Computer Science with Games Development BSc (Hons)

This module is set in the context of today’s society and the organisations within. Social behaviour, often in the virtual environment, creates a range of ethical issues centering on information security and governance. In addition to exploring these social and ethical issues, legal and regulatory frameworks that have been developed in recent years to try to address these issues are examined. You will also learn about cybersecurity in organisations and will be introduced to a range of common threats and countermeasures. Topics include basic definitions of terminology alongside practical and theoretical frameworks to help you identify key governance and security issues, and explore potential preventative measures. You will be covering terms such as ‘governance’ and ‘cybersecurity’, frameworks which include the information life cycle, regulations and guidelines relating to professional conduct, privacy and data protection, surveillance, freedom of expression, and freedom of information and intellectual property. Cybersecurity topics will include user authentication, cloud storage, organisational security cultures, access control and encryption, social engineering, user privacy, organisational cyber-attack risk evaluation and breach reporting. Key topics are:

Organisational information and knowledge assets and Information Life Cycle
Corporate and information governance and professional conduct
Privacy, freedom of expression and surveillance
Data protection and freedom of information
Impact of globalisation on governance and security
Intellectual property
Cybersecurity and organisational security culture
Social Engineering
Attack and defence including user authentication, access control and encryption
Privacy and security in the cloud
Future of privacy and security
Cybersecurity risk evaluation and breach reporting

The module aim is to develop understanding of the user and their experience with smart technology applications through experimental design and testing to be able to make recommendations for improvements. To help achieve this, the module gets you to think about the bigger picture when developing experimental application tests for smart technologies; these could be changeable depending on the user environment which impact on the user and interaction with the device. This approach will help to galvanise the module aim, which will improve planning, and strategy when developing experimental test designs in order to carry out experimental testing of a specific smart technologies application, leading to recommendations for improvements to user experience and interaction design.

In particular, you will cover topics such as:

• Cultural shifts and trends in mobile devices and smart technologies.
• Techniques for analysing user behaviour and experience in specific contexts.
• Review of experimental methodologies.
• Experimental good practice.
• Design and implementation of in-context experiments to test user experience and interaction design.
• Presentation and evaluation of experimental findings.
• Making recommendations for future provision.

The aim of this module is to encourage the understanding and application of business and management competences as applied to small business. It will provide you with an understanding and application of competencies required to create and operate a small enterprise. You will gain a practical (learning by doing) insight into the setting up and operation of a small business, and will have a raised awareness of the self-employment opportunities that graduates can exploit, developing a critical awareness of small business creation and operation and of the enterprise economy.

You will cover topics such as:
• Small Business in the economy.
• Business idea generation.
• Entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial team.
• Business planning and finance and use of advisors.
• Marketing and market research.
• Sales for SMEs.
• Effective presentation.
• Networking.
• Public relations.
• Information and control of enterprise.
• Business growth.
• Financial outcomes and reporting.
• Legal issues.

You will learn how to write robust web applications that integrate server-side and client-side technologies. For the server side you will learn how to create reusable components written in Object Oriented PHP and how to use database systems including SQLite. For the client-side you will learn how to create robust Single Page Applications (SPA) using a modern JavaScript framework such as React or AngularJS. To integrate the client and server sides you will learn how to structure data as JSON and the use of HTTP methods and approaches for interaction. You will also learn how to implement and use token-based approaches for authentication. The module will set the approaches you learn in the context of architectural concerns including maintainability, scalability, security and robustness. You will become familiar with architectural concepts including Representational State Transfer (REST), Model View Controller (MVC), and Multitier (N-tier), as well as gain an appreciation of applied object-oriented and component-based development.

In this module you will learn about the design of computer games, the needs of and the issues facing the games industry and their impact upon games design. You will analyse a games problem and create a design for their solution using industry standard methods. In particular you will learn about:
• Principles of good game design
• The elements of game design
• How games are made in the industry and the makeup of the industry
• Professional, legal, social and ethical issues faced by the industry in general, and how they affect the game designer.

You will learn about the structure of games software. Games engines are complex pieces of software that are worked on by a number of people, with different talents. To manage this complexity, programmers use a number of design patterns to decouple the code and make it more flexible and reusable. You will see how object-oriented principles such as generalisation and encapsulation can be used to achieve this.

Game engines are split into separate components, such as the gameplay component, graphics component, AI component, network component, etc. You will study common approaches used to design and implement a number of these components.

You will also learn to understand and communicate complex designs using diagrams and explanations. You will develop your programming skills to implement more complex object-oriented structures.

