Department of Computer Science Teaching and Learning Committee

1998 Teaching report

1. Introduction
2. Our staff
   1. The current staffing
   2. Resignations and appointments
   3. Promotions
   4. Professional recognition
   5. Leave
   6. Staffing profile
3. Our undergraduate degrees
   1. Bachelor of Science
   2. Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
   3. Major changes for 1998
4. Our undergraduate students
   1. TES cut-offs
5. Undergraduate units taught
   1. Participation in these units
   2. Performance across these units
6. Our honours programme
   1. Major changes for 1998
7. Our honours students
8. Honours units taught
   1. Honours unit statistics
   2. Honours theses' abstracts
9. Honour board
10. Next year
    

1 Introduction

The Department of Computer Science is now 22 years old. Below is a potted history of the development of its teaching activities.

• It was founded in 1976 as a department of the Faculty of Science.
• It commenced teaching in 1977 with a second-year unit called Computer Science 200.
• In 1978 it introduced Computer Science 300 (and consequently the Computer Science major).
• In 1979 the honours programme was instituted.
• In 1981 a partial first-year unit Computer Science 101 was introduced - it was a component of Mathematical Sciences 100, the time not being propitious for the introduction of a full-sized unit. In subsequent years both Computer Science 200 and Computer Science 300 had to be redesigned in the light of its introduction.
• In 1984 the first-year unit Computer Science 100 was introduced, which necessitated the redesign in subsequent years of both Computer Science 200 and Computer Science 300.
• In 1987 a second major, Information Technology, was introduced with the mounting of Information Technology 310.
• In 1991 the whole Computer Science programme was semesterised, each year-long unit being broken down into 6-point (in the new points scale) semester-length components.
• In 1992 the Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (BCM) was introduced.
• In 1994 the Department moved to the newly created (then Division now) Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Science, forming, with the Department of Mathematics, the School of Mathematics and Computer Science. It still has a large commitment to teaching within the Faculty of Science.
• In 1995 semesterisation was partially undone, with the creation of the core year-long, first-year unit Foundations of Programming 120. This was followed in 1996 by the second-year companion Programming Structures 220.
• In 1998, Java was introduced into the first-year programme.

2 Our staff

The current staffing

The academic staff during 1998 consisted of 14 people - all with PhDs. Below we give a list of all those in post at some time during the year, together with the qualifications as they stood at the end of the year.

Professor

J.S. Rohl, BE Qld., PhD Manc, FBCS, FAustCS

Associate Professors

R.A. Owens, BSc W.Aust, MSc DPhil Oxon.
C.P. Tsang, BSc PhD DipComp.W.Aust, FAustCS

Senior Lecturers

M.S. Cottingham, BSc PhD Glas
P.T. Hadingham, BSc PhD Cape Town
R.S. Kozera, MSc Warsaw, PhD Flin
C.S. McDonald, BSc PhD W.Aust
G.F. Royle, MA Oxon, PhD W.Aust
N. Spadaccini, BSc PhD W.Aust
R.C. Thomas, BSc Wales, MSc Lond, M.Phil York, PhD W.Aust
R.L. While, BSc(Eng), ACGI, PhD, DIC Lond.

Lecturers

A. Datta, BSc Calcutta, MSc Kanpur, PhD Madras
P.D. Kovesi, BE MEngSc PhD W.Aust
C.K. MacNish, BE W. Aust, PhD Cantab

Resignations and appointments

Dr Amitava Datta commenced in January, replacing Dr Lin, who has moved to UNSW.

Promotions

Dr Spadaccini was promoted to Senior Lecturer.

Professional recognition

Dr McDonald shared the Excellence in Faculty Teaching Award for 1998, the first such award that a member of the department has been honoured with.

Leave

Three members of staff took leave during the year.

