerns about access to such resources, please contact your course director immediately. If appropriate, learning to use such resources will form part of the assessment.

Progress Report and Feedback

You must submit a progress report via the submission link on Moodle by the deadline shown above. This report is primarily for your own benefit, to give you an indication of how your work is progressing. It should be word processed and approximately three sides of A4 in length and it should contain a statement of the topic under investigation, a brief summary of progress so far and a plan for the rest of the project. You will find that writing this report concentrates your mind on what you have done and what you still have to do.

Your supervisor will give you verbal feedback and brief written comments on the progress report, normally at your next meeting. They will also give the report a mark on a three-point scale. However, this mark will not contribute to the module mark.

Assessment

The project is assessed by a written final report (85%) and an oral presentation (15%).

Written presentation: The report is required to be word processed, including equations, with software of your choice. We recommend using to learn LaTeX (see below) to write your report, but you do not have to use LaTeX. Unless the scientific content strongly justifies otherwise, the length should normally be between 60 and 90 pages in total, including any appendices, in double-spaced 12-point font with left, right, top, and bottom margins of at least 2.5cm. A final report exceeding 90 pages by up to 5 pages will incur an overall 5% penalty of the maximum mark. Excess length above this will incur a 10% penalty.

A student who wishes to exceed the page limit without penalty should make a written case to the Dissertations Officer [email protected] no later than seven calendar days before the hand-in deadline. Permission to exceed the page limit will only be granted in exceptional circumstances (e.g., tables of data collected during the project, on which the work is based; listings of computer programs written for the project; etc.).

Attempts to circumvent the maximum length by reduced spacing and/or margins will be penalised.

Oral presentation: during the last two weeks of the Dissertation period you are required to give a short presentation, of approximately 15 minutes, on your work and to answer questions. The talk should be aimed at an audience of MSc Students, who will have a reasonable background but will be unfamiliar with your particular topic. The presentation will be conducted online; further details will be provided by the module convenor at the beginning of August.

The dissertation is worth 60 credits. You are expected to put into the project an amount of work comparable to that of taking a semester’s lecture courses. The final report is your evidence of this work.

You should discuss the plan of your report with your supervisor before you begin to write it. You are also encouraged to give your supervisor one draft of the report. Your supervisor is not expected to read the draft in detail but can give general feedback. Other staff members (such as your Personal Tutor) are not expected to read drafts or provide other extensive help. You are also encouraged to discuss your oral presentation with the supervisor.

Submission of Final Report

You need to submit a pdf of your report via the submission link on Moodle, on or before the deadline shown above.

If your final report is submitted late without good cause, your report mark will be reduced by 5 marks per working day on the standard University scale. If the report is twenty or more working days late, you will receive a report mark of zero. If, because of extenuating circumstances, you need extra time to complete your final report, then you should complete an ECF online, attaching any evidence: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studentservices/contact-us/extcirc-form.aspx

The decisions on such ECF’s will be made by a committee chaired by the Senior Tutor in the School of Mathematical Science.

  In addition to the original copy of the final report, students are required to retain all

files used in the production of the final report in case the assessors request them. This

includes computer code to generate results, and all files and figures required to

produce the written report. These will not be assessed directly, but may be used to

verify the student’s work if the assessors require them. It is the student’s

responsibility to make sure they can supply these files if requested.

Plagiarism

You should be familiar with the MSc Student Handbook guidelines on plagiarism. In particular, you should:

• Include on the title page of the final report a statement confirming that the work is your own, apart from the acknowledged references.

• Acknowledge sources properly.

• Avoid extensive paraphrasing from sources.

You should be aware that ignorance of the plagiarism rules is no defence; it is up to you to find out. If in doubt, consult your supervisor. You are strongly encouraged to discuss regularly with your supervisor both the form and content of your final report.

The School will use the electronic file of your final report to compare it with publicly available sources.

This will be done using the TurnitinUK software tool, which is available to students on the Moodle page (under the University Resources). Please see the following link

https://moodle.nottingham.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=140200

Assessment Criteria

The components contributing to the module mark are:

53.55%: Final report scientific content.

22.95%: Final report written presentation/introduction. 8.5%:Student initiative.

15%: Oral presentation.

The scientific content, written presentation and introduction are marked independently by your supervisor and a second assessor.

The student initiative mark is a reward for making progress beyond your supervisor’s suggestions. You are however entitled to help from your supervisor and your supervisor will in any event expect to be kept up-to-date on your progress. You are strongly advised to discuss your ideas and progress with your supervisor at all stages of the work.

Detailed assessment criteria for the written report and for the oral presentation are given at the end of the dissertation booklet.

Feedback on Dissertation

You will receive written feedback on your final report with your provisional marks, which are emailed to you after the MSc Board of Examiners meeting that takes place in mid to late October.

English Language Courses

The University of Nottingham runs courses on English through the Centre for English Language Education (CELE), see their website http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/CELE/

These courses are free for overseas students whose native language is not English. Information about participating has been circulated previously. All students whose first language is NOT English are obliged to participate unless they have written permission from their Course Director to be excluded from attending.

LaTeX

Training materials for using the mathematical typesetting system LaTeX will be provided. Use of LaTeX is not mandatory, but is recommended.

Dissertation Write-Up Presentation

A short presentation, on Dissertation writing, will be provided to all MSc Students.

Reassessment Arrangements

Students who do not pass their Dissertation will be allowed to resubmit their final report within 12 weeks of notification of the failure by the University. Such students will be provided with written feedback on their first final report, together with a written statement from their supervisor, advising areas of improvement. Students should not expect to have regular supervision meetings or feedback from their supervisor. Students are entitled to a single meeting with their supervisor to discuss how they should improve their final report.

The full resit mark will consist only of the mark for the resubmitted final report.

Research Conduct and Ethics

All students and supervisors should be aware of and follow the University's Code of Research Conduct and Research Ethics.

If you have any queries over ethics or research governance issues, please contact the School Ethics Officer – see MSc Student Handbook.

Further Questions

For further questions, contact your supervisor. If this is not appropriate, contact the MATH4062 Course Director, Dr Etienne Farcot, via [email protected].

MATH4062 (G14FMD)

Student final report assessment guidelines

When marking the student’s written final report, the supervisor and second assessor are expected to return marks, with the indicated weightings, under the categories of

• •

%

20%

Written presentation / Introduction (30%)

Mathematical and computational content (70%) comprising:

Category Comments

Depth & progress (Written) Evidence of an appropriate amount of progress made.

     10%

  Technical background

  Use and interpretation of background mathematical/computational/financial concepts;

if appropriate, use of a range of given reference materials and of further reading.

   20%

 Understanding & interpretation

 Logical development and selection of relevant material;

Critical appraisal/interpretation of results in the context of the dissertation;

Demonstration of deep understanding and interpretation of all aspects of the material presented.

  20%

  Development & results

  Use of specific mathematical/statistical/computational techniques and/or mathematical/computing packages (as appropriate) to develop models and/or produce “