Masters Degrees (Computational Archaeology)

Top archaeological researchers and heritage professionals use a raft of computational methods including GIS, data mining, web science, ABM, point-process modelling and network analysis. To impress employers you need the flexibility to learn on the job, leverage open data and program open source software. This MSc draws on UCL's unparalleled concentration of expertise to equip you for future research or significantly enhance your employability.

About this degree

Students learn about a wide range of concepts that underpin computational approaches to archaeology and human history. Students become proficient in the archaeological application of both commercial and open source GIS software and learn other practical skills such as programming, data-mining, advanced spatial analysis with R, and agent-based simulation.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits.

The programme consists of two core modules (30 credits), four optional modules (60 credits) and a research dissertation (90 credits).

Core modules

• Archaeological Data Science
• Complexity, Space and Human History

Optional modules

• Exploratory Data Analysis in Archaeology
• GIS Approaches to Past Landscapes
• GIS in Archaeology and History
• Remote Sensing in Archaeology
• Spatial Statistics, Network Analysis and Human History
• The Archaeology of Complex Urban Sites: Analytical and Interpretative Technology
• Web and Mobile GIS (by arrangement with the UCL Department of Civil and Geomatic Engineering
• Other options available within the UCL Institute of Archaeology

Dissertation/report

All students undertake an independent research project which culminates in a dissertation of 15,000 words.

Teaching and learning

The programme is delivered through lectures, tutorials and practical sessions. Careful provision is made to facilitate remote access to software, tutorials, datasets and readings through a combination of dedicated websites and virtual learning environments. Assessment is through essays, practical components, project reports and portfolio, and the research dissertation.

Further information on modules and degree structure is available on the department website: Computational Archaeology: GIS, Data Science and Complexity MSc

Careers

Approximately one third of graduates of the programme have gone on to do PhDs at universities such as Cambridge, Leiden, McGill, Thessaloniki and Washington State. Of these, some continue to pursue GIS and/or spatial analysis techniques as a core research interest, while others use the skills and inferential rigour they acquired during their Master's as a platform for more wide-ranging doctoral research. Several graduates who went on to doctoral research are now lecturers in computational Archaeology: at the University of Cambridge, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Colorado. Other graduates have gone to work in a range of archaeological and non-archaeological organisations worldwide. These include specialist careers in national governmental or heritage organisations, commercial archaeological units, planning departments, utility companies, the defence industry and consultancies.

Employability

This degree offers a considerable range of transferable practical skills as well as instilling a more general inferential rigour which is attractive to almost any potential employer. Graduates will be comfortable with a wide range of web-based, database-led, statistical and cartographic tasks. They will be able to operate both commercial and oper source software, will be able to think clearly about both scientific and humanities-led issues, and will have a demonstrable track record of both individual research and group-based collaboration.

Why study this degree at UCL?

The teaching staff bring together a range and depth of expertise that enables students to develop specialisms including industry-standard and open-source GIS, advanced spatial and temporal statistics, computer simulation, geophysical prospection techniques and digital topographic survey.

Most practical classes are held in the institute's Archaeological Computing and GIS laboratory. This laboratory contains Linux servers, ten powerful workstations running Microsoft Windows 10, a digitising table and map scanner.

Students benefit from the collaborations we have established with other institutions and GIS specialists in Canada, Germany, Italy and Greece together with several commercial archaeological units in the UK.

Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. The 2014 REF was carried out by the UK's higher education funding bodies, and the results used to allocate research funding from 2015/16.

The following REF score was awarded to the department: Institute of Archaeology

73% rated 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’)

Learn more about the scope of UCL's research, and browse case studies, on our Research Impact website.

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Anthropology prides itself on its inclusive and interdisciplinary focus. It takes a holistic approach to human society, combining biological and social perspectives.

All of our Anthropology Master’s programmes are recognised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as having research training status, so successful completion of these courses is sufficient preparation for research in the various fields of social anthropology. Many of our students go on to do PhD research. Others use their Master’s qualification in employment ranging from research in government departments to teaching to consultancy work overseas.

We welcome students with the appropriate background for research. If you wish to study for a single year, you can do the MA or MSc by research, a 12-month independent research project.