Name	Type of leave	Period
Associate Professor Tsang	Sabbatical leave	January-December (10/12ths)
Associate Professor Tsang	Leave without pay	January-December (2/12ths)
Dr Royle	Sabbatical leave	July - December
Dr Hadingham	Long-service leave	January - March

Staffing profile

It is interesting to see the change to our profile over our life-time. Below is a graph (the table is too extensive), showing the number of staff at each level at the time the Faculty Handbook for each year went to press. Since the publication date has varied over the years, and the promotion system has undergone significant changes, there will be some minor discrepancies, but the trend is clear enough.

The monotonic decline in the number of staff since 1993 has been arrested: the number of academic staff remains at 14 as we move into 1999.

The redistribution of staff across the levels has continued. The Senior Lecturer band has widened further (and the Lecturer band has narrowed accordingly). There are no Assistant Lecturers in the department. The graph also shows the "average" level of the staff. This is obtained by associating 1 with Assistant Lecturers, 2 with Lecturers, and so on; then averaging them. The monotonic increase since 1993 has continued. The level now is above Senior Lecturer. (In 1993 it was Lecturer.)

The student-staff ration has also continued its deterioration from 18.7 to 19.6. The table below gives the raw data of staff and student numbers, the latter including research students. NOTE that this is a corrected version of last year's, which, despite the accompanying text, measured only teaching EFTSUs.

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Staff	18	23	20	19	16	15	14
Students	341	311	263	270	296	281	275
SSR	18.9	13.5	13.2	14.2	18.5	18.7	19.6
Source: Preliminary Statistics (Table 4 up to 1995, Table 3 from 1996) and Faculty Handbooks

3 Our undergraduate degrees

The department offers units and majors in two degrees, the Bachelor of Science (BSc) and the Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (BCM). A significant number of the BSc students are taking the double BSc/BE degree. As well all students in the Bachelor of Cognitive Science (BCogSci) take the first-year Computer Science unit, and may major in Computer Science.

In both degrees there are three major streams of study offered by the department - Computer Science with focus on programming languages and the theory of computing; Information Technology Applications with an emphasis on applications of information technology ; and Information Technology Systems with an emphasis on computer systems.

To claim a major in one of the the areas, a student must pass in 3 units (including the compulsory one) from the relevant list below and a fourth from either of the lists or as approved by the Head of the Department. Note that two of the units, Neural computation 407 and Computer vision 412, are nominally Honours units, and two others, Concurrent programming 304 and Software engineering 314 appear in two lists.

Computer Science	Information Technology Applications	Information Technology Systems
Algorithms 300	Computer graphics 311	Concurrent programming 304
Functional programming 301	Databases 313	Computer networks 312
Logic programming 302	Software engineering 314	Databases 313
Concurrent programming 304	Robotics 315	Software engineering 314
Neural computation 407	Computer vision 412	Operating systems 316

Bachelor of Science (BSc)

The BSc was the original degree, and is still a popular choice with our students. Students in the programme are required to take 1 or 2 majors, both of which must be from within the faculty of Science. There is a wide range of majors available within the faculty, and it is possible to undertake limited students from outside the Faculty of Science.

Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences (BCM)

The BCM is a relatively new degree, founded within the Faculty of Science, but now coming under the auspices of the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical sciences. It is a special degree requiring depth - students must take 2 majors and must do both Mathematics and Computer Science in each of their first two years but allowing for breadth in that one of those majors may be from outside the faculty. The majors available are:

From with in the School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences	From within the Faculty of Economics & Commerce	From other faculties
Computer Science	Accounting	Asian Studies
Information Technology Applications	Economics	Biochemistry
Information Technology Systems	Economic History	Building Technology
Applied Mathematics	Finance	Chinese
Pure Mathematics	General Management	French
Mathematical Sciences	Human Resource Management	German
Mathematical Statistics	Industrial Relations	Geographical Information Systems
	Information Management	Indonesian
	International Business Economics	Italian
	Marketing	Japanese
	Money & Banking	Linguistics
	Quantitative Economics	Philosophy
	Quantitative Finance	Psychology
		Physics
Source: BCM Standard Courses Handbook 1998

Major changes for 1998

Every year there are minor changes to the content and format of all units as co-ordinators respond to their previous experiences and to changes in the environment. We do not comment on them here. In 1998 there was, however, two significant changes.

