Business Information Technology - BSc (Hons)

This module is designed to provide students across the university with access to knowledge, skill development and training in the field of entrepreneurship with a special emphasis on developing a business plan in order to exploit identified opportunities. Hence, the module will be of value for students who aspire to establishing their own business and/or introducing innovation through new product, service, process, project or business development in an established organisation. The module complements students' final year projects in Computing, Law, Biosciences, Electronics, Multimedia, and Drama etc.

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The aim of this module is to provide students with in-depth knowledge about the accounting and control systems businesses use for making managerial decisions. In particular, the module focuses on profit planning decisions and it gives students a thoughtful understanding of the functioning and range of financial controls managers use for making profit planning decisions, related to both the business as a whole and its segments. Students are expected to conduct a management project: they will prepare a business plan that takes into account strategic, marketing and financial aspects. The module also enables students to know how to use accounting and control tools to assess business performance, provide feedback and give recommendations for improvements aimed to create more socially responsible and sustainable businesses. As such, this module is core to the degree program, because it gives an introduction to three key areas: managerial decision making, performance management and organisational financial management.

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Project Management aims to provide an understanding of the key concepts and practices within the context of the organisational setting and the wider business and technological environment.

This module aims to develop a critical understanding of project management to enable students to recognise the importance of the discipline in a variety of organisational and functional contexts. Students should develop a critical understanding of the concepts employed in project management at strategic, systems and operational levels, and an appreciation of the knowledge and skills required for successful project management in organisations.

Included topics of the module are:

• Project life cycles and alternative development paths;

• Feasibility studies;

• Time management;

• Project planning and control techniques, including Gantt charts, CPM;

• Resource planning;

• Quality Control;

• Project communication;

Find out more about BUSN7500

This module provides an introduction to the theory and practice of database systems. It extends the study of information systems in Stage 1 by focusing on the design, implementation and use of database systems. Topics include database management systems architecture, data modelling and database design, query languages, recent developments and future prospects.

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Building scaleable web sites using client-side and server-side frameworks (e.g. JQuery, CodeIgniter). Data transfer technologies, e.g. XML and JSON. Building highly interactive web sites using e.g. AJAX. Web services. Deploying applications and services to the web: servers, infrastructure services, and traffic and performance analysis. Web and application development for mobile devices.

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The module studies in detail the activities and artefacts associated with software development process as performed by a development team (i.e. programming in the large).

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This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental components (hardware and software) of a typical computer system, and how they collaborate to execute software programs. The module provides a compressive overview from the lowest level of abstractions in hardware to the highest level of abstractions of modern programming languages. For example, they will see logic circuits, machine language, programming language implementations, high-level languages, and applications. This material provides a general understanding of computers, and it will also prepare students to develop software considering the system perspective, e.g. cost of abstraction and performance implications.

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The module studies team-based Agile software development in detail and places it in a wider software development context.

Topics covered include

• Concepts, principles, practice and philosophy of an Agile approach to software development, contrasting with more structured approaches.

• Collaboration: programmer collaboration, team values, customer involvement, project management, standards and reporting.

• Planning: release and sprint planning, risk assessment, user stories and resource estimating

• Development practices: incremental requirements, test-driven development, refactoring, scrum, code review, quality assurance, continuous integration.

• Tools: IDEs, version control, automated code quality evaluation, issue tracking.

• Ethics, Intellectual property, codes of conduct and professional responsibility.

Find out more about COMP5590

Packet data networks, overview of general equipment and function (e.g. hubs, switches, routers). Large network architecture (e.g. the Internet).

The OSI Seven layer model and packet encapsulation.

An understanding and appreciation for physical issues (such as cabling and wireless mediums, bandwidth, interference, etc).

Data-link layer issues (e.g. IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.11, collisions, retransmissions, error recovery)

Network layer issues covering underlying protocols (e.g. IPv4/IPv6) and routing protocols (e.g. RIP/OSPF/AODV)

Transport layer issues and protocols (e.g. TCP/UDP)

Session layer issues and protocols (e.g. TCP).

Presentation layer overview

Application layer protocols (e.g. DNS, HTTP, FTP, SMTP/POP3)

Students, working in small groups, undertake a project related to computer science and/or software engineering. The project may be self-proposed or may be selected from a list of project proposals. A project will involve the specification, design, implementation, documentation and demonstration of a technical artefact, demonstrating the ability to synthesise information, ideas and practices to provide a quality solution together with an evaluation of that solution.

