Note: Obs! Subject to change!

Exjobbs associated with Prof. Gerald Q. "Chip" Maguire Jr.

Prof. Gerald Maguire < maguire@kth.se> is an examiner for thesis projects (primarily) on: data communication, mobile communication, personal communication, ... . Note that he spends a large fraction of his teaching time supervising exjobbs.

Registration forms:

• available from the respective schools - the ICT form is available from here

Join the mailing list to find out when exams are taking place, find an opponent, ... . Note that I put thesis presentations into the ICT calendar, so this is a good place to find out when a thesis project is taking place (so that you can attend several before you give your own).

There is a KTH Social page about IK121X degree projects on the first level at the School of ICT.

In keeping with the KTH policy regarding putting the final thesis in DiVA - I expect that all students that I am an examiner for will agree to put the full text of their report on-line.

New exjobbs with grading

Since 1 July 2007, it is possible to have the following types of exjobbs with a grade:

• Högskoleingenjöexamensarbete - 15 hp as part of the Högskoleingenjöexamen (180 hp) program
• Kandidatexamensarbete - 15 hp as part of the Kandidatexamen (180 hp) program

From January 2016, it is also possible to have a thesis project graded pass/fail.

Information om examensarbetet för Kandidatexamen och Högskolingenjörsexamen (15 hp)

For details see the varioous courses,

• Degree Project in Computer Engineering, First Cycle/Examensarbete inom datateknik, grundnivå II122X and II142X
• Degree Project in Electronics and Computer Engineering, First Cycle/ Examensarbete inom elektronik och datorteknik, grundnivå IL122X and IL142X
• Degree Project in Information and Communication Technology, First Cycle/ Examensarbete inom informations- och kommunikationsteknik, grundnivå II123X and II143X

Advice to every exjobb student

My advice to all thesis project students is:

1. Do not panic! There are lots of things that you will not know, but you can learn them.
2. Get in the habit of writing. Try to write at least one page per day. If you think of a question write it down. When you think of an answer write it down. Once a week step back and look at the table of contents for your thesis as you plan the next week's activities.
3. Write your draft titlepage and abstract - the first night of your project. (This will help you keep your focus.)
4. Look at your table of contents at least once every week - as you plan your next week. Avoid getting stuck in a local minima.

Overall timeline for an exjobb

Generic timeline and its relation to what you must write

Literature study

The literature study should consist of the following parts of the final report (i.e., it is just an early version of the final report containing only a limited subset of the report):

• Title page
  • Title
  • Author
  • Date
  • State where you are doing this work
• Abstract
  • Short problem statement
  • Short problem statement
  • Why is this problem worth a 15 hp thesis project? (i.e., Why is the problem both significant and of suitable degree of difficulty?)
  • How are you going to solve the problem?
  • If all goes well, what do you think can be done after you finish - that can not be done now?
• Introduction
  • Longer problem statement
  • General introduction to the area
• Background
  • What have others already done?
  • What does a reader (another x student -- where x is your study program) need to know to understand your report?
• References

For an example of a masters level literature study see: Erik Ehrlund's Literature Study.

I encourage students to use Zotero for their reference management. Of course you can also use a commercial tool or other tool. The key is that you should be using a tool to facilitate working with your references and reference material. (For a comparisons of difference systems see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software.) You can find examples of using Zotero in my II2202 lecture notes on powertools and Writing and Oral Presentations. I encourage you to use my Zotero style ExampleStyle-with-access.csl as it provides a rather complete reference (including DOI, ISBN, or URL where relevant). For those who want a bibliographic style which is similar to IEEEtran, but with ISBNs, DOIs, and URLs, see myIEEEtran.bst.

Note about language(s)

The thesis is generally written in Swedish or English. There must be an abstract in both Swedish and English. Under certain circumstances, and with the approval of the supervisor, the thesis may be written in another language, but must still have abstracts in both Swedish and English.

