The four samples
Each card links to the annotated page for that assignment, where two or three passages are quoted and the reasoning behind them written out.
Database Systems
Model answer
Designing a Secure Relational Database for a Private Outpatient Clinic: Data Modelling, Threat Analysis and Defence in Depth
An MSc Data Science report that designs a clinical database and then argues against its own obvious optimisation. Three annotated extracts show how security reasoning changes a design decision.
- Rejects a performance optimisation on security grounds
- STRIDE threat model scored and specific to this system
- Separates technical controls from organisational ones
Machine Learning
Model answer
Interpretability versus Accuracy in Clinical Machine Learning: Comparing Logistic Regression, SVMs and Random Forests
An MSc Data Science report that recommends the model which did not win on accuracy, and justifies it properly. Three annotated extracts show how to let context override a leaderboard.
- Recommends against the best-scoring model, and proves nothing is lost
- Treats classification as a choice of operating point
- Closes the data-leakage route that would void the comparison
Data Visualisation
Model answer
Clarity and Integrity in Data Visualisation: Redesigning a Healthcare Performance Chart
An MSc essay that redesigns a real-world chart and then asks what the redesign still hides. Three annotated extracts show how to engage with a canonical theory instead of reciting it.
- Treats Tufte as contested, and explains why the dispute persists
- Ethics section turns on its own redesign, not a textbook example
- Declares data provenance before critiquing
Big Data and Cloud
Model answer
A Cloud Big Data Architecture for a UK Grocery Retailer: Evaluating Distributed Processing Frameworks and Service Models
An MSc report that challenges the assumption cloud is cheaper, and shows when it is not. Three annotated extracts show how to evaluate an architecture against a specific business, not in general.
- Makes 'cloud is cheaper' conditional, and names the condition
- Evaluates against three named workloads, so it can decide
- Cost critique feeds back into the proposed design