If you are interested in registering for a research degree, you should contact the member of staff whose research is the most relevant to your interests. You should include a curriculum vitae, a short (1,000-word) research proposal, and a list of potential funding sources.

About the School of Anthropology and Conservation

Kent has pioneered the social anthropological study of Europe, Latin America, Melanesia, and Central and Southeast Asia, the use of computers in anthropological research, and environmental anthropology in its widest sense (including ethnobiology and ethnobotany).

Our regional expertise covers Europe, the Middle East, Central, Southeast and Southern Asia, Central and South America, Amazonia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Polynesia. Specialisation in biological anthropology includes forensics and paleopathology, osteology, evolutionary psychology and the evolutionary ecology and behaviour of great apes.

Course structure

The first year may include coursework, especially methods modules for students who need this additional training. You will work closely with one supervisor throughout your research, although you have a committee of three (including your primary supervisor) overseeing your progress. If you want to research in the area of applied computing in social anthropology, you would also have a supervisor based in the School of Computing.

Research areas

- Social Anthropology

The related themes of ethnicity, nationalism, identity, conflict, and the economics crisis form a major focus of our current work in the Middle East, the Balkans, South Asia, Amazonia and Central America, Europe (including the United Kingdom), Oceania and South-East Asia.

Our research extends to inter-communal violence, mental health, diasporas, pilgrimage, intercommunal trade, urban ethnogenesis, indigenous representation and the study of contemporary religions and their global connections.

We research issues in fieldwork and methodology more generally, with a strong and expanding interest in the field of visual anthropology. Our work on identity and locality links with growing strengths in customary law, kinship and parenthood. This is complemented by work on the language of relatedness, child health and on the cognitive bases of kinship terminologies.

A final strand of our research focuses on policy and advocacy issues and examines the connections between morality and law, legitimacy and corruption, public health policy and local healing strategies, legal pluralism and property rights, and the regulation of marine resources.

- Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology

Work in these areas is focused on the Centre for Biocultural Diversity. We conduct research on ethnobiological knowledge systems and other systems of environmental knowledge as well as local responses to deforestation, climate change, natural resource management, medical ethnobotany, the impacts of mobility and displacement and the interface between conservation and development. Current projects include trade in materia medica in Ladakh and Bolivia, food systems, ethno-ornithology, the development of buffer zones for protected areas and phytopharmacy among migrant diasporas.

- Digital Anthropology: Cultural Informatics, Social Invention and Computational Methods

Since 1985, we have been exploring and applying new approaches to research problems in anthropology – often, as in the case of hypermedia, electronic and internet publishing, digital media, expert systems and large-scale textual and historical databases, up to a decade before other anthropologists. Today, we are exploring cloud media, semantic networks, multi-agent modelling, dual/blended realities, data mining, smart environments and how these are mediated by people into new possibilities and capabilities.

Our major developments have included advances in kinship theory and analysis supported by new computational methods within field-based studies and as applied to detailed historical records; qualitative analysis of textual and ethnographic materials; and computer-assisted approaches to visual ethnography. We are extending our range to quantitative approaches for assessing qualitative materials, analysing social and cultural invention, the active representation of meaning, and the applications and implications of mobile computing, sensing and communications platforms and the transformation of virtual into concrete objects, institutions and structures.

- Biological Anthropology

Biological Anthropology is the newest of the University of Kent Anthropology research disciplines. We are interested in a diverse range of research topics within biological and evolutionary anthropology. These include bioarchaeology, human reproductive strategies, hominin evolution, primate behaviour and ecology, modern human variation, cultural evolution and Palaeolithic archaeology. This work takes us to many different regions of the world (Asia, Africa, Europe, the United States), and involves collaboration with international colleagues from a number of organisations. We have a dedicated research laboratory and up-to-date computing facilities to allow research in many areas of biological anthropology.

Currently, work is being undertaken in a number of these areas, and research links have been forged with colleagues at Kent in archaeology and biosciences, as well as with those at the Powell- Cotton Museum, the Budongo Forest Project (Uganda) and University College London.

Kent Osteological Research and Analysis (KORA) offers a variety of osteological services for human remains from archaeological contexts.