Possible - Exjobb report outline

• Title page
  • Title
  • Author
  • Date
  • State where you are doing this work
• Abstract
  • Short problem statement
  • What is the topic area? (optional)
  • Short problem statement
  • Why was this problem worth a 15 hp thesis project? (i.e., Why is the problem both significant and of suitable degree of difficulty?)
  • How did you solve the problem? What was your method/insight?
  • Results/Conclusions/Consequences/Impact: What are your key results/conclusions? What will others do based upon your results? What can be done now that you have finished - that could not be done before your thesis project was completed?
• Acknowledgements
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
  • Longer problem statement
  • General introduction to the area
• Background
  • What have others already done?
  • What does a reader (another x student -- where x is your study program) need to know to understand your report?
• Method
  • What are your goals? (What should you be able to do as a result of your solution - which couldn't be done well before you started?)
  • What you are going to do? Why?
• Analysis
  • How you are going to evaluate what you have done?
  • Analysis of your data and proposed solution
  • Does this meet the goals which you had when you started?
• Conclusions
  • Conclusion
    • Did you meet your goals?
    • What insights have you gained?
    • What suggestions can you give to others working in this area?
    • If you had it to do again, what would you have done differently?
  • Future work
    • What you have left undone?
    • What are the next obvious things to be done?
    • What hints can you give to the next person who is going to followup upon your work?
  • Required reflections
• References
• Appendix/Appendices (Optional) - one of which might be a list of abbreviations or terms which you use in your report.

Notes about writing

• For your document, you should be sure to use A4 sized paper rather than US letter.
• Set the text in a serif font, such as Times Roman (as it is much easier to read a lot of text when there are serifs). Also it is nice to indent the first line of each paragraph by 2-3 ems (this is the width of the letter "m" in the current font size). Also fill and justify the paragraphs of the body of the report.
• For those using LaTeX, you can improve the look of the document by:
  • switching to using PostScipt fonts (instructions)
  • You can also turn off hyphenation or at least limit its use with "\hyphenpenalty=5000 \tolerance=1000"
  • Manually break lines with \linebreak[1] - this will allow LaTeX to break the line while still justifying the text. The numeric argument can be used to be more insistent about breaking the line. Useful values are 1..4.
  • BibTex entries for W3C publications
  • BibTex entries for RFCs
  • IEEE and ACM provide BibTeX entires for their publications via the web page for each publication
  • Use the bytefield package to draw packet structures
  • Gilles Bertrand has some nice LaTeX tutorials, for example how to draw call flows using the xy package and how to draw Markov chains.
  • pcap2tex - see http://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-users/201007/msg00258.html
  • Rather than using numeric superscripts it is better to use symbols
• Another useful tool is Zotero - there are plugins for OpenOffice and Microsoft's Word.
• Read your document before submitting it - if you have unresolved links, missing references, etc. fix them before submitting a draft

Some common flaws in theses

• Incomplete references - see the references in the lecture notes for my course for examples of references
• Missing important citations
• Statements made without justification or supporting citations
• Poor (or no) editing
• Failure to spell check the document
• Not checking grammer - see a tool such as Grammarly to help you. See also the Writefull Overleaf Extension
• Documents which it is clear that no one looked at after formatting - often these have breaks in the middle of sentences, missing phrases, ... .
• Lack of page numbers
• Unreadable text in figures
• Failure to label elements of figures adequately
• Use of contractions (Do not use contractions in a formal report.)
• Use of acronyms or abbreviations without properly introducing them; often failure to use these acroynms and abbreviations consistently through the rest of the paper
• Redundant text
• Using figures from others without the copyright owner's permission
• Using too few refences, so the paper looks like simply a cut an paste edit of these references.
• Single sentence paragraphs
• Lack of vertical white space between paragraphs, which in some cases makes it hard to understand where new paragraphs beging
• Lack of a date - every document should have a date, in addition to title and author(s)
• Lack of section, subsection, ... number - makes cross references difficult

Further notes about writing

For those writing in English an excellent resource is: Chicago Editorial Staff, The Chicago Manual of Style. 14th edition, 923 p., 1993, ISBN 0-226-10389-7
The Chicago Manual of Style (FAQs)
For a suggest of how to handle (format) on-line reference, see Online sources
A generally useful book for writers is: Marie-Claire van Leunen, A Handbook for Scholars, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.
A useful guide for reports in Swedish: Skrivregler för svenka och engelska från TNC, Terminologicentrum TNC, TNC 100, Solna, 2001. ISBN 91-7196-100-3.
See also KTH's language tools.

