Thomas Hellström (thomash@cs.umu.se) is course responsible, and examiner for the projects he is not supervising (Ola Ringdahl ringdahl@cs.umu.se acts as examiner in these cases). All matters regarding registration and prerequisites should be dealt with by contacting the study counselor.
The syllabus describes the content, examination, and learning objectives for the course.
The project may be external, and is then conducted in collaboration with a company that typically provides the project formulation. You get your main supervision from an external supervisor working at the company, and your internal supervisor at the university mainly supports you in the final writing phase. The project may also be internal, and is then conducted at the university with an internal supervisor, who sometimes also provides the initial project formulation. In both cases, the work during this course is typically much more independent than for most other courses. There are no scheduled meetings or lectures.
The intention is that the course should be finalized within the usual time frame of a 30 ECTS course.
To succeed in time, you should start working on a project proposal WELL BEFORE course start!
How to write a propsal
You are expected to come up with an idea for the project yourself (this ability is part of the expected learning outcomes). Sometimes, researchers at the university, and at companies, suggest projects. You may contact researchers or companies that fit your interests and ambitions and discuss possible project ideas. This often involves contacting the person who will be your supervisor for the project. When you have an idea about what you want to do, you should write a Project proposal with following sections.
Project proposal
1. Contact details for yourself, including your UMU email address, Swedish personnummer, and the potential internal or external supervisor you may have been in contact with.
2. Introduction. What is the project about in brief? Why and for whom is the outcome of the project important? Will it be conducted in cooperation with a company, research group, or other organization? Are supervisors identified?
3. Research question(s). Which questions will you aim to answer in the project? The questions must be specified such that the result can be objectively evaluated (see point 6). Note that the questions should be hard enough to allow you to demonstrate the expected learning outcomes “demonstrate substantially deeper knowledge within the area of robotics”, and “demonstrate an ability to critically, independently and creatively identify and formulate complex questions”. This means that it is not sufficient to, for example, successfully train a neural network, or develop a a well-functioning software without answering any specific related question. Also note that the project should fall into the area of robotics, from a computing science perspective.
4. Related earlier work. This is work addressing the same or similar questions as you, or work addressing other questions but using a method you plan to use. Describe the publications you find; How did they solve the problem? What are their results? How does your proposed project differ in problem formulation and/or solution? You should invest time in this part, since it is useful for formulating/reformulating your research questions.
5. Methods. How do you plan to answer the research questions? Examples of methods are literature studies, implementations of algorithms, simulations, experiments, user studies, and mathematical reasoning. Describe the method or methods you intend to use as fully as possible.
6. Evaluation. How will you assess the results of the methods in Section 5? For example, if you plan to conduct an experiment or user study, statistical evaluation may be used. If you implement an algorithm or design and build a robot, systematic testing may be used.
7. Self-assessment. How does it relate to the courses you have taken, especially advanced-level courses? What other skills do you have that make you fit for the project?
8. Resources. In addition to your own work effort, what resources will be needed and how do you plan to acquire them? Examples: powerful or unusual hardware or software, data, interview or test subjects, a workplace.
9. References. Sections 2-6 above must contain citations to proper publications (websites and blogs posts should be avoided if there are other sources).
The project proposal should be formulated in dialogue with the intended supervisor, and should preferably be written in Word to simplify review and suggested changes.
Registration
When you have finalized the project proposal, you should email it to the examiner, together with a Ladok document listing the courses you have completed. If you did not complete some of the required courses, write how and when you plan to finish them. The examiner will either approve the project proposal or suggest changes, and will also check the prerequisites for the course. When everything is approved, you will be registered for the course.
Project plan
When you are registered, the next step is to refine the project proposal into a Project plan (Assignment 1). It should extend the project proposal with more details on found literature with related work, methods, data etc. It should also include a time plan for the project. You should allocate sufficient time for writing the thesis, preferably distributed over the entire project period. The plan should include a planned submission date for the final thesis (see next section) and an expected date for the oral presentation of the thesis. The plan should be approved by all supervisors and the examiner, and should be submitted on the course website within two weeks after you got registered. The continued work should then proceed according to the plan. Changes in the plan are natural and should be done when necessary, in agreement with the supervisor(s).
The thesis work
When you are registered you will be assigned an internal supervisor by the university. If your project is external, i.e. conducted at a company, the external supervisor is the main responsible for the daily supervision. Agree on how you will meet with your supervisor, and then start working according to the project plan.
To support your work, and to enable assessment of your work in the project, you should set up an Internet-based project diary. It should be updated at least once a week, and should describe what you have worked with, results, and conclusions, how your work matches the plan, and how the plan has been adjusted, and meetings with supervisors.
The written thesis is recommended to follow the format in the available Latex template. You should start writing the thesis early on in the project, and not wait until the end. Towards the end of the project, when you have a version that you are satisfied with, you should send it to your supervisor(s) for feedback, which you then incorporate. In your time plan, you should take into account that this process may take several weeks, especially if the feedback from the supervisor(s) is extensive.
You are expected to email a version, approved by your supervisor(s), to the examiner at least 2 weeks before the planned presentation. If the examiner has additional requirements, you should modify your thesis accordingly until the thesis is approved. You then upload this Approved thesis as Assignment 2 on the course web. This version will be sent to the student who will act as opponent during your presentation.
You should now start working on your presentation.
Presentation
You should orally present your work for 30-40 minutes and then answer questions from the audience and the assigned opponent.
The examination of the project course comprises:
- An evaluation of the contents of the thesis and your work during the project.
- The supervisors’ assessment will contribute to this evaluation.
- An evaluation of your presentation of the thesis.
- An evaluation of your opposition after the other student's presentation (see below).
Opposition
After you hand in your Approved thesis, you receive another student's thesis for which you will act opponent, usually on the same occasion as your own presentation. You are expected to critically examine this thesis and the presentation and, for example, consider the following questions:
- Is the formulated goal of the project clearly formulated?
- Does the work reach the set goal? Is this properly described?
- Have relevant methods been used and how well are they described?
- Is the presentation of results clear and correct?
- Are the results evaluated and discussed? Are the conclusions reasonable for the results?
- Are background/previous works described with sufficient depth and width?
- Are the sources credible and have several different sources been used to substantiate claims and results?
You should summarise your analysis in a short (typically 1-4 pages) Opposition report (Assignment 3). There you may also include found typographical errors, other errors, and things you do not understand. This feedback will help the author to improve the final version of the thesis. Submit the opposition report on the course website before your presentation and email an updated version it to the author after the presentation.
You are also expected to oppose orally (approx. 5 minutes) immediately after your fellow student's thesis presentation. Questions can be based on (some of) the questions you have formulated in the opposition report, but you may also include new questions. Focus on major issues and leave remarks on spelling and layout for the Opposition report.
After the presentation
Use the feedback from the opponent to improve your thesis into a Final thesis, which you then upload and register to DiVA (Assignment 4). Finally, please sign the publishing agreement where you approve that the university publishes your report, and submit the agreement to the examiner.
Time flow
Before course start
Prepare project proposal and have it approved.
Week 3 Course start.
Week 3-4 Project plan.
Week 5-18 Project work.
Week 18 Send draft to supervisor(s). This version is assessed by the supervisor(s), and may need improvements and reassessment until it is approved.
Week 20 Upload approved thesis on Canvas. This version is given to the opponent to read.
Week 20-21 Prepare presentation and opposition.
Week 22 Presentation and opposition.
Week 23 Refine the thesis, based on the received feedback.
Week 23 Upload final thesis to DiVA.
Note that the presentation must take place during the academic semester.
