Common Thesis Rules for EMM Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Aim
The master thesis research project is intended to bring the student in close contact with a multinational and multidisciplinary research environment of a research institute in academia or in industry. The student will be assigned a relevant research project and work in close collaboration with PhD students, postdocs and professors. The Master’s thesis shall demonstrate that the candidate is able to deal with problems from the field of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology independently and using scientific methods within a given time limit. The aim is to learn how to do and present a scientific project. The topics should be possible to handle within 1 semester. The students should devote the time in the laboratory exclusively to their project, and not to routine lab tasks (unless they are employed as student assistants in the laboratory and routine lab work is part of their contract.) Proposals Registration for thesis: at a date given by the local coordinator of the for Topics university where the thesis is carried out. and Promoters/Main Supervisors need to be scientific staff members (no Promoters PhDs/postDocs). In addition to the promoter at the local university, a promoter of KU Leuven has to be appointed by the start of the thesis. In case the thesis is supervised by an “external” promoter (i.e. someone not involved in the master program), the approval of the local coordinator of the university where the thesis is carried out is necessary and the referee has to be a lecturer/teacher of the course. Topics need to be selected by the 1st week of January. Final approval of the topics and of the evaluation commission/assessors for each student is taken by the EMM‐Board in January. Start of thesis: Chalmers approx. 1 January, Dresden approx. 1 March, Grenoble approx. 1 February. Duration 1 semester Contents 30 ECTS Language: English Structure of final thesis report objective/problem statement state of the art with references description of experiment work done and findings conclusion/suggestions for future work The thesis should report on independent and original research work of the student Defense public oral presentation of the thesis Format Approx. 50 DIN A4 pages 12 pt font size Times New Roman or Arial 1.5 spacing Figures and tables are accompanied by captions
List of references Cover page should include the logos of KU Leuven and the 2nd year university where the thesis is carried out and should mention that the Master thesis is conducted in the framework of the Erasmus Mundus Master programme Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. It should also contain the names of the 2 promoters Reporting Final thesis report ‐ 4 or 5 hard copies to be submitted (1 for the promoter at the host university, 1 for the daily supervisor if different than the promoter, 1 for the promoter at KU Leuven, 1 for the referee and 1 for archive). Additionally one electronic version is sent to the course coordinator at the local university. The student should also upload the thesis in the KUL‐Toledo database. Final public defense in form of an oral presentation according to the local rules. Evaluation The thesis is evaluated by an evaluation commission which is composed as follows and approved by the EMM‐Examination Commission: ‐ the local promoter at the host institution ‐ the daily supervisor (in case he is different from the local promoter) ‐ the promoter at KU Leuven ‐ one referee, who does not belong to the same research group as the promoter. Final Thesis Report 1 grade is given for the final thesis to the local coordinator. The obtained score for the thesis is obtained based on a weighted average of the individual scores of the members of the evaluation commission. The score is calculated based on the following weights: ‐ local promoter/ daily supervisor: 1/3 ‐ KUL promoter: 1/3 ‐ referee: 1/3 Together with the score, the assessors write some short justifying comments using the Master thesis evaluation form in Appendix 1a. The scoring should be made on the basis of the content of the work as well as the quality of the manuscript (scientific content, style, language, care, legibility, structure). Defense 1 grade is given for the defense in consensus among the assessors to the local coordinator. The assessors use the evaluation form in Appendix 1b. The scoring is made on the basis of the quality of the presentation (style, language, care, structure, completeness, and timing). For convenience, the promoter of KUL is not obliged to attend the defense personally; however, if desired, a video broadcast of the defense to KU Leuven can be arranged. The weighting factor of the mark of the final thesis report is two; the weighting factor of the mark of the defense is one. Assessment The final scoring of the master thesis is sent by the local university to KU Leuven in the common scoring system of the master program. The common grading system is described in Appendix 2.
Common Thesis Rules for EMM Nanoscience & Nanotechnology APPENDIX 1a: Master thesis Evaluation Form for the Thesis Report Title of the thesis: Name of the student: Evaluation by:
Criteria for the evaluation of the Thesis Report 1- Content of the thesis - performed work (effort, person, hours) - originality and creativity of the general approach - critical sense regarding the advises of the promoter and the daily supervisor - achieved results - solving of problems in an independent manner (software, hardware, design ...). - results versus objectives, in the sense of how good it has been demonstrated that certain objectives could not be reached. 2- Written reporting - clarity of the structure - depth of the content - clear and concise writing style - correct language and spelling - quality of lay-out and figures Grade and Motivation:
Please turn in this form to: *local address*
Common Thesis Rules for EMM Nanoscience & Nanotechnology APPENDIX 1b: Master thesis Evaluation Form for the Oral Presentation
Title of the thesis: Name of the student: Evaluation by:
Criteria for the evaluation of the oral presentation - conciseness and clarity of the presentation - correct language - quality of the slides - answering of the questions - use of time
Grade and Motivation: