Lectures
This course includes eleven lectures. Lecture 1 is held on campus and lectures 2-11 are available as videos via Canvas and can be viewed at any time during the course. The placement of video lectures in the TimeEdit course schedule is a planning suggestion for when you might view them.
Each of the video lectures has an associated lecture quiz with a deadline. If you complete lecture quizzes with passing score upon the deadline, you receive course bonus points for the exam (see section on Schedule and see Canvas for quiz deadlines). For more information on bonus points, see section on Bonus point system below.
- Introduction and scientific knowledge (campus lecture), course week 1
- Scientific inferences (59 minutes) (flipped classroom 1), course week 1
- Observation and measurement (76 minutes) (flipped cl. 1), course week 2
- Experiments (49 minutes) (flipped classroom 2), course week 2
- Models (62 minutes) (flipped classroom 2), course week 3
- Statistics (62 minutes), course week 3
- Explanations and causes (81 minutes), course week 4
- Economic methodology (95 minutes), course week 5
- Qualitative methods (93 minutes), course week 5
- Research ethics (103 minutes), course week 6
- Anticipating risk in science and engineering (85 minutes), course week 6
Flipped classrooms
Flipped classroom sessions function as an opportunity for receiving clarification from the lecturer on lecture contents. The flipped classroom sessions are intended for addressing questions on course topics that students find unclear, challenging or otherwise interesting.
There are two flipped classroom sessions on campus, each based on two video lectures. Flipped classroom 1 focuses on the lectures on scientific inferences (lecture 2), and on observation and measurement (lecture 3). Flipped classroom 2 focuses on the lectures on experiments (lecture 4) and on models (lecture 5).
Each flipped classroom session has an associated discussion board. Before each flipped classroom session, you post a question for the lecturer on the board related to the relevant video lectures, and you upvote questions posted by other students that you would like the lecturer to address during the session. See section on Schedule and see Canvas for further instructions and deadlines.
The lecturer selects a set of questions from the discussion board and devotes the flipped classroom sessions to answering these questions. During the sessions, you will also be invited to participate on voluntary exercise activities.
If you complete the flipped classroom activities, you receive course bonus points for the exam. For more information on bonus points, see section on Bonus point system below.
It is possible to attend flipped classroom sessions without having posted on the discussion board and without participating on exercises in the classroom, but this will yield no bonus points.
The flipped classroom sessions are taken together with students from other, similar courses.
Bonus point system
Completing video lecture quizzes with a passing score, as well as posting on the flipped classroom discussion boards together with participating on the classroom activities, gives course bonus points for the exam. Bonus point activities are voluntary, optional activities intended at incentivising students to engage with the course contents continuously throughout the course.
Each video lecture has an associated video lecture quiz, comprised of 15 questions. If you complete a quiz with a 14 point score or higher, you get 0.5 course bonus points. All video lecture quizzes have deadlines (See section on Schedule and see Canvas for deadlines). There is no limit on number of attempts up until the quiz deadlines.
Course bonus points can also be awarded for the two flipped classrooms. Attending the flipped classroom session and carrying out tasks as per instructed by the lecturer results in 0.5 bonus points per each of the two flipped classrooms.
In order to make the number of bonus points fit the exam format, course bonus points are scaled in the following way before the exam (C = course bonus points, E = exam bonus points): E = C * 5/6, rounded up to the closest .5-value. Example: 4.5 course bonus points will be scaled as 4.5 * 5/6 = 3.75, then rounded up to 4 exam points. You can maximally obtain 5 exam bonus points.
Exam bonus points are added to part 1 of the exam. For example, if part 1 has a maximum score of 15 points, then 3.5 exam bonus points plus 10 points on part 1 results in a total score of 13.5 points on part 1 of the exam. 4 exam bonus points plus 13 points on part 1 results in a total score of 15 points on part 1 of the exam.
For more information about the exam, see section on Examination and completion.
Bonus points collected during one and the same course period are valid for, and only for, the scheduled exam and the corresponding re-exam for that period.