Introduction of Java into the core Foundations of programming 120 unit

In 1998, Java replaced Pascal in the core first-year Foundations of Programming 120 unit. Since in 1996 Java was used in the Concurrent Programming 304 unit, and in 1997 was introduced into the core second-year Programming Structures 220 unit, it has now become the lingua franca for the department.

The introduction of a third major

Many students want to do more than 4 or 5 Information Technology units, but in the past this was impossible with a single Information Technology major. Others were keen to get access to some of the honours units, without undertaking the honours programme. To accommodate these students we reorganised the structure of the majors. There are now three majors Computer Science, Information Technology (Systems) and Information Technology (Applications). Some units are available in two majors. To claim a major in one of the the areas, a student must pass in 3 units from the relevant list below and a fourth from any of the lists or as approved by the Head of the Department.

Computer Science	Information Technology (Applications)	Information Technology (Systems)
Algorithms 300	Computer graphics 311	Concurrent programming 304
Functional programming 301	Databases 313	Computer networks 312
Logic programming 302	Software engineering 314	Databases 313
Concurrent programming 304	Robotics 315	Software engineering 314
Neural computation 407	Computer vision 412	Operating systems 316

4 Our students

A table of the student enrolments from 1992 is given below. It considers only the students with which this report is concerned - those in the Bachelors degrees and the Honours students.

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Undergraduate	284	257	221	220	250	232	232
Honours	21	15	15	16	15	23	25
Total teaching	305	272	236	236	265	255	257
Source: Preliminary Statistics (Table 4 up to 1995, Table 3 from 1996)

As can be seen, the honours EFTUs are always less than 10% of the total, and have an effect only at the margin. Taking a long term view the number of teaching EFTSUs has stabilised around 250 with a tolerance of about 15. In 1998 the undergraduate load remained the same. An increase in the honours numbers gave us an overall reduction of about 1%.

A feature of Australian education over the last decade has been the introduction of full fees for overseas students. Below we give a table of the full-fee and HECS-paying students since 1992.

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Local	211	189	175	185	207	201	207
Full-fee	94	83	61	51	58	54	50
Total	305	272	236	236	265	255	257
Source: Preliminary Statistics (Table 4 up to 1995, Table 3 from 1996)

Over the long term the numbers have dropped by about 45%. They appear to be declining about 10% per annum, though this is only 4 EFTSUs.

TES cut-offs

As noted before, most of our students enroll in either the BCM, the BSc, or the joint BSc/BE degrees. The cut-off scores for these degrees from 1987 (or the year in which the degree programme was introduced) are given below.

	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
BSc	324	328	325	325	325	342	340	334	328	307	305	301
BSc/BE		423	403	410	422	404	399	395	384	384	386	380
BCM							343	332	314	307	308	302
Source: Prospective Students Office

Because of changes to the requirements for a TES score in 1992, and the changing proportion of the age cohort who take the Tertiary Entrance examination, it is hard to interpret these figures. The gap between the single-degree students and the double-degree students, though, is clearly significant.

Unfortunately we do not have long-term statistics relating to the degree the students are undertaking, nor to their sex. These available at the unit-level and are discussed there

5 Undergraduate units taught in our programmes

Appendix 1 gives the handbook entries for the undergraduate units taught this year. They are, of course, supplemented with an Information Sheet provided by the unit co-ordinator. An overview of the structure is given below.