Note that under the Bern Convention every figure has its own copyright, thus if you are going to use a figure from someone else you must make sure that you have the copyright owner's permission. Generally when you get this permission they will say how they wish this to be acknowledged. This is in addition to your existing obligation to properly cite your sources.

for some guidance about citing software see: Mike Jackson, "How to cite and describe software", Software Sustainability Institute, Last updated: Tuesday 4 September 2012, avialable from: http://software.ac.uk/so-exactly-what-software-did-you-use

Thesis statistics

This section gives some statistics about thesis in the recent past.

Some interesting statistics about past theses: Length (over time), Histogram of lengths, and CDF of lengths.

Thesis abstracts

Approximately 90% of all English language abstracts for theses examined by prof. Maguire are between 200 and 450 words. Note that databases such as ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT)limit abstracts to 350 words. While Canada's National Archive limits Masters thesis abstracts to 150 words (and Doctoral dissertation to 350 words). Chalmers University of Technology suggests a Master's thesis abtract should be between 250 and 350 words.

At ICT, The median length of abstracts in number of paragraphs is 3 with a standard deviation of 1.9 paragraphs.

For a short description of how to write an abstract, see Philip Koopman, How to Write an Abstract, Essay, Carnegie Mellon University, October, 1997.

How many references are typical in a kandidate thesis?

As of 2014.05.15, on the basis of 15 kandiate/bachelors theses (for which the full text was available via DiVA, the statistics are as follows (plot of number of references - sorted in increasing order):

Required reflections

Each student is advised to write a section in their thesis to ensure that they address the issues described in Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100) concerning Judgement and approach For Bachelor. The thesis as a whole should also meet the requirements stated in the sections Knowledge and understanding and Skills and abilities (as relevant to their specific degree - see the formal Swedish rules at the end of this page).

From The Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100)

Kandidatexamen

"Omfattning

Kandidatexamen uppnås efter att studenten fullgjort kursfordringar om
180 högskolepoäng med viss inriktning som varje högskola själv
bestämmer, varav minst 90 högskolepoäng med successiv fördjupning inom
det huvudsakliga området (huvudområdet) för utbildningen.

Mål

Kunskap och förståelse För kandidatexamen skall studenten - visa
kunskap och förståelse inom huvudområdet för utbildningen, inbegripet
kunskap om områdets vetenskapliga grund, kunskap om tillämpliga
metoder inom området, fördjupning inom någon del av området samt
orientering om aktuella forskningsfrågor.

Färdighet och förmåga För kandidatexamen skall studenten - visa
förmåga att söka, samla, värdera och kritiskt tolka relevant
information i en problemställning samt att kritiskt diskutera
företeelser, frågeställningar och situationer, - visa förmåga att
självständigt identifiera, formulera och lösa problem samt att
genomföra uppgifter inom givna tidsramar, - visa förmåga att muntligt
och skriftligt redogöra för och diskutera information, problem och
lösningar i dialog med olika grupper, och - visa sådan färdighet som
fordras för att självständigt arbeta inom det område som utbildningen
avser.

Värderingsförmåga och förhållningssätt För kandidatexamen skall
studenten - visa förmåga att inom huvudområdet för utbildningen göra
bedömningar med hänsyn till relevanta vetenskapliga, samhälleliga och
etiska aspekter, - visa insikt om kunskapens roll i samhället och om
människors ansvar för hur den används, och - visa förmåga att
identifiera sitt behov av ytterligare kunskap och att utveckla sin
kompetens.

Självständigt arbete (examensarbete) För kandidatexamen skall
studenten inom ramen för kursfordringarna ha fullgjort ett
självständigt arbete (examensarbete) om minst 15 högskolepoäng inom
huvudområdet för utbildningen.

Övrigt

För kandidatexamen med en viss inriktning skall också de preciserade
krav gälla som varje högskola själv bestämmer inom ramen för kraven i
denna examensbeskrivning."

The Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100) (in English) specifies the requirements for the degrees in Sweden. Of particular relevance to thesis project students is the following (translated from Swedish):

Scope

Bachelor's degree is awarded after the student has completed course requirements of 180 credits with a certain specialization that each higher education institution determine, at least 90 credits with the gradual deepening of the main area (the main area) for education.