This module will provide you with knowledge and understanding of the theoretical background to and the practical implementation of computer graphics and computer animation, which are two major components in the movie and game industries. They are also used in other industries for design and advertisement, such as furniture and car companies. On this module you will have the opportunity to experience hardware equipment used in the industries, such as a 3D motion capture system, 3D scanners and 3D printers, to help you better understand state-of-the-art computer graphics and animation pipelines.

You will learn about 3D modelling and rendering, perception principles, visualisation techniques, animation algorithms and simulations and how to implement software algorithms for 3D modelling, rendering, visualization and simulations - which you will use to develop your own software artefact. This module will cover the following topics:

1. Basic 3D geometry concepts, such as coordinates, transformations, view projections, etc.
2. 3D rendering components, such as modelling, illumination, shadowing, texture mapping, etc.
3. Character animation algorithms, such as motion capture, keyframe animation, forward/inverse kinematics, etc.
4. Physical simulations algorithms, such as cloth simulation, deformable objects, etc.

The module will, where appropriate, make use of well-known research papers and journals in computer graphics and animation, to help you develop your critical thinking skills, as well as your research and development skills.

The aim of the module is to provide you with knowledge and understanding of machine learning techniques and computer vision systems, including how to solve problems in these areas. In particular, you will cover topics such as:

• Machine learning
• Supervised machine learning techniques and classifiers
• Unsupervised machine learning techniques
• Computer vision and digital image fundamentals
• Legal, ethical and social issues in computer vision, and techniques for security.
• Application of machine learning techniques in computer vision (biometric systems, face, iris, fingerprint, etc.)

Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

This module functions as a “cap-stone” to your Batchelor studies. The module gives you the opportunity to work in a team to build a significant computing product directly related to your programme of study. This develops and demonstrates your skills in leadership, team work, project management, planning, communication (both written and oral) as well as technical skills in the technology you choose to implement in. This module aims to give you further experience of team working in the specialism you have selected which is an invaluable asset and highly prized by employers. The project and its potential future commercial exploitation provide a context for you to critically evaluate your and your team’s performance, the fitness for purpose of the product you have developed and the legal, ethical, professional and social content of your chosen specialism. Appropriate Information Security factors will be considered as part of this evaluation. As part of this learning journey you will also explore the associated commercial and economic factors.

You will have the opportunity to apply a wide range of development skills (in specification, design and implementation) to your product development. All products will consider all aspects of the development life cycle. Some projects may be driven by research activity in the department’s research groups, some by the expectations of a “client” and some by students’ own interests. A “client” is a non-fictitious potential benefactor of the project for example a student’s employer, former placement provider, local charity etc. who are willing to formally consent to be involved in the project.

Wider Legal, Ethical, Social and Professional implications will be examined to enable you to appreciate the responsibilities involved in the development and use of computer products both in work and throughout society.

This module is an individual project where you have the opportunity to define your own project topic or select one provided by academic staff, and produce a significant piece of practical computing work related to the aims of your programme. To do this you will need to use and further develop skills and expertise that you have learnt elsewhere in your programme. You will become knowledgeable in your chosen topic including important concepts and literature and you will acquire new or extend existing skills or learning that are needed to carry out the project. These could be technical skills such as a new programming language, or other knowledge and skills such as experimental methods used in your chosen area and/or the use of statistical techniques to analyse your results. You will also acquire or further develop your professional skills and competencies including communication skills (both oral presentation and report writing), literature searching and review, research methods and design, data analysis, project management and personal time management.

Your project must include you undertaking practical work of some sort using computing/IT technology. This is most frequently achieved by the creation of an artefact as the focus for covering all or part of an implementation lifecycle. However, there are a number of approaches you can take. For example, you could choose to conduct a more product-focused project where the main deliverable is a product of some kind such as a piece of software, a game, a computer network, an information strategy, a hardware device with software, and the approach/design for this. Or it could be a more investigative and/or research-focused project such as a digital forensics investigation, a comparison analysis of AI algorithms, a user experience investigation, an experimental evaluation of a network protocol. Or your project could be a mix of both of these such as building a simulated network to investigate security vulnerabilities and mitigation schemes, creating a prototype to test the effectiveness of a digital technology. Projects based solely on literature review activity and/or user/market surveys are not acceptable.

This module is designed to provide you with an appreciation of Intenet of Things. It treats the theory and practical techniques required to implement such systems on commonly used IoT platforms. You will cover aspects of IoT architecture and topologies, sensors and actuators, IoT Standards and Communication Protocols, personal and pervasive sensing, IoT Security and security standards, and IoT applications.

The syllabus of the module will cover topics such as:
• Sensors & Actuators
• Platforms & intergation to the Cloud
• IoT data processing and analytics
• Human in the Loop
• Modular IoT approaches & working with industry
• IoT applications
• IoT Challenges: Security, Legal & Ethical