1. Master thesis M. Heyns and G. Groeseneken Program Directors

2. Master thesis Master thesis = research project o intended to bring the student in close contact with a international and multidisciplinary research environment o work in close collaboration with researchers, PhD students, postdocs and professors

3. Master thesis 24 ects = 600-720 hours of work o corresponds roughly with on average 17 to 20 hours per week o but this includes exam and holiday periods, so in practice it is more like 20 hours per week o thesis work is spread over the full academic year o usually students have less time in sem 1 than in sem 2, but already make sure to spend sufficient time in sem 1 on the thesis! Advice: start early enough, work regularly! o contact your daily supervisor asap to learn what is expected and agree on your workplan

4. Purpose of the master thesis Elements that determine your results Carry out a substantial research project on an advanced topic in an independent way Important aspects (relative weight can vary in each thesis): o Literature study o Analysis of the problem/problem statement o Formulation of a solution o Implementation: a design (device, circuit, system, etc.), planning of experiments, prepare samples… o Verification/demonstration (experimental or simulation results) o Critical analysis and interpretation of results

5. Purpose of the master thesis Elements that determine your results High level of autonomy, perseverance, creativity and sense for initiative o Develop/establish a workplan in an autonomous way and realise it o Time management is very important Reporting o Both oral and written reporting (quality of the text is very important, both formal and informal) Critical attitude, be able to draw scientifically based conclusions ! Note:Don’t forget to enjoy your opportunity to do advanced research and have “fun” in research.

6. Role promoter, daily supervisor Supervisor and promoter are NOT the responsible of your master thesis o STUDENT is the final responsible, supervisor/promoter help Promoter o follows the thesis work from a distance o discusses the progress of the thesis with the supervisor (e.g. if changes in direction are needed) o not always a lot or direct contact with the student

7. Role promoter, daily supervisor Supervisor and promoter are NOT the responsible of your master thesis o STUDENT is the final responsible, supervisor/promoter help Daily supervisor o have very close and regular contact (min once/week, in the beginning even more) o follows the progress, helps, suggests, advises, coaches, proposes changes if needed Each thesis is integrated in a research team o Make sure to present your work regularly to the team to get feedback and suggestions and to learn to give good presentations

8. Master thesis reporting Midterm presentation o to receive feedback and detect problems Thesis manuscript o to learn to write a full scientific report Publishable summary o to learn to write a typical scientific paper, can be published ! Final presentation o to learn to present and defend your work Guidelines regarding the thesis (writing, outline, cover page, and so on…): https://eng.kuleuven.be/english/students/master-thesis/master-thesis

9. Midterm presentation Prepare a presentation of 20 min, Dutch or English Evaluation of the progress, not scored Detect problems and if needed discuss remedies Planned after sem 1 exams (to be announced) ! Outline: o Context: discuss broader context of your research o Problem statement: what problem do you want to solve ? o Objective: what do you want to achieve ? Measurable targets ? Specifications ? o Approach + results o Preliminary conclusions o Planning till the end

10. Thesis text Full report on your thesis work Final thesis title should be sent to the faculty, can be different from starting title (Isabelle Benoit) English for ENG-master, Dutch for NL-master but permission to write in English can be given by POC Should be uploaded electronically. See information on the website: https://eng.kuleuven.be/english/students/master- thesis/masters-thesis/digital-masters-thesis-1https://eng.kuleuven.be/english/students/master- thesis/masters-thesis/digital-masters-thesis-1 Latex, Word templates and cover page instructions are available on the faculty website. Read them before writing !

11. Thesis text Deliver hardcopies to the jury members and to program director, at the latest 2 weeks before the date of final defense o If you cant make the deadline: delay is possible only if jury members agree !

12. Thesis text Dont wait till the end to start writing Write the parts as soon as you are ready to write them o e.g. literature review: write immediately after it is finished, eventualy update later on with extra information o E.g. context and problem statement: write once it is clear to you, update later ! Outline (can be different per thesis) o Abstract (= 1 paragraph summary) o Introduction (=context, problem statement, objective) o State-of-art/Literature study o Devices/experiments (=approach) o Results (evt with benchmarking) o Conclusions (summarize main findings and learning)

13. Publishable summary Short paper on the most novel results of your work o Exercise in writing scientific paper o Should be more condensed then full report o IEEE format, 4-6 pages in English Can be integrated in the main report or added as a separate paper Should also be electronically uploaded. Outline (can be different per thesis) o Abstract (= 1 paragraph summary) o Introduction (=context, problem statement, objective) o Devices/experiments (=approach) o Results (evt with benchmarking) o Conclusions (summarize main findings and learning)

14. Final presentation 45 minutes per student Prepare a presentation of 25 min, 10 min questions After the questions: discussion among the jury members Evaluation of the final result Scored Planned before the June exams ! Deadline for submission around May 20 If not ready: 3 rd examination period Outline: o Context: discuss broader context of your research o Problem statement: what problem did you solve ? o Objective: what did you want to achieve ? Measurable targets ? Specifications ? o Approach + results o Final conclusions o Outlook

15. Be aware for plagiarism and fraud Plagiarism is any identical or lightly-altered use of one's own or someone else’s work (ideas, texts, structures, images, plans, and so on…) without adequate reference to the source: o The literal or near-literal use of (part of) someone else’s text o Copying images, diagrams, graphics, figures, sound or image fragments, etc. o Paraphrasing someone else’s arguments o Translating texts

16. Be aware for plagiarism and fraud Plagiarism damages the quality of a paper and thus can be interpreted as fraud. Other forms of fraud lean towards plagiarism and are just as intolerable, such as: o Commissioning or having papers revised (whether or not for pay), and passing this off as one’s own work o The re-use of one’s own work and passing it off as a new paper o Simulating or falsifying research data ATTENTION: (attempts to) fraude during an exam is strongly penalized !

17. Be aware for plagiarism and fraud Possible sanctions: equivalent to exam fraud An invalid exam: the student needs to retake the exam An appropriate mark or zero for the assignment or the examination in question No marks for some or any of the examinations during the examination period in question Exclusion for one or more course units. The student receives a zero for the course units in question and will only be able to retake an examination in the next academic year Exclusion for a programme of study. Loss of the right to enrolment in the next academic year or the two next academic years.

18. Be aware for plagiarism and fraud Possible sanctions: equivalent to exam fraud An invalid exam: the student needs to retake the exam An appropriate mark or zero for the assignment or the examination in question No marks for some or any of the examinations during the examination period in question Exclusion for one or more course units. The student receives a zero for the course units in question and will only be able to retake an examination in the next academic year Exclusion for a programme of study. Loss of the right to enrolment in the next academic year or the two next academic years.

19. Master thesis evaluation Master thesis is finalized with a public presentation (defense). The master thesis will be evaluated by a jury of at least 4 persons: o the promotor o the daily supervisor o minimum 2 assessors

20. Master thesis evaluation You are evaluated on three aspects: o The process: the work during the year (ability to work independently, critical sense, inventivity, creativity, degree of complexity) o The product: the final product and/or the text (scientific content, style, language, care, legibility, structure) o The presentation and oral examination (style, language, care, structure, completeness, timing)

21. Evaluation criteria

22. Evaluation scores

23. Master thesis evaluation Scoring on the basis of weighted average of the scores of the jury members o Promoter(s): 25% o Daily supervisor: 25% o Assessor 1: 25% o Assessor 2: 25% In case the promoter is acting as daily supervisor the weight is 40%, rest is equally distributed between assessors (40-30-30)