Careers

Higher degrees in anthropology create opportunities in many employment sectors including academia, the civil service and non-governmental organisations through work in areas such as human rights, journalism, documentary film making, environmental conservation and international finance. An anthropology degree also develops interpersonal and intercultural skills, which make our graduates highly desirable in any profession that involves working with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Many of our students go on to do PhD research. Others use their Master’s qualification in employment ranging from research in government departments to teaching to consultancy work overseas.

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Overview

Spatial eHumanities is a truly interdisciplinary programme combining geocomputation, cultural heritage, design, and humanities/arts research. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to focus on spatio-temporal concepts, methods, and tools in the development of computational and visual frameworks from which to explore the past and better understand our present.

The MSc in Spatial eHumanities has been jointly designed by An Foras Feasa and the National Centre for Geocomputation to provide both a historical background and theoretical grounding to the field while providing students with solid skills in contemporary digital methods and technologies, including Geographic Information Systems and 3D computer graphics modelling. It is also excellent preparation for those wishing to pursue a computationally-enabled PhD in the arts, humanities, social science, or digital cultural heritage.

Students have opportunities to:

Learn how to use open source and proprietary geographical information systems (GIS) software such as QGIS and ArcGIS;
Become familiar with standards and methods common to digital humanities including XML, TEI, and Dublin Core;
Learn how to create virtual worlds and acquire an expertise in computer graphic design for cultural heritage;
Become actively involved in current Spatial eHumanities projects;
Learn how to encode literary and historical sources, as well as newer sources (such as social media) to identify and visualise spatial and temporal networks and patterns;
Gain practical project-based experience and project management skills by becoming an intern in a cultural heritage institution, a commercial organisation, or a digital spatial project;
Learn programming languages and apply these to spatial and temporal data in the various fields of the arts/humanities, archaeology, and geography.
The course is delivered in our state-of-the-art facilities in An Foras Feasa and National Centre for Geocomputation (Iontas Building, North Campus), which include the MakersLab for Computational Imaging and 3D Printing projects, the Digital Humanities Lab with high-end desktop computers for computer graphics and image processing, the Green Screen Studio for audio-visual recording, and the GIS Lab

Course Structure

90 ECTS are needed to complete the Masters. The course is comprised of the following elements:

Required Taught Modules: 40 ECTS*

Elective Taught Modules: 20 ECTS

Project and Dissertation: 30 ECTS

*Required modules include 1) Mapping and Modelling Space and Time; 2) Intro to Geographical Information Science; 3) Digital Heritage: Theories, Methods and Challenges; 4) Digital Humanities Practicum (10 ECTS each). All modules are integral to the building of practical and theoretical knowledge of the discipline, its development and its intersection with public projects. The Digital Humanities Practicum module guarantees students a work placement at a cultural heritage institution or on a Digital Humanities project.

Part-time students are advised to register for ‘Mapping and Modelling Space and Time’ in the first semester, while working for the ‘Digital Humanities Practicum’ in the second year of the course.

Applicants with little previous programming experience, are advised to register for ‘Structured Programming’, an intensive 3-week 90-hour pre-semester laboratory-based programming course.

Elective Modules in the second semester provide students with specialised skills either on geocomputation or 3D modelling. Students who don’t register for the pre-semester structured programming module can register for both geocomputation and 3D modelling-related modules therefore getting a much broader specialisation in the field of Spatial eHumanities.

The project and dissertation will be undertaken over the last semester of the course and will be individually supervised or co-supervised by an academic from one or both of the contributing departments.

For students who wish not to write a final thesis, this course is also offered as a postgraduate diploma in Spatial eHumanities.

Career Options

This course would be attractive to professionals in the cultural heritage and library sectors to update existing skills to work specifically with spatial data. It would also be attractive to computer scientists wishing to work with new datasets being created by the cultural heritage sector as well as organisations such as Google (e.g. Google Books, Google Cultural Institute, and Google Maps). This MSc would also be attractive to students wishing to go into fields such as GIS and spatial consultancy, government departments that work with spatial data (e.g. Office of Public Works). Potential graduates would also be skilled in areas of content and data analysis and recommender systems in organisations such as TripAdvisor and Amazon.