First year		Co-ordinator
Core	Foundations of Programming 120	Professor J S Rohl
Enrichment	Computer Science - Theory, History & Practice 104	Dr M C Cottingham
Second year
Core	Programming Structures 220	Drs P Kovesi, C K MacNish & R L While
Enrichment	Programming Language Implementation 202	Dr A Datta
	Introduction to Human Computer Interaction 225	Dr R C Thomas
	Unix and Windows Programming 226	Dr N Spadaccini
Third year
Computer Science	Algorithms 300	Dr G F Royle
major	Functional Programming 301	Dr R L While
	Logic Programming 302	Dr R Kozera
	Concurrent Programming 304*	Dr A Datta
	Neural Computation 407	Dr P T Hadingham
Information Technology	Computer Graphics 311	Dr M C Cottingham
Applications major	Databases 313+	Dr P T Hadingham
	Software Engineering 314`	Dr R C Thomas
	Robotics 315	Dr P Kovesi
	Computer Vision 412	Assoc Professor R A Owens
Information Technology	Concurrent Programming 304*	Dr A Datta
Systems major	Computer Networks 312	Dr C S McDonald
	Databases 313+	Dr P T Hadingham
	Software Engineering 314`	Dr R C Thomas
	Operating systems 316	Dr C S McDonald

As mentioned earlier, students may replace one unit of a major with another relevant unit, with the approval of the Head of the Department.

Participation in these units

Below is a table of the degree being undertaken by students across all the units.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
BCM	70	78	39	85	71	74	26	17	16	34	41	51	63	52	25	39	8	12
BSc	0	53	9	21	11	20	9	8	5	9	12	11	15	14	8	10	3	1
BSc/BE	0	74	0	35	0	8	5	6	2	17	15	23	25	26	23	19	7	5
BCogSci	0	11	1	5	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
others	1	11	3	3	5	3	1	1	0	1	2	1	3	2	1	0	1	0
Source: The examination register 1998

These figures reflect previous experience. If we ignore the enrichment units, it is clear that the proportion of BCM students increases as the students progress through the degree. This is to be expected since the BCM is the specialist degree. On the other hand the BSc students decline in numbers as the students choose their majors across the faculty. The percentage of joint degree students remains fairly constant. It is noticeable that these students do not participate in the enrichment units: this is due to their very tight timetable.

Below is a table of the sex of the students across all the units.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
1996	24%	27%	13%	20%	22%	21%	20%	19%	23%	24%	18%	13%	20%	19%	18%
1997	23%	26%	10%	19%	30%	16%	21%	14%	29%	17%	23%	14%	24%	23%	19%	22%
1998	34%	33%	10%	21%	24%	17%	7%	15%	21%	15%	16%	20%	18%	22%	4%	18%	9%	22%
Source: The examination register 1996, 1997 and 1998

Apart from the first-year units and CS202, the proportion of female students is consistent across all years, but consistently low. Three observations stand out from the data

• The proportion of first-year students who are female has increased quite significantly, from 23% to 34%. I can think of no reason why this should be so.
• The proportion of CS300 students who are female has slumped dramatically, from 21% to 7%. This could be due to the unit no longer being compulsory. (A sobering thought.)
• The proportion of IT315 students who are female has slumped equally dramatically, from 19% to 4%. This may be due to the introduction of the two IT majors, with a consequent widening of student choice.

Performance across these units

The figures in this section are taken from the results returned to the Examinations Office. Consequently they do not take into account students with deferred examinations, students who are granted a supplementary examination, or students who marks have been subsequently adjusted. The corresponding figures for 1996 are included for comparison. These are the only figures available: in subsequent years, we will include more years' data.

Unit enrolments

The enrolment numbers (excluding all withdrawals) are given below.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
1996	79	258	53	130	67	118	79	42	48	68	113	97	111	107	61
1997	86	260	30	130	71	81	63	21	52	53	83	80	45	103	70	87
1998	71	227	52	149	89	105	42	33	24	61	70	86	106	94	57	68	20	18
Source: The examination register 1996, 1997 and 1998

I have fixed the scale so that it is appropriate for the majority of our units. As a consequence, CS120 is way off scale. Nevertheless we can make the following observations.