Students will be expected to develop the ability to use appropriate techniques of analysis and enquiry within Operations and Service Management and to learn how to evaluate the alternatives and make recommendations. Topics include:• The nature of services and service strategy• Service development and technology• Service quality and the service encounter• Project/Event management and control• Managing capacity and demand in services• Managing inventories

The aim of this module is to provide students with in-depth knowledge about the accounting and control systems businesses use for making managerial decisions. In particular, the module focuses on profit planning decisions and it gives students a thoughtful understanding of the functioning and range of financial controls managers use for making profit planning decisions, related to both the business as a whole and its segments. Students are expected to conduct a management project: they will prepare a business plan that takes into account strategic, marketing and financial aspects. The module also enables students to know how to use accounting and control tools to assess business performance, provide feedback and give recommendations for improvements aimed to create more socially responsible and sustainable businesses. As such, this module is core to the degree program, because it gives an introduction to three key areas: managerial decision making, performance management and organisational financial management.

This module will explore more advanced management and organisational theory to facilitate students' examination of the challenges that face managers in contemporary organisations. As well as considering these challenges from a mainstream managerial perspective, the module will also draw on the perspective of critical management studies as a means of providing an alternative viewpoint on contemporary management issues. Indicative areas to be covered may include:

• Identity in organisations and how the construction and performance of it requires managers to cope with existential challenges around anxiety and freedom.

• The uses and abuses of managerial power and the inequality and insecurity that comes with it.

• Neoliberal capitalism and its various consequences for organisational life.

• Pressures to make organisations more sustainable, socially responsible, equal, diverse, and fair.

• Organisational cultures based on entrepreneurialism.

• The performance of gender in organisations.

• New organisational forms and their emphasis on Speed.

• The intensification of the control of Bodies, Spaces, and Time in contemporary organisations.

This module presents an overview of what work psychology is and its relevance and usefulness in improving our understanding and management of people (including ourselves) at work. Many work places operate sophisticated and expensive systems for assessing the costs and benefits of various workplace elements but often do not extend this to the management of employees. This module aims to demonstrate the benefits of having a comprehensive understanding of the role psychology can play in the management of people in contemporary organizations. Indicative content includes:

• Work psychology

• Individual differences and psychometrics

• Best practice personnel selection

• Stress and well-being

• Motivation

• Stereotypes and group behaviour

• Leadership and diversity

• The dark side of personality

• Political behaviour in the workplace

• The psychology of entrepreneurs

• Using work psychology to enhance employability

The aim of this module is to provide students with (1) a systematic understanding of how information technology is driving business innovation, (2) the methods and approaches used by managers to exploit new digital opportunities, and (3) an appreciation of the knowledge and skills needed to manage the business innovation. By the end of this module, students will be equipped with the necessary knowledge and tools to deal with current business issues including digital transformation and emerging business models via technological innovations.

This module will introduce students to the key concepts of managing people involving and examination of organisational, management and human resource management theory and practice. This will be achieved through relating relevant theory to practical people and organisational management issues.The key topics of the module are:• The nature of human resource management• Motivation in the workplace• Work organisation, job design and flexible working• Groups and team working• Diversity in the workplace• Recruitment & selection• Learning and development• Employee Involvement and participation• Employee performance and reward• Ethical HRM

The module aims to provide a critical understanding of the challenges of managing creativity and innovation within contemporary organisations. The experience of work and employment, management practices are affected by rapid technological change, intensifying global competition and changing demographic profiles and values of the work force. Contemporary organisations are pressurised to tackle these developments through creativity, innovation and new organisational forms. This module examines the nature, antecedents, processes and consequences of creativity and innovation and their complex links with organisation, while also exploring major social and technological changes relating these to organisational creativity and innovation. Students will be introduced to the main concepts and theories on creativity, innovation and organisation through readings and discussions of the main themes and debates in the field. Case studies will be used to illustrate how these concepts are connected together and how they could impact upon management decision making within contemporary organisations. Students will be encouraged to explore some of the most notable historical and contemporary shifts in media and technology and discover how new organisational forms and methods have been devised to exploit them. They will develop awareness for the cross-fertilisation between disciplines in analyzing the dynamics of creativity, innovation and organisation and their complex relationships.Topics include:• Conceptual foundations of creativity, innovation and organisation• Personality and individual creativity• Organisational creativity and innovation• Cognition, knowledge and creativity• Models and processes of innovation• Organisational culture and systems for supporting creativity and innovation• Leadership and entrepreneurship• Creative organisations across fields/ industries• Socio-technological change and new forms of organisation.