Seminars
The course includes a mandatory seminar series comprised of four seminars. Each seminar covers selected course contents from the video lectures and course readings, and following the first seminar, each subsequent seminar connects to the previous seminars. Seminars are intended as a collaborative learning activity where you practice critically discussing course contents and practice applying course contents to cases, with instruction and support from teaching staff. The overall topics covered during the seminar series are as follows:
- Definitions, operationalizations and hypotheses (course week 3)
- Designing a scientific study (course week 4)
- Interpretation, analysis and evidence and philosophy of social science (course week 6)
- Risk and research ethics (course week 7).
Since completion of the seminar series yields course credits, the seminars feature mandatory activities: (1) preparing and passing a seminar quiz, and (2) actively participating on the seminar. Missing activities result in seminar incompletion and thus no seminar course credits.
Before each seminar, you read the assigned readings (reading instructions available on Canvas). Before attending each seminar, you must also pass a mandatory seminar preparation quiz (See section on Schedule and see Canvas for deadlines). There is no limit on number of quiz attempts up until the quiz deadline. You must complete the quiz with a passing score of 14 points before the deadline (indicated in Canvas as “Passed”).
The preparation quizzes are intended to ensure that all participants come prepared to the seminar for a more rewarding seminar learning experience. If you attend the seminar without completing the preparation quiz beforehand, you will not be marked as attending.
On the seminar, you will be working together with other students on exercises as per instructed by the teacher. The exercises are formulated in such a way as to promote critical reflection and discussion, as well as to practice application of course concepts to case scenarios.
You are expected to engage actively with the course contents and work on the exercises during the seminar. Passive attendance on the seminar will be marked as not attending. Active participation on the seminar does not mean that you are expected to demonstrate full proficiency of course contents. Rather, it means that you are expected to have properly engaged with the relevant course material beforehand and made an honest attempt at understanding it. Arisen questions and reflections can be addressed on the seminar.
For information on what to do if you have not completed a preparation quiz or actively attended on a seminar, see the section on Examination and completion.
Seminar contents and reading instructions. All the texts can be found on Canvas.
Seminar 1 – Definitions, operationalizations and hypotheses.
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 1, 2, 3, 13
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 2.2-2.8, 3.1-3.2, 5.0-5.1, and 5.8
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Stipulative and lexical definitions
- Narrowness and broadness (as applied to definitions)
- Vagueness
- Hypotheses (and their quality criteria)
- Direct, aided and indirect observation
- Operationalization
- Accuracy and precision (as qualities of observations and measurements)
- Measurement error (random and systematic error)
- Convergent validity and divergent validity
Seminar 2 – Designing a scientific study.
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 4, 5.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 3.7, 4.2-4, and 5.1-3.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Experiment, observational studies and model studies
- Mill’s method of difference
- Internal validity and external validity
- Experimental control
- Constancy, elimination and effect separation
- Randomization
- Control group and treatment group
- Observer influence
- Confirmation bias
- Blinding
- Epistemic virtues of models (Parameter precision, Similarity, Robustness, Simplicity, Tractability, Transparency)
- Analogies (positive, negative, neutral)
Seminar 3: Interpretation, analysis and evidence.
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice: chapters 2, 6, 7.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove – Art of Doing Science: sections 1.6-7, 3.7, 3.9, 5.3-5, 5.7, 7, 8 and the box on p. 24.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Repeatability, reproducibility and replicability
- Statistical evaluation
- Statistical significance
- Correlation and causality
- Explanatory virtues (Accuracy [of explanations], Non-sensitivity, Precision in the explanans, Precision of the explanandum, Cognitive salience)
- Duhem-Quine thesis
- Ad-hoc hypothesis
- Falsificationism (Popper)
- Inductive and deductive inferences
Seminar 4: Risk and research ethics.
Texts:
- Grüne-Yanoff, Till – Justified Method Choice, chapters 8, 9, 11, 12.
- “On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research”, National academy of Sciences.
- Ahlin, Jesper, “Ethical Thinking”.
- Optional reading: Hansson, Sven Ove - Art of Doing Science: Section 9.
Topics relevant for the seminar:
- Functions (assigned and ascribed)
- The design process
- Qualitative data
- Controlling observer effects
- Case study
- Gift authorship and ghost authorship
- Scientific misconduct (falsification, fabrication and plagiarism)
- Informed consent
- Deontology, consequentialism and virtue ethics
- Precautionary principle
- Decision making (under certainty/risk/ignorance/deep uncertainty)
Project, 3 credits
This part is called “Science communication and evaluation”. In this part you will work with a published scientific article from your field of study. This article will be available on Canvas about a week after the start of the course. The project is introduced in a video lecture and then consists of three blocks.