• The numbers for both core and enrichment first-year units have reduced quite considerably this year, by 12% and 17% respectively. This will flow onto the second-year numbers in 1999.
• The numbers for all the second-year core unit are uniformly higher than last year. The numbers for Programming Language Implementation 202 have recovered to last year's value.
• Except for Databases 313 the third year numbers are down fairly consistently. (But note that there were extra units available this year.)

Pass rates

The pass rates for all the units are given below.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
1996	76	76	77	82	93	90	80	90	90	90	90	89	93	94	87
1997	80	82	70	84	92	86	92	71	92	89	84	95	93	96	86	98
1998	82	81	90	90	99	85	93	88	92	97	99	98	94	100	86	97	91	100
Source: The examination register 1996, 1997 and 1998

We can make the following observations.

• Almost without exception, the pass rates are the highest ever.
• The slumps experienced last year in Programming Language Implementation 202 , Functional Programming 301 and Computer Graphics 311 in 1997 have not been repeated.
• Robotics 315, is consistent, but consistently low.

Median scores

The median scores for all the units are given below.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
1996	63	61	65	60	70	66	62	70	66	65	70	65	66	66	73
1997	61	64	74	65	65	72	68	69	64	58	69	68	64	71	71	69
1998	66	66	75	66	68	63	70	59	60	67	72	71	68	72	72	69	70	73
Source: The examination register 1996, 1997 and 1998

We can make the following observations.

• The (third-year) Information Technology units have median scores that are both acceptably high and consistent.
• The median score for Programming Language Implementation 202 remains high.
• The median scores for Concurrent Programming 304 and Databases 313 (low), which were cause for concern last year, have returned to normal levels.
• The median score for Functional programming 301 has dropped very significantly, and that for Logic programming 302 dropped further. These two have the lowest median scores.

Standard deviation

The standard deviations for all the units are given below.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
1996	22	20	24	17	15	16	19	22	17	13	19	15	14	14	20
1997	18	18	31	17	15	19	16	21	15	17	19	15	15	11	18	12
1998	21	21	19	16	8	16	14	19	19	15	13	12	14	7	21	12	18	9
Source: The examination register 1996, 1997 and 1998

We can make the following observations.

• Except for some obvious anomalies, there is a great deal of consistency across the units, with the standard deviation being in the 15-19 range.
• Programming Language Implementation 202 has recovered from last year.
• The standard deviation in Introduction to Human Computer Interaction 225 has halved to 8%, and that of Software Engineering 314 has continued down to 7%.

Unit classifications

The proportion of students awarded the 5 classifications for all the units are given below.

	104	120	202	220	225	226	300	301	302	304	311	312	313	314	315	316	407	412
N/N+	13	43	5	15	1	16	3	4	2	2	1	2	6	0	8	2	2	0
P	11	44	5	31	8	25	7	13	8	15	9	7	9	5	5	10	4	3
CR	17	40	12	45	37	36	10	2	6	21	21	26	44	24	11	22	5	5
D	16	39	20	36	38	20	15	6	3	13	26	38	33	48	12	20	7	7
HD	14	61	10	22	5	8	7	8	5	10	13	13	14	17	21	14	4	3
Source: The examination register 1998

The classifications reflect the pass rates, median scores and standard deviations of the units. We may need to consider the acceptability of the wide variation in HD classes awarded from 6% in Introduction to Human Computer Interaction 225 to 37% in Robotics 315.

6 Our honours programme

The honours programme is an optional 4th year that is available to students who pass the undergraduate degree at a sufficiently high level. It is available as both BCM(hons) and BSc(hons), and in each the honours may be in either Computer Science or Information Technology.

Major changes for 1998

Project assessment

In response to concerns about the possible influence of supervisors on the students' project marks, the assessment of the assignments is done by two examiners, neither of whom is the supervisor.

Seminar assessment

In response to the huge variations in seminar marks by different markers in the past, The assessment of the seminars was by a panel of 5 staff members, almost all of whom marked each seminar. (Where a member of the panel was unable to attend a seminar a reserve was used.)

