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

The student should do the master project within his/her area of specialization since a solid background of the field is necessary in order to achieve a high quality work.
The master project is normally performed during the final semester of studies.

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 A-F scale. Note: 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 under intended learning outcomes.

Course teachers

• Your supervisor in the NA-group
• Mac Panahbehagh  barmak@kth.se
• Elias Jarlebring, eliasj@kth.se

NA-group supervisors are typically associate professors, assistant professors, and professors listed here  https://www.kth.se/math/num/people-1.862342

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 or program director.
  
  
• 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 also 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. Although projects are typically set in an applied field such as physics, fluid dynamics, data sciences or electromagnetics, the focus should be on the computational mathematics part. At the center of the project there should be a nontrivial mathematical/numerical problem. 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.
  
  
• Write a preliminary project plan.
  Write a short description of your project where you briefly explain the background, the application and the main mathematical/numerical problems involved. Outline your ideas on how to tackle the problem and a time schedule for the work. List some references (books/articles) that you think can be used as a starting point for the work.
  
  

• 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 (e.g. at a company or another KTH department) you will need supervisors from both the NA group and the external partner.
  
  Show your preliminary plan to your supervisor(s). Discuss it with him/her and update it according to the feedback you get. The supervisor(s) should approve the plan before you can continue.
  
  
• Start up meeting for external projects.
  If you do your project at a company you should set up a meeting (e.g. on Zoom) 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.
  
  
• Get registered to the course.
  Send the following documents to the examiner (Elias Jarlebring) with your supervisors CCed:
  
  • 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 signed by the company and yourself (if applicable).

If the examiner accepts your project, you will be enrolled in and registered to the course. Note that all this must be done before you start working on your project.

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

Thesis work

Organize the thesis work together with your supervisor(s) and make suitable arrangements so that you will be supervised continuously during the project. Make sure to have regular contact with your supervisor(s). Before the main work starts you should find literature and read through the basic background material necessary to carry out your project. This should lead up to a final project plan, with a project specification and a time schedule for the work.

In addition to the actual thesis project and the writing: 

• 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. Please upload a selfie while the seminar takes place or is it about to start. You should attend in person (not digital), unless agreed otherwise with the supervisor. NA group seminars are found here:
  • Numerical analysis seminar KTH
• Be the opponent of another Master's candidate.
  This is usually done at the same time as the presentation of your project. (See below for more info.)
  

Report (more details will be added later)

The report should include

• General problem specification
• Background putting the work in context,
• Description of the mathematical model(s) of the problem
• Mathematical/numerical methods used
• Results

Discuss the structure of the report with your supervisor. It is advisable to start the writing early and have your supervisor give (general) comments also on preliminary versions.

Templates for the report: https://www.kth.se/social/group/sprakkommitten/page/templates-for-degree-project-reports-th/

Presentation 

The first rounds of presentations are held in the beginning of June. To be able to present at that time, the thesis must be completely finished, submitted and approved by your supervisor before the end of May. After the summer there will be a second round of presentations.

The presentation should be around 30 minutes plus and additional 15 minutes for opposition and questions by the audience. 

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 two days after 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.