Administration Rules and Process for Degree Project in Media Technology (DM228X)

The following was relocated from news section. Media technology is the main research topic in our master thesis course. You are eligible to take this master thesis course if you follow the Media Technology “Civilingenjörsprogram (CMETE or MEDIA)”, the Master programme in “Media Technology” (TMETM) or the master programme in “Media Management (TMMTM)”. If you follow the master programme in Human Computer Interaction you should probably join their master thesis course instead, and if you have followed the “Sound-track” in CMETE or MEDIA you have the option to take one of their master thesis courses. Welcome to contact for interdisciplinary projects.¶ Thesis proposals and other info are provided about two weeks before the application deadline. If you are interested in media technology in general and want to do your thesis project with us, you can find the description of administration process and rules of this course in below.¶ The following rules will be fully applied to the new students apply for our course from Mar 2013. Time frame for thesis specification hand-in is strongly suggested to all current registered students and 5-month working time, which was announced before, is compulsory. Students in ‘Specification workshop group batch 1’ in Bilda and who had their application form approved earlier than Oct 2012 exempt from all below.¶ %%%%%%¶ Requirements: There should be 210 credits (or 240 hp for those who does 300 credit-exam) in your Ladok. Print and fill this form (Thesis Application Form) and leave it to Kansliet's mailbox on 4th floor of CSC (Helen Lindkvist <svl-media@csc.kth.se>) to check your qualification. The form will be processed and passed to course administrator (Yang Zhong, <yzhong@kth.se>) thereafter. People started before July 2007 can choose between letter-graded or pass/fail graded score. ¶ There are four chances to apply for this course and the application deadlines in each year are: Jan 15 / Mar 15 / Sep 15/ Nov 15. Please make your application in advance and get approved before deadlines.¶ %%%%%%¶ Time span: Your working time for thesis project, i.e. the total time from your application deadline to report submission to supervisor, is 5 consecutive months. Time is counted continuously so that all projects are equally evaluated against the quality under the same time frame.¶ There are two major phases during this 5-month period: thesis specification (takes max. 5 weeks) and project working (rest of the time). You have one month to refine your report and prepare for defense presentation thereafter.¶ %%%%%%¶ Thesis specification: When application forms reach course administrator, you will then be put into Bilda and a temporary project group in Bilda where you upload your thesis specifications.¶ You should work out and upload your first version of specification draft, a simple version that describes your idea and the problem you want to solve, within a week (Time check point 1). After this, course administrator will assign you an examiner and a supervisor (if you don’t have one) based on your topic. Supervisors from other universities are allowed.¶ Examiner will comment on your specification draft and you shall revise it with your supervisor. In the revised version, a detailed description of the scope/background, goals, literatures, methods, expected achievements and time plan shall be included. After this version is approved by your examiner, you will be registered into this course in Ladok and also granted PRO1 credits, which will take place about 6 weeks after application deadline.¶ There might be several iterations for modifying your thesis specification with your supervisor and examiners. However, your thesis specification should be approved within five weeks after your application deadline (deadline + 5 weeks == Time check point 2), i.e. at most 5 weeks after the application deadline of the current period. If your thesis specification is not approved on time, you can switch to next thesis period or keep yourself in this batch but take the risk of delayed schedule.¶ The degree project should treat an interesting problem in the area of media technology. Please make sure about the academic/scientific value and the technology portion of your thesis work. For the media management students, the technology part may mean scientific ways to analyze the use of media for marketing, customer investigations, a customer behavior; digital magazines vs. printed and so on. It is always wise to discuss this issue with your assigned supervisor and examiner. Pure literature study will be rejected.¶ ¶ %%%%%%¶ Progress and before presentation: Students having similar topics will be formed a group (examination group) after Time Check Point 2, in which group supervision and examination is taken. Two supervision meetings per month are suggested after the ‘specification period’. After your report submitted to your supervisor, you have approximately 1 month to prepare yourMedia technology is the main research topic in our master thesis course. You are eligible to take this master thesis course if you follow the Media Technology “Civilingenjörsprogram (CMETE or MEDIA)”, the Master program in “Media Technology” (TMETM) or the master program in “Media Management (TMMTM)”. If you follow the master program in Human-Computer Interaction, you should probably join their master thesis course instead. If you have followed the “Sound-track” in CMETE or MEDIA you have the option to take one of their master thesis courses.¶