It is not clear whether these changes had any noticeable effect.

7 Our honours students

Since honours is a coherent programme, we can give an overall picture, which is not possible with the undergraduate teaching. Nevertheless we must bear in mind the fact that part-time honours is now possible, as is splitting the degree across calendar years. Thus there is no longer a one-to-one relationship between enrolment numbers and EFTSUs. In 1998 two students graduated in mid-year, and two others will not complete until mid 1999. In what follows we count all students who appear on either the June or the November examination registers. The number of graduations will, of course, sometimes be less than this.

Below we give a table of the first degree followed by the students before enrolment in honours.

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
BCM	4	0	5	6	4	7	21
BSc	15	13	3	5	4	2	1
BSc/BE	0	1	7	3	6	11	5
others	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
Source: data provided at the Departmental Examiners' Meeting

The graph shows that the decline in straight BSc students continued - almost to vanishing point - as did the consolidation in the number of BCM students, who in 1998 formed over 70% of the total enrolment. The joint BSc/BE students decreased in number this year, but the pattern over the years is hard to discern.

As we offer honours in two disciplines, Computer Science and Information Technology, in two degrees it is helpful to see how student choice might vary. To start this process I give below the numbers for 1998 for future comparison.

	Computer Science	Information Technology
BCM	3	17
BSc	1	6

The preference for Information Technology is overwhelming.

Below we give a table of the students' sex.

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
female	5	1	1	1	1	1	7
male	15	14	14	13	14	19	20

Between 1993 and 1997 the story was pretty depressing. In 1998 the proportion rose to 28%, not high, but at least consonant with third-year proportions. Whether the 1993-97 period or 1998 will be the aberration time alone will tell.

Below is a table of the funding source for the students since 1995.

	1995	1996	1997	1998
full-fee	1	1	0	4
Local	13	14	20	23
Source: Preliminary Statistics (Table 4 up to 1995, Table 3 from 1996)

Degrees awarded

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Fail	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
H3	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
2B	3	0	1	4	4	2	2
2A	7	5	7	5	6	7	13
H1	10	10	7	5	5	9	8
Total	20	15	15	14	15	20	25

We can make the following observations.

• The number of honours students has reached its highest level in at least 7 years.
• H3 degrees are now being awarded in line with university policy that a third-class degree is "a respectable degree".
• The proportion of H1 degrees is back to the norm of more recent years.

8 Honours (fourth-year) units taught

Students undertaking the honours programme must take 5 units (worth 12.5% each) and a project worth 37.5%. Appendix 2 gives gives the handbook entry of all the honours units, including those which were not offered in 1998. Those offered are listed below. Scientific Communication 405 is compulsory.

Unit	Co-ordinator
Scientific Communication 405 (233.405)	Associate Professor R A Owens
Programming Methodology 401 (233.401)	Professor J S Rohl
Neural Computation 407 (233.407)	Dr P T Hadingham
Advanced Computer Systems 408 (233. 408)	Dr C S McDonald
Machine Reasoning 409 (233.409)	Dr C K MacNish
Algorithms for AI 411 (233.411)	Dr R Kozera
Computer Vision 412 (233.412)	Associate Professor R A Owens
Advanced Graphics 413 (233.413)	Dr N Spadaccini

Honours unit statistics

The enrolments of honours students in these units is given below.

	401	405	406	407	408	409	411	412	413	417	418
1995		14	7	7	9		12	13		6	4
1996		15		12	13		13	9		2	9
1997	6	22		10	11	6	20	20	15
1998	5	23		11	17	15	9	22	10

There are a number of factors to be considered when interpreting these numbers.

• Both Programming Methodology 401 and Advanced Graphics 413 are units produced in collaboration with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, so that the total number of students in each unit is greater than shown above.
• In 1998 both Neural Computation 407 and Computer Vision 412 were made available to third-year students.