How To Apply

Online application only http://www.pac.ie/maynoothuniversity

PAC Code
MH56F/MH57F

The following documents should be forwarded to PAC, 1 Courthouse Square, Galway or uploaded to your online application form:

Certified copies of all official transcripts of results for all non-Maynooth University qualifications listed MUST accompany the application. Failure to do so will delay your application being processed. Non-Maynooth University students are asked to provide two academic references and a copy of birth certificate or valid passport.

Find information on Scholarships here https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/study-maynooth/postgraduate-studies/fees-funding-scholarships

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Overview

Spatial eHumanities is a truly interdisciplinary programme combining geocomputation, cultural heritage, design, and humanities/arts research. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to focus on spatio-temporal concepts, methods, and tools in the development of computational and visual frameworks from which to explore the past and better understand our present.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Spatial eHumanities has been jointly designed by An Foras Feasa and the National Centre for Geocomputation to provide both a historical background and theoretical grounding to the field while providing students with solid skills in contemporary digital methods and technologies, including Geographic Information Systems and 3D computer graphics modelling. It is also excellent preparation for those wishing to pursue a computationally-enabled PhD in the arts, humanities, social science, or digital cultural heritage.

Students have opportunities to:

Learn how to use open source and proprietary geographical information systems (GIS) software such as QGIS and ArcGIS;
Become familiar with standards and methods common to digital humanities including XML, TEI, and Dublin Core;
Learn how to create virtual worlds and acquire an expertise in computer graphic design for cultural heritage;
Become actively involved in current Spatial eHumanities projects;
Learn how to encode literary and historical sources, as well as newer sources (such as social media) to identify and visualise spatial and temporal networks and patterns;
Gain practical project-based experience and project management skills by becoming an intern in a cultural heritage institution, a commercial organisation, or a digital spatial project;
Learn programming languages and apply these to spatial and temporal data in the various fields of the arts/humanities, archaeology, and geography.
The course is delivered in our state-of-the-art facilities in An Foras Feasa and National Centre for Geocomputation (Iontas Building, North Campus), which include the MakersLab for Computational Imaging and 3D Printing projects, the Digital Humanities Lab with high-end desktop computers for computer graphics and image processing, the Green Screen Studio for audio-visual recording, and the GIS Lab.

Course Structure

60 ECTS are needed to complete the Diploma. The course is comprised of the following elements:

Required Taught Modules: 40 ECTS*

Elective Taught Modules: 20 ECTS

*Required modules include 1) Mapping and Modelling Space and Time; 2) Intro to Geographical Information Science; 3) Digital Heritage: Theories, Methods and Challenges; 4) Digital Humanities Practicum (10 ECTS each). All modules are integral to the building of practical and theoretical knowledge of the discipline, its development and its intersection with public projects. The Digital Humanities Practicum module guarantees students a work placement at a cultural heritage institution or on a Digital Humanities project.

Applicants with little previous programming experience, are advised to register for ‘Structured Programming’, an intensive 3-week 90-hour pre-semester laboratory-based programming course which takes place in late August running into early September.

Elective Modules in the second semester provide students with specialised skills either on geocomputation or 3D modelling. Students who don’t register for the pre-semester structured programming module can register for both geocomputation and 3D modelling-related modules therefore getting a much broader specialisation in the field of Spatial eHumanities.

Career Options

This course would be attractive to professionals in the cultural heritage and library sectors to update existing skills to work specifically with spatial data. It would also be attractive to computer scientists wishing to work with new datasets being created by the cultural heritage sector as well as organisations such as Google (e.g. Google Books, Google Cultural Institute, and Google Maps). This MSc would also be attractive to students wishing to go into fields such as GIS and spatial consultancy, government departments that work with spatial data (e.g. Office of Public Works). Potential graduates would also be skilled in areas of content and data analysis and recommender systems in organisations such as TripAdvisor and Amazon.

How To Apply

Online application only http://www.pac.ie/maynoothuniversity

PAC Code
MH52F/MH53F

The following documents should be forwarded to PAC, 1 Courthouse Square, Galway or uploaded to your online application form:

Certified copies of all official transcripts of results for all non-Maynooth University qualifications listed MUST accompany the application. Failure to do so will delay your application being processed. Non-Maynooth University students are asked to provide two academic references and a copy of birth certificate or valid passport.