- Block 1: Popularizing a concept from the article.
- Block 2: Discussing one methodological strength and one weakness of the study described in the article.
- Block 3: An essay, popularizing the entire article as well as discussing all methodological strengths and weaknesses of the study described in the article.
In each block you will peer-review another student’s submission. For each block there is a submission deadline and a peer review deadline. For block 3, there is also a final submission. The submissions are graded pass, revise or fail. Failing any task means failing the entire project part. If you fail the project part, you will have to do the project part anew in another period to complete the course.
Your submissions will be graded after the peer review period. If the submission is not good enough to pass but still shows clear promise, you will be asked to revise. Your peer reviews are also graded, and if your peer review does not fulfil the requirements, you will be asked to revise.
Blocks 1 and 2 are done individually. Block 3 is done together with other students from your masters’ programme. You will be divided into groups after the deadline of Block 1. If there are too few from your master’s programme to form a group, you will complete block 3 as an individual assignment.
In the first week of the course, it is highly recommended that you watch the project part information video lecture. In this lecture, Till Grüne-Yanoff explains the general structure of this version of the project part, what is required of a student attending the project part, and of the submitted assignments. The lecture will also explain how scientific content can be presented to a general audience in a popularized way, and how a critical evaluation of methodological aspects can be performed and presented. Finally, the lecture contains information on how to provide peer feedback.
After having watched the information lecture, you are to read a scientific article assigned to your master program and start working on the tasks (the articles can be found on the TaMoS course page). Download the one that is named after your master program. Contact us if no satisfactory article can be found.
Group work and students without a group. Block 3 is to be completed in a small group with people from your master program. We will assign you to a group after Block 2 (Task A) is completed. Some master programs only have one or two students taking the course in a given period. Those students might be assigned to a temporary group after Block 2 (Task A) is completed, but work without a group in Block 3. If you are a student without a group, you perform the tasks in Block 1 in the same way as everyone else. After Block 2 (Task A) you will be assigned to a group of 3-5 other students without a group. You will then do the tasks in Block 2, Task B in much the same way as everyone else. In Block 3, you write your own, individual, complete text. The individual assignment has a lower minimum requirement on word count than the group assignment for Block 3. You will then give peer feedback submissions other students without a project group. Note that you have different submission pages for Block 3.
Schedule and Deadlines. Here is the schedule and deadlines for the project part. For a specific deadline of a project-part assignment, look on the information page on Canvas.
Project Part Introduction Video Lecture – Course week 1
Block 1:
Deadline Task A – Course week 2
Deadline Task B – Course week 3
Block 2:
Deadline task A – Course week 4
Deadline task B – Course week 5
Block 3:
Deadline Task A - Group Work – Course week 6
Deadline Task A - Individual assignment – Course week 6
Deadline Task B - Group Work – Course week 7
Deadline Task B - Individual assignment – Course week 7
Deadline Task C Final Submission - Group Work – Course week 8
Deadline Task C Final Submission - Individual assignment – Course week 8
Plagiarism. All texts are automatically checked for plagiarism, and high scores are then manually checked. If we after this suspect plagiarism, we are obliged to report this to the disciplinary committee. All sources should be stated using any standard referencing system (see the KTH library). Citations should be marked with citation marks - " " - and the source provided. As a simple rule, consider five words or more directly from a source a citation. To avoid plagiarism charges, a tip is to make notes when reading a text, and write your assignment by looking at your notes instead of the text. It is allowed to re-use material in Block 3, which you already submitted in Block 1 or Block 2, but since this will be automatically flagged as plagiarism please note what material is being re-used in your text, to make the manual plagiarism check easier.
Article list for Project Part for AK2038 - Science Communication and Evaluation. Here are the articles for the project part (does not apply to TTMAM, TMTHM, TMAKM). Download the one that is named after your master program. Haven't started a master program yet? Choose the article of the program that you plan on taking. Is your master program missing? Take a look at the online article list on canvas (which is the most updated). Cannot find it there either? Pick an article that you think you can work with. Cannot find an article you think you can work with? Send us an e-mail (see Contact information).