There are some interesting reverses, Advanced Computer Systems 408 increased by 50%, and Machine Reasoning 409 by 150%, while Algorithms for AI 411 reduced by 50% and Advanced Graphics 413 by 33%. However the numbers of students are too small for any significant conclusion.

The means (not medians!) are given below.

	401	405	406	407	408	409	411	412	413	417	418
1995		76	72	94	64		71	71		77	79
1996		73		76	73		71	76		77	69
1997	79	71		77	72	70	72	75	66
1998	77	75		70	71	65	68	75	61

The mean for honours units is traditionally in the mid-70s. In 1998 the range of means widened, all but one unit having lower means. Furthermore some drops were quite large. Of note are Neural Computation 407 (a drop of 7% in the mean), Advanced Graphics 413 (a drop of 5%) and Algorithms for AI 411 (a drop of 4%). The means for all three units were below 70%.

Honours theses' abstracts

Appendix 3 gives a list of the abstracts of all the honours theses presented. Below we give the titles.

Author	Title	Supervisor
Nicholas Arnold	Constructing Interesting Crossword Puzzles	Dr Chris McDonald
Claire Botsis	Mazorama: A Virtual Reality Maze Game	Dr Marion Cottingham
Elwyn Campbell	LACTNET - A Secure Research Tool for the Internet	A/Professor Robyn Owens & Dr Chris McDonald
Robert Ching Kong Cheung	Network Monitoring	Dr Chris McDonald
Glen Morgan Dell	A Genetic Algorithm for the Travelling Salesman Problem	Dr Gordon Royle
Garth Elliot	A Research Tool for Investigating the Effect of Different Scrutinising Procedures on the Results of an Election	Professor Jeff Rohl
Andrew Evers	Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis using Simulated Annealing	Dr Paul Hadingham
Tony Fitzpatrick	Interface Design for Network Computers	Dr Richard Thomas
Paul Foss	Civil Engineering Applications in High Performance Fortran	Dr Amitava Datta
Jayne Hehir	Using Reinforcement Learning to Solve Discrete Problems With Linear Approximation	Dr Cara MacNish
Glen Horlin	Real-Time Tracking Using a Kalman Filter	Dr Nick Spadaccini
Chih W Khoh	That's Impossible!	Dr Peter Kovesi
David S H Leow	Image Deblurring with the Richardson-Lucy Algorithm	Dr Peter Kovesi
Lanny Leman	Audio Stream Characterisation	Dr Peter Kovesi
Scott P. Lewis	The Size of Your Genes Counts: The Effect of Gene Size and Town Clustering the Travelling Salesman Problem	Dr Cara MacNish
Gian Paolo Lorenzetto	A New Approach to Measuring Image Quality via Frequency Analysis	Dr Peter Kovesi
Hannah Maher	A Metadata Directory for Main Roads WA	Dr Richard Thomas
Hooi Chit Meng	Bid-Ask Visualisation for SEATS	Dr Marion Cottingham & Professor Philip Brown (Accounting)
Andrew Nilsson	Image Normalisation of Retinal Images Generic Database Clients and ODBC	Dr Richard Thomas
Airin Sugiono	Enhancing Infrared Images	Assoc Professor Robyn Owens
Ching Tan	A Real Time Network Game Engine	Dr Amitava Datta
Adrian Thomson	Fractal Compression, Fractal Images, Fractal Music, Fractal Prospecting	Dr Peter Kovesi
Andrew Utting	A Web-based Voting System	Professor J S Rohl
Belinda Van Andel	Detecting Circles in Infrared Images	A/Professor Robyn Owens
Paul Wagland	Topologically Adaptable Templates	Associate Professor Robyn Owens & Dr Chris Pudney (Pharmacology)
Chris Wood	Recursive Searching: Searching for Optimal Search Parameters	Dr Cara MacNish
Steven Yang	Animation of Algorithms	Dr Amitava Datta

CEED projects

In recent times the collaboration between the department and local industry through the CEED arrangement has started to flower. In 1998 there were 3 CEED projects.