Requirements: There should be 210 hp (or 240 hp for those who do a 300 credit-exam) in your Ladok records. Print and fill this form (Thesis Application Form) and hand it in to your student advisor on the 4th floor of CSC (Helen Lindkvist <svl-media@csc.kth.se>). ¶

There are four times to apply for this course and the application deadlines in each year are: Jan 15 / Mar 15 / Sep 15/ Nov 15. Please make your application in advance and get approved before deadlines.¶

Time span: The total time to finish your master thesis work is 20 consecutive weeks. Time is counted continuously so that all thesis work is equally evaluated under the same time frame.There are three phases during this 5-month period: (1) about 4-5 weeks for developing the thesis specification, (2) about 13-14 weeks for the main thesis work (3) about 2 weeks to prepare for the presentation.¶

Thesis specification: When application forms reach the master thesis coordinator, you will then be put into a project group in Bilda where you upload your thesis specification. You (on your own) should write and upload your first specification draft that describes: (1) the research problem that you wamt to solve, (2) how you plan to solve it and (3) why you have chosen your research problem. This should be done within a week. After this, the course administrator will assign an examiner and a supervisor to you (if you don’t have one) based on your topic. (Supervisors from other universities are allowed.)¶

The examiner will comment on your specification draft. You and your supervisor will then continue to revise it until it is approved by the examiner. The specification will contain a preliminary thesis title, a detailed description of the scope/background, goals, literature, methods, expected results and a time plan.¶

There might be several iterations for modifying your thesis specification with your supervisor and examiners. However, your thesis specification should be approved within five weeks. If your thesis specification is not approved on time, you can switch to next thesis period or keep yourself in this batch but take the risk of a delayed schedule. Late thesis work—not finished on time—will be graded lower by one level.¶

The degree project should treat an interesting problem in the area of media technology. Please make sure about the academic/scientific value and the technology portion of your thesis work. For the media management students, the technology part may mean scientific ways to analyze the use of media in various settings such as in marketing, customer relations, digital vs. print media and so on. It is always wise to discuss this issue with your assigned supervisor and examiner. Suggested thesis work that contains only a literature study will be rejected.¶

Main thesis work: Students will normally do the thesis work in a group supervised by one supervisor and examiner. Two supervision meetings per month are suggested after the specification has been developped and approved. After your report has been submitted and approved by your supervisor, you have approximately 2 weeks to prepare for your presentation. Plan ahead so that the report can be approved two weeks before the presentation.

Getting approval from your supervisor when you are ready to present and send you thesis draft to course administrator. Students within an examination group are requested to present their work sequentially at the same day (in the best case), which you should appoint with your examiner. People who interested in your thesis will have access to your thesis draft via presentation announcement in our course page of KTH social (login required). By using above procedure, it is expected to ease the attendance of presentations and more efficient examination.

For those who cannot finish the project in 5 months, extra presentation will be arranged. However, your score will be automatically downgraded one step since the process of thesis work itself is also an item being examined. Delays due to irresistible factors can be exempted.

%%%%%% ¶ After presentation: After thesis presentation, you revise the report by examiner’s comments and upload the final version of the report to Bilda. Plagiarism control will be performed.¶ Before your grade is reported, you should also be the opponent to one other thesis presentation, and attend at least three other presentations where you are also required to prepare questions. Examiner will collect an attendance list at the scene.¶ Coming events! Proposals and info meeting has been planned for new students. It will be approximately at the beginning of March, two weeks before a new application deadline. Prof. Haibo Li and other examiners will be invited to present the thesis proposals. WelcomeAfter presentation: You revise the report, taking into account the examiner’s and the opponents comments and upload the final version of the report to Bilda. Plagiarism control will be performed. Before your grade is reported, you should also be the opponent for a thesis presentation, and attend at least one presentation where you are also required to prepare questions. The examiner will bring an attendance list to the thesis presentation.