Material Characterisation Report

A short written report characterising one real Chinese food material using the thermal or mechanical models built in Stage 1.

Due: 19 March 2027 · Weight: 20%

The brief#

Characterise one Chinese food material of your choosing using a model from Stage 1 (viscoelastic moduli, a flow model, or a thermal transition), and report what that model can and cannot tell you about the material.

Pick a food material not already used as a module’s central example — a different regional dish, a different starch, a different protein source is fine, so long as you can state clearly which Stage 1 model applies and why. The report should read as a short characterisation study: state your research question, apply the model, and be explicit about where the model’s assumptions strain against your chosen material. This is the report where the course’s honesty rule is tested directly — a well-argued report that says “I could not verify a specific parameter for this material, so I used an illustrative value in its place, here is why that’s still useful” is a stronger submission than one that quietly invents a number to look precise.

What you submit#

A single PDF report (1,200–1,800 words, excluding references), including at least one clearly labelled figure or table, and a reference list drawn from real, verifiable sources — the same standard the course’s own module pages hold themselves to (see /references/).

The marking table above renders in full detail; in prose, roughly a third of the mark is for choosing and correctly applying the model itself, a quarter for how honestly you handle what the model does not capture, and the remainder split between presentation and sourcing.