Author	Title	CEED partner
Andrew Evers	Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis using Simulated Annealing	Clough Engineering
Hannah Maher	A Metadata Directory for Main Roads WA	Main Roads WA
Andrew Nilsson	Image Normalisation of Retinal Images Generic Database Clients and ODBC	Treasury Systems

9 Honour board

Below we record those of our students who were recognised by the university in the offering of scholarships, by the faculties in the awarding of faculty prizes, and by the department in nominating the dux of each of the units we mount.

Postgraduate scholarships
Australian Postgraduate Award	Gian Paolo LORENZETTO	Newman College Snr. Sch
Faculty prizes
Adept prize	Simon Paul MONCRIEFF	Hale School
ADI Prize in Computer Science	Thomas Andrew EVERS	Kelmscott SHS
Alphawest Prize in Information Technology	Mark James HAMMOND	Christ Church GS
Execom Prize	Luke Robert MUNRO	Wesley College
Sun Prize in Java	Chun Wei HO	Christ Church G S
Tang Prize in Computer Science	Simon Paul MONCRIEFF	Hale School
Winthrop Prize	Luke Robert MUNRO	Wesley College
Outside awards
Western Australian Information Technology & Telecommunications Award (WAITTA)	Elwyn Peta CAMPBELL	PLC
Dux of units
Foundations of programming 120	Chun Wei HO	Christ Church G S
Computer science 104	Guy COWLEY	Kelmscott SHS
Programming structures 220	Todd Matthew OWEN	Rossmoyne SHS
Programming language implementation 202	Steven Mark COOK	Gov'nr Stirling SHS
Introduction to human computer interaction 225	Richard David Thomas MOULDING	Craigie SHS
Unix & Windows programming 226	Todd Matthew OWEN	Rossmoyne SHS
Algorithms 300	Steven Robert PEGG	Applecross SHS
Functional programming 301	Troy Alexander LAURIN	Gov'nr Stirling SHS
Logic programming 302	Walter Kelly TAN DE JESUS	Forrestfield SH
Concurrent programming 304	Michael Frank STOCK	Carine SHS
Computer graphics 311	Christopher Wayne BARTLEY	Perth Modern SHS
Computer networks 312	Mark James HAMMOND	Christ Church GS
Databases 313	Luke Robert MUNRO	Wesley College
Software Engineering 314	Seng Ern GAN	Carine SHS
Robotics 315	Peter Robert MUNRO	Swan Dist. H Sch
Operating systems 316	Luke Robert MUNRO	Wesley College
Programming methodology 401	Thomas Andrew EVERS	Kelmscott SHS
Scientific Communication 405	Nicholas Jon ARNOLD	Newman College Snr. Sch
Neural computation 407	Luke Robert MUNRO	Wesley College
Advanced computer systems 408	Thomas Andrew EVERS	Kelmscott SHS
Logics for artificial intelligence 409	Thomas Andrew EVERS	Kelmscott SHS
Expert systems 411	Glen HORLIN	John XXIII College
Computer vision 412	Simon Paul MONCRIEFF	Hale School
Advanced graphics 413	Robert Ching-Kong CHEUNG	Wesley College

10 Next year

Each year changes are made to units to reflect our experience and the feedback we receive from a number of sources. We do not detail them all here. However, there are two major changes of interest.

Consequences of the change from Pascal to Java in Computer Science 120

In 1998 Java was introduced into the core first-year Foundations of Programming 120 unit. As a consequence, the core second-year Programming Structures 220 unit, which has used Java since 1997 will need to be modified to reflect the basic competence in Java that students will arrive with.

Consequences of the introduction of a third major

In order to introduce the second major in Information Technology two honours units, Neural Computation 407 and Computer Vision 412, were made available to third-year students. As a consequence the choice of honours units is severely restricted. It will be necessary to allow some students to enrol in one or possibly two third-year units as part of their honours programme.