Master Thesis

Doing a Project or Thesis at the PADX lab

What We Expect - Professional Attitude - Practical Work - Thesis Text - Presentation

Learn from these guidelines, but don't forget that every thesis is personal, meaning that you are your own boss and it is up to you to make the decisions!! We encourage personal touches. But don't forget to take into account our guidelines - after all we have the experience - and always motivate your choices!

For more information, don't hesitate to contact: Jan Lemeire, http://parallel.vub.ac.be/~jan, jan.lemeire@vub.ac.be, 4k226

What We Expect

What we expect

always have all your papers with you when coming to me, especially my notes
before asking me what to do, always think first of a idea/proposal
use maximally the documentation (our website, literature, courses, ...) we offer you. Inform us about the things that are not explained clearly or are incomplete, in order that we can improve our documentation!!
regularly inform us about your latest advances and your future plans (this makes a good impression)
make a planning with the things you still have to do

What you have to learn

not to forget the things (ideas, remarks, ...) you are told!! We don't like to repeat the same things. So write down the necessary. This is not an easy thing! (like assistants have to learn how to teach a student something)
be sure to understand everything that is necessary, learn to ask adequate, direct questions!
learn to explain your work (improve your dutch/english if necessary), this is of great importance for the final presentation! We will ask to do some 'test' presentations of the current status of your work during the year. Anyway, doing presentations will be a very important part of your later professional life. So I propose an informal presentation of the progress of your work about each 2 months (let's say the first in December).
professional attitude (see below)

Make a personal webpage

coordinates
biography
intrests
topic of your thesis
...

Final result

your code, text & representation on file
practical user documentation, and all the necessary information for somebody who wants to continue your thesis
I need this before your thesis defence!! Otherwise I will have to cut down your marks. Also don't forget to return all borrowed things.

Furthermore

We'll ask for a contribution to the organisation of our lab (eg write a manual, documentation, a demo program)
Your thesis is an investment in your professional future. You will get a lot of practical experience. But only if you work and learn from our guidelines and remarks.
So I expect you to work hard, learn a lot and be creative.

Professional Attitude

A good attitude is necessary in every working environment. We also noticed that differences in culture make it necessary to explicitly state what we expect. Moreover, this works in both ways. We feel highly responsible to guide you in your work, but only in a correct relationship!

Teamwork, ok! but how? It is all about communication, respect and fairness!
Respect any agreement, stick to it, otherwise inform the person! If you have for example an appointment and you can't come, inform as soon as possible. Similar, if you're asked to do something, it's better to admit you didn't do it than to try to conceal it.

In some cultures it is inappropriate to say no or to explicitly disagree. Bear in mind that this is totally the opposite in western modern professional culture: we expect people to say no if they disagree, it is almost impolite not to do so!! We think that a good relationship only works if we know what the other really thinks. So, don't be surprised if you are criticized: we want to be honest and we belief criticism is the only way to learn from your mistakes.

Practical work

Learn the technical things: OS, programming language, database (see our online documentation)
Review the theory (the courses)
Performa literature study
Work on the project following its 'lifecycle':

requirements analysis
functional & technical design
prototype development
testing
...
discuss your proposals for each step with your supervisor, so you can learn from his remarks and he can prevent you of making errors that will affect your project greatly.

About the thesis text

instructies voor studenten TW

voorblad - VUB 'band' - VUB logo

it should contain the following:

title page (with VUB-logo)
an abstract: short explanation of what your thesis is about and what your results are!! This should immediately very clear for the listeners, otherwise they will be wondernig for 20 minutes where your talk is actually about.
an introduction

with an overview of all chapters

chapters that explain the general theoretical things
the chapters with your work and results
end with a conclusion (summary about the goals that are achieved or not), a future work list (this will show that you understand the topic!!) and personal notes about your experiences and what you have learned during your work
reference list

write down all references: all information you used to do the thesis (books, websites, manuals, another thesis, ...), also mention what technical information you used/needed (about the programming languages,...)
see here how to put them
also add where you found it (library, PADX lab, on file) and a short review of a few lines (was it interesting, which chapters, what did you learn from it, etc)

eventually an appendix

start with making up a clear structure of the text
as the abstract, introduction and conclusion are the most important parts of your thesis, don't write them at the end!!! Let them be reviewed by your supervisor.
let it be clear what your work is: state it explicitly in your text (& the results)
use diagrams to explain the structure and aspects of your project!!
explain the process of your thesis development

eg the interview of the user for the requirements!

mention and motivate all special things of your thesis

eg: things that go against the theory
eg: your database is design is against a normalisation form
this is not a problem if you motivate your decision
otherwise you'll get this remark anyway...

only add the theory to your text, that you applied! And show that you used the theory correctly.

eg: if you talk about normalisation of a database, you should have done this (correctly)!!

About the presentation

This is may all seem very obvious, but we see encounter these errors all the time...

duration (and not a second longer! So time it when you exercise your presentation):

for ir & MACS: 20 minutes
for licentiaten: 15 minutes

start with explaining what the goal of your thesis is, what your work was, conclude with a brief overview of your talk. You have to 'sell' your thesis to the jury!
keep the introduction & theory short (max 5 minutes), the most important part is your work (let it be clear what your work is!)

you can for instance mention the theory while explaining your work, by this prooving that you used it

use a clear structure, it should always be clear what you are explaining and why you did it

the global story (red line) should always be clear, this is more important than that the jury misses some details

don't go into too much detail, eg don't talk about implementation aspects, your talk must give an overview of your work and its results
your talk should be fluently and natural:

never put full sentences on your slides!! Only keywords which
don't read your text from a paper!!
these 2 points prevent you from talking unnatural by reading a text, what is really annoying.

preferabilly, use no animation (offered by powerpoint), this just takes the attention away...
don't put too much text on 1 slide, not too much complicated formula's also.
speak loud and clear!! Look at the listeners when you speak.
exercise at home (and time it!)