Business ethics and sustainability are central to contemporary management and thus this module will explore the following topics:• History, definitions and timeline of society's view on business ethics and sustainability• Cross-disciplinary approaches to ethics and sustainability• Role of globalisation, policy and culture• Ethics and ethical dilemmas• Change Management, Values, Governance and Leadership• Sustainable Business Models• Social Innovation• Partnerships and collaboration• Responsible Supply Chain Management• Environmental Assessment Frameworks and Sustainable Management in practice• Sustainable Supply Chain Management• Innovation and creativity• The role and responses of Corporations, SMEs, Public and not-for-profit organisations

Students will be expected to develop the ability to use appropriate techniques of analysis and enquiry within Operations Management and to learn how to evaluate alternatives and make recommendations. Topics are likely to include:• Strategic role of operations and operations strategy• Design of processes and the implications for layout and flow• Design and management of supply networks in national and international contexts• Resource planning and management• Lean systems• Quality planning and managing improvement

This module facilitates the development of an entrepreneurial mind-set, and equips students with necessary cutting-edge knowledge and skills vital for generating value in a knowledge based economy. The curriculum will include the following areas of study:• Broader application of entrepreneurship• Co-creation as a new form of generating value in an innovation ecosystem.• Managing innovation entrepreneurially• Entrepreneurial opportunity• Entrepreneurial Motivation• Entrepreneurial Marketing• Entrepreneurial Finance – Finance fuels entrepreneurship.

In this module you learn what is meant by neural networks and how to explain the mathematical equations that underlie them. You also build neural networks using state of the art simulation technology and apply these networks to the solution of problems. In addition, the module discusses examples of computation applied to neurobiology and cognitive psychology.

Indicative topics include:

• Resource Description Framework (RDF) & RDF Schema:

• Information representation and knowledge exchange on the web

o Applications of RDF

• RDF Query and Inference Languages (e.g. SPARQL etc.)

• Web Ontology Language (OWL):

o Publishing and sharing of ontologies

• Knowledge management, asset management, enterprise integration

o Automated agents

• Existing Shared Ontologies (e.g. FOAF, DC, SKOS etc.)

• Metadata and Provenance

• The Wider Picture:

o Data trust and proof issues

o Computer law and professional issues

• The future of the Web (these lists are not exhaustive):

o Web 3.0: the Semantic Web; cognitive architecture; automated reasoning; distributed computing; composite applications; semantic wikis etc.

• Aim to give students the tools to critically evaluate the Semantic Web (and alternative proposals)

Students will spend one half-day per week for ten weeks in a school with a nominated teacher. They will observe sessions taught by their designated teacher and possibly other teachers. Later they will act somewhat in the role of a teaching assistant, by helping individual pupils who are having difficulties or by working with small groups. They may take 'hotspots': brief sessions with the whole class where they explain a technical topic or talk about aspects of university life. They must keep a weekly log of their activities. Each student must also devise a special project in consultation with the teacher and with the module convener. They must then implement and evaluate the project.

The following is indicative of topics/themes this module will include:

• An overview of basic concepts related to Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques, such as heuristic search and optimisation

• Presentation of different CI algorithms, such as hill climbing, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and genetic programming

• An overview of basic concepts related to real-world problems related to business, economics and finance, such as financial forecasting, automated bargaining, portfolio

optimisation, and timetabling

• The use of Computational Intelligence techniques to solve real-world problems

• Computational Intelligence decision support systems and software wind tunnels for testing new markets and strategies

The module aim is to give students an overview and understanding of key theoretical, practical and philosophical research and issues around computational creativity, and to give them practical experience in writing and evaluating creative software.

The following is an indicative list of topics that may be covered:

• Introduction to computational creativity

• Examples of computational creativity software e.g. musical systems, artistic systems, linguistic systems, proof generator systems, systems for 2D and 3D design.

• Evaluation of computational creativity systems (both of the quality and the creativity of systems)

• Philosophical issues concerning creativity in computers

• Comparison of computer creativity to human creativity

• Collaborative creativity between humans and computers

• Overview of recent research directions/results in computational creativity

• Practical experience in writing creative software.

This module will provide the student with an understanding of basic principles of signals; introduce digitisation methods such as sampling, quantisation and coding; describe and apply signal analysis techniques, such as segmentation, noise reduction, filtering, spectral analysis, feature extraction and classification (including recognition and decision making) to solve practical signal analysis problems using Matlab.

An overview of basic concepts related to eHealth and a perspective on current HIT (Health Information Technology) and innovation. Review of current healthcare related IT systems. The use of information technology for handling clinical data, health systems. Data representation and knowledge management. Security and privacy. Ethics and legal requirements of eHealth systems. Clinical decision support systems. TeleHealth tools for remote diagnosis, monitoring, and disease management. Delivery and monitoring platforms for both hospitals and home environment. Innovation in eHealth systems leading to start-up companies.

This module explores a range of different data mining and knowledge discovery techniques and algorithms. You learn about the strengths and weaknesses of different techniques and how to choose the most appropriate for any particular task. You use a data mining tool, and learn to evaluate the quality of discovered knowledge.

This module is concerned with a range of topics in video game design and development, including game physics, AI, level design, player behaviour, game rules and mechanics, as well as user interfaces. This module introduces students to game development using industry-standard software tools.