SF250X VT22 Degree Project in Scientific Computing, Second Cycle (61551)

Master's Thesis in Scientific Computing

General information

Goal

The goal of the master's project is to give the student experience in carrying through herself/himself a large project in scientific computing and to give deeper knowledge and understanding of the subject. 

Prerequisites

All courses in grades 1-3, or courses required for issuance of a bachelor's degree and at least 60 credits of advanced level courses must be completed. The courses on advanced level must include SF2520 Applied numerical methods and SF2521 Numerical treatment of differential equations or SF2561 Finite element method, as well as a course in the theory of science and research methodology. Moreover, additional courses may be required before starting the work depending on the subject of the assigned project.

Contents

The master's project is a 30 ECTS credit course, i.e. approximately five months of full time work. The project is individual. No group projects are allowed. The project includes:

  • A literature search, where adequate text books, articles and reports are studied.
  • Investigation of a problem in Scientific Computing, to be presented in a thesis, a scientific report.
  • Taking part in some seminar activities in Scientific Computing at KTH, in particular at the NA department.
  • Oral presentation of the thesis.
  • Opposition, i.e. to give constructive criticism of another person's master's thesis.

Examination

The course is examined by an independently written thesis, an oral presentation and an opposition of another thesis. It is graded according to the P/F scale. The quality of the report contents, the report form, the presentation, the opposition and the work process all contribute to the final grade. For more details, see course syllabus. 

Course responsible and examiner

Olof Runborg, olofr@kth.se

 

Practical information

Before the course

  • Verify that you are eligible to do the master thesis.
    Check that you fulfill the prerequisites above. If you are uncertain, you should talk to your student councellor.

  • Find a project.
    Start by searching for a project. You may look for proposals in the KTH's Degree Project Portal. You may contact a company or a research group directly and ask for proposals. Note that Scientific Computing is an interdisciplinary subject. Many research groups at KTH use extensive computations in their daily work. You may even propose your own project. If you need help, contact the course responsible or ask directly a researcher or teacher whom you intend to have as a supervisor.
    The project should be an academic study, where the main part consists of a thorough investigation and analysis of a problem related to Scientific Computing. Only a small part of the work may be routine work and then as support for the analysis. If programming is involved its purpose should be to verify methods and theories that have been developed in the project. Note that although projects are typically set in an applied field such as physics, fluid dynamics or electromagnetics, the focus should be on the computational mathematics part. 

  • Find a supervisor.
    Once you have your project you need to find a supervisor for your work. Again, you may contact a reasearcher or teacher at the NA group directly, or you may ask for help by the examiner. Please observe that the one you are in touch with may not have time to be your supervisor. So searching for a supervisor may need some effort. If you intend to do your project outside of the math department, or KTH, you will need supervisors from both the NA group and the external partner.

  • Get approval.
    Write a short description of your project and send it to the examiner (Olof Runborg). Either your proposal will be accepted immediately, or you will obtain hints on how to change your project such that it will be accepted as a Master's thesis project. It is a good idea to discuss your project in detail with your supervisor before submitting the proposal to the examiner.

    If you do your project at a company you should set up a meeting with your external supervisors, your NA supervisor and the examiner where the goals and organization of the project can be briefly discussed. The company also needs to sign a contract Download contract with KTH before the project can be approved.

  • Do the paperwork and get started.
    Once the project is approved, submit the following documents to the examiner (Olof Runborg):
    • Filled out master thesis application form Download master thesis application form.
      (Fill out also the second part; ignore the "filled out by the examiner" bit.)
    • Project description.
    • Contract with company (if applicable).

      Then carefully read through the information on this page. Observe in particular the grading criteria and the part about the thesis work below.

      You can then be enrolled in and registered to the course. Note that all that this must be done before you start working with your project.

Thesis work

You should be supervised continuously during the work by your supervisor. Together you make suitable arrangements for this to be possible.

As a part of the thesis work you should complete a few particular tasks listed below. You also find them under Assignments in Canvas. Once you have finished one of them, ask your supervisor/examiner to approve it in Canvas.

  • A detailed specification with schedule of your project.
    This should be the first thing you do. The specification must be approved by the supervisor, the examiner, and, if applicable, the external contractor. You cannot continue without the specification being approved.
  • Basic reading/literature search.
    Before the main work starts you should find literature and read through the basic background material necessary to carry out your project. Your supervisor should approve this task.
  • Taking part in a research seminar.
    The seminar can be in the NA group or another research group, but it should deal with problems of Scientific Computing. Ask the seminar organizer to email your supervisor who can approve this task. NA group seminars are found here:
  • Be the opponent of another Master's candidate.
    It is strongly recommended that you do this before your own presentation. In preparation to that you are encouraged that you take part in another Master's thesis presentation before. Contact the examiner to set up a time for your opposition.

Report

The thesis report must fulfill some formal requirements on its layout. If you are using LaTeX, a set of style files can be fetched here. Although not recommended, a word template is also available Download available. For the cover page you should use the templates found here.

When you have written a first complete version of your report the supervisor will critically read it and probably propose ways to enhance it. Note that it is you who is responsible for correct style and language usage! There may be a few iterations before the supervisor is satisfied. It should then be uploaded in Canvas under Report (supervisor's approval) and your supervisor should approve it in Canvas.

Observe that the supervisor may be occupied by other things. So it may take 1-2 weeks before he/she is done reading your report.

Presentation

The presentation should be ca 25 minutes long.

The first rounds of presentations are held on June 9 and 10. To be able to present then the thesis must be completely finished, submitted and approved by your supervisor before June 1st (strict deadline). It is this submitted version of the thesis that is the basis for your grade on the course.

Before the presentation you should submit some information necessary for the final reporting of your thesis and its registration in DiVA. This is done using the following form

https://www.kth.se/form/diva-registration-mathematics

Opposition

When you have signed up to present your thesis, you will be designated as opponent of another thesis. You will receive the other thesis at least one week before the opposition.

Your task as an opponent is:

  • Before the opposition:
    • to critically review the report you got;
    • to especially think about the problem, the choice of methods as well as the discussion of the results;
    • to mark mistakes, things which you do not understand, thinks that you are curious about;
    • to write a short report about the thesis, following these instructions Download these instructions.
    • submit your report in Canvas under assignment "Opposition" on the day before the opposition.
  • At the thesis seminar, after the author finished his/her presentation (total ca 10 min):
    • to give an oral assessment of the report;
    • to ask questions about the report and the presentation;
  • After the thesis seminar:
    • present your opposition report and the commented thesis report to the author;

Finishing the course

After the presentation, you and your supervisor should consider the remarks and questions raised during the seminar for a possible inclusion in the report. 

Then, you submit the final report under the Report (examiner's approval) assignment in Canvas and notify the examiner. Ensure that the report has a formal layout prescribed by KTH's official rules.

Note that you will not receive your examination document without having fulfilled these formal requirements.

Now, you are done.