Code
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Master Program
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Article
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TAEEM
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Aerospace Engineering
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TAEEM Babinsky H, 2003, How Does Wings Work
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TELPM
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Electric Power Engineering
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TELPM Baraco M, 2010, Experimental Comparison between two Fault–Tolerant Fractional–Slot Multiphase PM Motor Drives
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TFOBM
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Real Estate and Construction Management
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TFOBM Kwabena Asiama et al 2017 In the Land of the Dammed Assessing Governance Resettlement of Ghana’s Bui Dam Project
Or
TFOBM Market rents and economic segregation – Lind & Hellström
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TFORM
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Vehicle Engineering
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TFORM Dheeraj 2016, Experimental investigation on latent heat thermal energy storage system
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TINNM
TIDTM
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Information and Network Engineering Sports Technology
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TINNM & TIDTM Sharma, Manish, et al. 2017 Wearable motion sensor based phasic analysis of tennis serve for performance feedback
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TIPUM
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Engineering Design
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TIPUM Cho S Eppinger SD, 2005, A simulation-based process model for managing complex design projects
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TMBIM
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Medical Biotechnology
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TMBIM Surin B et al, 2013, LG3 fragment of endorepellin is a possible biomarker of severity in IgA nephropathy
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TMHIM
TEESM
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Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure
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TMHIM Xian G et al, 2007, An analysis of urban development and its environmental impact on the Tampa Bay watershed
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TMMMM
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Macromolecular Materials
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TMMMM Ioelovich M Leykin A, 2009, Accessibility and supermolecular structure of cellulose
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TMVTM
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Molecular Science and Engineering
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TMVTM Hedberg J et al, 2012, Interactions between surfactants and silver nanoparticles of varying charge
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TNTEM
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Nanotechnology
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TNTEM Wang G et al, 2011, Enhanced capacitance in partially exfoliated multi-walled carbon nanotubes
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TSCRM
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Systems, Control and Robotics
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TSCRM Raul Mur-Artal 2017 ORB-SLAM2 an Open-Source SLAM System for Monocular, Stereo and RGB-D Cameras
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TTMVM
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Engineering Materials Science
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TTMVM Walbrühl et al 2017 ICME guided modeling of surface gradient formation in cemented carbides
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TIVNM
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ICT innovation
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TIVNM Gupta Et al, Direct Manipulation in Tactive Displays, 2016
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TIMBM
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Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology
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TIMBM Rodolfi L et al, 2008, Microalgae for Oil Strain Selection, Induction of Lipid Synthesis and Outdoor Mass Cultivation in a Low-Cost Photobioreactor
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TCAEM
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Civil and Architectural Engineering Master
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TCAEM Lim Y et al, 2012, Building facade design for daylighting quality in a typical government office building
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TKEMM
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Chemical Engineering for Energy and Environment
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TKEMM Rios LE et al, 2013, Use of Surfactants and Blends to Remove DDT from Contaminated Soils
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TMLEM
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Medical Engineering
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TMLEM Peolsson M, 2008, A pilot study using Tissue Velocity Ultrasound Imaging (TVI) to assess muscle activity pattern in patients with chronic trapezius myalgia
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TTGTM
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Transport and Geoinformation
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TTGTM Taylor MAP, 2012, Remoteness andaccessibility in the vulnerability analysis of regional road networks
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TMRSM
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Naval Architecture
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TMRSM Stenius I et al, 2007, Explicit FE - Modelling of Hydroelasticity in Panel-Water Impacts
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TJVTM
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Railway Engineering
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TJVTM Orvnäs A et al, 2010, Ride Comfort Improvements in a High-Speed Train with Active Secondary Suspension
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TEBSM
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Embedded Systems
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TEBSM Hayes J Efros A, 2007, Scene completion using millions of photographs
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TELFM TEFRM
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Electrophysics
Electromagnetics, Fusion and Space Engineering
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TELFM & TEFRM First results of movable limiter experiments and its effects on the tokamak plasma confinement
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TIDTM
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Sports Technology
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TINNM Sharma, Manish, et al. 2017 Wearable motion sensor based phasic analysis of tennis serve for performance feedback
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TINEM
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Industrial Management
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TINEM Christian Arnold et al. 2016 How the Industrial Internet of Things changes Business Models
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TTMIM
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Transport, Mobility and Innovation
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TTMIM Mooney et al 2019 - Freedom from the station - spatial equity in access to dockless bike share
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List of master programs and their abbreviations. Cannot find your master program? Check out the online list on canvas (which is the most updated). Cannot find it there either? Go to KTH.se and find it or send us an email.