Find information on Scholarships here https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/study-maynooth/postgraduate-studies/fees-funding-scholarships

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Course description

An opportunity to explore this cutting-edge field, where philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science and anthropology come together to discover how the mind works.

You’ll be based in the Department of Philosophy but you’re free to take any MA module in the departments of Archaeology, Human Communication Sciences, Linguistics and Psychology.

Core modules

• Cognitive Studies Seminar
• Dissertation

Other modules include

• Computational Neuroscience
• Current Issues in Psychological Research
• Evolutionary Primatology
• Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience
• Hominid Palaeontology
• Language and Linguistics
• Mind and Language Research Seminar
• Philosophy of Psychology

Teaching and assessment

Lectures and seminars. Fortnightly supervision for guided reading.

You’ll write a long essay for each module and a dissertation.

If you’re going on to a PhD you may choose to write a PhD proposal.

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Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA) which are more commonly referred to as Drones are now being used for commercial purposes in an exciting and booming business sector predicted to be worth more than £15 billion in the next 10 years.

This practical orientated MSc in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Technology has been specifically designed for professionals whose occupational fields would benefit from applications of UAS technology. These are as diverse as agriculture, logistics, surveying, mining, forestry, ecology, archaeology, emergency services, estate management, virtual reality and computer gaming. This course is also ideal for those who are keen to enter this industry sector and wish to develop a thorough understanding of UAS Technology. 

During this course you will construct a Drone and gain an in depth understanding of drone and payload sensor technology. This course will also help to build your confidence as a drone operator, allowing you to safely undertake simulated and actual UAS missions in the knowledge that you have complied with all of the relevant statutory requirements.  

UAS are frequently used for data-gathering purposes and during this course you will have the opportunity and the analytical support to gather and analyse data as part of the project dissertation. Typical forms of data gathering are 3D terrain mapping and surveying using PIX4D software.

The structural design and component architecture of UAS is also a rapidly evolving field of technology. Here at Wrexham Glyndwr University we have the facilities and technical support staff necessary to realise the conceptual ideas that you may have. Our Advanced Composite Centre facility allows the manufacture and testing of high performance UAS airframes, there are rapid prototyping and 5-axis CNC machining facilities, wind tunnels for aerodynamic testing and our electrical and electronic build and test laboratories are available for the production and testing of control, sensor and power supply circuitry.  

Key course features

• Build and keep your own Drone.
• Learn to fly and safely operate a Drone.
• Field trips to conduct actual Drone missions.
• Use of Glyndwr University’s Advanced Composite Manufacturing and Testing Facilities.
• Use of Glyndwr University’s Drone Simulator and Flight-Test field facilities.
• The latest computational software for engineering design, and image analysis.  

What will you study?

Specific Modules

Drone Technology & Operations.

Drone Construction.

Advanced UAV Operations and the Law.

UAV Sensor Technology and Measurement Techniques.

Common Modules

Research Methods.

Sustainable Design and Innovation

Dissertation

Assessment & Teaching

• Postgraduate Study and Research Methods

Report

Critique based on a quantitative or qualitative research framework or methodology.

Research Proposal

Individual report and presentation relating to a proposed research strategy.

 

• Sustainable Design & Innovation

Presentation and Group Report

Learning Logs/Journals

 

• UAS Technology & Applications

Practical & Coursework

A series of Flight Tests.

Report

Based on an investigation or comparison of a relevant UAS technology.

 

• UAV Construction

Learning Logs/Journals relating to the design and build of a UAS.

Practical

Test-Flight of a UAS.

 

• UAS Operations and the Law

Examination relating to UAS commercial legislation.

Essay

Critical evaluation of a realistic scenario relating to UAS payloads, telemetry and transmission systems.

 

• UAS Sensor Technology and Measuring Techniques

Examination 

Based on sensor technology and theory.

Essay

A critical evaluation of an aspect of current sensor technology, research and advanced scholarship.

 

• Dissertation

Presentation

Dissertation

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