Goal

Knowledge and understanding

Skills and abilities

For a Degree students must:

• demonstrate ability to search, collect, evaluate and critically interpret relevant information about a problem and to critically discuss phenomena, issues and situations;
• demonstrate the ability to independently identify, formulate and solve problems and to complete tasks in a timely manner; and
• demonstrate the ability to orally and in writing to present and discuss information, problems and solutions in dialogue with different groups, and - demonstrate the skills required to work independently in the educational field relates.

Judgement and approach

For a Degree students must:

• demonstrate the ability within the major field of study do assessments taking into account relevant scientific, social and ethical aspects
• demonstrate insight into the role of knowledge in society and the responsibility for how it is used, and
• demonstrate the ability to identify their need of further knowledge and to develop their skills.

Independent project

Other

For some examples of the "Required Reflections" section see the section in the following theses:

• Robert Möt and
• Abdel Ahmid.

Exjobb oral presentation

Typically each oral presentation (by one or two students) is a total of 25 to 35 minutes long. This is followed by questions and comments from the opponent(s). Next the audience has a chance to ask questions about the thesis. Finally, the examiner will ask any final questions that they have. A typical oral presentation and examination lasts a total of <1 hour.

A typical oral presentation addresses the following:

1. Title slide: Project title[:subtitle], Name of student(s) who conducted the project, Date of the oral presentation, Where the project was conducted, Name(s) of supervisor(s) and examiner(s).(1 slide)
2. Problem statement, Why the problem is important to solve, and your Goals, problem context, delimitations, ... (1 or 2 slides)
3. Background and Related work (b slides)
4. Method used to solve the problem (m slides)
5. Results and Analysis (r slides)
6. Conclusion (1 or 2 slides)
7. Future work (1 or 2 slides)
8. Final slide - to solicit questions (1 slides)

The typical number of slides will be less than ~30, hence b+m+r < 25 slides. However, it is advisable to have backup slides (after your "Final" slide) to show any figure/table/formula/... that your audience is likely to ask about. Alternatively you can have a version of your thesis draft ready in a suitable viewer - so that you can show any part of it that might be necessary to address any questions that come up.

Keep in mind that only the opponent(s), supervisor(s), and examiner(s) are likely to have read the who thesis beforehand - so you need to present the key points of your thesis project in your oral presentation at a level that the audience will be able to understand: what was the problem, why was it important to solve, what others have done, what you did, what you learned, and what should be done next.

Note that students are not allowed to use the KTH logo on their slides.

You should have a slide number on each of your slides (other than the title slide) to help listeners take notes - so that they can reference their questions to specific slides.

Avoid complex slide backgrounds and make sure that what you want your audience to be able to see will be visible (this means avoiding small fonts, yellow text/lines, ... ).

Opposition report - a template can be found here.

An example of slides for an oral presentation by Fredrik Folke on 2012.06.18. The slides appear here with his permission.

Self-evaluation with respect to The Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100) goals

If you want to do a self-evalutation of how well your thesis fulfills the requirements for your educational requirements see the spreadsheet.

KTH common goals for a 15 hp Högskoleingenjöexamensarbete as part of the Högskoleingenjöexamen (180 hp) program

"Studenten ska:

• Kunna tillämpa relevanta kunskaper och färdigheter som förvärvats inom teknikområdet på ett givet problem
• Inom givna ramar, självständigt kunna analysera och diskutera frågeställningar, samt hantera större problem på grundnivå inom teknikområdet
• Reflektera kring, värdera och kritiskt granska egna och andras resultat
• Kunna dokumentera och presentera sitt arbete, för given målgrupp, med krav på struktur, formalia och språkhantering
• Kunna identifiera sitt behov av ytterligare kunskap och fortlöpande utveckla sin kompetens"

KTH common goals for a 15 hp Kandidatexamensarbete as part of the Kandidatexamen (180 hp) program

"Studenten ska:

• Kunna tillämpa relevanta kunskaper och färdigheter som förvärvats inom huvudområdet på ett givet problem
• Inom givna ramar, självständigt kunna analysera och diskutera frågeställningar och lösa större problem på grundnivå inom huvudområdet
• Reflektera kring, värdera och kritiskt granska egna och andras vetenskapliga resultat
• Kunna dokumentera och presentera sitt arbete med krav på struktur, formalia och språkhantering
• Kunna identifiera sitt behov av ytterligare kunskap och ta ansvar för sin kunskapsutveckling"