Aerospace Engineering (TAEEM, 120 credits)
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Applied and Computational Mathematics (TTMAM, 120 credits)
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Architecture (TARKM, 120 credits)
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Chemical Engineering for Energy and Environment (TKEMM, 120 credits)
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Civil and Architectural Engineering (TCAEM, 120 credits)
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Communication Systems (TCOMM, 120 credits)
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Computer Science (TCSCM, 120 credits)
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Computer Simulations for Science and Engineering (TDTNM, 120 credits)
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Economics of Innovation and Growth (TEINM, 120 credits)
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Electric Power Engineering (TELPM, 120 credits)
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Electromagnetics, Fusion and Space Engineering (TEFRM, 120 credits)
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Embedded Systems (TEBSM, 120 credits)
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Energy Innovation (TIETM, 120 credits)
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Engineering Design (TIPUM, 120 credits)
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Engineering Materials Science (TTMVM, 120 credits)
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Engineering Mechanics (TTEMM, 120 credits)
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Engineering Physics (TTFYM, 120 credits)
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Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure (TMHIM, 120 credits)
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Environomical Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems (TMESM, 120 credits)
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ICT Innovation (TIVNM, 120 credits)
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Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology (TIMBM, 120 credits)
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Industrial Engineering and Management (TIEMM, 120 credits)
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Industrial Management (TINEM, 120 credits)
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Information and Network Engineering (TINNM, 120 credits)
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Innovative Sustainable Energy Engineering (TIEEM, 120 credits)
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Integrated Product Design (TIPDM, 120 credits)
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Interactive Media Technology (TIMTM, 120 credits)
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Machine Learning (TMAIM, 120 credits)
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Macromolecular Materials (TMMMM, 120 credits)
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Management and Engineering of Environment and Engineering (TEEEM, 120 credits)
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Maritime Engineering (TMEGM, 120 credits)
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Mathematics (TMAKM, 120 credits)
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Media Management (TMMTM, 120 credits)
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Medical Biotechnology (TMBIM, 120 credits)
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Medical Engineering (TMLEM, 120 credits)
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Molecular Science and Engineering (TMVTM, 120 credits)
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Molecular Techniques in Life Science (TMTLM, 120 credits)
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Nanotechnology (TNTEM, 120 credits)
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Naval Architecture (TMRSM, 120 credits)
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Nuclear Energy Engineering (TNEEM, 120 credits)
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Production Engineering and Management (TPRMM, 120 credits)
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Railway Engineering, 120 credits, admitted/batch from autumn 16 (TJVTM, 120 credits)
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Real Estate and Construction Management (TFOBM, 120 credits)
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Software Engineering of Distributed Systems (TSEDM, 120 credits)
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Sustainable Energy Engineering (TSUEM, 120 credits)
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Sustainable Technology (TSUTM, 120 credits)
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Sustainable Urban Planning and Design (THSSM, 120 credits)
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Systems, Control and Robotics (TSCRM, 120 credits)
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Technology, Work and Health (TTAHM, 120 credits)
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Transport and Geoinformation Technology (TTGTM, 120 credits)
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Turbomachinery Aeromechanic University Training (TAETM, 120 credits)
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Vehicle Engineering (TFORM, 120 credits)
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Master's Programme,Sustainable Production Development (TITHM, 120 credits)
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Exercise sessions
The exercise sessions are extra opportunities to practice on the course content. They are held on campus and shared with other course codes. They are voluntary and have no associated submissions. The format is tested for the first time this semester. More information will follow on Canvas.
Expected workload
AK2038 = Expected workload is calculated based on number of course credits per period.
7.5 ECTS one period: 20 h /week